The essence of communication is breaking down barriers. In its simplest form, the telephone breaks distance and time barriers so that people can communicate in real time or near real time when they are not together. There are now many other barriers to be overcome. For example, people use many different devices to communicate (wireless phones, personal digital assistants [PDA], personal computers [PC], thin clients, etc.), and there are now new forms of communication as well, such as instant messaging. The unified communications concept involves breaking down these barriers so that people using different modes of communication, different media, and different devices can still communicate to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Unified communications encompasses several communication systems or models including unified messaging, collaboration, and interaction systems; real-time and near real-time communications; and transactional applications. Unified messaging focuses on allowing users to access voice, e-mail, fax and other mixed media from a single mailbox independent of the access device. Multimedia services include messages of mixed media types such as video, sound clips, and pictures, and include communication via short message services (SMS). Collaboration and interaction systems focus on applications such as calendaring, scheduling, workflow, integrated voice response (IVR), and other enterprise applications that help individuals and workgroups communicate efficiently. Real-time and near real-time communications systems focus on fundamental communication between individuals using applications or systems such as conferencing, instant messaging, traditional and next-generation private branch exchanges (PBX), and paging. Transactional and informational systems focus on providing access to m-commerce, e-commerce, voice Web-browsing, weather, stock-information, and other enterprise applications.

For more information, including a summary of benefits and an appropriate glossary, see the IEC website at Unified Communications Tutorial

Planning
• How will you determine if your current network is ready for convergence?
• What specific hardware, software, and infrastructure changes are needed?
• What is your company’s security policy? Determine how the new network will adhere to this policy.
• What experience, tools, and methodologies are required to take advantage of converged technologies?
• How will IT staff learn to manage the converged IP network? Who will manage it?
• How will the new technology impact end users?
• Who are the stakeholders company-wide? Which groups absolutely require zero failure rate?
• Have you assembled a “Tiger Team” and outlined their core requirements for the design? Is there a chart of roles and responsibilties?
• Has an IP telephony assessment been conducted?
• Have all leased PBX equipment and lease expirations been identified?
• What are the risk factors? Is there a governance model to address and manage the risk factors?
• What is your content management plan? Are there naming convention standards?
• Are local site managers included in the planning discussions?
• Is there a plan in place to minimize customer impact?

Design
• What core functionality is required by key stakeholders/business units?
• Who are the high-risk users for whom failure is not an option? Have solutions or workarounds been established?
• Have you defined the “must-have” functionality for the network design? Are there any unusual considerations the design should address?
• Are the implementation and support teams part of the design strategy? (They should be.)
• Will the design requirements meet users’ expectations? Has a survey been conducted?
• Did you compare the PBX dump with your new design? Are there gaps?
• Have you identified all the existing applications that will integrate with the new IP telephony solution?

Implementation
• Who is the champion/sponsor of the migration? Are reasons for the conversion clearly articulated?
• Is your company’s culture factored into the migration plan?
• What are the users’ expectations? How will users be trained?
• Have you identified a migration plan for critical phone users?
• Is there a site escalation path if something goes wrong during cutover? Are there backout procedures?
• What is your selection process for the pilot site? Have acceptance criteria been identified?

Operation
• Have you created customer service standards for all deployment members?
• How will you capture lessons learned and ensure that other sites benefit?
• Will you require spares at each site? Is there a resource for allocating phones in a pinch?
• What monitoring and troubleshooting tools will you need to manage the new network?
• Has a PBX decommission plan been identified? Will the port reduction be monitored to ensure lower costs?
• Do you have a policy for managing analog line disconnects?
• Do you have a solid change management process in place?
• Do you have a system for capturing FAQs to be used for the support team?

Take a Page from this Book

The Road to IP Telephony: How Cisco Systems Migrated from PBX to IP Telephony (ISBN: 1-58720-088-0), from Cisco Press, provides a roadmap for your IP telephony migration that includes deployment, installation, management, and troubleshooting guidance from Cisco experts. Written by Stephanie Carhee, the book’s focus is not on technology but on the planning and business processes associated with a large IP telephony implementation. Included are more than 200 best practices and lessons learned from Cisco that every IP implementation team lead should know.

1. Let callers know what to expect from the system immediately. This is a simple rule that applies to any customer experience - present a pleasant greeting and explain succinctly what the system can and will do for the caller.

2. Do not hide the option for callers to speak with a live agent. No matter how useful your IVR system is for customers, there will always be times when customers want and need to speak to a live agent to resolve their issue.

3. Whenever possible, give the caller an approximate time for the completion of the request. If transferring to a live agent, let the caller know the expected hold time and provide options to go back into the IVR system.

4. Do not make callers repeat information collected in the IVR to the live agent they are transferred to. If you want callers to believe that the IVR can help them resolve a problem, respect the time they put into the IVR and don’t ask for the same answers twice.

Angel.com offers a variety of options for passing captured IVR information to the live agent, including call whisper and screen pop functionality.

5. Provide callers with an option to navigate the system using touch-tone (keypad) or speech recognition. Let callers choose the most effective option based on their general preferences, location or understanding of the system.

For instance, someone calling from a cell phone in their car may find it difficult to make menu choices using the phone keypad, but will be able to make those same choices using speech without any hassle. In Angel.com’s system there is also a setting called “barge in” that can be turned off to make a speech-enabled system run smoother when there is a lot of background noise on the caller’s end.

6. Personalize the IVR for each caller by integrating with your customer databases and CRM systems. If callers know that the system recognizes their identity, they will be far more likely to stay in the IVR.

7. Identify and communicate a few universal commands that are recognized at any time during the call. Examples include “beginning” to go back to the start of the dialogue and “help” to get detailed information on the current request for input.

8. Keep the interface simple - use closed, short prompts, limit the number of menu choices and request simple, one-word responses. Callers will only use the IVR system if they perceive that it is easy to use and useful in resolving their issue or information request.

9. Always let the caller know what is happening. Keep in mind that the IVR dialogue should be similar to a conversation between two human beings. The system should explain pauses with messages such as “Thanks for the information, let me look up your account” or “I am trying to find the most appropriate person to handle your request”.

10. Provide courteous, smooth error-handling. Generic error messages that are not tailored to the caller’s specific situation will drive callers away from the IVR. The system should always take the blame for errors.

The Last Word: We’ve provided a list of some of the core characteristics of customer-friendly IVR systems to get you started, but the easiest way to discover the effectiveness of your IVR system is to survey the callers who use it. Angel.com can set up a short IVR phone survey which can be attached to the end of any call and report the results directly back to you for use in improving the IVR system. 

Yet he/she turns around at that point and looks at you, the IT department, hoping for some sort of acknowledgement that you fully understand what he/she meant and a glimpse of the master strategy you are going to follow to make the maxim become true in your business. It’s at that moment that you wish you had majored in psychology in college instead of computer science.

But, don’t despair! Developer’s Corner is here to the rescue, with a handy Lingo Translator for Geeks. I’ll try to make it easier to understand what these nuggets of business-talk mean and show how Angel can help you become a star in your organization.

In fact, there are a lot of new features coming up in Site Builder that directly relate to these areas. I’ll mention them along the way and try to help you consider how they can be used to your benefit.

Know your customer

When you hear a call center manager say ‘know your customer,’ he could mean a number of things. They all have a common theme: your application should react differently for each customer who calls because at the end of the day, their needs are different. Offering a personalized caller experience is the modern-day equivalent of having a department store clerk greet a usual customer by name as they walk into the store.

When you personalize what callers hear you are helping your customers in a number of ways: 1) You help reinforce a perception that your company cares. 2) You are helping a customer with their most pressing need at the moment. 3) You are enforcing business rules that your company has set for that customer.

You can achieve personalization throughout your Angel Voice Site. Some best practices:

• Attempt to match CallerID. - If your know who’s calling, why not greet accordingly? Think of the first prompt of your application as an opportunity to impress and a chance to direct.

• Don’t prompt for information you already know - Once you’ve identified the caller, you may be tempted to keep the application simple by not sharing state information between scripts. However, asking the same question twice annoys the hell out of callers, so think about the cost of doing this. Instead, you can use Variables and Session cookies to share key information between pieces of business logic.

• Log and recover from incomplete transactions - The phone is a ‘mostly unconnected’ medium. That means your callers are not generally connected to the application, and when they are, they could become easily disconnected (another incoming call, boss interruption, flaky cell phone connection). This will lead to incomplete transactions. For example, let’s say your application is a change of status line. You may need to collect five pieces of information before you can change the status. The customer calls, answers three, then the call is dropped. You could make the customer start from scratch next time they call, but why? Instead, personalize the caller experience and prompt them to recover from what they were doing before ("I noticed you called earlier to change your status. Shall we continue?"). Angel can help implement this behavior with Hang Up Transaction Pages, as they have guaranteed execution.

Get to the point

If you hear a call center manager say ‘we need to get to the point with our customers,’ he’s probably looking at his average cost per call. Many IVR systems are poorly designed (I’m sure yours isn’t and as a result force callers to spend valuable seconds just listening to prompts and menus they don’t need to hear.

When you design a ‘get to the point’ Voice Site, you are thinking hard about the call flow and only presenting the minimum set of relevant options to the caller. Options should be ordered in a manner that places the most useful choices to callers at the beginning.

Another source of time waste is poorly or rigidly worded questions. These ‘black spots’ in a design will usually yield a higher rate of user errors and a lower rate of task completion.

Angel can help in a variety of ways:

• Design dynamic menus through Variables and Transaction Pages. For example, make the home page of your Voice Site a transaction page that sends CallerID to your server, then return a series of variables representing the prompts for the main menu. That way you’ll only play menu options relevant to the current caller.

• Make good use of Site Usage Reports. These documents keep track of how callers use your Voice Site. They can give you good insight into which paths callers are taking.

• Use Transactions to define Task Completions. What are the significant points in your application (e.g. - order item, check out, credit card accepted, etc.). If you report on these back to your system, you will be able to get a picture of how your Voice Sites are performing. This will help in the next iteration of your design.

