Convergence takes hold - Trends - IP telephony

Communications News, Nov, 2003

For the Highline School District, located south of Seattle, reducing telephony costs and staying in closer touch with the parents of the 17,000 students it serves had become priorities. Driving the need for change were the eight different phone systems Highline administrators used, resulting in incompatibilities that often required employees to use an outside phone line to talk to each other. Voice-mail systems were incompatible and hard to access, maintenance was expensive, and, above all, the systems were impeding communication with parents.

"We serve an earthquake-prone area," says district telecommunications manager Dave Collins. "That means we needed a system that could help us manage the high volume of calls we receive from parents during times of emergency."

Avaya IP Office, an all-in-one voice and data solution specifically designed to meet the communication needs of small to mid-sized organizations, offered a cost-effective alternative to Highline's outdated infrastructure. With the new system in place, Highline employees no longer use outside lines for internal dialing, allowing the district to make dramatic reductions in the number of phone lines serving its administrative facility and to recover the cost of the Avaya system in about a year. The built-in conferencing capabilities of the system also have eliminated the need for an outside teleconferencing service.

With the improvements in voice over IP (VoIP) technology, and the growth of IP telephony solutions, businesses are starting to consider IP telephony as part of their corporate communications package, according to In-Stat/MDR. Based on a survey by the research firm, an estimated 260,000 U.S. firms (roughly 2% of all U.S. firms) are using some sort of IP telephony. This number is expected to grow to more than 2.2 million by 2007, or 19% of all firms.

"The primary driver for IP telephony is cost savings," says Daryl Scholar, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "IP telephony per-minute rates are typically lower than per-minute phone rates, and IP telephony allows for wide area network savings since a business can use the same network for both its voice and data needs. More savings come in the form of staff reduction because IP telephony allows for the combining of job functions for the telecom and IT staffs."

SYSTEM ELIMINATES SERVICE FEES

Cost considerations were a decisive factor for the University of Tennessee Cancer Institute (UTCI), but the healthcare provider for hematology and oncology patients also needed reliable telephone communications. Today, using a networked telephony solution to link its 11 Tennessee, eastern Arkansas and Mississippi clinics (and 400 employees), UTCI is speeding its communications with patients, vendors and among its sites.

The system, from 3Com, uses 3Com's graphical management applications, allowing the Memphis-based health system to eliminate hefty contractor service fees needed to keep its previous PBX systems running. In addition, the voice system interoperates with UTCI's existing Ethernet network and cabling, which reduced installation, voice and Internet communications costs while maximizing return on investment (ROI).

"Our voice system is improving communications critical to our patient care and research," says Rizwan Yunus, director of information services at UTCI. "We're saving tens of thousands of dollars annually in vendor service, management and long-distance charges. The voice system's ROI is so good, we were able to buy out one of our large telephone service contracts two years early and still save money."

Using 3Com's SuperStack 3 NBX Networked Telephony Solution in its two greater Memphis cancer centers and NBX 100 chassis in its nine outlying clinics, UTCI is streamlining its communications. The voice platform, which runs on the healthcare provider's Gigabit Ethernet network and WAN, helps administrative staff promptly service patients dialing in to schedule physician visits, lab tests, surgery and radiation treatments.

HOTEL TRIES IP CONVERGENCE

In Boston, IP convergence is allowing the Hotel Commonwealth to deliver new guest-centric services while streamlining hotel operations. With a new voice system from Alcatel, the hotel can manage voice and data from the same network and explore new revenue streams through interactive communications.

Hotel Commonwealth's converged network incorporates all aspects of Alcatel's IP communications technology: the OmniPCX Enterprise IP-PBX with wireless phones run over a data network composed of OmniSwitch 7000 series of data infrastructure switches and OmniStack 6124 workgroup switches. The system provides the hotel with traditional phone features while supporting advanced IP phones and hospitality applications.

"We wanted a solution that offered more than business-class functionalities, a solution that can revolutionize hotel operations," says Timothy Kirwan, general manager, Hotel Commonwealth. "This system provides functionality and innovation, allowing us to be creative in how we use the technology to extend personalized customer service."