Call centres are becoming more affordable thanks to the latest technology.  

Not so long ago, call centres were the sole preserve of large companies. Only utilities and other big corporate organisations could afford the buildings, technology and people required. But the latest developments in internet technology are changing all that.

Daryn Mason, Oracle's Head of Solution Consulting for CRM On Demand in Europe, says there are two key "threads of benefit" for small and medium-sized businesses. By far the biggest is that the total cost of having such a facility has come down through the concept of hosted contact centres. This involves businesses sharing the service via the internet, rather than having to own the whole infrastructure and paying for it on a subscription basis.

Industry statistics suggest this "pay as you go" approach means that businesses can have a call centre for as little as 75 pounds per user per month. But just as interesting, says Mason, is the flexibility that the technology gives businesses. It enables them to deal with a sudden rise in demand.

Oracle says that early adopters in the United States, in particular, are attracted by the "really enticing cost reductions". But an additional attraction is that it can take just weeks to set up such a centre.

Allied to such developments is the increasing popularity of VOIP (voice over internet protocol), which is essentially the means of making telephone calls over the internet. Until now, this has largely been a domestic phenomenon, but its use - combined with hosted software applications - is starting to spread into the business arena as well.

Mason says that VOIP in conjunction with hosted solutions is starting to be used in call or contact centres to route calls, so they go to the most appropriate person, and offers another convenient way for customers to contact their suppliers "In a contact centre, most of the traffic might be voice," he says, "but customers could also be using email or responding via a website. The VOIP technology offers another way to bring the call centre closer to its customers."

But the VOIP technology does not just apply to call centres. Dave Baxter, head of small business at mobile operator O2, believes that convergence between mobile networks and land services and between telephones and computers has been much talked about, but has largely just been a concept until now. It will become much more important this year.

Although smaller businesses tend to be cautious about technology, the growing use of this technology among tech-savvy individuals is expected to drive business use. At the same time, mobile operators seeking to exploit their third-generation (3G) services will promote it.

VOIP can be particularly attractive for any business where internal telephone calls are commonplace. Lewis & Hickey, a UK architects firm and design consultancy specialising in retail fit-outs, says it's seen a significant drop in the amount it's spending on mobile and landline phone calls through using the business service offered by Skype. But it's not just benefiting from cost savings.

Benoit Mareschal, business development director, says: "The ability to talk with one another has increased enormously." This is largely because an instant-chat feature enables users to see when colleagues are online.

But the firm is also using Skype to carry out conference calls and video conferences. As chief executive Paul Miele explains: "The benefits are far greater than just cost savings."