The Complexity of VOIP

According to this article by TechTarget, SMBs find voice over IP (VOIP) too complex:

“SMBs definitely haven’t been adopting the technology like enterprises, mainly because the technology is complex. Anything that’s complex is going to be difficult for these small companies,” said Gary Chen, an analyst at Boston-based The Yankee Group. “There are so many pieces to it — the phones, software, the network, the Internet connection. Troubleshooting all that to get it to work smoothly could be an issue. It is extremely time consuming for these small companies.”

When a technology is too complex, small businesses merely bypass it and find simpler solutions. 

For instance, from what I can tell, small businesses are gradually adjusting their telephony solutions.  But they are going after solutions that are simpler to install — and cheaper.

These solutions seem to fall into two camps: (1) low-end packaged VOIP solutions such as Vonage and Skype that let small businesses make calls for free or inexpensively, but do not necessarily offer some of the more advanced phone system management features; (2) software services that provide a virtual switchboard, advanced voice mail, 800 number service and some unified messaging, but still let them use their landlines phones. 

In each case the business is getting benefits they value, without having to go to the expense and headaches of installing the kind of VOIP systems that enterprises might use.