Attendees from this month's eBay Live! 2006 Conference shared their thoughts about the communication solutions that work best for them in a comprehensive survey conducted by RingCentral, a key provider of on-demand telecommunication services for small businesses and mobile workers. The survey polled more than 85 eBay PowerSellers and found that there is growing interest in new telephony solutions, yet many are concerned about adopting new forms of communication technology such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Survey findings outline key issues online merchants face with new telephony solutions:

-- The Trust Factor - More than 87 percent of respondents overwhelmingly agreed that traditional forms of communication such as landline, mobile, phone, e-mail and fax are the most reliable methods used today.

-- Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. - 86 percent of respondents use more than one form of communication, yet are unable to unify their services. 93 percent say that their greatest challenge is integrating these tools together and managing their incoming calls.

-- VoIP's Challenge - 42 percent of respondents said they do not have plans to adopt VoIP services throughout the next 6 to 12 months, because they are satisfied with their existing services and are still concerned about the call quality of VoIP solutions. 24 percent consider VoIP as unproven technology that lacks the advanced calling features critical to small business users. More than 15 percent of respondents felt the technology was difficult to use and its lack of mobility makes it even less convenient for organizations to implement.

"While attending eBay Live!, and surveying a random sample of attendees, we discovered that there needs to be more education about VoIP technology to help ease consumer concerns," said Vlad Shmunis, chairman of the board and CEO, RingCentral. "With e-commerce rising and employees on-the-go the need to integrate all of our communication tools is critical."

"We rely on traditional forms of communications because that's what our customers use," said Ted Goudie, eBay PowerSeller, Fun-Inc. "Integrating all of our communication tools through RingCentral's service enables us to manage our business more efficiently and also increases sales by ensuring prompt customer service and immediate response times."