Companies can benefit from implementing Voice over IP (VoIP) in their call centers, more so if they do it through a service provider, says Tim Wyatt- Gunning, joint CEO of Storm. He says cost savings on voice calls using VoIP range from up to 40% on international calls to countries such as Europe and the US, and up to 70% to destinations such as Japan and China, compared to using Telkoms telecommunications infrastructure.

We are able to keep our prices on an even keel by negotiating good bandwidth rates in the competitive international carrier market, and there are plenty of alternative routes.

He says the company has been able to reduce its VoIP rates by 30% over the past 18 months by negotiating better rates with international carriers. About 10% of outbound calls from call centers are international, 50% to cell phones, 20% national and the balance are local within 50km.

Call centers can save an average of 40% on calls to cellphones with VoIP arid 10% to 25% on national calls, depending on the destination and call volumes. A VoIP service can reduce the cost of calls to 0860 numbers by 25% against the average rate, he says.

If a company handles its own VoIP communication, it would need costly equipment and bandwidth infrastructure, and build direct relationships with overseas carriers.

It could cost R1m to set up the infrastructure for a 20-seat call centre, but now a company can rent the functionality and access it over an IP network. This is a good low-risk option for in-house and outsourced call centre operations, and will allow them to focus on lie business instead of managing and maintaining technology infrastructure.