To understand the benefits of VoIP you need to separate the

discussion into VoIP to the Desktop and VoIP on the Network.

VoIP to the Desktop looks at the devices that can be used as a

telephone. The range of VoIP telephones varies from simple to very

sophisticated, which parallels traditional telephone instruments. In this

regard, there is little available with VoIP that was not already available. 

The exception is softphones, computer software that allows a

computer or laptop to also function as a telephone. A variation on this

idea combines both telephone and computer. This combination

permits “remote workers” to function as if they were on premise.

The real power of the technology is VoIP on the Network. VoIP on

the Network refers to the ability of VoIP systems to work with other

servers on the network. These other servers fall into two broad

categories: (1) other peripheral communications servers i.e. Voicemail,

Integrated Voice Response, Unified Messaging, etc. and, (2) corporate

business applications and databases. The promise of VoIP systems is

to be able to seamlessly integrate the various servers and systems

into a composite whole. While significant strides have been made, the

systems and capabilities are still evolving.