Small to medium enterprises (SME's) could benefit from Voice-over Internal Protocol (VoIP) services because they can facilitate out-of-office communication, says the Internet Telephony Services Providers Association (ITSPA).

It is claimed that forwarding voicemails as MP3s to an email inbox and redirecting landline calls to a mobile can make a business seem more professional and attractive to customers.

Research published by T-Mobile alleges that 60 per cent of small businesses spend a minimum of five hours out of the office a week, which equates to 32.5 working days every.

Talking about the advantages of VoIP, Colin Duffy, council member for ITSPA and chief executive of VoIPfone, says: "With voicemail, your inbound call is answered by the network, the message is left, and then converted to an MP3 file and emailed to you."

He adds: "You can pick up your voicemail wherever you are, so long as you have access to the internet."

In related news, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform claims that businesses that use VoIP technology are putting themselves at a higher risk of a security breach.