Within the VoIP space you still have literally dozens of systems and solutions to choose from, so let's try to narrow it down a bit: We can divide up the solutions into 3 categories: Small/Medium Business (SMB) solutions, Enterprise solutions, and Hosted solutions.

• SMB - We define SMB as companies between 10 to 250 employees. They can include single site organizations, or one with many branch locations. If each location, including the headquarters, has fewer than 250 employees, you still fall within the SMB space. Of course, if you are a company with 1000 branch locations an Enterprise company such as Cisco or Avaya will love to have your business - but, you would be paying too much for something you don't need.


• Enterprise - An Enterprise company is one with more than 250 employees in any one location. In general business terms, a 250 employee company is usually considered small/medium, but from an IP-PBX standpoint, we believe that most 250 or larger firms will demand the capability and features of an enterprise solution.


• Hosted - A hosted solution is one where your company would not purchase a telephone system at all. You would instead just purchase IP phones and subscribe to a hosted service from an Internet-based voice provider. This solution is generally targeted to very small firms with up to 40 or so employees. The main value in a hosted plan is the "perceived" cost savings in not having to purchase a system and therefore avoiding the high up-front cost. However, in majority of instances, the long-term cost of a hosted solution is much higher. Many organizations that have opted for hosted solutions have also faced, sometimes major, voice quality issues.

To further simplify the options, Convergence IT only focuses on the SMB market. We evaluate products and provide objective opinion on their strengths and weaknesses. Our aim is to help you decipher between the many available solutions, to remove the hype and clutter, and to introduce you to a local service provider who can effectively deliver the solution for you. To learn more about any of these systems, please click one of the logos below: