Evaluate the following factors to determine whether or not you should consider moving to VoIP:

Are you expanding rapidly?
Traditional contact centers rely on separate telephone and data networks (meaning two distinct systems are in place to service customers) and maintaining these two networks is costly. Adding new traditional centers and agents takes longer and requires significant capital investment and ongoing support costs.

Do you need to be distributed?
VoIP allows you to decentralize your contact center and spread agents out over various time zones. You could also use VoIP to support remote, seasonal and temporary agents working from home, or outsourced agents abroad.

Do you need to be nimble?
The old "voice as a separate network" paradigm is built on circuit-switched networks that typically require expensive switching equipment at each location. Because much of this is proprietary technology, adapting to changing business requirements or integrating with other platforms is difficult. "Turning on a dime" is impractical and nearly impossible in this legacy environment.

VoIP-based contact centers allow for easier and faster expansion or contraction according to seasonal or customer demands. Ask yourself the following questions to determine when it might be the right time to move to VoIP:

Does it make fiscal sense? How much are you still carrying on your books for your legacy systems? How much longer will these systems be carried? Has your investment in legacy technology begun to depreciate?

Is your infrastructure outdated and does it require a substantial investment just to bring it up to current technology? If so, many companies can make the case for forklift upgrades without recrimination.

Are you moving to or building a new contact center? If you are moving to or building a new contact center and if your current technology is close to obsolescence, it is probably a good idea to look at VoIP.