Some good observations from John Neiberger in this ComputerWorld article on Friday.

The hidden costs of VoIP
May 19, 2006 (Computerworld) --  "High return on investment! Lower total cost of ownership! Use toll bypass to lower your long-distance bills! Make the move to IP telephony now!"

How many times have your heard those words from sales reps? They are the frosting on the cake that is voice over IP (VoIP), and they're largely true. But focus too closely on them at your peril. There are hidden costs to transitioning away from a tried-and-true PBX-based voice network to IP telephony, and I'm not just talking about dollars and cents.

I'm talking about people. I'm talking about the effect that your decisions are going to have on the staff you depend on to make your voice and data networks run smoothly. I'm talking about your users, the people who will be forced to use your new phones and applications. I'm talking about your help desk staff who will need to learn to support something that is tantalizingly similar to -- but quite different from -- what they're used to.

It's altogether too easy to overlook the impact a VoIP deployment might have on people and productivity, especially in the enterprise environment. Things will work differently that they used to. Phone sets and featuers will be different. It's ofetn easy to overlook user training, and even easier to discount the time it will take employees to acclimate to the new working environment. It isn't just support staff where Neiberger focuses. It's everyone who uses a new phone.

Don't overlook the human element in planning your VoIP implementation.

Technorati Tags: VoIP, user training, productivity