American businesses have learned a great deal about efficiency the past two years. Smaller budgets and lessons learned from wasteful spending have forced leaders to find new and innovative ways of implementing the technology needed to keep their business profitable and ahead of the competition. Gone are the days of trying to solve tech issues with just more money. Today solutions must be definable, achievable, and affordable.

This year 3Com Corporation and others are celebrating "30 Years of Ethernet." Invented by 3Com's founder Dr. Robert Metcalfe, Ethernet is the networking technology that revolutionized the way computers talk with other computers, servers, printers, and other devices on a network. At home, DSL and cable modems are cabled using Ethernet technology into your computer to provide internet access. Likewise at work, Ethernet allows access to all the information your computer accesses outside of its own hard drive.

Computer networks running on Ethernet have become commonplace. The latest widespread implementation of the technology is in business telephony (pronounced t-'le-fO-nE). Often referred to as "networked telephony" or "Voice over IP" (VoIP), newer phone systems use Ethernet networks to communicate between the telephone handset and the phone switch or server. Calls can be made locally within your standalone office, or across town where a branch location's phone handset crosses over the Internet or a data line connection (such as a T1 line connecting the offices) to get dial tone from the VoIP system located in the main office.

Another benefit is that a networked telephony phone may be relocated anywhere in an office just as easily as computers have for years. Simply plug the phone into any Ethernet wall jack in the building, and you're back on the phone system without any reprogramming. With these products, conventional "moves, adds, & changes" can be performed by the office manager within less than fifteen minutes of training. Formerly complicated tasks such as setting up voicemail and recording auto-attendants can also be handled by in-house staff with ease.

Business telephone systems and vendors have been around longer than most other office technologies. Some of the telephone vendors have kept up with the trend towards networked telephony, but most continue to only offer traditional "key" or PBX systems. When seeking a new or expanded system, it is commonplace that traditional telephone vendors do not know of--or choose not to offer--the more cost effective networked systems. The primary reason for this focus is that the vendor's business model is based on service contracts as the primary source of revenue.

A core differentiator between the man-ufacturers that provide networked telephony systems is the base operating system upon which they choose to build their platforms. The development costs of bringing a new phone system to market are generally considered to be less when designed to run on a Microsoft Windows operating system. However, while these operating systems have proven their value on managed computer networks, Unix based phone systems have demonstrated a resilient and sentinel value because they are less prevalent to widely distributed viruses and hacker attempts.

"That's all great", you say, "but there's no way I'm getting a new phone system past the CFO". There is no doubt that hard ROI projects are about the only expenses getting past many owners and cash controllers in today's business climate. The needs of each business will dictate if the benefits of networked telephony will or will not justify its costs. But there are a number of areas where these new systems will pay for themselves ranging from better HR deployments within a company to monthly savings on phone and long-distance bills.

Technology advances are a constant. Networked telephony is the latest product group to move from an innovative breakthrough to a readily available standard. Ultimately the decision will not be yours to make. Traditional systems are going the way of floppy disks and modems-- you can still buy them, but why???

Kevin Tubbesing is the CEO of CIO, Inc. He can be reached at: 913.562.5608 or by e-mail at jktubbesing@cioinc.com.