Nearly 84 percent of businesses surveyed earlier this year by Nemertes Research said they're using or testing VoIP technology at an average cost of $636,000. "If IP telephony...isn't high on your priority list, it should be," the firm's principal research officer, Robin Gareiss, concluded in a report based on a survey of 42 companies, 70 percent of which have annual revenues of $1 billion or more. "The technology is approaching critical mass.... We see IP telephony as an inevitable change in corporate networks."

VoIP systems can also cut maintenance costs because the same IT staff can handle a single system for telecom and data. There's far less wiring: remote locations need access just to the main network rather than their own voice systems. And thanks to the highly competitive marketplace, VoIP vendors offer a smorgasbord of features, such as voice mail, call forwarding, conferencing, and integration with common workplace software such as Microsoft Outlook. In some cases, companies can use their Web browsers to manage voice mail or make phone calls by clicking on their electronic phonebooks. However, says Gareiss, the features still lag behind those of traditional PBXs, and that's a problem for many IT executives who want all of the features they're used to in a traditional voice system.

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