Today, a voice call need not be on a telephone alone. Most organizations employ Voice over IP technology (VoIP), which enables us to place and receive calls through our computers. The introduction of VoIP technology has made voice communication informal, in comparison to how it was viewed at one time. Earlier, when calls came through a telephone, we used to start with a greeting—at least by introducing ourselves. Thanks to VoIP, the professional greeting is replaced by an informal one—what's up? I am not saying this is wrong, but the changing trend is affecting the way we handle our professional calls that land on our telephone lines as well.

In an IT organization, there are mainly two channels of telephonic communication:

Before I get into the channel specifics, there are a few common denominators that I want to address first.