Understanding VoIP - Part 2
Part III: Three Phases to VoIP Migration
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 reliable IP telephony systems, communications software applications, and full life-cycle services. The Avaya leading role relates to many innovations and industry differentiators. These include:
• VoIP migration strategy that leverages existing and new networks to protect traditional systems investments and avoids “forklift upgrades.”
• Communication network market share penetration that includes over 90 percent of today’s FORTUNE 500 companies.
• Expertise and core product line that migrates and builds converged communications networks versus computer networks that happen to run voice applications.
• Industry leader in the product and features roll-out of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) related applications.
Over one million businesses worldwide rely on Avaya solutions and services to enhance value, improve productivity, and gain competitive advantage.
Feature-Rich Cost-Effective Alternatives
Most traditional POTS-PSTN telephony calling features have made their mark on the industry. They have become familiar to all of us. Leading the charge are features such as voicemail, call transfer, call forwarding, and three-way calling. The costs of these features are either rolled into the cost of your company’s private telephony system, or you pay for them a la carte or as part of a bundle based on the individual line to the carrier company. IP telephony and VoIP clearly make the “wire line service” related features out-of-date. All the traditional telephony features as well as many new features and communications applications are available in the IP-enabled world of converged communications. The number and type of IP Telephony and VoIP calling features are overwhelming and compelling. And they all come with no additional cost because they are IP-based and are carried over the computer network. They are more like computer applications that operate and run like well, computer applications.
Simple effective features, such as being able to look at your telephony station and see a visual indicator that tells you whether someone in your calling group is “present” but at the moment on the telephone, go far and above any feature that a POTS-related system can deliver. Think how many times you wasted time over POTS telephony calling someone only to get a busy signal or their voicemail not knowing whether they were at their desk or not. The Presence feature is just one of many features available in the IP-converged communications world.
Or how about the ability to run IP SoftPhone software on your computer and doing telephony using a point-and-click process with a headset - talk about integrating the telephone with your computer! This capability could never be contemplated in the POTS world because it could not support computer-related applications in a seamless manner.
In a POTS world, separate systems had to be maintained to manage who was in the system and what their profiles were, known as the translation. The POTS telephony expert, depending on the system used by the company, has to gather this data on the user and key it into the POTS telephony systems of choice. The same information for the most part needs to be duplicated on the computer data network.
In the IP-converged communications world, most if not all of this type of information can be entered once and maintained in a uniform manner. Whether the company uses an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software based approach or some other variation of Database Management Systems (DBMS), it can be integrated through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) with all related application systems in the company as needed, including now all IP Telephony and VoIP systems.
VoIP Investment Protection
Most organiations today have one or more traditional telephony system models in place, or they have entirely or partially migrated to IP Telephony and VoIP to support their enterprise. If you have existing digital equipment (such as PBX with digital telephone stations), you can protect your investment by reusing most if not all of your equipment with VoIP.
Maintaining VoIP Seamless
Because of a foundation that eradicates duplication and redundant information systems, the major tasks of installing and managing IP telephony and VoIP become more cohesive. Managers have more effective and direct applications to support their many challenges. They can manage not only computer data applications, but IP-based telephony and videoconferencing systems, as well. Unified database applications running over the network provide real-time, seamless access to all information needed to maintain the VoIP network.
Moves, adds, and changes formerly requiring highly complex and costly resources and changes do not require the manager to do anything. The VoIP network automatically adjusts itself to accommodate the user’s new location. Usage, accounting, and other metrics data are available to the manager through any computer device attached to the network. With IP-based converged communications, managing and maintaining the network become cost-effective and seamless. Staff do not get caught up in problems and stay focused on business deliverables.
Flexibility and Portability
IP SoftPhone is an IP telephone client for Windows-based PCs. It provides transparent access to real-time communications and productivity-enhancing features. It offers simple point and-click dialing. Through wireless extension to cellular, users have never had more telephone options for mobility available to them. For example, wireless extension to cellular enables the Follow Me feature. Employees can have calls ring at both their office and cellular telephones so they never miss a call. With IP SoftPhone for Pocket PC, employees can make and receive calls via the IP network with no recurring charges.
In an IP-converged communications network, any employee in the company can travel to any of the company’s locations, plug in his or her IP-enabled laptop, begin work, and make and receive telephone calls. Employees have at these distant, temporary locations all of the rich features available to them at their home office locations. The network automatically identifies the user and applies that user’s profile information in the company controlling database. Employees can even direct their calls to any digital desktop telephone at the temporary locations (the telephone does not even have to be IP-enabled). Absolutely no one needs to be called or notified that this user is connecting at this remote location. Managers no longer have to make costly and time-consuming accommodations for computer data and telephony connections for a coworker who is visiting their location.
