Fonality, the leading provider of affordable IP-PBX phone systems to small and medium businesses (SMBs), announced that its sales and support organizations are helping companies avoid the common pitfalls of migrating to VoIP. Although many businesses know that VoIP can provide them with free or cheap long distance, most are not aware of its potential shortcomings, such as poor audio quality, dropped calls and downtime. Fonality advises businesses that, to support the increased demands of VoIP, many will need to upgrade their corporate network and broadband service configurations or be disappointed with the results.

"VoIP can be great, but if it is deployed incorrectly it will totally screw up a company's revenue and reputation," said Chris Lyman, Fonality's founder and CEO. "At Fonality, we've found that it is critical to educate buyers on what they need to know before taking the VoIP plunge."

Fonality's sales organization has extensive experience advising customers on how to prepare their local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) for a successful VoIP deployment, sometimes even advising companies that they do not have the proper network infrastructure to consider VoIP at all. Fonality's support organization works closely with each customer to help them get their network in shape for VoIP.

"Face it, the plain old telephone system most companies depend on today is much more reliable than pure VoIP," Lyman continued. "Companies who want the benefits of VoIP without compromising quality should look for hybrid IP-PBX systems like Fonality's PBXtra. Hybrid systems let businesses safely transition to VoIP over time without having to replace their telephony hardware investments."

There are four different network upgrade options that Fonality typically advises companies to consider when migrating to VoIP. These vary in scope and scale and can be tailored to meet a company's budget, call volume, reliability and quality requirements. These four approaches, along with expert recommendations, have been documented in a recently released white paper written by Lyman titled, "VoIP Without Hype; What Businesses Need to Know." To get a copy of this white paper, visit www.fonality.com/voip