Data Perceptions

Guest White Paper
As Voice Over Internet Protocol evolves into IP Telephony, its practical applications and quantifiable advantages are finally becoming clear. Long distance savings are now only a small part of the picture when considering a move to IPTel.

IP Telephony – Finally Ready for Prime Time?

In its earliest form, what we now know as IP telephony was called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). VoIP was heralded in the mid 1990's as a must-have technology to dramatically reduce the cost of business calls between branch offices by sending IP voice traffic over the existing corporate data network. Additional savings from reduced support costs, lower costs for wiring and simplified administration were also presented as justification for a widespread implementation of VoIP. Companies installed IP gateways and rationalized the cost of the investment against the savings that would be realized over traditional long distance services. However, when reviewing the real costs and the limited functionally of VoIP, most early adopters abandoned the technology as it did not provide net savings, it offered limited features and it was handicapped by QOS and reliability issues.

Today, many of the network management issues have been resolved. More and more vendors are offering robust VoIP solutions and some of the major telecom manufacturers are providing excellent migration paths to IP-enable existing key[1] and PBX systems. Perhaps most important though is that there is a growing suite of practical business applications that leverage IP voice technology. In short, the business case for IP in specific applications is too strong to ignore.

The media coverage of recent CRTC VoIP regulatory issues has raised public awareness of VoIP. Much of this discussion has centred on new telecom providers and their plans to use VoIP to provide local line and long distance services. With these new regulatory changes, hydro companies, cable companies and a host of other new competitors are positioning themselves to lure customers from the traditional telephone service providers. This recent media attention makes it even more important for this paper to differentiate VoIP from IP Telephony … they are related technologies, but their application is very different.

A few paragraphs ago, I used the phrase “IP in specific applications”. IP is a tool to help solve challenges presented by different groups in the organization, but it is not the only tool at the IT manager’s disposal. Legacy equipment still offers a very reliable, feature-rich platform that exceeds the needs of most company staff and does so inexpensively. However, there are specific, practical applications where IPTel has real, quantifiable advantages. It is these areas that I will focus on in this short paper.

Telecom VAR’s experienced in deploying traditional telephony as well as hybrid IP solutions have discovered that there are three sets of IP applications that are grouped based on the size of the customer organization. These silos include; Small office/home office, Stand-alone and Enterprise. Each category has its own set of feature and cost requirements but generally, the viability of an IPTel deployment increases in relation to the size of the organization or the complexity of the customer need.

SOHO – The small office/home office (SOHO) application has functional needs that are well served by simple VoIP offerings. These needs might include;

IP Centrex: Positioned slightly above VoIP in terms of functionality is an updated version of traditional Centrex services. Various providers are offering IP Centrex as a managed telephone service where a virtual PBX is located on a managed network and clients access the service via managed or unmanaged connections. Single line sets, proprietary sets and SoftPhones are available to connect clients to the virtual PBX.

Stand-Alone: For the purposes of this discussion I’ll consider the “Stand-alone” silo to include one main site and up to one other satellite location. This “stand-alone” scenario can take many forms including;

On-net/off-net dialling – as the main system is aware of all lines connected to it, a call made from Windsor to a client in Richmond, BC is placed immediately out of the Vancouver branch system. All the Windsor caller need do is dial the 10 digit BC number and system routing automatically places the call via the most cost effective connection. Internal (intercom) calls are made directly from desk to desk without any long distance charges.

Complete feature transparency - IP networked systems are completely feature transparent. Voice calls, Call Park and Page, transfer, busy extension indication and Caller ID are available to all phones in the enterprise as if they were located in the same office. Calls answered at any location in the network can be transferred seamlessly to any other location.

Economies of scale in Telco network access – as all lines are available to all users, the total number of lines to support all offices is reduced. In some cases this can amount to a 25% reduction in local loop charges but without any decrease in call handling capability.

