Migrating to VoIP - Choosing the Right Vendor

8/12/2019 Migrating to VoIP - Choosing the Right Vendor

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Migrating to VoIP - Choosing the Right Vendor

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Once youve determined how VoIP is going to

impact the various stakeholders in your

business, along with the right deployment

model for your network environment, its time to

look more closely at the vendors. Just as VoIP

technology has evolved, so has the variety of

vendors, especially for SMBs.

The definition of a vendor can be quite broad,

and when it comes to VoIP, there are many

paths you can take. Under the right conditions,

any of them can do the job, but you need to

understand the full landscape to make a good decision. This post is akin to a tree

diagram, showing you what the basic branches are and how to determine which ones

are worth evaluating.

Defining the Main Branches

When thinking about VoIP vendors, the starting point will usually be for the phone

system, since thats likely what youre looking to replace or update. In the majority of

cases, there will be two main branches here to consider Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors.

Tier 1

As the term implies, these will be the industry majors, with the most familiar being

Cisco, Avaya(including Nortel), Unify (nee Siemens) and to some extent, Alcatel

Lucent.

Regarding VoIP, there are two common elements for these companies. First, they are

large companies, and second, they are leading players in the VoIP space. Some are

stronger than others in term of their focus on SMBs, so you need to consider each

one more carefully on that basis.

While these are the most familiar names, two exceptions need to be noted:

All of these companies offer VoIP phone systems along with other types of VoIP

solutions. There are other Tier 1 companies that are important players in this

space even though they dont offer VoIP phone systems. Microsoftis the best

example, especially with their Lync platform. To a lesser extent, IBMcould be

considered here as well, but that would be more of a stretch. The important factor

here is that while Microsoft is not yet established as a major VoIP player with

SMBs, they are quickly moving in that direction, representing a new branch on the

Tier 1 VoIP decision tree.

1.

There are yet other vendors that would very much be considered Tier 12.

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companies, especially on a global basis but are really second tier players in the

VoIP space. In North America, SMBs would likely be familiar with NEC, Panasonic

and Toshiba, all of which are good examples of this variation. They will generally

have more financial clout than true Tier 2 vendors, and you should not

underestimate their ability to compete directly with the Tier 1s cited above.

Tier 2

For the most part, these vendors are secondary both in overall size and VoIP market

share. While the Tier 1 vendors can leverage their size to dominate the VoIP

telephony space, SMBs in particular often gravitate to Tier 2 vendors. A key reason is

the basic business fit, since SMBs will be more valuable to Tier 2s as customers.

These vendors also tend to be more accommodating for the needs of SMBs, and are

often more agile when it comes to the latest trends driving VoIP adoption.

The best known names serving North American SMBs would be ShoreTeland Mitel

(now including Aastra). In addition to the other Tier 2s listed earlier Panasonic, NEC,

Toshiba there is another group of Tier 2 vendors that do not come from the

traditional phone system space, but do offer various forms of VoIP phone systems.

Well-known names here would include ADTRAN, Switchvox, 3CX, plus a multitude of

vendors specializing in Asterisk-based open source VoIP phone systems.

While all the above vendors can provide complete VoIP phone systems, there is an

important sub-branch to add in the form of IP phonevendors. There are many

situations where a business does not need a full IP PBX system, especially where

they already have a setup in place that provides the VoIP horsepower. They may be

running this onsite or via a cloud-based partner, but in either case, all they need are IP

phones. Sometimes the business needs a full complement of IP phones to get their

VoIP system going, and in other cases, they may just be expanding their footprint and

adding new phones.

In this category, Polycom is easily the best known vendor. Their role in the VoIP

ecosystem has been evolving, and while you would probably consider them a Tier 1

phone vendor, they are closer to being a Tier 2 vendor when their overall impact on

the VoIP telephony market is considered. Joining their ranks in the IP phonespace

would be snom, Grandstream and Yealink, along with a handful of much smaller

players.

Conclusion

While this overview is not comprehensive, it addresses most of the vendors youll

likely come across as you formulate a migration plan for VoIP phone systems. The

important message is to distinguish between Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors and then see

which path makes more sense based on the vendor youre using now for telephony.

Thats where Ill continue the analysis next, so to prepare, I would urge you to review

your recent buying history for telephony.

Other articles in Jon Arnold's "Migrating to VoIP" series:

Migrating to VoIP Where to Begin?

Migrating to VoIP Three Key Questions

Migrating to VoIP How Three Stakeholders will Benefit

Migrating to VoIP How Management will Benefit

Migrating to VoIP Choosing the Right Deployment Model

Migrating to VoIP How IT will Benefit

About the Author

Jon Arnold is Principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent telecom

analyst and strategy consultancy based in Toronto, Ontario. The

consultancys primary focus is providing thought leadership and go-to-

market counsel regarding IP communications and disruptive

technologies. You can follow Jon's everyday insights on his influential Analyst 2.0

blogand on Twitter.

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Migrating to VoIP - Choosing the Right Vendor