The growth of IP telephony in both the consumer and enterprise market segments has created not only buzz around the productivity and cost benefits of the technology, but a dizzying array of equipment and service offerings so expansive and complex, enterprises have a difficult time sifting hype from the meaningful impact Voice over IP (VoIP) can have. Citel’s “10 Myths of Enterprise VoIP Migration” attempts to provide reality-based answers to questions for enterprises who are performing their IP telephony migration planning, for those who are in the process of deploying IP telephony, and for those who have deployed IP telephony and now seek to maximize the benefits of a converged voice and data network.
The macro benefits of Voice over IP that enterprises are attenpting to achieve fall into three primary catagories:
- Operational Cost Savings
- Application Integration
- Worker Productivity Enhancement
At its core, IP PBX technology enables convergence of voice and data networks, whereby voice simply becomes another application on the data network. IP-PBX technology also enables flexibility, scalability, customization, and many new features not available on previous generation digital PBX and Key system hardware. Some of these new features include: “Click to Call,” “Find Me/Follow Me,” Unified Messaging, and others—all of which enhance the business case for VoIP migration.
That said, many IP telephony vendors “bundle” complete solutions (including handsets, call controller servers and software, and LAN infrastructure) as a package for marketing, cost economics, and purported compatibility reasons. But the cost of the entire migration package (including media servers, software, new handsets, new or upgraded LAN and wiring infrastructure, power over Ethernet (POE), network security, and user retraining) can dilute the business case for IP telephony with every incremental dollar proposed and spent.
In the end, many components of an “end-to-end VoIP migration solution” are simply unnecessary to obtain the most substantial benefits of IP telephony in a sensible, managed way that will meet the often conflicting motivations of the IT and Finance departments.
The remainder of this white paper is designed to arm all stakeholders in the VoIP migration plan with meaningful advice in plain language, to use during the significant and ultimately necessary process of deploying a converged voice and data platform. The goal is to design and deploy a voice and data platform that:
- Increases competitiveness and productivity
- Reduces cost
- Is scalable with the growth of the enterprise
The section that follows provides a summary of “The 10 Myths of Enterprise VoIP Migration,” which is followed by a section that explains each myth in more detail, as well as a Conclusion.
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About Citel
Citel enables SMBs, large enterprises, and service providers to realize the cost and productivity benefits of IP telephony while at the same time leveraging their existing PBX infrastructure investment. Businesses with single or distributed locations and PBX vendors can now deploy next-generation IP applications and services at their own pace, with little business disruption. Service providers can deploy hosted IP telephony services quickly, without having to “rip and replace” existing enterprise PBX handsets and LAN cabling. Citel is a privately-held company with corporate headquarters in Amherst, New York, and offices in Concord, Ontario and Loughborough, England. For more information, visit www.citel.com.