by the Abilita Enterprise Technology Solutions Group (ETS Group)
ets@abilita.com

Today many businesses are considering a transition to VoIP. It is no longer a question of if, but when. This consideration may be brought on because:

1. the existing phone system needs replacing. New PBX’s are all based on VoIP technology.

2. there are perceived cost savings to have voice and data on the same network infrastructure. Managing one infrastructure as opposed to two can resulting maintenance and management cost savings. In addition, moves, adds or changes (MACs) are much simpler in a VoIP environment than they were with a legacy system.

3. improved employee productivity is available in a VoIP environment. Integrating email, voicemail and fax messaging onto a single queue, knowing the status of the internal party you are trying to contact (presence) and being able to provide the system with routing preferences specific to caller identities or time of day (find me / follow me) are just a few of the features that can improve productivity.

4. there are ways to improve customer service using VoIP. Providing customers with the options of communicating through web chat or email and processing those communications through the same network used by voice callers can enhance customer communication. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) can be used to improve customer response time.

When an organization is considering a move to VoIP there are many complexities to be considered; right from choosing the correct phone system, designing the system to meet its needs, implementing the phone system, managing the converged network after implementation to ensuring quality and reliable dial tone for its users on an ongoing basis. Successful deployments will be based on sound planning and change management facilitated by a broad range of assessment, monitoring and capacity management tools.

Based on its VoIP deployment experience, Abilita has created a list of suggestions to help guide an enterprise that is considering a transition to a VoIP platform.

1. Educate Users and Management. A VoIP investment can be significant. In order to maximize the return on investment, users and management need to understand the capabilities of VoIP so that the investment can be used as a means to achieve the enterprise’s strategic goals. The feature functionality enhancements from the TDM phone environment is significant and with computer telephony integration new applications are being designed daily to integrate an enterprise’s communications with its operating systems.

2. Perform a Current and Future Needs Assessment. Understanding the requirements of the enterprise today and what the requirements might be 5 to 7 years from today will help to select the right solution – ensuring that the current feature and functionality requirements can be met and confirming that the solution is scalable and flexible enough to accommodate the future needs of the enterprise. Some solutions are a lot more modular than others and some offer more industry specific computer telephony integration applications or are more conducive to custom applications that will give an enterprise a significant competitive advantage.

3. Perform a Current Infrastructure Assessment. Our experience at Abilita is that the largest budgetary component of a VoIP implementation that vendors fail to properly inform their

customers about are the costs required to enhance the existing data network so that it can accommodate voice. A full network assessment of the capabilities of the existing data network and what the voice requirements will be must be done. In addition, once deployment is complete ongoing assessments are required because, any time a new application is introduced to the network, capacity must be addressed. A mismatch between an enterprise’s data network capability and the voice system requirements will result in a failed implementation. According to a recent survey done by the Gartner Group 85 percent of existing networks require some form of upgrade to accommodate voice. An Abilita consultant can assist in understanding the complete considerations required in a Network Assessment.

4. Consider Tools and Support Systems that will be used for Network Management Post Implementation. Consistent with the observation that most networks require upgrading to accommodate voice, ongoing network management, software and hardware management, security management and monitoring practices will need to be upgraded as well once voice is added to the network. Once voice is deployed, monitoring the network for all aspects that affect call quality is critical. The support systems that are available are many and they each have their pros and cons. Real time assessments are preferred. Some manufacturers have recently begun to offer system monitoring services as part of their ongoing maintenance packages.

5. Perform Due Diligence on the Vendors Who Are Offering the Solutions Being Considered. VoIP phone system implementations are complex. Accordingly, just like any market vertical, there are vendors who do an excellent job of taking care of their customers and others whose attention wanes once the phone system has been paid for. Vendors should be asked to supply references and those references should be investigated. Enquiries should be made about a vendor’s system design assistance, training efforts, pre-implementation testing practices for quality, cutover hiccups and post implementation care.

6. Plan the Implementation and Then Carry Out the Plan. Once you have determined which solution meets your current and future requirements, what improvements need to be made to your current data network and what ongoing network management practices you will perform, you are ready to plan the implementation. Components of the implementation plan should include phone system design, network (WAN & LAN) upgrades, phone system pre-deployment testing, user training, cutover contingency plans, cutover, post cutover testing (of the phone system and the network), post cutover training, phone system administration training and implementing network management practices. Depending on an enterprise's pre-deployment environment there may be additional considerations that must be addressed during implementation.

7. Maintain Awareness of New VoIP Applications. Unlike the legacy PBX phone systems, VoIP’s open-systems standards, like today’s computing environment, allow for dynamic and continuous application evolvement. Business managers will need to maintain awareness of new VoIP applications that can be integrated into their VoIP deployment to offer additional feature functionality and further improve their business processes. These applications will not be limited to a particular vendor. In fact opportunities for best of breed, multi-vendor environments will exist. The complexity of the networks will undoubtedly increase but those who plan the integration of these enhancements should enjoy a positive return on their investment of time and money.

The Abilita Enterprise Technology Solutions Group (ETS Group) assists financial services clients across North America in planning for, procuring and implementing VoIP technology. To contact the ETS Group please contact Henry Otten at 1.866.657.2848 or hotten@abilita.com .

© Copyright 2006. ETS Group and Abilita, Inc. All Rights Reserved.