Want a bigger piece of the world? Some small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) view global expansion as a "daunting task" for their limited financial and staff resources, says Raymond Boggs, vice president of SMB research for the global market intelligence firm IDC. Other SMBs, he says, see Internet Protocol (IP) communications-voice applications transported by IP-as a way to overcome those limitations.

Boggs recently talked to Cisco about how SMBs can use IP communications to successfully conduct business in multiple countries, with or without in-country offices.