Investing in IP telephony has never looked so good

"IP telephony has never looked this good, never been so easy to use and the functionality bar has never been higher."

This is the view of Andy Bull, director for Mitel.

Networked business solutions is a broad term that can be separated into four phases. For example, a small business just starting out would be focused on infrastructure whereas a large enterprise would typically be farther down the road infrastructure wise and therefore ready to move on to the third phase of business process improvement.

The primary goal of this paper is to outline the reasons why so many organisations are migrating to IP-centric communications. The business case is not only compelling, it`s overwhelming: you (1) save money (2) increase operational efficiencies (3) boost employee productivity (4) improve customer loyalty and retention and (5) drive new revenue streams.

The impact on the bottom line is obvious, as is the need to check out those five big benefits.

The five big benefits of IP telephony are realised on converged voice-data infrastructures. Local area networks (LANs) need to be engineered to carry real-time traffic and IP-PBXs are required to make and receive calls. These changes are significant but they need not be disruptive. Change can be incremental, eg, migration rather than forklift upgrades. Legacy investments must be protected - migration should be flexible and future-proof. It is hard to overstate the importance of getting this first phase right. In fact, it is the key to success. The infrastructure determines the time taken to realise tangible productivity and profitability benefits, and it sets the agenda for new developments.

Converged networks deliver significant costs savings. It is easier and cheaper to manage one network instead of two, and when sites connect to each other over managed IP networks, communication costs go down while call quality is retained. One can therefore make a business case for convergence in its own right. For example, a small business that has several sites would see lower operating costs as the primary benefit. An IP-PBX at a central site would be the communications server for all the remote offices as well as for teleworkers.

In larger organisations the same cost savings are achieved but the environment is more complex and a flexible migration strategy is required. In almost all cases it is neither practical nor desirable to replace all the legacy PBXs and phones with their IP equivalent. This would be seriously disruptive and after all, not everybody in the organisation needs the additional communications benefits that IP brings to the desktop.

This means that IP-PBXs and the IP phones must interwork with the legacy systems, which might come from different suppliers. And when the organisation operates within an ecosystem, compatibility with third-party IP-PBXs is an attractive option.

Another important migration issue is the need to retain all the call handling functionality of the legacy environment. Replacing PBXs with IP-PBXs should not entail communications trade-offs. PBXs are feature rich and although nobody will use them all, different individuals and user groups use different sub-sets. Therefore the needs of employees must be taken into account before a purchasing decision is made.

In today`s business environment companies communicate and collaborate with customers, suppliers and other authorised parties via so-called ecosystems. These transaction webs evolved during a period of economic uncertainty, which means that communication and collaboration needs grew in size and complexity at a time when the market was financially constrained.

Employees therefore ended up working longer hours and this has resulted in personal productivity being at an all-time high. Now there is a clear and pressing need to work smarter, not harder. This indicates the need for communications and collaboration tools that are radically different under the surface, but which are familiar and intuitive to employ. What`s easy to use gets used.

In addition, the functionality of the devices must match the market sector: small businesses want key system type features; enterprises want PBX type functionality; small and medium enterprises (SMEs) want something in-between. Suppliers must therefore have a wide range of IP devices.

The other desktop is that of the PC. IP telephony facilitates the implementation of applications such as unified messaging; it enhances the functionality of call centres and back office systems such as CRM and ERP; and it enables a new breed of applications to be created by companies and third-party developers. This indicates IP telephony is set to follow the early PC model. These next-generation applications are distinguished in three key ways:

1) They employ a familiar, browser-style interface, so the new applications are easy to use; calls and conferences are established by clicking on icons; every facet of the communications process is displayed on screen.

2) They do not differentiate between information and communications; documents can be dragged and dropped into collaboration sessions; the voice-data interface is more than seamless, it`s invisible.

3) They address issues that have been unresolved for too long; telephone tag is one such issue. Too many calls end up as voice mails; returned calls end up in the same place; messages are left on different systems. Too much time and money is wasted trying to communicate.

IP telephony allows telephony tag to be consigned to history in a highly effective way. When you can see the other party is not available to take the call you don`t phone. It`s that simple. This is a good example of the way that data and voice interoperate. However, these ways are so easy to employ they will be taken for granted within hours, which is the way technology was supposed to work. In addition, the elimination of telephony tag is the start of a value-added chain that boosts personal and group productivity, facilitates collaboration and goes on to embrace conferencing, both audio and video.

Business processes comprise call centres (CRM), manufacturing (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), sales force management, etc. The various systems function in their own right but many large enterprises are integrating them into an end-to-end process. This is particularly true when the manufacture of goods is outsourced.

These processes can be improved via better access to the information they contain. Salespeople, for example, may need to check on the status of a customer`s order or they may want to check on the latest prices and delivery times. If they are customer facing then the ability to get the information immediately via a mobile device is of paramount importance. It may help close a sale and it will certainly generate a positive impression of the company`s responsiveness.

Managers also need to track the position of the company`s various activities in real-time.

Access is facilitated via customised portals that take users directly to their areas of interest and there is a synergistic link to the click-to-call communications window. A manager sees a problem or maybe some unexpected good news and he/she is able to call the relevant party or parties immediately.

So far we have covered two key standards: IP, which enables IP communications and reduces operating expenses; and SIP, which underpins real-time, presence-aware applications and boosts productivity. Phase three brings us to XML (eXtensible Markup Language).

In the business environment XML is being used in business process integration. XML pages are de facto database records that can be passed from one application to another, eg, from CRM to ERP. The technology therefore enables the automated flow of information from the start of the process to the end, which is the basis of the real-time enterprise.

However, things tend to go awry in the real world. For example, the process might grind to a halt if there is a widget shortage. When this happens the relevant individuals need to be called and given the information they need to make informed decisions. The production manager might need to be put in touch with alternative suppliers, and if the problem means that an important order could not be delivered on time then the relevant salesperson would need to call the customer. This is where real-time communications needs to sync with the flow of real-time data.

The term network management is normally used for infrastructures; however, the key objective is to make the operation of the network as efficient as possible. In this case control is centralised: information such as changes and software upgrades are performed once and they propagate across the network; so there is no need to manage individual elements. Operational costs are therefore minimised.

The holistic approach has to involve the service provider`s network, ie, it has to be managed as if it were part of the corporate infrastructure. This means that the company`s system has to accommodate the operation process that takes place on the other side of the gateways. Service providers cannot afford to change the way they fulfil orders from their customers. The corporate system must therefore have open interfaces and enable interworking with mainstream platforms, eg, HP OpenView. However, many operators have developed their own network management systems and in these cases Mitel uses XML to customise a solution for each. These solutions can be created and tested in a matter of weeks.

IP communications is a big subject: networked business solutions is even bigger and can be confusing. We therefore adopted the four-quadrant approach in order to help customers and prospects focus on the key issues. You need to get the infrastructure right in order to realise the five big benefits of IP communications: (1) save money (2) increase operational efficiencies (3) boost employee productivity (4) improve customer loyalty and retention and (5) drive new revenue streams.

Getting it right involves a migration strategy: one that is dictated by your individual needs - not the constraints of the vendor`s solution. Forklift upgrades are out; graceful, seamless integration with all your legacy systems is in... and essential.