Handle less-than-perfect response scenarios through a variety of mechanisms:

• Number + Keyword Question Pages allow you to ask questions such as: “On any given month, how often do you stay with us?” and collect answers like “never,” “once a month,” or “5 times.” By asking the question in a way that the caller would expect (instead of “Please say the number of times per month that you stay with us."), you elicit a response that comes out naturally, and doesn’t require further thinking from the caller.

• Response Filtering enables you to weed out ‘filler’ words from responses, and capture just the part you’re interested in. For example: “What car do you drive?” could be answered with: “a Honda,” “I drive a Honda,” or “Er… It’s a Honda Accord” and you could capture just the “Honda” part. There’s new advanced syntax available in Site Builder that will enable you to mark certain things as optional or for rejection. You can have it enabled by sending a Support request through the Support Center.

• Threshold tuning, a part of the ASR Settings pack, allows you to instruct Angel about the confidence levels (certainty) needed to handle caller responses. There are two levels you can play with: confidencelevel and confirmationthreshold. The former determines how confident should the system be before it rejects the response as out of context (no match). The latter instructs the system on how good a response should be before it bypasses confirmation altogether. By changing these parameters you can ensure your high-confidence callers are zooming through the application, while still taking care of less-than-perfect responses.

Pick your best player

If you hear a call center manager say ‘when a call comes in, you need to pick your best player’, he’s probably referring to how you select which agent the call will go to. Maybe in the past you’ve had an ‘agent from hell’ experience, where an agent had very little clue of how to deal with your problem, and just wasted a lot of time to get it resolved.

In the past you would need an expensive ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) system to address this issue that would handle monitoring the status of agents and matching their skills to those required to handle incoming calls.

With Site Builder, Angel can do this for you, and save you tons of money in the process. Through the Call Queue Page, you can now distribute calls based on a number of parameters. For example, if you pick “Skills-based routing” you can first filter available agents based on whether they possess a skill requested by the caller or inferred by the IVR as it handled the automated leg of the call (E.g. ‘agent must speak Portuguese’ or ‘can handle support inquiries about product x’). You can then use a load-balancing algorithm, such as ‘Least Occupied Agent’ to discern what agent the system should select before transferring.

This ensures that the ‘best available player’ is handling the call. Bliss for your manager, brownie points for you!

Don’t fly blind

If you hear a call center manager say ‘our agents are flying blind’ he’s probably referring to the fact that your agents know about the caller when the call is picked up. Or, even worse, your IVR system knows about the caller but is incapable of communicating to the agent what they need to know to answer effectively.

The traditional approach to this conundrum involves expensive CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) systems. If you have a few hundred thousand dollars to spare, CTI systems are a viable option. But, if you’re in the same boat as most IT managers, you probably have a tight budget.

Angel can help you deliver a great solution with very little work. Here’s two common approaches:

Call Screen Pops: when transferring the call, use the new Call Screen functionality to ‘whisper’ to the agent the information needed to provide good service. For example, you could design an audible pop that says:

• “You have a call from Sam Aparicio, Customer ID 3489, he has a problem with: Microsoft Word, and has been on the line for less than 2 minutes. Ready to connect?” (parts in italics are SmartPlay prompts).

This gives the agent all the information to greet me:

• “Good evening Mr. Aparicio, I see you have a problem with your word processor, thank you for holding, let me pull up a troubleshooter here for you...”

Computer Screen Pops: if you have an existing web-based CRM system, you can make use of a Transaction Pages prior to a Call Transfer Page to call on a script that looks up the IP of the computer of the agent receiving the call, to then generate a message to that computer (HTTP Push, IM / Jabber, etc). Since Angel is standards based, the possibilities for integration are endless, as you can reuse the stack of Web standards to your advantage. I’d be happy to share more specifics of some customer projects where this has been done.

Keep an eye on the bottom line

If you hear a call center manager say (or shout!) ‘we need to keep an eye on the bottom line’ he’s probably flabbergasted by the multi-thousand dollar bill that the telco company just sent.

There are many reasons why call centers are expensive operations, and not all of them are under your control as a developer. However, one item that you can control is how you perform transfers from the IVR system to agents.

Traditionally with Angel calls are bridged, meaning your Voice Site is still ‘plugged in’ through the end of the call. This allows you to take the caller back to the Voice Site if needed in the middle of the call (Call Cancel). But in a call center, you may have no use for this kind of functionality.

Instead, you could make use of Blind Transfers. This is functionality offered by your Telco company, usually under different names (e.g. AT & T calls it “Take Back and Transfer” and MCI calls it “Transfer Connect"). Under this setup, you instruct your Telco to route your toll-free calls to a local DID (Direct Inward Dialing) number corresponding to an Angel (703) number. Later in the call, when you need to transfer to an agent, you execute a Message Page that plays some DTMF tones in the line. These tones instruct the Telco to take the call back, and transfer it to another (possibly toll-free) number, where it will be routed to your agents.

Angel will detect a hang up and stop billing you for the call at that point.

This strategy makes sense for you if your Voice Site is transfer-heavy (i.e. a large part of the call minutes are spent on the transfer). It is more complicated than a simple bridge transfer, and carries with it some disadvantages (like establishing where to transfer at runtime or using the Call Queue page). But it could be a good money saving approach for you.

I hope this article helped to translate Call Center Lingo into something you can act on. As always, if you’re working on an IVR project we’d love to talk to you! Give us a call at 888-692-6435 and say “Developer Hotline”.

Sam Aparicio

The PBX provides several services. First, by connecting outside telephone lines or trunks, to the PBX it manages the flow of voice traffic to the PSTN to allow for incoming and outgoing calls. Second, the PBX provides a set of calling features like call transfer, conference calling, putting calls on hold, etc. Finally, the PBX may have a voice mail system associated with it.

IP PBX

In the VoIP world, many manufacturers now offer IP PBXs. They operate much like standard PBXs except that they carry voice traffic as packets using IP. While IP PBXs offer many of the advantages of VoIP (lower cost calls, more features, etc.) they have some disadvantages.

• Cost - Purchasing an IP PBX is a capital expense. The cost varies by size, capacity and manufacturer but it can easily run to tens of thousands of dollars even for a modest size business.

• Extra Equipment – The cost of the IP PBX is not likely to be the only up front cost you encounter. Normally you’ll end up buying new phones and other networking gear needed to take advantage of all that an IP PBX can offer and ensure call quality.

• Obsolescence – Like any other piece of equipment, an IP PBX can quickly become dated.

The computer you purchased two years ago might seem slow but you can update it with more memory or a bigger disk. Of course it will cost money to do so and often require the intervention of a technical expert. The same is true for an IP PBX: it can be updated and upgraded, but it will cost money.

• Management Expenses – The technology in an IP PBX is sophisticated, operating and managing it requires a specialized skill set. Most SMBs don’t have that expertise in house, so many manufacturers offer to manage your IP PBX for you but at additional cost.

Hosted IP PBX

Fortunately, there is a way to get all of the advantages of an IP PBX without many of the drawbacks. It’s called Hosted IP PBX.

Hosted IP PBX makes all of the IP PBX features available to a customer while a VoIP service provider owns, hosts, manages and updates the IP PBX equipment. Typically, the service provider will charge the business a small up front fee to start the service and an ongoing monthly fee that includes all voice (local and long distance) and data (internet access) charges.

Hosted IP PBX offers many advantages:

• No/Low Capital Costs – With no IP PBX to purchase there is no large capital expenditure needed. Some Hosted IP PBX solutions even let businesses use their existing telephones but some additional equipment is usually needed to ensure call quality.

• Predictable Operating Expense – Monthly voice and data charges are usually calculated on a per telephone basis. If you have 50 employees each with a telephone on their desk, your monthly operating cost will be 50 times a set fee. If you add people, you’ll know exactly how your costs will increase.

• No Maintenance Expenses – Because the VoIP service provider owns the equipment, they are responsible of all the costs associated with equipment and software upgrades.

• No Management Expenses – The VoIP service provider is responsible for managing the equipment. Routine changes like adding a new person to the system or changing an extension number are done by the customer using a simple, web interface.

While the needs of every enterprise are different, some things are universal. Planning, communication, teamwork, and understanding your users’ requirements are as important as technical expertise. With this key objective in mind, I have compiled the following top ten tips for project managing an enterprise-wide IP telephony implementation. They are not meant to tell you how to technically architect your network, but to share best practices gleaned from Cisco’s own experience as well as customer engagements with phased migrations to a converged voice and data network. If your company is in the planning stages of an IP communications implementation, read on.

Tip 1. Build a Cross-Functional “Tiger” Team

The greatest up-front contributor to a successful, large technology migration is building a cross-functional team that not only has the requisite skills and technical expertise but represents users in every area in the organization impacted by the implementation. This team is responsible for ensuring rapid delivery of the migration that optimizes company investments. At Cisco, we called this group the “Tiger Team.”

Key members of the team include an executive program sponsor and steering committee composed of organizational stakeholders; a project Tiger Team lead; technology experts; security specialists; and subject matter experts in the areas of design and engineering, support, finance, and project management. When global or multinational theaters are involved, include team leads for each theater who will represent the needs of that location and user community.

After skill sets are identified and all representatives chosen, this well-represented team should start off the implementation by clearly defining the objectives and overall goals of the project, and identifying the tasks necessary to achieve those goals. Also begin defining the change management process, at-risk factors, and problem escalation challenges, which will minimize the risks of integrating an enterprise-wide IP telephony solution.

Tip 2. Get Your Users On Board

Resistance to change is normal and should always be anticipated. Managing user expectations will be paramount to making the process run as smooth as possible. One key way to achieve this is to take away the mystery and uncertainty among the individuals affected through education, and open, honest, and frequent communication with the stakeholders. Create a plan that gives you the ability to be flexible and proactive. Anticipate the glitches and constantly improve the process along the way, tailoring it to the specific needs of the stakeholders and the users they represent.

