VoIP in the Call Center. Could be a great way to make some cost cutting pay off while increasing customer relations. IT sounds like a great idea, simple, cost effective, and will link all your employees in a snap. Plus, adding to the Call Center you get all the features you love. Call recording, routing, voice mail, and chat are simple plug-n-play.

Hold on one minute. Have you thought of everything? Take a look at this excellent article titled: "6 Things to Consider Before You Add VoIP to Your Company's Call Center". A really nice article that will get you thinking from bottom up. Most won't think of scalability, bandwidth requirements, architecture, and security to name a few. This article give a great jumping off place without diving into deep water.

If you are like most, you are probably slightly confused about the services available for VoIP. Should you use Skype, Live Messenger, Freshtel, Pennytel, iiNet, TPG, etc. Should you be using ISP-based or SIP protocol. There are many factors that go into your decision making.

For me, I tried Skype, fell in love with it, had headaches through the growth periods, but the service just does what I need. I think that is the most important aspect to picking any service...KNOWING what you need. To help you weed through the VoIP services available, check out Saving money with VoIP: a guide to the best services

Not everyone is 100 percent VOIP aware. I came across two articles this week that might help the VOIP newbie. And if you think you know enough already, you just might want to browse them for a quick refresher on current trends.

The first article: Guide to internet phone calls will help you understand how much money you might be able to save with a VOIP phone plan, how to get started, and presents some of the pitfalls.

The second article: Benefits of Hosted VoIP Business Service will take you through some questions to help you choose your VOIP vendor.

I will be taking a break from my various blogs for the next week and a half-including this one. I will be on vacation with my family, visiting friends and enjoying my time away from the usual day-to-day of my life. VoIP will be the farthest thing from my mind.

Unless one of the other roaming bloggers posts something while I'm away, expect The VoIP Weblog to be silent until I return.

Back in the early days of my industry experience, 8x8 was a company I was familiar with only insofar as I knew they had a Check Point firewall and I worked for the company that provided support for them. Nowadays, I know them as a VoIP company, both in terms of providing service through their residential Packet 8 service, many of their business offerings, and of course their patent portfolio, which totals 73.

Carolyn Schuk does an excellent piece on her VoIP Princess blog about 8x8, their history, and how they compare to the competition. What I did not know was that they started a residential VoIP offering well before Vonage did-back in 2002!

While 8x8 still maintains the Packet 8 service, they make more money on less price-sensitive business customers. Their product portfolio is quite impressive. Unlike Vonage, they are profitable, yet somehow their stock price is lower than Vonage's. Go figure.

Fring keeps on adding more handsets so you can IM and make VoIP calls from not only mobile phone handsets, but from the Nokia N810 as well! This screenshot was taken from the N810.

The J2ME client doesn't do VoIP, but it still allows you to IM on the various networks it supports, including Skype! In fact, the feature set for all the different versions varies, which is why they provide this handy, dandy chart that shows you what features are supported on which versions.

One other notable feature is that Fring will allow you to make PSTN calls using your Skype Out minutes. I made a test call from my Nokia N810 and it sounded pretty good.

Crossposted from The VoIP Weblog