VOIP connections are the wave of the future.  Until recently, VOIP (voice-over-IP) applications for the desktop were plenty scarce because developing them was a major integration headache. VOIP has attracted interest and held forth the promise of being the "next big thing" since it came into use as a quasi-clandestine means of sidestepping long-distance toll charges.

It is also good to know that sending voice in IP packets along with data over the Internet's TCP/IP protocol is far more economical than circuit-switched voice communications. What's more, VOIP traffic can also travel over a company's local-area or wide-area data network. A key force behind the surge is SIP integration in Windows XP. SIP is an Internet Engineering Task Force standard application protocol that sets up, modifies and terminates any type of communications session between two or more devices.

Additionally, a session could be a voice call, a videoconference, an instant-messaging chat, application sharing or a combination of those. "XP will eventually be on 90 percent of PCs, which means developers will take SIP very seriously," said Robert Hammen, IT manager for Sells Printing Co. LLC, based in New Berlin, Wis. Sells Printing's Hammen is paying attention. He has already deployed VOIP at the company and is saving money compared with circuit-switched calls. His private VOIP WAN links corporate sites via voice-enabled routers that funnel voice and data onto one connection.

Also, he wants to provide access to VOIP-enabled central business applications via IP WAN links to workers in remote offices, at home or on the road. "When VOIP reaches critical mass three to five years down the road, it will have Microsoft to thank as programmers will have driven deployment by using SIP to develop a new class of applications.Service providers are gearing up for a burgeoning demand for VOIP-enabled applications that will run over their networks.

Remember that the software houses will have the client for development of new applications," said Jeff Dean, group product manager for convergence services at IP services provider Genuity Inc., in Woburn, Mass.  Genuity plans to offer unified messaging services, IP Centrex, which enables users to replace PBXes and their features without buying new systems and without the geographic limitations.

Of course, this would enable the company's sales agents and other far-flung workers to use their phones and PCs over an IP-based virtual private network to connect to a call center or access enhanced central applications. To ensure system availability equal to his antiquated circuit-switched Fujitsu Ltd. The only takers will be those focused primarily on trying to reduce calling costs who don't mind some sacrifice of quality.A few of the most-cited obstacles in the Forrester survey are being addressed by vendors via upgrades, with initial problems solved.