In addition to managing users’ expectations, an IP telephony implementation typically will require significant business adjustments, staff training and education, and some redesigned business processes and fundamental shifts within the organization. All of these changes must be identified early and continually managed, and change initiatives coordinated and integrated in a timely fashion.

Your change management plan should be created only after change impacts have been identified and organizational change readiness has been assessed. Consider first the impact change will have on employees—paying close attention to details and being considerate of the timetable (ensuring that the implementation cutover doesn’t take place during your company’s fiscal-quarter close or other critical event, for example). And do it right the first time so that when users experience the change, the effect is minimal and expectations are met.

Managing change involves four important components: Sponsorship, Resistance, Cultural Alignment/Communications and Skills. All team members should strive to understand the process in which change occurs, and incorporate the following recommendations into an effective organizational change plan:
• Know the tools and methods that can be used to analyze and manage change
• Plan and implement proactive change management principles
• Understand the nature and impact of change in the program environment
• Manage the negative implications of change
• Realign expectations
• Build commitment
• Drive cultural acceptance

Tip 3. Do Your Homework

Corporate culture is often defined as “the way we do things around here.” Culture builds a common language and brings people together, enabling them to work toward a shared goal. Understanding and working with your organization’s culture is critical to successfully implementing new technology on a large scale. Does your company encourage risk taking? Is change incorporated often, and does the company embrace it? How has change been introduced and institutionalized in the past? Was the process successful or fraught with problems? Is new technology welcomed or resisted? Do employees solve problems in a team environment? Is communication a top priority? Is yours a virtual company with telecommuters or employees scattered across the globe? What have previous technology deployments taught you about how users prefer to be trained? All of these factors are part of your organizational culture and can influence your ability to integrate a new solution. Take the time to know your users. Do your homework, capitalize on what has worked in the past, and learn from the mistakes of others.

Equally important, it’s essential that you have the participation and cooperation of all Tiger Team members from the outset. A planning workshop will help you to educate and rally cooperation among the team, as well as ensure that the initiative stays true to the business requirements of your organization and meets implementation objectives. The team should work together to plan project deliverables, address solution capabilities, define hardware, software, and security requirements, assign third-party implementation services, identify the project critical path and milestones, and outline the migration strategy. There is plenty of ground that should be covered, and you can use the “IP Telephony Migration Questionnaire”, page 30 to get your project team thinking and collaborating together.

Tip 4. Ensure That User Requirements Drive Design Requirements

Consider developing a “Voice of the Client” program that consists of client-targeted surveys and focus groups to benchmark and track user-preferred services, products, solutions, and features. Use the survey as a tool to identify critical phone features, validate key business needs, gauge risk tolerance and user discomfort, and identify key functionalities that are paramount to your business. You can also use the survey as an opportunity to incorporate features of the new IP telephony system and to help determine the priority of which features should be enabled.

Survey results provide the design and engineering team with a “report card” that validates their concept of the new design. Missing key design elements are a critical mistake that can be avoided by listening to your users, conducting traffic analysis, performing a network audit and readiness assessment, understanding how the technology will impact your current infrastructure, and familiarizing yourself with the new technology. And, as daunting and overwhelming as all this may sound, remember that IP telephony is simply a new application running on your current network, not an entirely new network. Therefore, knowing how your users use the system today, aligning their goals with the design requirements, and setting the right expectations will go a long way in making sure that you design your network right the first time.

Tip 5. Crawl First, Walk Proudly, and Run Aggressively

Your implementation strategy should allow you to progressively go faster as your experience levels become more efficient (see figure). You don’t want to go too fast or, conversely, too slow. The number of employees, complexity of user requirements, size of the campus, and how widely all are dispersed will, of course, affect your migration strategy. Like most organizations, you are not dealing with a static environment. There will always be employees changing locations, getting hired or leaving, or exercising their mobility working on the road, at home, in the field, and places other than their office desktop. To accommodate this ever-changing environment, develop a migration strategy that takes into account all of the variables that can change, alter, or otherwise affect implementation of your new converged voice and data network.

Make sure no one falls through the cracks by dividing your migration into user- and/or site-defined categories. Your categories might be, for example, new employees; existing employees who are moving to a new location; buildings coming online (greenfields); retrofit of existing buildings; merger- and acquisition-related facilities; or buildings with upcoming PBX lease renewals.

And, as noted, don’t forget to take the time to learn from your mistakes, obtain feedback, build proven processes, and create standards for the entire team to adhere to. Minimize your migration risk by starting in the lab, developing your proof of concept, and allowing time for training and practice. Follow that success with implementation in a non-critical field office. Then, apply what you’ve learned and start to build momentum by moving more aggressively with a campus-wide implementation.

Tip 6. Follow the 80/20 Rule for Implementation

When it comes to actual implementation, the success of your IP telephony migration will depend on several considerations: proper planning, creating consistent standards, identifying at-risk factors, having a ready backup/backout plan, customer service, doing the prep work up front, applying best practices, paying attention to detail, and automating as much of the process as possible. Of all these important factors, planning weighs most heavily. In fact, a winning formula for migration success consists of 80 percent preparation and 20 percent installation. Quite simply, if you focus on your plan first, the implementation will go a lot smoother.

The fruit of managing several implementations, Cisco’s “IP Telephony Steps to Success Engagement Guide” is a knowledge management portal designed to help Cisco IP telephony partners in creating their own implementation plans (cisco.com/go/stepstosuccess, Cisco.com login required). Following is a condensed version of the high-level steps that should be considered when beginning and completing the implementation phase:
Step 1. Facilitate Implementation Planning
Step 2. Hold Implementation Planning Meeting
Step 3. Define Project Monitoring and Control
Step 4. Develop Status Reporting Structure
Step 5. Begin Site Preparation
Step 6. Conduct Install and Configure
Step 7. Manage Test and Acceptance
Step 8. Deliver Knowledge Handoff
Step 9. Ensure Customer Acceptance
Step 10. Complete Closeout
A comprehensive depiction of the key implementation steps, the “Road to IP Telephony” mini poster, is available to download free at ciscopress.com/1587200880 .

Tip 7. Ensure a Successful Day 2 Handoff

A successful Day 2 handoff requires a well thought out support plan (Day 2 is defined as the time period immediately following cutover of your new IP telephony solution). Four critical components are required to enable efficient operation and responsive support of your converged network: the support team, support processes, support services, and support tools.

Support Team. The primary goal of support is to have all issues resolved quickly and effectively. You need the right mix of people in place at the right time to resolve the entire spectrum of issues that can arise in a converged network environment. To streamline this process, consider creating a cost-effective, three-tiered internal structure to resolve issues based on the type of problems that arise matched to the skill set required to resolve them. Escalation is based on severity and complexity of the issue. Easy-to-solve or repetitive issues, such as IP phone resets and user access passwords, are handled by Tier 1. Tier 2 tackles more complex problems such as software issues, LAN support, and data problems. And Tier 3 requires the involvement of individuals responsible for the design and engineering of the IP telephony solution.

Support Process. Resist the temptation to completely reinvent your support model with each new application, a mistake often made during large-scale technology implementations. While the converged support model requires collaboration among multiple groups who are likely unaccustomed to working together, you should still consider and take advantage of much of your existing support processes.

Support Services. Many companies do not have the resources required to adequately plan, design, implement, operate, and optimize (PDIOO) a converged communications environment. When making the investment in an IP-based network, organizations need to look closely at their ability to provide all the required services and support parameters. Key elements for implementing, supporting, and optimizing IP-based communications consist of end-to-end PDIOO capabilities, expert internal and external resources, cuttingedge management tools, knowledge management and transfer, and global coverage.

Support Tools. Attentive management and monitoring of your new network will help to catch and resolve many problems before they become visible to users. With the right support tools, the network can maintain the highest level of reliability and stability, providing increased performance and availability. The five key functional areas of the network must be managed to ensure the highest levels of availability: fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security management.

Tip 8. Keep Your New Network Clean

Most large enterprises have hundreds of lines and circuits that, through the years, have either been forgotten about or are simply unused. While this tip isn’t meant to cover all the technical considerations required to “clean out” your network, it’s an important reminder to view your IP telephony implementation as an opportunity to clean out your network to start anew, as well as clean, groom, and prepare the IP infrastructure. So, when the implementation team begins the conversion to IP telephony, remove as many unused lines off the PBX as possible, and only convert those lines that were proven as valid. Conduct a final cleanup at the end of the conversion to ensure that the implementation team has ample time to carefully review and trace all unidentified analog lines and circuits. Take steps to verify that business-critical lines aren’t removed, and make it a point to only migrate what you use, not what you have, so that you can help to keep the network clean.

Tip 9. Plan for PBX Lease Returns

At the time of implementation, you might have equipment that is leased, which meant that your IP telephony implementation schedule was largely dictated by the PBX lease return dates. To ensure that the massive effort of returning large quantities of leased equipment is organized and that items are returned on schedule, the team leader responsible for the retrofit cleanup should enter all PBX leases into a spreadsheet and develop a project plan to keep the returns on track. Carefully match the equipment list on the original lease agreement to the inventory being returned, create a box-level inventory list, and get a signed receiving list from the vendor.

In addition to managing the return of all leased equipment, there is also the process of removing all ancillary solutions and systems that are tied to the main PBX. The process of completely decommissioning your main PBX will take longer than you expect; therefore, assemble a project team to address the removal of all applications still running on it.

Tip 10. Look Back, Move Forward, and Prepare for the Future

Whether an IP telephony implementation involves 200 phones or 20,000 phones, careful and comprehensive planning, communication, teamwork, and knowing where the “gotchas” are hiding will divert problems before they even arise.

OK, you’ve almost arrived. You can see your destination and it is a fully converged voice and data network with all users migrated to IP telephony. Before celebrating, however, there are still a few important items that require your attention. You still need to be ready to address how to prepare your network for the future.

Change management will be the toughest process to maintain once your new network is in place, but not because of routine changes or software upgrades. Maintaining a strict, yet manageable and scalable, process will be key to your success. Not only will your methods and procedures require a solid execution plan, but so will the standards by which you communicate the plan. Eliminate as many unknowns as possible by documenting your procedures, capture and incorporate lessons learned, and optimize your change management process. Make the commitment to continually support your new, dynamic network by reevaluating contingency plans often, conducting ongoing audits of network performance, incorporating new features through software upgrades, and reexamining the contract services that protect, monitor, and support your network.

