Competitive advantage of VoIP adoption

Telephony is an essential technology in today’s society. As we move into the digital age where technology increases in importance, telephony also moves along with us and is now being digitalized in the form of Voice over IP (VoIP). This research focuses on the impact of VoIP on the core business of Dutch organizations and the aspect of acquiring a competitive by using the technology. Due to the lack of previous research in this field, the research is exploratory. A study is conducted on VoIP by using a qualitative research method resulting in in-depth interviews with representatives from nine different organizations that have implemented VoIP. The empirical data is categorized and interpreted. Conclusions were drawn from the interpretation. This research supports the view that VoIP introduces a level of competitive advantage into organizations that is mainly caused by cost savings. Also incompatibility issues with legacy systems are identified as the main obstacles when VoIP is implemented. The ability of VoIP to increase efficiency is discussed together with the viewpoint that future enhancements in communication technology can affect the core business of organizations depending on their market sector. Concerning the organizations interviewed for this research it is observed that VoIP has minimal influence on the core business (processes) of organization while the support processes are influenced to a greater extent.