Now lucent is the proprietary "Hosted vs. Premises IP Telephony Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator," developed by The Telecom Intelligence Group, that provides decision support for the purchase of Hosted IP Telephony (IPT) Services versus premises-based IPT Systems.

Hosted vs. Premises IP Telephony Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator
Several leading providers of hosted services already have licensed InfoTech’s TCO tool. A free "Quick-View Edition" is now available that gives Service Providers a way to determine TCO results they may generate for their customers.

The TCO tool compares the multi-year costs associated with a hosted solution to a customer's multi-year costs to purchase and support the same configuration in a traditional environment. For example, it models major costs for purchased and hosted system elements, including: IPT, voice-mail systems; hard terminals and licenses; soft terminals and licenses; remote gateways; software upgrades for IPT and voice mail; maintenance and remote monitoring; moves, adds and changes; access and toll costs; user and administrator training; planning, project management and design resources; system technical support; system administration; security and contingency management; system space; HVAC; power; and insurance.

"InfoTech has combined its research on the Hosted and Premises IP telephony industry, published in the InfoTrack for Enterprise Services (IES) and InfoTrack for Enterprise Communications (IEC) market information programs, with its TCO tool capabilities to produce a very thorough view of the factors involved in this decision, making it much easier for providers and customers to determine the financial implications of this investment," comments Ken Dolsky, director/Professional Services at The Telecom Intelligence Group.

Research from the IES program demonstrates that Hosted IP-PBX and voice applications buyers save between 12.5 percent and 17.5 percent annually against their projected costs of ownership.

In addition, InfoTech’s IEC program will issue a white paper in January 2007 that characterizes and sizes the U.S. hosted IPT market.

About The Telecom Intelligence Group
The Telecom Intelligence Group includes market intelligence provider InfoTech; TelecomWeb and TelecomWeb news break; newsletters Wireless Business Forecast, Broadband Business Forecast, Telecom Policy Report and Inside Digital TV; tariff consultancy Tarifica; and the Web-based business-telephony-product database TelecomTactics.