To prepare for the future, you must embrace being prepared for new IP telephony applications. As applications become available, a system must be in place to analyze the technology for applicability, test it for feasibility, provide an adoption position, and ensure that all teams are involved, in agreement, and ready to reap the benefits that will come from rolling out another new IP communications application.

12 Months to Deployment: Read, Learn, and Ask

The first step is research. The fact that you’ve reached this chapter in the book indicates you are fairly certain about deploying IP telephony at least sometime in the future, if not the near future. It is best to be making that decision about 12 months before you want to deploy a new phone system, IP telephony or otherwise. At this time, you’ll want to get your hands on as much unbiased research and as many reports from reputable consultancies as possible. Read the research with the goal being to decide if IP telephony is right for you. For now, pass up reports that talk about vendors, and get your hands instead on technology articles, technical papers, industry event presentations given by independent technologists or long-term experts, etc.
The following resources can be helpful in your search for IP telephony information.

• CIO Magazine (http://www.cio.com)

• Network Computing (http://www.networkcomputing.com)

• Network World (http://www.networkworld.com)

• VoIP Magazine (http://www.voip-magazine.com)

• ComputerWorld (http://www.computerworld.com)

Trade magazines and their online counterparts do cover vendors, of course, but you can find unbiased technology primers and overviews. It’s also helpful to read customer case studies about deployments to learn about the experiences of those companies that have deployed IP telephony. Read case studies for technology tips first, vendor specifics second.

After you’ve searched on the Internet and leafed through your stack of technology publications, invest in some time with industry experts and analysts. For lengthy conversations, you may have to invest more than time—research analysts can be hired on a project basis to provide you with valuable information and insights. But be sure to keep a keen ear out for biases because often analysts are paid consultants for specific vendors and because they know the vendor, they’ll tend to reference them more often than others. Keep your questions, at this point, in reference to the technology. Learn all you can from these experts about organizations like your own that have deployed IP telephony, what their specific challenges were, and what the results have been.

10 Months to Deployment: Head for the Internet

After you’ve completed your technology research, visit the web sites of the vendors you’ve heard about. Read about offerings from the industry leaders Avaya, Cisco, Nortel and ShoreTel. Learn about smaller companies and what the benefits and drawbacks to their systems are. It’s recommended to take and keep good notes so that by the time you’re looking at the eighth vendor and you’ve forgotten which solutions do what, you’ll have detailed notes to refer back to. This is where you want to establish a long list and then whittle it down to a short list.

You’ll read about each solution with your own organization in mind. Jot down questions as you click through vendor web pages. You may get the answer to the question quickly, or it may remain on your list until you eventually meet with the vendor. If your organization has many offices across the United States, for instance, look at solution descriptions with scalability, flexibility, and ease of deployment mentioned early. If your organization rarely changes in size and has a limited number of telephony requirements, look for solutions that offer the basics at a very affordable price point.

Next, create a checklist or table with some common features. For instance, most IP telephony solutions offer standard features like caller ID and three- or four-digit dialing. As you exhaust the common feature list, start adding unique features that matter to your organization. Learn (or try to learn) what differentiates each vendor you’re considering. If you save the differentiation for the vendor presentation, you likely will get a skewed answer to the question, “What makes your solution different and superior?” This checklist is just the beginning and you won’t do anything with it until the RFP phase.

Read articles about each vendor and mark items off your checklist as you determine what each offers. Start with articles that the vendor links to (usually found under headings like “press coverage,” “news coverage,” “case studies,” “success stories,” and “customer solutions” on the website). However, vendors obviously will only highlight their true success stories. Use an Internet search engine to do a little sleuthing yourself—you may find three or four stories about users’ unhappiness with a certain vendor. Dig for the dirt. Use all of this information for your checklist and research notes.

9 Months to Deployment: Call in the Vendors

After you’ve looked at your checklist and decided three or four vendors probably offer the best solutions for your organization, invite each of them to come in and give you an overview of their solutions and a demonstration if possible. You will hear a sales pitch, of course, but you may also hear features you hadn’t learned about, or you may hear the names of customer references that have organizational needs like yours. Whenever a sales person drops a customer name, ask for the contact person to speak with after the vendor presentation. If you are told the customer cannot be a reference, (which is understandable—many companies will not speak as a customer reference by policy), ask for a similar customer that you can speak with. If your organization is a bank with 23 branch offices, ask to speak with a similarly sized bank reference. If the vendor is not able to give you even one customer reference right away, take note and be cautious.

8 Months to Deployment: Demonstration and Trial Period

After you’ve seen each vendor’s presentation (and possibly after you’ve spoken with customer references), inquire about an onsite demonstration and also a trial period. Some vendors, after they’ve shown you how their system works, are willing to deploy a sample set-up so you can test the solution in your office. Some vendors give you just a few days or a week. Often, as the trial period nears the end, you can easily get an extension just by asking. A reputable vendor does not put a deadline on your decision. They want you to be happy with your choice of their solution; an extended trial period is not a huge cost to them.

7 Months to Deployment: Do an Inventory

Assessing your current network is crucial to a successful IP telephony deployment. There are a number of things to keep in mind and questions you’ll want to answer about the organization’s telephone usage. The following checklist will help ensure you think of everything.

Determine your business requirements. How will the system be used? How many calls per month (or day) are made out of your office? Are those calls to customers or internal employees? How many offices will you have on a system? Are there remote offices to consider?

Look at your LAN. What equipment are you using? Do you have an up-to-date network diagram? Is the equipment current or outdated? Are you using Virtual LANs (VLANs) for security or performance issues? VLANs improve voice quality by prioritizing voice traffic.

Assess your WAN. How much WAN bandwidth do you have between offices? How many home or remote offices do you have and will you need dedicated circuits or will DSL suffice? Consider whether managed IP services are a fit for your organization as an alternative to traditional dedicated circuits.

6 Months to Deployment: Request Vendor Proposals

If you work with a network integration partner or consultancy, you may want to call on them to help you with the Request for Proposal (RFP). You may also request a sample RFP from any of the vendors you’ll be evaluating, but make sure the one you use is comprehensive and not skewed toward any one vendor. If you decide to write the RFP yourself, chapter 2 of this book includes an outline on how to go about it.

Crucial Tasks - Do Not Skip

• Talk to multiple customer references: insist on recent customers as well as success stories.

• Get each vendor to bring an RFP into your office, in person, to discuss details.

• Talk to colleagues at other organizations that have deployed VoIP (beyond vendor references).

• When you’re close to choosing vendor, obtain equipment for a trial period.

The next step, after issuing the RFP is to closely review the proposals from each vendor. It will be helpful to use a weighted ranking system to score each vendor based on your long list of requirements. Again, see chapter 2 for ideas about creating these checklists and spreadsheets. After you’ve narrowed down the vendors to a short list, ask to see a demo and request a sample set-up to test the solution in your office. Most vendors will give you a free trial period so you can get more comfortable with the system.

Once you’ve collected all of the information and carefully evaluated your short list of vendors, think carefully about your organization’s priorities in general and start talking to customers. Be sure you get customer references that have similar networks and similar business requirements to your own organization. Again, ask to speak with recent customers: It’s easy to give you a list of happy customers. Ask for a list of the most recent customers signed on—within the last three months, for instance—and call them about their experience.

5 Months to Deployment: Choose Vendor

After you’ve taken all these steps, created a feature checklist, and determined which vendor best meets your feature/functionality requirements, you should be ready to make the decision. Be sure and ask any remaining questions before you indicate that you are leaning towards that vendor. It is very important to review the vendor’s website, including where they post press releases. If there have been any recent upgrades or new product announcements, ask how customers are responding and call customer references again. This will give you the freshest input, and you’ll be able to make the most educated decision on the right vendor for you.

4 Months to Deployment: Gauge your Network’s Readiness

By testing your data network’s ability to successfully support IP telephony traffic and discovering potential performance problems before your system is installed, a network assessment helps you plan, design and implement a successful IP telephony solution. The assessment can be administered by the solutions partner or by the vendor you choose, since both have a wealth of experience with IP telephony that they apply to interpreting the test results. Regardless if you use the solutions partner or the chosen vendor, an expert voice readiness assessment is required prior to installing a new IP telephony system across multiple sites.

In order to achieve toll-quality voice, you need to deploy IP telephony over a properly architected network infrastructure - i.e., it has to provide sufficient throughput and meet latency, jitter and packet loss requirements.

Throughput: How much bandwidth you need depends on the how many simultaneous calls your organization has going on, the voice encoding scheme used in the IP handset or soft phone, and the signaling overhead.

Latency and Jitter: Latency is the time it takes for a caller’s voice to be transported (packetized, sent over the network, de-packetized, replayed) to the other individual. Distance and lower-speed circuits can cause delay. Latency that’s too high interrupts the natural conversation flow (you may have spoken with someone using VoIP - you think they have stopped talking but they haven’t-that’s latency). Latency cannot exceed 100 milliseconds one way for toll-quality voice. Acceptable quality voice can go up to 150 milliseconds and participants can still carry on a decent conversation.

Packet Loss: Packet loss results in a metallic sound or conversation dropouts. It’s caused by congestion, distance and poor line quality. Because IP telephony is a real-time audio service using Real Time Protocol (RTP) running over User Datagram Protocol (UDP), there’s no way to recover lost packets. A mere one or two percent packet drop degrades voice quality.

A thorough assessment uses active application traffic across the LAN and WAN in order to reveal what’s going to happen when IP telephony is introduced into the mix. Test agents send a variety of network traffic packets - using different application protocols, packet size, packet spacing and quality of service (QoS) levels. The tests simulate the various types of IP telephony traffic that are likely to occur on a live network. In addition to measuring peer-to-peer traffic, the agents can also generate real-time client transactions against production servers, including communication with IP PBX servers. This comprehensive approach enables the test engineer to pinpoint the source of potential problems and make recommendations for resolution, thus avoiding unwelcome surprises following the implementation.