Compelling Applications
If, as a manager, you remain unconvinced about VoIP with reduced overall operating expenses, increased and enhanced productivity, seamless integration of data, voice and video systems, unified controlling database that converges the need to maintain multiple databases into just one, increased mobility calling features that save time and money, then perhaps nothing will convince you to start your company’s move toward VoIP.
But if you are on the fence and not sure which way to go, consider the emergence of the industry-leading Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) which is enabling many new features and applications all designed to make the employee more agile and mobile with information technology. Avaya once again has emerged as the industry leader with SIP technology applications. For example, the Presence Detection, Follow Me, and seamless Moves, Adds, and Changes (MAC) application features of the IP converged communications network are just a sample of the many new SIP applications. These features make IP Telephony and VoIP a truly valuable time-saving network service and increase employee productivity. SIP is one of the many cool IP developments that come with the IP converged communications network.
A user on an Avaya IP communications network with multiple devices like a cell phone, desk phone, PC Client, and PDA can rely on SIP to seamlessly integrate these entities. With SIP, the days of having to remember multiple voice-mail access codes or hardware addresses are over. SIP can logically integrate all of these codes and addresses through the IP communications network as if they are one device. SIP redefines productivity.
Increased Network Management
IP-based communication networks provide a foundation for comprehensive network management. As a result, the ability for you to manage every bit and byte that runs over your IP telephony LAN and your VoIP WAN has never been more enabled.
Likewise, you have at your disposal tools such as Avaya EXPERT SystemsSM Diagnostics Tools that find and fix network issues so quickly that managers rarely know anything at all happened. These types of tools can support local and remote network monitoring. In dedicated networks, 99.999% quality is provided. That’s not to say that problems never occur, but in an IP-converged network environment, your ability to detect symptoms and make changes to your setup in advance of any problems that might befall your IP communications network is greatly enhanced.
Real-Time Collaboration
If you are still unconvinced, consider the fact that VoIP is IP based and many of the Web applications that previously ran exclusively over the Internet will now run over your private IP-based network. Many Web-based HTML applications are portable to your company’s IP-based communication network. Your users can have their favorite Web page riding on their IP telephone. Or they can post special Web links on their telephone-based Web page. Many of the Web-HTML based applications are candidates for running with your IP telephones.
Users can add Video Telephony Solution powered by IP video application software that enables a desktop PC or laptop to emulate an IP office phone. The quality of this video and audio that runs on the company’s network versus the Internet is free from the latency and jitter you see when running video and audio over the Internet.
Better Use of Available Bandwidth
Many people wrongly assume that when you add IP Telephony and VoIP to an enterprise computer network, you won’t have enough bandwidth available to support the change. The fact is that dedicated network transports supporting computer data on traditional telephony systems are generally about 30 percent utilied. Even though converged networks that add IP Telephony and VoIP increase overall network traffic volume, you must look at how the IP based traffic operates.
On the LAN side, fault isolation provided through the switching equipment maintains a steady mode of operation. If any chokepoints are identified, they can be remedied almost immediately by changing connection points or doing what the gurus call load balancing. But your IP-based management system will tell you this before it even becomes a problem.
On the WAN side, the load needs more consideration. You usually have more than one site on the WAN side that may have users connecting to your site. In addition, the cost and overall bandwidth capacity of the WAN transports are higher and recur monthly when compared to LAN side Ethernet that is usually a one-time cost investment. Also, the bandwidth capacity of dedicated transports is usually measured on the basis of how many Digital Service Channels (DS0s) are possible.
A T-1 line, for example, has 24 DS0s and is among the most popular dedicated transports in the corporate world. If you run circuit-switched POTS-PSTN calls over the T-1, you can keep up 24 simultaneous telephony calls. (The LEC will still charge you for 24 POTS line equivalents.) However, the beauty of VoIP is that it is packetied and streams the packets in through the T-1 line over one fraction of one DS0 channel’s bandwidth. As a result, you gain multiple times the bandwidth equivalent with VoIP when compared to POTS-PSTN on the WAN side.
Reduced Telephony and Video conferencing Costs
The cost reduction argument is compelling from a couple of perspectives. The argument is never more persuasive, however, than it is for companies that have a substantial volume of local toll, intralata, intrastate, and/or interstate toll charges. All of these toll billing areas have recurring minute charges and regulatory fees. The big showdown area of toll service charges today is no longer in the realm of interstate carrier services. These costs have gotten down to as low as 2 cents per minute, and even this rate can be leveraged against overall minute volumes to define a lower per minute rate - below 1 cent per minute.
