To refere to the original poster's question, is VOIP an attempt to take away the work of the phone guy? Well, computer guys are always looking to change the way something is done and this is no different. I don't think computer guys are intentionally trying to be phone men, but they feel there is another way to do what we're doing and make a big chunk of a huge market. We telecom professionals have to accept that the times they are a-changin' and (at the very least) become knowledgeable on anything taking place in our industry. I feel it is my job to evaluate what's out there, determine whether or not it's useful, and discard what is not applicable. We have to take the role of educators for the client and show them how they can get the most out of the available technology. It's not much different from the process we use to determine which systems we will be offering to the public. There will be 25 different opinions whether the product we carry is better than Joe the phone man's product and we have to be prepared to present our case.
VOIP is here to stay, so we have to show the customer where it fits and where it doesn't. Winning the trust of the client and proving our technical proficiency and ability to think outside of the box, is really what we do anyway.