1 Month to Deployment: Pilot Installation and Testing

If you have an integration partner or the vendor you have selected works with regional resellers and consultants, call and schedule a time to determine your needs list. If your organization or the vendor does not have an integration partner, get an engineer from the vendor in to help you with this list. With this person (or people), look closely at the current design of your network and make a list of any equipment upgrades or new purchases you’ll need to make in order to optimize the infrastructure for IP telephony.

Update any existing network diagrams you’ll be using. Be sure to label it so you know it is the original (pre-IP telephony). Next, sketch your new network diagram with the gear included. Determine if there is any overlap and if perhaps you don’t need as many switches as you thought. If you’re not working with an integration partner, you may want to invest some money in having a technology expert take a look at your new proposed network diagram. It’s better to make major changes in the planning stage as opposed to after you’ve taken delivery of your IP telephony equipment. An expert can also make sure you maximize your equipment purchase and may make modifications to your diagram that will save you money in the long run.

After you’ve come up with your new network diagram, begin deploying the gear onto a test network. This will not only help ensure the new system works optimally, it will help you get accustomed to the new equipment so other deployments (to other locations, for instance) go smoothly. At the beginning, the test network should not affect anybody’s workday. During the second phase, transition some noncritical employees or departments to the test network. This will help you further test the system in a real-world scenario and also gets users familiar with it.

0 Days to Deployment: Go Live

After you have played with the system for a few weeks or months and made appropriate configuration changes to adapt to your entire organization, begin rolling out IP telephony company wide. An installation in phases tends to work best, even if the phases are over one week. The larger your enterprise, the longer it will take and the longer you may need between phases.

After the rollout, it’s imperative that you schedule end user training. You may handle this by department or location, depending on your organization. Vendor representatives are often available to be onsite to provide expertise and demonstrations during end user training sessions. While your choice of solutions will likely be rich in features, these features should also be intuitive to the end user; therefore training should take just two or three hours, as opposed to all day.

Make sure that the team you’ve put together is available for the duration (right through user training), at least on some level. If you’ve chosen a project leader, this is the person who will know all the details, even if he or she is not working daily on all of them. Once you’ve made the switch, so to speak, sit back and start enjoying the benefits of IP telephony.

The Bottom Line

You want to take your time implement IP telephony. A year may seem like a long time, but the more time you invest up front, the less money you’re likely to waste overall. However, if you do not have a full year, this schedule can absolutely be accelerated—but do not skip steps, just shorten each cycle to fit your needs. The next chapter will go into more detail about reliability and what’s required in order to ensure maximum uptime. Topics to be covered include redundancy, mean time to repair (MTTR), mean time between failures (MTBF), and network and applications reliability.

ShoreTel

Expectations

InfoTech reports that enterprise decision makers generally have three main areas of expectation that help them choose the right vendor. These are areas you’ll want to consider as you embark upon the vendor evaluation phase.

1. Convergence experience, expertise and vision

2. Expert, responsive support

3. Customer-focused approach to business

Convergence experience, expertise and vision

Look closely at vendors to determine whether or not they are committed to IP telephony. Have they built their solution as a true IP telephony system, or are they jury-rigging an old PBX-based solution to “look like” an IP telephony solution? Are their solutions built with flexibility, scalability, and longevity in mind? Will you have to completely rip out your old phone system and move to IP telephony in one fell swoop, or has the vendor built its solution with a phased approach in mind for those organizations that need to replace their phone system over time?

Expert, responsive support

When you’re working with a vendor during the early stages of consideration, try reaching their technical support team during off-hours. Do you have easy access to technical support representatives and a full range of maintenance and support services? Have they committed to working closely with you during initial deployment as well as future and ongoing projects? While you’ll almost certainly have quick and easy access to a sales representative and possibly a pre-sales engineer during the evaluation phase, you need to find out how you’ll be treated once you’ve already deployed your system. Is vendor responsiveness just as good for customers as it is for prospects?

Customer-focused approach to business

This area focuses on the vendor’s commitment to your success. Don’t let vendors come into the proposal using a hard sell approach. If they do, they aren’t demonstrating a commitment to your success but rather a commitment to their own success (meeting their quota). For real proof points, ask to see a list of the company’s latest customer installations and ask if you can speak with those customers. If things have gone smoothly, they won’t hesitate to let you talk to a customer in the early phase of their deployment. Don’t settle for just a list of customers that have been using the vendor’s system for years. Call early phase customers and ask them if the vendor is still in close contact with them, calls to proactively find out about the installation, and provides onsite support at a moment’s notice during the deployment.

InfoTech found that while many companies vary in why they choose IP telephony, most enterprises have found the most common anticipated benefits as:

1. Lowering total operating costs

2. Enhancing end-user productivity

3. Improving IT organization efficiency

4. Reinforcing market differentiation and brand image

Choices, Choices

In their 2006 report, “Convergence & Next-Generation WAN Technologies,” Nemertes Research provides a comprehensive and unbiased look at what organizations are doing specifically in terms of which vendors they choose. It is an independent and impartial report that translates mountains of data into succinct information organizations can use for convergence planning. The firm collected information by conducting in-depth interviews with IT professionals from a wide variety of companies of various sizes spanning many industries. While the industries varied greatly, all of the respondents had a similar interest in IP telephony and were committed to making technology investments that enhance productivity and the bottom line and prepare their organizations for the future. Nemertes Research presents an overview of how the respondents have assessed IP telephony solutions and how they eventually selected a system vendor. Included in the report are recommendations about which vendors to consider, including a complete IP telephony system vendor analysis, how to thoroughly evaluate all of the solutions available, how to plan for convergence, and how to actually conduct the rollout.

Vendors Analyzed

Organizations in the past have had few vendors to choose from. According to Nemertes Research, today there are more than 25 vendors and carriers out there to meet IP telephony needs. The increase in competition means more innovation and better products from a wider selection of companies. Nemertes Research analysts established that the most frequently evaluated IP telephony system vendors today are: Avaya, Cisco, Nortel and ShoreTel. The following section will highlight each of those vendors, but keep in mind that there are at least a dozen more to evaluate, depending on the size and particular needs of your organization.

Avaya

Avaya offers IP telephony solutions with its IP Office and MultiVantage solutions, which include IP telephones, as well as voice switches, media gateways, communication servers, wireless telephones, communication applications, and more. According to Nemertes Research, Avaya’s key strengths are its product features, technology, and overall performance, while weaknesses, according to respondents, fall in the areas of customer service, ease of use (installation and troubleshooting), management tools, and VAR expertise.

Cisco

Cisco is a recognized network infrastructure equipment leader and offers IP telephony solutions under its Unified Communications family. Products include switches, telephones, communication applications, and more. Nemertes Research notes that Cisco’s overall performance and technology areas have been rising steadily, according to respondents, while product features have left much to be desired. However, many networks are built on Cisco networking equipment and it would be hasty to overlook the company during an IP telephony vendor review.

Nortel

Nortel offers more than IP telephony solutions and has been around since its 1895 founding as Northern Electric and Manufacturing, supplying telecommunications equipment for Canada’s telephone system. Nortel was the first networking vendor to provide an end-to-end IP telephony solution certified by the U.S. Defense Department Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) in 2004. For 2005, Nortel’s top areas, as noted by Nemertes Research, were performance, product features, value, and customer service. Its weaknesses, according to respondents, were in the areas of ease of installation, VAR expertise and management tools.

ShoreTel

ShoreTel offers end-to-end IP telephony solutions including its ShoreGear voice switches and ShorePhone IP telephones, as well as communication applications, call center functionality, and more. ShoreTel scored highest in all categories studied by Nemertes Research. Four specific areas in which the company excels are value, technology, ease of installation and troubleshooting, and performance. The company’s areas for improvement included management tools, solution experience and VAR expertise.

Issuing the RFP

If you work with a network integration partner or consultancy, you may want to call on them to help you with the Request for Proposal (RFP). You may also request a sample RFP from any of the vendors you’ll be evaluating, but be careful to go through and make sure the one you use is comprehensive and not skewed toward any one vendor. If you decide to write the RFP yourself, here is an outline on how to go about it.

RFP: From Concept to Paper

Assemble your RFP team. Be sure and include an IT representative, a budget specialist, and any senior executives in charge of departments that will use the technology extensively (sales, telemarketing, etc.). This team should be briefed on the IP telephony project and should understand what new capabilities such a solution will offer so that they are informed enough to give you an extensive “wish list” for features that will make them more productive.

1. Select a project leader. This person should be experienced in networking and IP telephony, if possible, and should be able to answer basic technical questions related to the technology, if not the specific vendor solutions.

2. Assess what you need from the IP telephony solution.
• Evaluate the current situation, including costs, etc.
• Identify key goals.
• Review most common product capabilities and decide on the importance of them.
• Determine if there will be training required.
• Estimate the cost of the project.

3. Record your requirements, goals, and recommendations in a tentative plan.

4. Present your plan to the appropriate organizational leaders (executive management, financial department, etc.). Get their input before writing the proposal.

5. Write the proposal. A typical proposal contains:

• A summary of the proposal.

• A statement of what you need – the reason you’re looking for a new solution. Include every capability the RFP team has mentioned—be sure and get input from executives, managers, and staff level employees so that every need is met. Do not overlook the obvious and assume that every vendor provides one specific capability (you know the saying, “do not assume anything”). Conversely, what is missing from the current telephony solution should also be noted.

• A weighted ranking of all of the capabilities and features should be included (see figure 2.1 for a sample weighted ranking worksheet). Be specific in the features/capabilities list and avoid “buzz” words that each vendor could define differently. If necessary, describe any word that could be misconstrued, such as “availability,” which vendors often define differently. Again, don’t assume. Include every single capability that you need. The list should be exhaustive. In other words, don’t omit “voice mail boxes for every employee” from the list because you assume all vendors provide them.

