IP Telephony
IP Telephony
Internet Protocol Telephony (IPT) has many benefits and is now an affordable and realistic solution not just for large dispersed, multisite organisations but also for Small and Medium Businesses. With many organisations wanting to encompass field staff, home workers and branch offices into their core network for both voice and data, IP Telephony deployments are on the rise and as more and more IP applications are developed, IP telephony will become the norm.
South West Communications have wide ranging expertise in the design and deployment of converged system solutions.
The benefits of running voice over IP (VoIP) can be broadly summarised as follows:
In a single site environment:
- Reduced LAN infrastructure costs – dual LAN ports in digital handsets mean less cabling
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Simplified Moves, Adds and Changes - a single cabling infrastructure and “plug and play” configuration means easier administration, quicker deployment, less trouble shooting, less technical hitches and therefore reduced management overhead costs
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Totally scalable and flexible
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Integrate home workers seamlessly via broadband connectivity
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Integrate remote workers via WiFi Hotspot access
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Universal access – just need an IP connection
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Improved on site mobility with Hotdesking and voice over WiFi
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One number concept - find me/follow me with Nomadic working
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Deployment of “informal” contact centers
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Open standards ensure new services can be introduced quickly and efficiently and accessible to all
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Enhanced applications and functionality including:
- Integrate voice with other applications (e.g. email) - respond to emails with voice and vice versa, text to speech translation, etc
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Softphone applications on PC’s, XDA’s, mobiles, etc
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Hotdesking
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Unified messaging
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LDAP corporate directories
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Collaborative working
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Click to call
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XML phones
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Multimedia application
In multi site environments :
- Toll (PSTN/ISDN) bypass – reduced call costs
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Reduced WAN costs – no need for separate voice circuits
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Simplified WAN infrastructure (converged voice and data) so easier to manage
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Raised feature set of branch offices to that of HQ
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Creation of more effective teams across multi site organisations
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Reduced software upgrades as common platform across all sites
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Centralised services such as voicemail, operators, call management, GSM gateways, trunks, etc so easier to manage and reduced capital costs and operating overheads
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Centralised branch management so reduced operating & administration costs
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Identical service levels across the whole organisation
Customers considering deploying voice over IP have a number of considerations to evaluate such as:-
- Is there sufficient bandwidth to support voice?
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Do the switches/routers support Quality of Service?
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Do the switches support VLAN’s
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What QOS mechanisms are used?
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Do they have power over Ethernet? And so on.