Tele-workers - remote sales agents can connect via VPN to any office, access email, make and receive phone calls and participate in sales conference calls … all through a full function PBX business phone

Peer-to-Peer IP operation – bandwidth efficiency is maximized between branches in that calls between a Vancouver local phone and a Vancouver local line are set up by the enterprise CPU, but once established no network bandwidth is used

Centralized Licensing – a true enterprise IP PBX allows the system manager to purchase licenses for Call Centre agents, IP Phones, IVR etc and distribute them anywhere in the network. In the ABC Widgets scenario above, a 10-agent call centre agent license would support agents connected to the Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal and Windsor systems. Furthermore the management reports, call-flows and real time reporting are all consolidated on 1 screen in real time giving much greater flexibility. This is a key benefit of a proper enterprise IP deployment and something that is not supported on IP-enabled key systems

Enterprise Call Centre – pushing the call centre our across the enterprise offers real advantages over centralized arrangements and also offers a strong ROI on an IPTel investment. Agents can be distributed to accommodate different time zones, skills-based routing can direct calls to the most appropriate agent anywhere in the enterprise, calls from predominantly French speaking areas can be seamlessly connected to bilingual agents, real-time call centre status is available across the network and callers can be connected to the agent that last handled their order … all in a way that is transparent to the caller or to the agent!

Pick the right platform – This may sound like an unnecessary statement, but many projects start off on the wrong foundation, particularly in enterprise deployments with smaller remote locations. As noted early in the paper, companies with smaller user requirements in individual branches have traditionally used a key system to provide phones, voice mail and other applications to the office. Nortel’s Norstar product family for example, has been designed for and targeted at the small to medium sized, stand-alone business. In this respect, it does a credible job for mid-sized applications that do not have significant demands for traffic, physical growth, sophisticated call centre/IVR/Speech Recognition/802.11, or networking.[2]

Choose the right VAR – Selecting the right VAR is another important step in setting the stage for a successful project. Many traditional interconnect telecom VAR may have had years of experience in traditional telecom may be completely unaware of the complexities of a proper IP telephony deployment. Similarly, many data VAR’s, looking at IPTel as a new business opportunity jump into the industry but without any understanding of the telecom industry or of it’s 24/7 onsite-service requirements. Seek out companies that have a documented track record in both technologies, ask to see a sample project plan, ask for references and call them.

Demand a team approach to the deployment – Any successful deployment demands that the telecom VAR and the data network provider have a very clear understanding of the project. Take the time to research companies that have existing working relationships and have already deployed applications similar to yours. Focus on how problems are resolved during and after the project is complete. Avoid scenarios where you as the customer are stuck in the middle of two different vendors (or divisions of the same company) are blaming the other for a problem

Understand where IP telephony can provide the best ROI - Finally, one of the mistakes that IT managers can make when considering IPTel deployments is that, because IP technology is available, it is used to solve all of the challenges that arise in a project. This short paper has attempted to highlight areas where IPTel has solid, measurable business benefits for call routing, applications development and system management. Long distance savings, once the primary factor in IP is now a minor benefit to the organization. Focussing on the primary business processes benefits and the cost savings associated with improving them are crucial to building a viable business case for an IPTel implementation.

[1] A key system has traditionally been defined as a system for one office location, usually smaller sites with up to 50 users. Over time, key systems have developed comprehensive feature packages but have retained their focus on the one or two office market. Some of these systems such as the Nortel’s BCM, NEC’s Elite IPK and Avaya’s Merlin also offer IP capabilities as well. A PBX system has traditionally addressed larger site requirements ranging from 40 phones to thousands of users. Most importantly, these PBX systems have supported sophisticated networking to link multiple sites together and include Nortel’s Meridian/C1000, NEC’s NEAX product family and Avaya’s Definity.

[2] Nortel themselves recommend their Succession 1000 system as the choice for enterprise applications. “Nortel Networks Survivable Remote Gateway has been specifically designed to extend the desktop features and user interface of Nortel Networks Succession* 1000 IP PBX (private branch exchange) platform to give remote-site users full access to the same features and applications available at the main corporate site. Nortel Website News Release, April, 2004 http://www.nortelnetworks.com/corporate/news/newsreleases/2004b/04_06_04_srg.html