• A description of how the project will be implemented and evaluated.

• Provide information about your organization and its technology goals.

• Include a project schedule. Indicate when you want the new IP telephony solution in place. Provide details on how you want to implement: in phases, within three months from the date of selection, etc. Be sure to include how you want each phase to be implemented so that you get as much out of your old equipment as possible and extend the life of existing equipment and handsets.

• Provide an approximate budget.

Conclude the RFP with specific open-ended questions for vendors, such as:

• What is your approach to training? Where is training held and how long does it take? Will the price of the solution cover travel time and expenses for your staff to attend if it is offsite?

• Is there a guaranteed response time for support calls? How will your system be updated? Is telephone support all that’s covered in maintenance fees or are other things covered? Is there an option for hourly support? How many support staffers are on call 24 hours a day? Does the solution contract come with a support guarantee?

• What is your history? How long has your company been in business? How many customers do you have? How many new customers have you signed on in the past year? The past six months? Are there any current merger discussions?

• What about customer references—to whom can we speak? Beyond happy customers, ask to speak with the most recent customers. A reputable company should be able to give you references from the most recent three-month period.

• How are upgrades handled and what are the typical costs involved? Also, ask what the process is for a customer to make suggestions and specifically ask if they can name some features that were a result of suggestions from users.

• What kind of “bake-offs” and industry reports mention your company? Ask for references in the form of reputably published reports and articles.

6. Submit the proposal to the vendors you’ve selected in your long list. Your integration partner or consultant, if you have one, can help you with this process, or simply e-mail or fax it to your vendor list.

Seeing is Believing

The next step, after issuing the RFP, is to closely review the proposals from each vendor. It will be helpful to use a weighted ranking system to score each vendor based on your long list of requirements. First, rank each requirement based on the vendor’s answer to your checklist items. See Figure 2.1 for a sample worksheet.

Figure 2.1 Sample weighted worksheet for vendor evaluation—not an exhaustive list.

Next, ask to see a demo and request a sample set-up to test the solution in your office so you can revise the score based on actual experience. Once you have seen a demo or tested the solution, revise your weighted worksheet to reflect your actual experience. See Figure 2.2 for the revised worksheet and score.

Figure 2.2 Revised sample weighted worksheet for vendor evaluation, with experiential scores—not an exhaustive list.

Decision Factors

Once you’ve collected all of the information and carefully evaluated your chosen vendors, including the four leaders, think carefully about your organization’s priorities in general, and carefully consider the following qualities so you can clearly articulate your requirements in these areas as you approach your final decision. These are areas which InfoTech has determined enterprises consistently rank as top priorities.

High system reliability/availability

Do the vendor’s products include redundant components in the case of a failure? Are there ways to reroute calls around a failed switch, for instance? Is there a threshold past which the system’s performance will degrade? Ask for specific examples of each vendor’s system maintaining availability under the harshest circumstances. Ask customer references specifically about how reliable the system is.

Equivalent voice quality to TDM

You don’t want your own customers to call your organization and know right away that you’re using something of lesser quality than a TDM system. Ask the vendor if it’s possible for you to go to a customer site and listen to actual phone calls to evaluate the voice quality yourself. Or ask customer references specifically if anybody knows they are on an IP telephony system or if it is assumed that it is a traditional system. Customers are usually willing to share the downside of the solutions they’ve chosen, as well as the upside.

Easy scalability

Make sure that the vendor you choose knows exactly how you will need to scale the system for your specific needs. For instance, if your organization often grows and shrinks during different times of the year or in some other cyclical manner, ask how new users would be added to support your growth needs. Will new hardware need to be added and removed each time you grow and shrink? Or will the system support your needs up to a certain point, regardless of how many times you change size?

Multi-vendor interoperability

Some vendors are known for requiring a full infrastructure overhaul to accommodate the new IP telephony system. Be certain that you can use your existing network equipment with the new solution, and make sure that when you add new gear, you can do so without needing to consider the IP telephony system. IP telephony is only beneficial if it’s truly part of the network and it doesn’t bring you new headaches or worries further down the line.

Full suite of communications features & business-enabling applications

Cost savings, as discussed in chapter one, are not simply a result of toll charge avoidance. Most cost savings come from the additional features that you get with an IP telephony system. Will the system provide valueadded services like call history logging, conference call capabilities, document sharing, follow-me features, etc.? Compare the checklist of capabilities of each system. This is not to say you should simply compare how many features, but rather decide on which ones are most important to your organization and come up with the vendors that meet the majority of your requirements. A simple ranking system for each system offering should work well (see Figures 2.1 and 2.2 for an example using a 1-10 rating system).

Ease of implementation/management/maintenance

IP telephony systems should make life easier for the IT team, not more difficult. Because the new system works on the existing network, everything is managed similarly. If management of the IP telephony solution is not straightforward and intuitive, how long will it take your team to ramp up to the point that the system will be supported adequately? It’s imperative that changes be made quickly and easily so that the addition of a new system doesn’t add burden to busy IT personnel. Some of the most important factors of convergence are how it simplifies life and how it saves organizations in terms of management time and money. Does your staff need to train with the vendor every month, and can you afford their time out of the office? How difficult is it to train users on features of the system, and will they be calling for help more often than usual because of the IP telephony implementation? In reality, users should be calling your help desk less frequently with a new IP telephony system. Even employee moves, adds, and changes (MACs) should be simple for either the user or one IT staff member to make within a few minutes. You should also no longer need a service provider to make these alterations for you—this will save you money and time.

Efficient, integrated multi-site networking

You will want to make sure that architecturally, your solution is built around a distributed design. A centralized solution that distributes applications over the network to other sites is inefficient as far as consuming capacity on the WAN. If a vendor is proposing a centralized approach and suggests “simply adding bandwidth” as the way around reliability issues, remember that bandwidth costs are not insignificant and insist on a solution that is designed for optimal bandwidth utilization. Multi-site organizations inherently require a distributed, as opposed to centralized, solution.

Favorable overall cost and payback interval

You can use information from Nemertes Research “Convergence & Next-Generation WAN Technologies” report to compare total cost of ownership data for the four leading vendors (Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, and ShoreTel). Nemertes Research analyzed these vendors in specific areas, including total hardware costs, network upgrades, IP handsets, management tools, and conferencing/collaborative applications, calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) by vendor solution (see Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3 Total Cost per User Source: Nemertes Research

Last but Not Least: Ease of Use

Another factor you’ll want to consider carefully is ease of use for end users. While you will undoubtedly need to familiarize employees with the system, training should not be cumbersome or lengthy. The IP phones and call control software should be intuitive and easier to use than the analog phones being replaced. Features like on-the-fly conference calling, drag-and-drop call transferring, and the forwarding of voice mail messages via e-mail should be simple for employees, even those who cannot attend training and have to learn the system on their own. You will likely have remote users logging in and using the system, and it will be difficult, if possible at all, to get those people to a training session. In these instances, you’ll appreciate a solution that users can easily navigate so they come up to speed and begin capitalizing on features that enhance your company’s employee productivity and customer service as soon as possible.

The Bottom Line

The most important things for you to remember during the evaluation process are the main business drivers of convergence. Make sure the vendor you choose is committed to making these perceived benefits a reality for your organization:

• Lowering total operating costs

• Enhancing end-user productivity

• Improving IT organization efficiency

• Reinforcing market differentiation and brand image

The next chapter will explore the IP telephony implementation from beginning to end, starting with research and vendor evaluation and ending with the actual deployment, and will include a helpful timeline for you to use.

ShoreTel

The Savings

When you consider what most businesses pay for long-distance, you wouldn’t see a huge need to move to IP telephony, necessarily. Large corporations can be paying pennies per minute for long-distance within the U.S. So while companies beyond North America may realize significant savings on toll charges, these savings are not usually enough to convince a North American company to switch to IP telephony.

Savings for most enterprise networks come from consolidating the voice and data network and using fewer circuits from the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In addition to circuit cost savings, as mentioned earlier, an IP infrastructure requires less time for moves, adds and changes (MACs) and often eliminates the need to hire an outside vendor or service provider to handle them. Moving an IP telephone station temporarily or permanently or adding a new user usually simply entails carrying out a quick and simple GUI-based command. With traditional PBX systems, moving an employee can cost hundreds of dollars in labor. In other words, with IP telephony, each user has their own IP phone profile and the network doesn’t care where anybody is located at any particular time, so MACs are simply a matter of conducting a few commands and can often be easily handled by the user.

With IP telephony, management savings are usually immediate since the information technology team can support the voice network as well as the data network because they’re now one in the same. There is no longer a need to have two teams of technical professionals to handle each entity, which adds up to tremendous savings. Further savings are seen right away when an enterprise needs to make a change, such as re-locating an office temporarily in the case of construction. The IT staff simply makes the changes from anywhere on the network (or remotely if need be) and a new temporary office is up and running without outside callers ever being the wiser. Finally, infrastructure tools like physical ports are no longer needed for IP telephony because physical circuit-switched ports aren’t necessary. An IP connected voice mail server is all that’s needed.

All of these cost savings are tremendously appealing characteristics of IP telephony. When you add to them the features that are available for employees, call centers and receptionists, it quickly becomes obvious that IP telephony is going to continue winning converts.

The Added Capabilities

Call centers in many enterprises today are extremely expensive because dedicated buildings are often built to accommodate the many staff members. When a company needs to add additional call center staffers, traditional PBX-based phone systems must also grow in blocks because ports are bought in groups, rather than scaling seamlessly with each new hire. These factors make call centers very expensive to maintain and scale. However, with an IP telephony solution, call centers can grow one phone at a time and call centers can span several buildings across many states. There is no longer a need for one huge building to house all of the call center agents. In addition, enterprises are able to leverage expertise across entire organizations, rather than hoping to find a highly skilled team in one location to answer incoming inquiries. With an IP telephony solution, a user can sign in from wherever they are (even at home) and is instantly online and available as part of the call center team.

