What will change for our employees when they start using VoIP?

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Ideally, there should be no change. When IP telephony is deployed to spec, the experience of making calls should be the same, and no change in behavior should be needed. The phone numbers, extensions, features, etc. should carry over with the new system.

For the most part, very little should change for end users with a basic IP telephony system. That said, there are two ways things can change -- both for the better. First, depending on how sophisticated the VoIP deployment is (as well as the system being replaced), end users will benefit from a richer feature set. Beyond the everyday calling features employees are familiar with, there will typically be many new features such as visual voicemail or ad hoc conferencing. The beauty of VoIP is that end users can take on as many new features as they are comfortable with, and personalize their IP telephony as they see fit.

Secondly, the broader communications experience will change if VoIP is deployed as part of a more extensive IP initiative. In this scenario, IP telephony will be introduced along with other solutions such as videoconferencing, mobile integration, web services, etc. This is a more ambitious migration plan, but delivers a richer, multimedia communications environment. Employees will need to adapt to a set of capabilities that go well beyond everyday telephony. This may require some upfront training, but in due time, the productivity benefits will become very apparent.