Today’s technology has advanced to the degree that solutions you may be researching can provide a flavor of the same functionality…for example…Avaya, Siemens, Cisco, Interactive Intelligence, Hosted Products, can all provide…*IP Telephony, Unified Communications, Contact Center Applications (ACD, IVR, Recording)…. so the difference isn’t in the apples to apples functionality…the goal should be to find your orange?

Here are a couple of things to think about:

1) Do you want your voice solution to integrate into your back office applications, i.e. CRM, ERP, Billing Systems, Contact Center etc? If this is important or not important to your long-term plan, it will help you quickly qualify/disqualify products that can not provide integration points. Understanding the depth of integration into your business can help you drive what technologies make the most sense for your unique company.

2) Whiteboard, whiteboard, whiteboard… how will the solution physically fit into your environment? Architecture of the solutions is significant… some take a hardware approach/multi point and others take a software approach/single point solution… on a spreadsheet they might look the same but white boarding the solution can give you many further insights.

3) How will the solution grow and change with your business? …not only from a product development prospective but were is their company going? Is it growing or expanding?  Were will be in 10 years….

Technology can be a very powerful tool that can deliver a significant competitive advantage. Spend the time up-front uncovering what is important to the unique needs of your business… Are you an orange?