Another customer service feature available in IP telephony solutions is the hunt group. This feature makes certain that all calls are answered by a live person rather than voice mail, which can be frustrating for callers. With various hunt groups enabled, a call into an organization rings extensions in a specified sequence or rings multiple extensions at once (depending on the company’s preference), ensuring callers reach the person they need without navigating through menus or being forced to wait in a queue.

Remote sites are also easy to bring online. With traditional PBX systems, adding a remote site often requires adding a PBX extender, which can cost almost $1,000 per user for the equipment alone. With IP telephony, again, a user can log in from anywhere and have all the same capabilities as if they were working at headquarters or within the call center building. With IP telephony, to the outside world, it can seem as though you have call center locations scattered around the globe to be available 24/7, when really you are simply utilizing IP telephony features such as time-of-day routing and call forwarding to make sure calls are answered quickly by a live human being; these people can be working out of geographically-dispersed branch offices, at remote locations, or even at home. Callers always reach a qualified customer service representative, regardless of what time it is. You are also able to manage peak calling times by having the ability to add other employees, regardless of their location, to the call center to help meet the overflow demand.

With IP telephony, users can also easily re-route their calls so that they are reached wherever they will be working—they can make these changes themselves, without asking for IT assistance. This “find me” feature also enhances customer service as well as productivity by ensuring a caller reaches the right person, regardless of where he or she might be working. An employee can even program his or her extension to ring based on status—ring through when he or she is in the office, forward to a cell phone when there is no answer, or forward to a colleague when the line is busy.

The Customer Service Advantage

IP telephony offers organizations tremendous customer service value-add. First of all, IP telephony systems provide thorough information right at the time a call comes in by popping data onto an agent’s screen. This information can include the most basic of information, such as caller ID information. By integrating specific business applications with the IP telephony system, more in-depth information can populate the screen, including the caller’s buying patterns, address, current account status, and more. Many IP telephony systems also provide for operators significant background information on the current caller’s experience, such as where the call originated, how many times he or she has been transferred, and whether or not the right person is available to take the call. When the person is again transferred, IP telephony systems eliminate the chance of a caller being asked the same question twice (which is frustrating for callers, and frankly, poor customer service) because the most current information, including notes taken during the present call, populates the next person’s screen.

IP telephony systems also allow organizations to implement skills-based routing, whereby calls are routed via an automatic attendant (attendant prompts the caller to choose from a selection) to the most appropriate agent based on criteria like language, experience, technical expertise, and other details. Advanced features that most service providers charge for are also available “free” with IP telephony, including three-way calling and a built-in conference call bridge. This can further aid in customer service when more resources are required to fulfill a customer request or inquiry, and it also allows conference call access by international parties, a feature most expensive conference call services do not provide.

Finally, IP telephony enables self-service options. For instance, when a caller simply wants to find out information about their own account, interactive voice response (IVR) within IP telephony systems enable callers to securely access that information by providing specific information. This eliminates the need for a call center agent to take time to answer a call, and it also eliminates the frustration that can occur if a caller is put in queue on hold for the next available agent to find out information that is readily available.

The Productivity Boosts

IP telephony productivity programs can often transform a company’s desktop application, such as Microsoft Outlook, into a multi-media communications center for integrated messaging, providing such features as directory dialing, contact screen pop, caller ID, call waiting, and calendar integration. Employees have more control over both voice and e-mail messages, in one centralized system, and can forward voice mails to colleagues for improved collaboration and customer issue resolution. IP telephony system reports also keep a history of calls made and received, which is helpful in meeting various compliance regulations. Sophisticated features include on-the-fly document sharing and dial-by-name capabilities. Workers are dialing one another, conferencing, transferring calls between locations, and changing their voice mail preferences all with the click of a mouse. There is no longer a need to call the help desk to make such changes. The bottom line is that employees spend less time navigating complex telephone systems and more time performing critical, revenue-producing tasks.

Soft phones further free people from their desks, delivering telephony capabilities to any PC. With calls directed to a laptop and a headset plugged into the USB port, employees can work from anywhere using their computer and its built-in microphone. Employees who travel a lot appreciate the power and simplicity of a soft phone and customers appreciate not having to dial different numbers to reach someone who is traveling.

The Growth Factor

IP telephony systems allow for quick and easy scalability to accommodate new locations or growth within existing locations, as well as the ability to add people one at a time as needed, rather than investing in equipment that will handle more than an organization needs at the time. Scalability benefits also work downward: when an organization reduces its staff count, it is simply a matter of removing those users’ profiles from the IP telephony solution. Companies are no longer tied to long leases for equipment that remains underutilized.

The Management Ease

The best IP telephony systems have intuitive browser-based management interfaces, allowing companies to manage the entire system—from switches to voice mail, automated attendant, and desktop applications—from anywhere on the network. The best management interfaces make adding a new user a snap and automatically update every switch and directory feature, including the dial-by-name and number attendant and online directory. System updates are also quick and easy, taking an hour or two at the most when vendors release new code.

In addition to managing the system itself, managing users and MACs is simplified tremendously. Employees can make most of the changes to their profiles without bothering the information technology professionals, and for changes that do require further expertise, IP telephony systems make it simple. There is no longer a need to spend time and money on having a service provider come in. These costs alone can save an organization thousands of dollars a month.

Nemertes Research, which is one of the few research firms that focuses specifically on IP telephony, suggests that you start the process by carefully assessing the size of your rollout. This consideration is not dependent on company revenue but how many stations you need the solution to support. You will analyze solutions for the time it takes to install these stations, and estimate your growth and how your particular solution’s scalability will affect the deployment.

The Costs

Nemertes Research interviewed IT professionals from a wide variety of companies and analyzed four leading vendors in specific areas, including total hardware costs, network upgrades, IP handsets, management tools, and conferencing/collaborative applications. From these in-depth interview came a comprehensive report entitled, “Convergence & Next-Generation WAN Technologies” (February 2006). This section will look at some of the costs involved in an IP telephony solution deployment, as well as provide high-level results of the interviews conducted.

Capital costs are obviously the first line of investment for an IP telephony implementation. This is determined based on how many locations and users you have and a knowledgeable and experienced integrator can help you with this. How many switches and telephones will you need? If you need to, make sure you can phase the solution in over time and use your existing analog lines for some amount of time before switching to IP handsets. Nemertes Research calculated the cost of capital per user, by vendor solution (see Figure 1.1 below).

The planning and design phase of any rollout is one of the most important. Consider your team and think of how you will divide up responsibilities. Also, consider whether you will need to add to or reduce your team size. For the implementation, decide on a few team leaders who will commit to making themselves available in the off-hours when necessary until the deployment is complete. The best solutions are easy to implement rather quickly and seamlessly, but you will still want some key people available throughout the deployment.

Installation is the time it takes to physically deploy and configure the solution—it does not include training. Again, consider carefully who is available to help with the installation, taking all things into consideration such as work schedule flexibility, knowledge and expertise, and the ability to work under pressure. Consider your business and determine the best time to deploy the solution and when it will be easiest to switch over to the IP telephony solution.

Next up is troubleshooting—the time it takes to make changes immediately after the deployment until it works properly. Who is going to be available throughout the deployment right up until the minute you determine that everything is working perfectly? Consider the first few days and how you’ll staff the help desk around the clock with people who are substantially knowledgeable about the infrastructure, the configuration, and the features of the handsets.

Next up are the costs for staffing to support the new implementation on a regular basis. How easy is it for your current staff to support the new IP telephony system? Generally, it is very easy for existing network staff to support IP telephony solutions because they work on the data infrastructure, which is what they already know well.

Management is the next cost consideration. What are your staff members doing each day to support the solution? Can things be handled in-house, without wasting time and money on an outside vendor or service provider to handle personnel MACs? According to Nemertes Research, MACs become very easy with IP telephony: Research participants estimate the time involved for an IP MAC at a mere 10 minutes or less, compared to the 30 to 90 minutes required for a TDM MAC. This means that total cost savings, depending on the average number of MACs at a given organization, can be significant.

Nemertes Research ultimately calculated the total cost of ownership (TCO) for IP telephony solutions from leading vendors (see Figure 1.2 below). These numbers were calculated considering all of the costs listed above. This gives you an overview of costs for each vendor’s solution based on the implementation size.

Ready to Make the Switch?

IP telephony is the way of the future, according to Nemertes Research, for a number of reasons. First, vendors are no longer investing research and development dollars into legacy TDM equipment. Second, IP telephony has simplified communications for numerous organizations and their positive results have been shouted from rooftops (or at least highlighted in well-respected trade journals). With TDM, there’s no interoperability, transferring between offices is not an option, and employees are often on different voice mail systems so forwarding messages is not possible. With IP telephony, companies instantly improve productivity with robust feature sets such as built-in conference call capabilities, four-digit dialing across locations, call center capabilities, and integration with desktop applications. Because of robust features like the ability for an employee to log in from any phone, employees are not tied to a desk.

A Network World special report suggests that organizations should consider transitioning to IP telephony when:

• They are using IP Centrex lines that will support phone and Internet service on the same network. Moving to IP telephony will immediately reduce costs because these lines are so expensive.

• The organization is moving to a new building. Since the wiring does not yet exist, it’s simple to create a consolidated data and voice network.

• They are coming to the end of a PBX lease agreement or the current phone system is outdated, obsolete or unsupported by a vendor or service provider.

• The company has offices in different area codes and employees dial a lot of long-distance numbers. The reduction in toll charges will be immediate and significant.

You will also want to consider IP telephony for your organization if:

• Your locations shift in size often

• Locations are added regularly

• You have a relatively small technology staff

• You use a great deal of outsourced telephony services that are beginning to add up

• Many of your employees frequently work remotely

Once you’ve evaluated your organization carefully, analyzing the costs of your current telephony solution along with your employee productivity and customer service needs, and decided that indeed, IP telephony is the way to go, the next chapter will help you with the vendor evaluation and selection process.

ShoreTel

Whether your organiation has a communication infrastructure that is multi-vendor and widely distributed or one that depends on a single vendor for your computer data, telephone system, and videoconferencing networks, you need a reliable way to integrate and optimie your network infrastructure. The Avaya three-phase approach to VoIP converged communications is your solution.

