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Voice over IP gaining momentum - Trends

Communications News, August, 2003

U.S. businesses are getting the message: IP telephony is the next wave. Considered more cutting-edge than mainstream for at least the last two years, IP telephony solutions are gaining momentum as enterprises upgrade legacy communications systems or opt for IP alternatives for new distributed networks. The trend does not seem to be limited to any particular industry, either.

For New York City law firm Hahn & Hessen, a move to new offices in Manhattan prompted IT manager Nicholas Lucenko to evaluate a converged voice and data solution rather than continue relying on leased PBX technology. He chose a Cisco IP telephony solution, which was deployed for the firm by Greenwich Technology Partners.

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"We are already gaining benefits from this converged solution," Lucenko says, "chief among which are ease of use, an edge in facilitating customer response, and a mitigation of general operational costs. We now have a platform for hosting enhanced functionality for all of our future voice-, data- and Web-based applications."

The new system includes Cisco solutions for unified messaging and conferencing, as well as other features.

In Pittsburgh, Derek Fink, assistant vice president of telecommunications for Educational Management Corp. (EDMC), was faced with providing a common communications platform with advanced services for the expanding company's art and post-graduate facilities in 16 states. Many newly acquired sites had older telecommunications systems that lacked the sophisticated features of other company locations.

Fink decided to install Siemens HiPath 4000 convergence servers in Pittsburgh and at regional sites in Dallas, Portland and San Diego. "Our master plan is to put the latest generation of platforms and telephones into each new building and into older buildings as we upgrade the telephone systems," he says. "One of the real advantages is that this approach gives us economies of scale by using remote gateways to distribute high-cost features, such as call centers and IP integration to smaller centers, where we can't afford to deploy a large stand-alone system."

While toll bypass savings were a consideration, Fink says that justification for selecting the Siemens system "is stronger in terms of distributing features through centralized applications and management. That's where the economies of scale kick in."

Across the country in Fremont, Calif., Redding Pathology found itself needing a scalable phone system to link several locations and support the needs of a laboratory environment, where mobility while staying connected is important. "We needed a solution that allowed us to focus on serving our customers rather than spending time and money maintaining our phone system," says Forest Bowman, IT services manager.

Bowman selected the AltiGen AltiServ Small-Office and AltiServ OfficePlus IP-PBX systems, which provide automated attendants, voice mail, one-button call back and call detail reporting features. He says the firm is realizing savings of up to $1,800 monthly, as well a decreasing its outside service and vendor maintenance costs by 60%.

PIER 39, a top San Francisco tourist attraction, has also gone the converged communications route. After an extensive analysis of the company's cost structures, CFO Dann Hovey decided he needed to reduce communications costs. He chose a system from Avaya that includes a Definity server and Communication Manager call-processing software. The solution distributes telephony features over a single fiber-optic network that also serves PIER 39's data needs.

"By linking our facilities over a single voice and data network," Hovey says, "we have more reliability than before, as well as better accountability." Avaya also provides the company remote network monitoring services.

The Kennewick School District in Washington is deploying a converged network of Alcatel OmniSwitches and OmniPCX Enterprise IP-PBX for the district's 21 K-12 schools. The switches provide enhanced services to the district's nearly 15,000 students, such as faster Internet access and prioritization for video and IP telephony.

District IT managers can now manage the network centrally, according to Ron Cone, IT executive director, eliminating the time and costs of traveling site to site to perform such tasks as moves, adds and changes. One-click quality-of-service policies enable managers to prioritize voice and video traffic network-wide, he adds, and improved network performance allows students to collaborate on joint projects.

According to analyst Christine Hartman at research firm Probe Group, "Business customers are increasingly open to the concept of IP telephony, no longer considering it bleeding-edge technology. The IP PBX is steadily gaining momentum and, in the not-too-distant future, will enter the business mainstream."

Probe has found that IP telephony is making significant inroads into a wide range of business environments. Part of this acceptance is the drop in prices for VoIP solutions, Hartman says.

Technology Industry

Voice over IP gaining momentum - Trends

Communications News, August, 2003

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