Keeping in touch with IPT

To many, IP telephony (IPT) is just another way of carrying phone calls, whose chief attraction is cost reduction by cutting out telco landline charges. To be sure, that is a benefit of IPT, but the potential value goes far beyond that. Once companies choose IP for voice services, they open the doors to radical improvements in infrastructure cost management, improved customer service, and more efficient and effective use of the most expensive resource: people.

Nowhere are the opportunities more exciting than in contact centres. IPT allows companies to build a communication infrastructure as an independently structured logical network that is physically carried on the data network. This has profound implications. Communications applications can be centrally run and managed, but distributed anywhere on the globe. Business models and infrastructure can be shared between business units while maintaining the units` identity. Resources can be allocated on the fly, on demand, as all customer calls come into a single queue and are switched as needed.

The convergence of voice and data lets companies accomplish more with radically simpler infrastructure, enforce enterprise process consistency and branding, increase productivity and reduce total cost of ownership, all while giving the business far greater agility to meet shifts in demand. True convergence also allows for seamless consolidation and centralised reporting, giving the customer greater control of telephony costs. With a truly converged system, these costs can now be accurately reported on, and in turn be used to improve processes and customer satisfaction.

IPT allows companies to build a communication infrastructure as an independently structured logical network that is physically carried on the data network.

Leslie Forsman, business development manager at Avaya Sub-Saharan Africa.

The flexibility and adaptability of IPT has special importance for contact centres that frequently need to be available 24x7: with an international IP-based communications system, organisations can "follow the sun", providing 24-hour service with shorter wait times and fewer transfers, leading to greater customer satisfaction.

The advantages of IPT are so compelling that it`s just a matter of time before non-IP telephony appears as outdated as rotary dial telephone looks today. There are, however, some challenges in IPT: network technology is constantly evolving, and keeping support staff, equipment and network management tools current is not easy. Failing to keep a handle on these aspects can drive costs up again.

Maintaining call quality, ensuring uptime and securing the data network are further challenges. Increasingly, companies are turning to hosted services to address these issues. Hosted IPT or IPT on demand offloads the responsibility of providing a stable environment to support the latest generation applications and keeps the costs predictable. It reduces the risks of deploying IP telephony and allows the company to focus internal IT resources on projects that contribute to business growth.

One of the fastest growing options for moving to IP telephony is an on demand solution. This new model is gaining popularity internationally, and offers a comprehensive feature-rich solution hosted and managed in a secure data centre 24x7 and supplied over a broadband connection in a subscription model.

With servers and applications housed, managed and maintained in a secure off-site data centre, businesses can focus on other key priorities that drive their business forward while they leave communication network security and stability to expert technicians and certified diagnosticians.

IP telephony has huge impacts for the mobile worker as well as it has broken down the wireline distance barrier, extending advanced capabilities and intelligent communications to any user, anywhere in the world. Wireless voice and data communications have removed the need for a wired connection. At the intersection of IP telephony and wireless communications is enterprise mobility - the freedom of being enterprise-enabled, anywhere.

For example, a teleworker can receive calls made to their office at their home or remote location. They can access communications features they enjoy in the office, such as call transfer, abbreviated dialling, conference, and hold. Similarly, travelling workers or "road warriors" can have calls routed to their cellphone and perform similar functions.

IP telephony allows an organisation to choose the path that is most appropriate for it to deploy enterprise mobility, one that minimises technical disruption and preserves existing investments in wiring and phones. A mobility server can be added to an existing PBX or the PBX can be IP-enabled and gradually expand its new capabilities throughout the enterprise.

With established economies of scale, we can reduce total operational cost while delivering services with speed, expertise and service level agreements. Moreover, we can offer technical expertise that helps customers improve the overall functionality of their IP systems.