As the VoIP (Voice
over Internet Protocol) bandwagon continues its relentless
and, some would argue, unstoppable quest for world
domination of the communications sector including
all forms of voice and data transmission, can businesses
now feel confident in deploying this revolutionary
way of communicating during the course of day to
day business transactions. Graham Chick, Chief Executive
of GemaTech offers his opinion on the “fitness
for purpose” of this new technology.
In order to address this question in any detail, it
is necessary to understand what the term VoIP really
means and, more importantly, to understand the aspirations
and goals of those who are considering the deployment
of VoIP. What are companies actually looking to achieve
by replacing their reliable, secure and easy to use,
familiar telecommunications technology using the Public
Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) with the implementation
of such a fundamentally different, and complex new
technology.
What is VoIP?
One explanation of VoIP, is the routing of voice conversations
over the internet enabling people to benefit from free-of-charge
calls between one site and another when connected via
a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The voice and data
flows over a general-purpose packet-switched network,
instead of traditional dedicated, circuit switched
voice transmission lines. Put another way, it is the
transmission of voice calls by converting speech into
data packets and, instead of using conventional dedicated
telephone circuits to transmit either analogue or digital
signals over copper or, more recently, fibre cables,
it uses a data network, using the same “cables”,
to transmit the speech data packets by effectively “sharing” the
available capacity of the data network with the transmission
of all other forms of data.
It should also be made clear however, that contrary
to popular belief, VoIP is not one single application
involving the cheap or free passage of voice calls
over the Internet. There are, in fact, two very different
applications of VoIP. The first, appropriately known
as “IP Telephony”, delivers all inter-company
calls made between any number of different offices
or “sites” that have all been linked together
by the company’s data network, comprising Local
Area Network (LAN); Wide Area Network (Wan); or Global
Area network (GAN); using a Virtual Private Network
(VPN). This effectively provides a single route to
deliver both voice and data known as “Convergence”.
Such an installation being implemented as part of dedicated,
individual company owned, solution and protected from
the vagaries of the hackers, worm and virus writers
by the company’s sophisticated firewalls and
security policies. True IP Telephony is now rapidly “coming
of age” and is being deployed ever more successfully
by an increasing number of companies, both large and
small who wish to take advantage of benefits of true
convergence technologies.
The second application of VoIP, referred to as Internet
Telephony is the delivery of phone calls over the public
Internet – and, as such, is far less reliable
in that, whilst the technology used for sending voice
calls over a data network remains the same, the medium
over which it is carried is no longer a controlled,
dedicated network used in IP Telephony. It now travels
over the public Internet where “bandwidth” is
at a premium being fought over by any number of users.
A simple analogy is the comparison between the use
of the main M6 motorway and the new M6 toll road with
the latter being used as a privately owned motorway
for the benefit of a single company’s employees.
In this analogy, IP Telephony uses the “private” M6
toll road where you pay extra to ensure that you have
sufficient available bandwidth for your combined voice
and data systems to function with the speed, performance
and reliability that you business processes require – allowing,
say, a Ferrari sports car to fully exploit its power
and speed over an un-congested road system whereas
the public Internet is the main M6 motorway where sometimes
the traffic is light when you can travel at higher
speeds, but often heavy usage slows everything down,
sometimes to a standstill, and over which you have
absolutely no control. Consequently the use of Internet
Telephony remains in the “not guaranteed” sector
and as a result its effective use in business today
relies on the technical advancement and “bandwidth” of
Broadband technologies provided by the carriers and
Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Can the deployment of VoIP benefit my company?
As explained
in the opening paragraphs of this article, the answer
to this question very much depends on
the nature of a specific company’s business.
If you have a number of disparate offices where voice
and data communications between the respective offices
is reasonably high then the principle of deploying
a converged IP Telephony solution will probably provide
your company with some very significant benefits.
However, one risk which is often overlooked when
deploying a complex VoIP solution is contingency
planning for when your VoIP phone system fails. We
have become complacent with the inherent stability
and reliability of our traditional telephone systems.
Now with a new breed of IP telephone systems being
promoted by, sometimes, over zealous sales personnel
it is important to understand the chain of dependencies
that a VoIP telephone solution relies upon.
A conventional phone system failure is simple to
resolve, The fault will be either be a failed connection
to site, a faulty PABX, or a power outage, all easily
identified and planned for. In contrast a failure
of a VoIP telephone system could be due to a fault
or miss-configuration caused by any number of reasons
too numerous to list in this article.
Furthermore, some IT managers are under the misconception
that a VoIP solution allows their staff to simply
unplug their phones (metaphorically or physically)
and move to the local internet café or plug
in at home. The reality is far from the truth. A
VoIP phone system has a far greater scope for failure
than a conventional phone system. Indeed most IT
departments don’t have the equipment or skills
to fault-find or resolve a major problem in a realistic
period of time.
So…..before embarking on an expensive upgrade
to embrace VoIP think carefully about how you are
going to support and maintain your new technology
when you turn up for work one morning only to find
that your combined voice and data network isn’t
working.
Will the deployment of VoIP save
me money?
In the first instance, most certainly not
as it will no doubt be necessary to upgrade you data
network
to accommodate the effective and reliable use of
a VoIP solution. Then there comes the significant
costs associated with changing to all IP handsets,
IP enabled PBX etc. etc. Consequently, the implementation
of a VoIP solution should be seen as an investment – not
so much to “save you money on the cost of calls” – which
continue to reduce through competition in the carrier
Network but to enjoy many of the benefits available
through use of a converged solution. But as highlighted
in the answer to the previous question, do you have
access to the necessary resource and expertise to
support a complex new technology and if not what
will be the cost to your business of procuring /
out-sourcing this vital resource.
And when considering the argument that the deployment
of VoIP provides significant cost savings, just stop
and ask yourself how much money would your company
lose if you lost your ability to communicate with
your customers and suppliers (losing both voice and
data as is the case with a VoIP solution) for an
hour? a day?, longer? through a VoIP systems failure,
and how you would ensure its timely resolution.
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