Upgrading to voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services has been shown by a US-based firm to potentially be less of a hassle than businesses may have thought.

Vocalocity chose to embrace the world of social networks and posted a video on YouTube of an installation of its VoIP service.

While firms may have believed that swapping traditional legacy based telephone systems for IP telephony would be complicated, the video shows it can be achieved in just 12 minutes and 24 seconds.

"With the equipment completely managed by a hosted VoIP provider, small businesses and micro enterprises don't need communications or computer knowledge to set up and use such a solution," said Phil Hill, the president of Vocalocity in a statement. adding that companies can make use of pre-configured phones which are offered by many VoIP service providers.

"All the business owner needs to do is plug them into the network, like a PC, and the phone system is up and running," he explained.

VoIP has been one of this year's major breakthroughs in IT for business, even attracting the attention of software behemoth Microsoft which released applications and servers to allow companies to merge these VoIP services into their daily work practices.