Migrating to Converged Communication

Avaya sees the evolution and integration of corporate technology infrastructures in three phases. Naturally, companies will evolve portions of their data, voice, and video networks from one phase to the next according to their business needs. Given today’s economy, organiations’ business needs will no doubt compel them to be in more than one of these phases at the same time. The three phases are identified as follows:

• Traditional
• Converged Networks
• Converged Communications

2 Results are highly dependant on individual operating environments. Different implementation methodologies, assumptions, processes, and objectives may contribute to lower or higher results.

Where everyone starts: The Traditional Phase

Enterprises operating in the Traditional Phase typically have separate physical networks for data, voice, and video (if used).Each location usually has its own LAN, and the enterprise as a whole has a private, dedicated WAN running IP protocols for computer data. If an enterprise has a small number of locations, it may vest its WAN infrastructure in a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that optimies access costs by using the Internet as the WAN transport.

Telephone system needs are typically met through one or some combination of one or more of the Final Four models covered in Part II. Unlike the packet-switched network infrastructure of the computer data enterprise network, telephony system needs are ultimately met through the circuit-switched protocols of the PSTN. In-house PBX systems, which may be interconnected over dedicated lines using Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) protocols, are about as good as it can get.

Videoconferencing solutions depend on the sie of the enterprise and the type of videoconferencing application needed, such as point-to-point, multipoint, or desktop. The videoconferencing needs of an enterprise can be met by using dedicated or switched transports that run physically apart from the data and voice networks. Or these needs can be met by using the voice infrastructure (in the TDM world, underlying video requirements tend to follow those of voice) with some modification. For example, terminating equipment to support video would be needed at each location to support the application. But a video module can be used in the PBX to bring up a video call and to dynamically allocate bandwidth for the life of the video call.

In the Traditional Phase, on an interim or permanent basis, VoIP Gateways may be used to support POTS-related calling from the LAN side into the PSTN. Companies operating in this phase typically use cheaper, switched multi-channel transports such as a Primary Rate Interface (PRI) line to the PSTN. Quality of service equals that of POTS.

Grant Thornton teams up with Avaya

With 50 U.S. offices and $459 million in annual revenue, Grant Thornton LLP is the largest domestic accounting firm serving public and private middle-market clients. With the major geographic expansion for many Grant Thornton clients in the 1990s, it became clear that if Grant Thornton was to continue to provide premium service to its customers while remaining responsible to its bottom line, it needed to adjust its communications systems to be in step with the increasingly collaborative and mobile nature of the business.

Grant Thornton assigned a team to research the best way to modernie the communications system. After several months of testing different solutions and assessing vendors’ support capabilities, the team recommended a multi-phase program to completely transform Grant Thornton’s approach to communications.

The first step was to establish uniform voice and data infrastructures, and help ensure all Grant Thornton employees had access to basic applications like full-featured voicemail. As their network standards, the team chose Avaya as the sole provider for their voice infrastructure, and Cisco for the backbone routers and data switches. Each office had its own IP-capable Avaya DEFINITY® voice server. Full-featured voicemail was provided by 26 Avaya Octel® Messaging Systems. Because the team intended to consolidate the voicemail platform in a later phase, they elected to lease the systems to provide migration flexibility.

Here is a brief summary of the phases of the conversion that followed:

Implement an efficient architecture. With the help of Avaya, Grant Thornton converted their network transport infrastructure from inefficient and costly dependence on point-to-point circuits to a star configuration which provides fault-isolation and maximies bandwidth allocation, resulting in considerable savings.

Introduce high-value applications. The team incorporated applications such as Avaya Phonetic Operator, which implements a toll-free number from which clients can easily and immediately be transferred to any office or team member through spoken commands.

Deploy IP Telephony. The team introduced IP trunking between all Grant Thornton’s U.S. sites. First they IP enabled all 50 of the Avaya PBXs so that the traffic between GT offices would go over the network and completely avoid long distance or toll charges. Then they opened a new state-of-the-art data center in Oakbrook, Illinois, and installed an Avaya S8700 IP Media Server to provide the IP Telephony application. They deployed an Avaya Data Switch for the interface to the LAN, which interoperates perfectly with the Cisco backbone. Because the data center was a completely new location, all Oakbrook employees received IP phones that plug right into the LAN.

This scenario underscores one of the economic benefits of having an Avaya IP Telephony solution. Had the data center been an existing site with a mix of digital and analog sets already in place, the Grant Thornton team could have easily re-used them, or supplemented them with as many IP phones as were needed. Kevin Lope, National Telecommunications Manager for Grant Thornton, says, “The fact that Avaya engineers their systems for maximum reusability means solid investment protection for us.” “The financial paybacks extend even past the relatively low cost of implementation. Grant Thornton experienced big reductions in operating expense. All told, Grant Thornton is saving nearly $170,000 a year in lease and support costs. And the savings in this area will only increase as the system is further modernied.

Because all traffic between the offices goes through the new hubs, Grant Thornton was also able to take down the majority of dedicated point-to-point circuits that had interconnected most of the offices. The savings across 50 offices was a tremendous $300,000 per year! And with long-distance expenses eliminated from interoffice calls, Grant Thornton saves another $30,000 per month.

All in all, the investment reduced direct costs to the firm, provided measurably improved efficiencies, and improved the delivery of professional services to Grant Thornton’s clients. The Avaya solution was an across-the-boards winner.

Making progress: The Converged Networks Phase

In the Converged Networks Phase, most enterprises build out their computer data networks to support IP telephony on the LAN side at all locations and VoIP on the WAN side. As a result, one common infrastructure exists across the enterprise to support data, voice, and videoconferencing. This arrangement enhances the IP network to meet enterprise-class criteria, such as improving quality of service and increasing the reliability of real-time, mission-critical business and communication applications.

The organiation benefits from a distributed communications architecture that minimies the monthly recurring cost of transport access lines into both the dedicated and switched carrier services networks. Dynamic bandwidth allocation is optimied across all applications.

In addition, the toll charges associated with the traditional regulated carrier services of the PSTN are minimied if not eliminated altogether. In addition, the organiation can begin to develop integrated data, voice, and video applications. Most if not all of the call features described in Part I become available across the enterprise. As the higher recurring costs of running separated networks are driven out of the budget, more operating revenues are made available for other business needs. As the organiation deploys and leverages its IP infrastructure, it positions itself to integrate new applications as they become available.

Getting there: Converged Communications Phase

As enterprises become more distributed and business performance needs dictate enhanced user capabilities, converged communications applications are deployed. Converged communications leads to increased flexibility and cost efficiency due to modulariation of components and applications. As solutions become more modular, their services can be deployed in a greater number of configurations and more easily integrated into multi-vendor environments.

Avaya is taking the lead in modulariation of its software and systems into open communications architecture to help organiations smoothly transition to converged communications for a more adaptive enterprise.

Mindpearl partners with Avaya

In the airline business, efficiency is everything, and top-notch customer service is the ticket to competitive advantage. In order to deliver both on a global scale, Mindpearl enlisted the help of Avaya Global Services.

Mindpearl operates five global contact centers in 22 languages to support Europe’s biggest airline alliance, The Qualiflyer Group, serving 300 million passengers a year. It’s a transcontinental challenge that requires top-flight technology and world-class network management. Avaya offered the perfect solution: a comprehensive outsource solution that includes around-the-clock remote network monitoring, fault and performance management, on-site technical support, and an Avaya engagement manager that provides a single point of accountability for all technical support issues.

The contact centers are powered by Avaya MultiVantage™ Communications Applications and an Avaya DEFINITY® Server, all designed, implemented, managed, and maintained by Avaya Global Services.

Now Mindpearl has throttled back on network management costs and rerouted internal IT staff to focus on the more profitable business of serving client airlines and giving airline travelers an upgrade to first-class customer care.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

For Avaya, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a catalyst for the next phase of open communications using not only IP Telephony and VoIP, but the full suite of IP-related protocols. SIP is an interoperable protocol in a multi-vendor environment that enables mobility and systems flexibility in multi-service networks.

A user with multiple endpoint devices such as a cell phone, desk phone, PC client, and PDA can rely on SIP to permit such devices to operate as a single system to meet changing needs for real-time communications. SIP brings about increased efficiency and productivity. SIP provides a practical means of multi-vendor integration at the highest and most diverse communication levels.

In a VoIP converged network with SIP, organiations can pick the best of breed from a variety of vendors to create a seamless converged communication network.

Avaya implements SIP through its Communication Manager product. SIP “trunking” functionality will be available on any of the Avaya media servers (S8300, S8500, or S8700). Trunking is making a network line support a specific protocol. A POTS trunk, for example, supports Plain Old Telephone Services. By means of having SIP-enabled endpoints controlled by Communication Manager, many features can be extended to these endpoints. The media servers can function as POTS gateways and support analog; H.323 stations; and analog, digital, or IP trunks.

SIP integrates with traditional circuit-switched interfaces and IP-switched interfaces. This integration allows the user to evolve easily from the traditional circuit-switched telephony infrastructures to next generation IP infrastructures. As a result, you don’t have to use a “light switch” approach to migrate to VoIP. A reasonable migration plan can be implemented that optimies support for the organiation’s business needs.

Part IV: Top Ten Reasons to Switch to VoIP

The reasons to switch to VoIP are countless, depending on how far you want to project the future of the marketplace. For now, here are the ten best reasons to make the switch.

Strategic Direction of VoIP Carriers and Vendors

Over the next few years, much of the $300 billion per year telecommunications industry will be migrating its equipment and carrier services to support IP Telephony on the LAN side and packetied VoIP services on the WAN. It will not be long before the current conventional telephony systems providers are outdated.

As older providers lose customer base and revenue, they will streamline operations and eventually close their doors. The providers that stay in business will need to increase prices and therefore will become non-competitive. As a result, IP Telephony and VoIP networking technology has become today the strongest influencer in the telecommunications provider marketplace.

Avaya has emerged as a worldwide leader in secure and reliabl