We've Definitely Crossed The Chasm in 2012 into Mainstream Adoption of VoIP Technology
Versature is almost 9 years old now, and along the way we’ve been a party to some exciting times in the Voice Over IP industry as it grew into a viable alternative to the traditional telcos. Up until last year, we seemed to be constantly battling a strongly-held perception in the general business population that VoIP technology was something to be avoided because of poor quality. It is clear that in the beginning, a lot of people had poor experiences with residential-focused companies like Vonage, Primus, Skype and others, and that tainted people’s perception. It seemed like everyone had a relative or a friend that had had a poor experience with VoIP at home.
At least from our perspective, the perception was so strongly held by people we talked to that we never used the term “VoIP” when talking about our services. We always used the term “Hosted PBX” to describe the service that we provided, purposefully to avoid the negative connotation that was associated with VoIP.
Over the past year, and definitely in 2012, we’ve seen the tide change. No longer are we getting rebuffed on the sales line because someone has heard of some horror story from a friend. No longer are we worried about mentioning VoIP as the underlying technology that powers our phones. Actually, one of the most popular terms that people search for to find us is “voip pbx canada”, which goes to show you that the negative connotation has mostly disappeared.
The reasons for that are many, but the one we feel made the most difference in the quality of the VoIP offerings (especially the low-cost residential ones that many people had their first experiences with) was the increase in reliability and bandwidth that the ISPs in Canada and worldwide have made over the past few years. I think VoIP took a bad rap in the beginning because it was the first real-time protocol that was mass consumed over the internet. If your download slowed to a crawl you just waited it out, but if your phone call was choppy or had a bunch of echo, you noticed right away, and blamed your VoIP provider. VoIP and other real-time protocols like video really amplify any network issues that may have gone undetected in the past. The ISPs got much better at providing reliable internet, and that has helped immensely.
We’re glad to see that perception is changing with regards to VoIP and that the technology is becoming mainstream. With over 3000 subscribers to Versature’s services, we’ve definitely been doing our part over the years to change the perception of Business-Class VoIP and Hosted PBX. The early adopters have paved the way and I truly believe that in Geoffrey Moore’s world of the Technology Adoption LifeCycle, we successfully ‘Crossed the Chasm’ in 2011, and we’re squarely in the ‘Early Majority’ phase of adoption here in 2012. If you’re purchasing a new phone system this year for your business (hosted or otherwise), it most definitely will be a VoIP one.
Comments
It is true. The voice quality of VoIP phone service was not ideal in the beginning. However, we must remember that most of these problems associated with VoIP were due to the internet. At that time, majority of the customers had very little bandwidth. However, now when everyone has a high speed internet connection, all these problems have resolved. Modern VoIP phone service provider voice quality is far better than mobiles and land lines.