Go for the cheaper models and spend the $150 to $350 savings on unified communications applications that will make employees more productive.

It also makes more sense to deploy a softphone that ties into the PC monitor.

Within five to 10 years, Gartner says desk phones will be gone forever, so why bother making the investment.

So what should you be buying? Hafner says WAN optimization tools not only reduce network traffic but are more cost-effective than buying bandwidth.

Hafner says savings can be spent on mobility and voice over WLAN.