More than 64% of businesses surveyed by Psytechnics at last month's VoiceCon conference in San Francisco said they're currently using IP telephony. Of those who don't, 68% have plans to deploy it within the next year.

Most businesses, however, are dissatisfied with quality of the technology. Sixty-two percent of businesses using IP telephony have experienced poor quality, the survey revealed. Respondents blamed unreliable service providers and the challenge of managing multiple vendors.

"We've encountered a great number of enterprises that are suffering with voice performance problems that go undetected by typical IP [quality of service] tools," said Mike Hollier, CTO of Psytechnics, in a statement.

Businesses can address the problem with quality of experience (QoE) tools that monitor voice quality at both the network and application level. "Once enterprises implement these monitoring solutions they gain the essential ability to identify and diagnose QoE affecting issues for rapid resolution," Hollier said.

Another recent survey conducted by Chadwick Martin Bailey, a Boston-based research firm, shows that 68% of businesses are aware of Microsoft's plans to integrate IP telephony capabilities, including the ability to make phone calls from a PC using Outlook, into its Office Suite.

Microsoft earlier this year released beta versions of Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 client, which include Web, audio, and videoconferencing with telephony features like IP calling and call management. Microsoft's vision involves building voice communication into desktop and collaboration applications.