Business internet telephony use to triple in two years

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Business use of Voice over IP (VoIP) technology is set to spiral within the next two years, fuelled by increasing use of internet telephony over mobile phones and other portable devices.

Research performed by Coleman Parkes for Mformation showed that 27 per cent of businesses are currently using VoIP systems in some form, but by 2009 that number is expected to jump to 70 per cent.

Many IT directors believe that in order to achieve the increased productivity that may come from VoIP systems, better management of mobile devices and applications needs to be put into place. Of the companies surveyed, 82 per cent believe that managing devices more effectively would increase productivity rates.

"Mobile devices are becoming even more 'smart' with the capability to do anything from using VoIP, to business applications such as calendars and push email. We've reached the point in the market where mobile business applications are tried and tested and now people are really starting to use them" said Matt Bancroft, vice president of Mformation. "However, this raises an interesting challenge for CIOs in terms of management. While IT departments have the solutions in place to manage business applications that reside on laptops or PCs, doing this on mobile handsets presents a far greater challenge."

"VoIP is a compliment to [mobile phone] technologies today, not a replacement," Bancroft said. "It adds functionality."

According to Bancroft, as the number of businesses turning to VoIP increase and as more mobile technology emerges this will prove to be "a really exciting time for the industry."

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