IP Telephony and VoIP can reduce local charges. But VoIP also reduces or eliminates regional or local toll carrier services charges. Depending on the number of locations your company may have and over how many intralata boundaries your current calling plans cover, you can save millions of dollars per month by converting to VoIP across the enterprise. This savings is mainly because if you put all your locations on VoIP, all their intralata (local or regional toll) on-net calls travel over your company’s computer network. In this way, all these calls bypass the regulated, wire line carrier services of the conventional telecommunications carrier companies.
If your organiation has significant international calling, the same argument applies except that your company can save even more toll and regulatory costs. International toll charges are the most heavily regulated.
Case Study: How Avaya Helped AGL Resources
With corporate roots extending back nearly 150 years, AGL Resources (AGLR) has grown from a pioneering gas light provider in downtown Atlanta, Georgia to become one of the largest natural gas distributors in the United States. AGL Resources has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s fastest growing and most efficiently run utility companies.
High Performance Communications: Essential at AGL Resources
A highly disciplined firm, AGLR sees innovation technology and cost-effective business processes as fundamental enablers for business growth. Using these tools, the management team at AGL Resources has maintained a tight focus on growing shareholder value.
With growth of net income being a key measure of corporate success, AGL Resources certainly has reason to celebrate - in the face of a less than optimum economy, most recent year core earnings increased more than 22 percent on sales exceeding $860 million.
If you asked AGL Resources to identify the key corporate assets that directly impact the bottom line, business communications would be prominent on their short list. As manager of AGLR’s voice communications, Louis Acuna is responsible for making sure the impact is a positive one.
“AGL Resources is very focused on the processes that are critical to the success of the business. Our communications infrastructure is viewed as one of AGLR’s strategic assets and essential to revenue realiation.”
For AGLR, keeping a tight focus on satisfying customers is a fundamental business imperative, and communications capabilities are central to fulfilling that mandate. From an IT perspective, AGLR has a broad view of their customers; they range from internal employees to AGLR’s external stakeholders -residential customers, commercial accounts, state regulators, and business partners. Their ability to conduct business directly depends on the integrity of AGLR’s communications network.
As an energy utility, AGLR also has serious public safety responsibilities. With natural gas distribution being one of AGL Resources’ core businesses, there is an absolute need for an always available communications network. When a gas line is damaged by a contractor or homeowner, their communications network plays a vital role in their ability to rapidly respond. In a business like this, there is no room for network downtime.
AGLR’s Business Requirements
AGL Resources has 34 locations throughout the Southeast U.S., with more than 2,000 end users. Mr. Acuna explains that “As is often the case with businesses that engage in acquisition, the expansion of our business brought with it some site-to-site variability in our communications networks.”
The lack of standardiation presented some network management challenges, but far more apparent to the end users was the lack of consistent feature functionality across the different locations. Architecturally, their communications capabilities were still based on separate voice and data networks, and they weren’t sure that was the best forward-looking approach.
AGLR had been following the evolution of IP converged platforms and saw that there appeared to be some substantive benefits to adopting an integrated infrastructure. Since one of their corporate thrusts is to leverage new technology to improve the efficiency of the business, Mr. Acuna and his team knew that AGLR leadership would be very interested in their findings.
The business needs were actually quite straightforward and all rotated around the importance of communications in supporting collaboration and rapid decision-making. Fundamentally, it is all about empowerment - using the communications network to empower all associates with information and reinforce a common sense of purpose.
Uniform information access
To ensure that the entire organiation receives key information in a real-time fashion, leadership wanted messaging capabilities that would allow for simultaneous voicemail broadcasting to all locations. Because only 6 of the 34 sites shared a common voicemail system, this would put all associates on a fully integrated platform across all locations.
Fostering collaboration
To support a one-team approach, AGLR needed to provide associates with a common set of communications features to replace the local variations. They wanted the network functionality and interface to be the same regardless of which facility an employee happened to be on. They also needed a common dialing plan to foster real-time collaboration -allowing all associates to easily reach each other using an abbreviated internal numbering scheme.
Reducing operating costs
Leadership also wanted to reduce ongoing operational costs. This requirement was one of the main factors that really supported a move to IP convergence. Having voice ride on one set of facilities and data on another is an inefficient and unnecessarily costly network design.
Straightforward scalability
Platform scalability was another key requirement. Because AGLR’s business is built on a growth strategy, the communications infrastructure needed to easily and cost-effectively scale to meet that growth.
Application interoperability
Network interoperability was a must. If AGLR went with a converged platform, the new voice hardware and software would need to seamlessly interact with its Cisco Systems backbone routers and Extreme Networks Ethernet switches.
AGLR also had a sophisticated 300 agent call center running on an Avaya DEFINITY Server R at its Riverdale location in Georgia. They had a variety of applications operating smoothly together - an Avaya Call Management System (CMS), Witness recording, Aspect workforce management, Avaya Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units, skills based routing - and there was no room for any performance backsliding.
