Get The Most Out Of Internet Telephony In Tough Times
Today’s economy is squeezing every penny it can out of the data centre - even Internet telephony is feeling the squeeze. As enterprises consider implementing VoIP technology, they are forced to consider ways to cut costs while trying to balance the best solution in the meantime. The good news is it’s possible - according to VoIP manufacturers and industry experts. Here are four ways that SMEs can save money when undertaking a new VoIP project.
Take Advantage of What VoIP Has To Offer
Make sure to uncover all the benefits of using VoIP that can add real value in addition to cost savings. Chris Maxwell, director of Voxeo Labs, says it’s important for IT and data center managers to look to unified communications applications that integrate a variety of modalities, including voice, video, presence, conferencing, and text to streamline communication. He elaborates, "Companies can take advantage of new instant messaging and SMS capabilities that are available now with VoIP or integrate voicemail with email and combine email contact lists with phone lists by doing so."
Maxwell says data centers should consider using softphones for remote workers or even employees at headquarters to cut costs. He says a good headset can usually overcome quality concerns when using a computer as a primary phone.
SIP trunking should also be considered as an alternative, according to Matthew Kovatch, vice president of sales at Taridium. "Depending on your call volume, a complete new VoIP business phone solution can be paid off within six to eight months by reducing telephone costs alone,” Kovatch notes. “Some companies… offer comprehensive consulting and legacy migration programs that tie into your existing infrastructure."
According to Kovatch, investing in open-standards VoIP may not be a bad idea, either. "Handsets, for example, can make up to 80% of initial hardware cost, and if you choose a proprietary vendor, you might be tied to the vendor forever with expensive and inconvenient hardware upgrades," he says. "And consider a managed VoIP service if you are concerned about acquisition costs." Kovatch says a managed service combines the reliability of an on-premise open-standards VoIP telephony system with the convenience of a simple monthly fee for equipment, phone service, and support.
Choose Your Infrastructure Wisely
Maxwell says starting with an IP PBX (Internet Protocol private branch exchange) is a good idea. "Companies can get their feet wet by trying out an IP PBX," he says. "Many small to medium-size enterprises are finding free, open-source PBXes.., and many other bundled IP switch technologies are becoming increasingly stable, more widely used, and highly functional. It’s possible to implement some of these devices quite easily and cheaply. The benefit is low cost; the trade-off may be in installing and configuring the software yourself."
In Maxwell’s opinion, considering your existing phone lines is also a good idea. "There are devices such as media gateways and ATAs (analogue telephone adapters) that serve as converters from analog phone lines to SIP-based VoIP lines," he says. "This allows companies to keep their current telephone provider, infrastructure, and phone numbers while serving VoIP to local and remote locations using ATAs. In fact, if you have a WAN between two offices, it’s possible to bring in calls to a single location, convert the calls to VoIP, and send the calls to remote locations via SIP to be answered by remote employees."
Glean From Reports & Monitoring
Criss Scruggs, senior manager of product marketing at NetIQ, says that now, more than ever, organizations are being asked to demonstrate the value and return of each new investment. So how do organizations justify their VoIP expenditures while saving money simultaneously? "While not really a trade secret, reporting is the way to accomplish this task," Scruggs says. "You should already be doing this for your critical applications, and by extending existing reporting capabilities to the VoIP network, you can not only demonstrate service levels, but also rapidly identify and resolve call-quality issues. In addition, reporting can be leveraged as a capacity-planning tool for the next phase of your VoIP implementation."
Scruggs adds that proper diagnostics and reporting not only save money, but also help SMEs to proactively address call-quality issues that will impact business performance and tangibly demonstrate the value of VoIP. "By wrapping reporting into your standard VoIP rollout, you can avoid future downtime for end users, justify to your customers the call quality and service delivery metrics as needed, and prevent business stakeholders from questioning the value of your communication investments," he says.
Scruggs also says that deploying a complex communications system across your network should not occur without proper monitoring for the proof of concept and post-deployment phases, which does present up-front costs but saves considerable cost over time. He says it is not uncommon for distributed organizations to believe their networks are prepared to adequately support VoIP and deliver the QoE (quality of experience) and service that users have come to expect with traditional telephony.
On the other hand, he says research shows that nearly 70% of those actively researching VoIP monitoring solutions are doing so after deployment in response to significant increases in trouble tickets and service quality complaints. "In today’s economy, most organizations cannot afford these issues, as they can result in lost revenue," Scruggs notes. "Deploying a monitoring system after your initial VoIP implementation can be time-consuming and costly."
Handle Your VoIP Network with Care
What do VoIP and cars have in common? Scruggs says that, when properly maintained, both VoIP networks and motor vehicles can deliver incredible benefits that far exceed the maintenance and purchase costs. "For example, by following the manufacturer’s maintenance timeline and due diligence recommendations, you can make your car last over 250,000 miles by offsetting future, larger issues and making the most of your initial investment," he says. "The same is true for VoIP. By spending your money on the right things from the get-go-assessment, monitoring, and reporting - you will achieve the best system performance and QoE for your users over time."
By not following this proper management path, Scruggs says the chances of sporadically paying much larger amounts to fix issues and potentially needing a major system overhaul increase dramatically. "These very issues and hidden costs can be easily avoided with proactive management, which may be an additional cost up front but will save significant funds in the long run."
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