How Consultants Help SMBs Choose VoIP Systems

Buying phone systems is getting more complicated for SMBs (small- to medium-sized businesses). Partly that's because the systems are becoming more complex, and partly it's due to the fact that smaller companies have started expecting more from the systems they choose. For these reasons, such companies are depending more on consultants to help them make the right choices. Consultants are likewise depending on SMBs for a greater percentage of their income.

Hard Evidence

A recent study by The Brookside Group LLC of Mendham, N.J. tells the story. The firm's "2008 State of the Market Study" surveyed the activities of independent telecom consultants not affiliated with vendors. It analyzed the responses of 342 consultants and the updated professional profiles of 1,750.

The resulting data indicated that 54 percent of the consultants' clients are now SMBs, defined as between six and 999 employees. Enterprises of 1,000 employees and above account for 46 percent. That's up from 45 percent SMB, 55 percent enterprise in 2001, and a 49/51 split in 2005. The growth in SMB clients has particularly accelerated over the past three years, the report found. The majority of those clients fall in the medium-sized category, which the report defines as between 100 and 999