Going with Convergence
In keeping with AGLR’s focus on tight business processes, Mr. Acuna and the IT team made sure the project recommendations were well supported.
Before making a final decision on staying with traditional voice architecture or making the shift to convergence, Mr. Acuna and his team did considerable research. They talked with enterprises using a VoIP solution, and they issued a competitive bid that resulted in several submissions.
Armed with their research and the insights from other enterprises, they methodically evaluated the competitive options. When all was said and done, they decided on a total VoIP solution from Avaya - hardware, software, and full life-cycle services support.
At the heart of their new network is an S8700 Media Server running Avaya MultiVantage Communications Applications. The remote locations are running IP-enabled DEFINITY SI or Prologix voice servers. Each server is fully networked, enabling all employees to reach each other via 5-digit dialing.
A general theme of this new technology is doing more for less. The new platform allows AGLR to put all interoffice voice and data traffic on the wide area network (WAN) over common facilities. Running IP trunking to support the network connection needs of their 34 sites - including the new headquarters -significantly reduces facility and transport costs. As AGLR management drives these expenses out of their IT budget, they’re able to reinvest those savings on other business technology initiatives.
For voice messaging, AGLR has three networked Avaya INTUITY™ AUDIX® systems that provide seamless voicemail across all locations. They also have a multimedia application - Avaya Message Manager - so that all associates can manage their voicemail and e-mail in the same mailbox. For AGLR’s call centers, they’re using an Avaya IP Agent application. This allows AGLR to deploy virtual call center agents in any of its locations, but with the same full functionality as the main center. The external customers still dial the same reach number, and the actual location of the agent is completely transparent to the caller.
The AGLR IT team also provided their executives with the Avaya Extension to Cellular (formerly EC500) feature, which enables “follow me” functionality so they can give out a single number that rings on their office and cell phones for maximum reach ability. On the internal IT side of things, they’ll be deploying the Avaya VisAbility network management suite, which enables them to bring their network planning and reporting efforts toad new level.
Mr. Acuna adds, “If we choose to, the Avaya S8700 gives us the flexibility to host a new site directly from headquarters, speeding up the turning-up of the new location and eliminating the cost of a local server.” He concludes, “Capacity for growth, rich features and applications, cost-effectiveness - this Avaya solution really positions us well for the future.”
Decision Factors
In the final analysis, there were several key factors behind AGLR’s decision to go Avaya, as described in the following sections.
Investment protection
AGLR had a considerable amount of Avaya digital and analog station equipment in the network already, and the VoIP design they chose allowed them to re-use all of it. Since terminal gear is typically one of the largest outlays involved in a network upgrade, AGLR was able to drive that expense to nearly nothing.
Ease of migration
AGLR’s ability to move into convergence without disrupting the business was a must-have. This meant that the new system had to be easy for the employees to use, and that the actual deployment be transparent to the business. In terms of interacting with the system, the Avaya features are extremely intuitive and the required end-user training was minimal.
Confidence with Avaya
After several meetings with Avaya engineers, AGLR was convinced that their system could be smoothly deployed with no disruption to the business and end-users would remain productive. The Avaya converged solution was clearly the best combination of well-engineered technology coupled with the ability to provide expert support throughout the life cycle.
Convergence technology & service
The AGLR team and the Avaya implementation engineers worked closely throughout the entire implementation phase - from the upfront needs assessment and design, right through the physical cutover.
Collaborative approach to maintenance
When it came time to decide who to use as a maintenance partner it was easy to choose. A collaborative approach was essential. Mr. Acuna says, “When you purchase an Avaya Global Services IP Maintenance agreement, you are purchasing the convergence expertise and experience that you would be hard-pressed to recreate internally. Basically, you are getting unlimited access to the experts. The simple fact is that maintaining a converged network at peak Quality of Service requires a variety of highly specialied troubleshooting and performance optimiation skills. Avaya has the right people for the job.”
Learn More
For more information on how Avaya can take your enterprise from where it is to where it needs to be, contact your Avaya Client Executive or Authoried Avaya BusinessPartner, or visit us at http://www.avaya.com
About Avaya
Avaya enables businesses to achieve superior results by designing, building and managing their communications infrastructure and solutions. For over one million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, Avaya’s embedded solutions help businesses enhance value, improve productivity and create competitive advantage by allowing people to be more productive and create more intelligent processes that satisfy customers.
For businesses large and small, Avaya is a world leader in secure, reliable IP telephony systems, communications applications and full life-cycle services. Driving the convergence of embedded voice and data communications with business applications, Avaya is distinguished by its combination of comprehensive, world-class products and services. Avaya helps customers across the globe leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results.
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