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Cost-Effective IT: Internet Future

Cost-Effective IT: Internet Future, by Richard Sonnier

Houston Business Show "Advisor" Richard Sonnier, of the Information Technology Services firm Nimble Services, Inc., provides weekly information on our show about business technology issues. He can be reached at 281-445-4800 x250 or rsonnier@nimbleservices.com.

Last week, I reviewed some cost saving strategies. This week I will discuss some of the latest Internet advancements.

Voice over IP

Traditionally, telephone calls are placed over a dedicated connection. However, the Internet takes a single connection and uses it for multiple services at the same time so that you can surf the web, listen to MP3 music and read your email with just one Internet connection. Almost all types of communications have been moved to the Internet with the glaring exception of plain voice telephone. Now, a new technology called Voice over IP or VOIP converts the telephone into just another Internet service.

A few weeks ago I began using VOIP from the company Vonage. The service is priced more like a nationwide cell phone. For example, you get unlimited local and regional calling with 500 long distance minutes for only $24.99. This includes features like free voicemail, caller ID, and call waiting for which the traditional phone company charges extra. In my testing, the Vonage services works very well. However, it is not quite as solid as a traditional voice line. For example, when I call into Nimble's voice mail system there is a noticeable lag in processing the keypad commands. It is somewhat like early cell phones where they worked but the quality was not equal to a landline. My verdict is that VOIP has arrived and is very usable especially as a second phone. I am planning to make all my long distance calls over the Vonage service.

Future of Dial-Up Internet

Recently, all of the dial-up Internet providers like AOL have been turbo-charging their service with acceleration technology. AOL markets it as TopSpeed. This technology uses fancy processing and caching at your PC and at the Internet provider to speed up the effective rate of the dial-up connection for web surfing. The dial-up is not actually any faster and advanced services like VOIP will not work any better. This is the last gasp for dial-up Internet. Broadband is the future and all of the interesting advancements of the Internet will be for broadband.

Business Internet

This week I received the annual report for Southwest Airlines (SWA) and the company reported on its cost-savings using the Internet.
In 2003 SWA received 54% of its passenger revenue through its website. Due its success with the Internet, SWA expects to save $60 million in 2004 over 2003. This is one example of the Internet moving from an information providing service to a revenue generating and cost savings business tool. I believe the Internet revolution of business is just beginning and will represent the biggest change since the electricity.

Next week, I will discuss being prepared for IT failures.

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