Q: Been reading quite a bit on this topic and would like some clarification.

How does a virtual solution stack up against a traditional hardware based solution including:

ROI (Capex)
Technology Integration with existing infrastructure
Deployment
Bandwidth reliability and ongoing support

A: The question of Virtual Platforms to support In-House Teams or Virtual Teams has been in high interest in recent years for obvious functional and financial reasons. To respond to your questions:

ROI (Capex):
These items are usually separate in that ROI is a return on investment and CapEx is an actual expenditure or funds applied to an investment.
ROI measurement is tough since every organization has a unique model. The funding (Capex) is an easier factor since the comparison includes the actual value and HOW those values are APPLIED on the corporate Financials, a very important point.

In the case comparison of Capex vs. Virtual Platforms the advantage is to the Virtual Platform since there is NO INVESTMENT, NO LIABILITY/DEBT, NO INTEREST, and NO ONGOING MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS. This cleans up the Balance Sheet.

An example of this would be the reason most Corporations no longer own their buildings and outsource much of their work to vendors. The Financials are improved by converting the costs from Corporate Debt/Liability TO an Expenditure, again a very important point.
If you want to improve your Financials quickly, lose the Equipment and Warranty Contracts!

Technology Integration with existing infrastructure:
No problem, all of these systems function basically the same and it really depends on your objectives and how you want the calls routing to the agents.

Deployment:
Good question! The Deployment model on equipment is anywhere from 4-9 months.
Hosted and Managed platforms are measured in DAYS, not months. This really depends if you have a good project manager or not since the Virtual deployment is RAPID!

Bandwidth reliability:
Depends on location and setup, this applies to both Equipment and Hosted Platforms. Despite questions on bandwidth a correct setup works great with no issues. Bandwidth issues relate to the building and an inexperienced tech.

Ongoing support:
This really depends on the provider, Equipment or Hosted. That said, it tends to be easier and require less personnel to support a virtual platform due to its infrastructure