Nemertes Research PilotHouse Awards 2008: Unified Communications and Collaboration - Top VOIP Providers

Nemertes PilotHouse Award program recognizes companies in a variety of technology markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as customer service, technological innovation, technical service, value and strategic product development.

Nemertes 2008 PilotHouse Awards - Top VOIP Providers

For the past five years, Nemertes has asked IT decision-makers to rate their VOIP vendors. This year marks our largest project ever. We have a plethora of ratings — 555 to be exact — for 24 different VOIP vendors.

These ratings are incredibly useful for companies evaluating a new VOIP strategy, or those reassessing an existing one. They also are integral to companies evaluating unified-communications options, as VOIP is a key part of any UC strategy. And, they help vendors evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their competitive positioning.

What makes this project so different from any other research available? The results are based 100% on the views and experiences of actual customers of several VOIP vendors. Nemertes’ staff determines the methodology, conducts the research and analyzes the findings. But we have no influence over how any given vendor performs. The opinions rest with real customers. In addition, no vendors sponsor this research. We segment the ratings and issue awards in the following way:

• Best Overall VOIP Providers – This award recognizes the best VOIP provider and two finalists, using the average scores of all categories across all ratings received.
• Best VOIP Providers/Segment Sizes – This award recognizes the top-three VOIP providers among small (less than 500 endpoints), midsize (500-1,000 endpoints), and large rollouts (greater than 1,000 endpoints).
• Best VOIP Providers/Industry Segments – Recognizes the top vendor in several vertical industries, by segmenting the average scores among companies in each industry.

Customers rated their providers in several areas. Although we did not issue awards in each category, this report does detail which providers perform best in each area and why.

The specific rating categories include:

• Technology
• Product Features
• UC Vision
• Customer Service
• Value
• VAR Expertise
• Solution Experience
• Ease of Implementation
• Management Tools
• Best Overall

VOIP vendors mentioned in this report include Aastra, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, Digium, Interactive Intelligence, Microsoft, Mitel, NEC, Nortel, ShoreTel, Toshiba and 3Com.

Click here [1] to see a list of the winners.

The 2008 Nemertes Research PilotHouse Awards dinner for VOIP and Unified Communications [2] was held Monday, November 10, 2008 in San Francisco. PilotHouse and Innovator Award winners were recognized and honored for their achievements. 

Clients: Read this report - Nemertes PilotHouse Awards: Unified Communications and Collaboration, TOP VOIP Providers [3]

Non-clients: Please contact us [4] for information on obtaining access to Nemertes PilotHouse Award Ratings, or to participate in the research.