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Voice over IP (VoIP) and IP telephony (IPT) can create significant advantages for a company’s voice network, including cost savings, productivity increases and workforce mobility. As a result, a rapidly increasing number of companies are deploying or considering this technology. In fact, according to one recent survey, nearly 70% of U.S. companies have installed VoIP or plan to do so in the coming months.

As companies migrate to VoIP, however, the challenges of ensuring the reliability and quality of services increase substantially. This is because organizations need to manage legacy, hybrid and IPT environments during the migration period. The issue is not just about troubleshooting either-it is about making sure there is enough capacity in the network, that the quality of calls is above customer expectations and that there is a balance between service availability and cost.

The need for management and monitoring tools for this converged environment is paramount, but a clear understanding of the current environment, continuous voice quality assessments, and planning for new application bandwidth can ensure a successful migration to VoIP.

Although many IT departments recognize the need to manage bandwidth utilization, most organizations, when asked about pre-deployment assessments, either rely on their IPT vendor or fail to do one altogether. Understanding the current environment will provide insight into how customers are using the existing phone system.

Tip #1: The first step in migrating to VoIP has nothing to do with your IP infrastructure.

Adding voice traffic to an enterprise IP data network greatly increases bandwidth and service requirements. To do it right, you need to figure out where upgrades are needed and how much additional bandwidth will be required. Best practice in this regard is to do a predeployment assessment of your IP network. To be meaningful, this assessment should be carried out across your entire enterprise network to ensure integrity of the entire transport system.

Along with this assessment, a baseline for your legacy voice environment should be established–the only way to know what impact adding voice to your IP network will have is to first understand how your legacy voice network is being used today. For example, how many calls go from building to building? What are peak usage times? Does your dial plan support five-digit dialing or do employees dial 10-digit numbers to call other buildings? All of this information will tell you what your actual traffic patterns are.

To really understand traffic patterns, you need to get good information from the PBX that details busy hour traffic for each trunk group for at least a few weeks. Ideally, this is an exercise that should be done months in advance of any VoIP migration, as part of normal capacity planning. This information is available on your enterprise voice switch and there are tools to automate collection of this information.

Grade of service should also be calculated to determine the availability and quality of service to callers. Results from these exercises can be used to determine bandwidth requirements to carry voice traffic on the IP network.

During the VoIP or IPT pilot, many companies measure voice quality on a one-time basis. Voice quality issues are a constant in an ever-changing network. As you add new applications, roll out additional IP telephony equipment or make adjustments to hardware in the network, voice quality will be affected.

Tip #2: Do not wait for end-users to complain before addressing voice quality issues.

Real-time, end-to-end monitoring and reporting on voice quality is an ongoing requirement for good voice service. Providing “toll quality” VoIP is paramount, and to do that you need to measure voice quality by the same standards that it has typically been measured.

Mean opinion score (MOS) is an estimate of call quality that has been used in the telephone industry for years. Analytical techniques are now available so that MOS estimation can be included in your VoIP management solution. MOS calculation provides ongoing monitoring of call quality so that problems can be addressed when voice quality starts to degrade, before users even detect it.

MOS is also useful in troubleshooting and in capacity planning as you anticipate increases in call volume over time. Be sure to include ongoing voice-quality measurement capabilities in your VoIP deployment plans.

Will your company want to deploy new applications like unified messaging or conferencing and collaboration? Many of these applications are available today to increase user productivity and enhance communication between customers, suppliers and employees.

Tip #3: Avoid impacting voice service when adding new applications to your IP network.

One of the benefits of deploying VoIP is the flexibility to add new applications–like unified messaging, video and other technologies–over the IP network in a more integrated fashion. As you add new applications, however, understanding the impact on bandwidth utilization is critical. The last thing you want is a lot of angry users complaining about call quality because you have just rolled out an instant-messaging application.

For this reason, ongoing capacity planning becomes a critical component to the network-management strategy. Along with adding voice and collaboration applications to the network, business applications such as SAP and other contact center applications critical to the enterprise need to be monitored. Understanding application usage down to the user level becomes even more critical. Look for tools that can help you understand bandwidth utilization by application, monitor class-of-service policies and help with troubleshooting application usage.

Deploying VoIP or IPT requires continuous monitoring, as well as careful planning. A successful deployment is assured when pre-deployment baselining and assessments are conducted for existing voice and data networks. Information gathered from the assessment is the foundation for ongoing performance measurements required to ensure reliable voice quality. Continuous monitoring, including recognizing the requirements for new applications, will ensure that the business goals promised with IPT and VoIP will be recognized.

FIRM DIVES INTO VOIP

General Pool & Spa, a wholesale distributor of swimming pool and spa supplies based in Rancho Cordova, Calif., was in an enviable, yet compromised position. The company enjoyed a large volume of incoming sales calls, spread out over several locations, but in some offices the sales reps might be swamped, while in others the reps could be sitting idle for far too much of the day.

“Last year, we couldn’t keep up with the incoming calls we were getting at our most populated locations,” says Joe Ragan, chief information officer for General Pool & Spa. “We had people scrambling to fulfill customer requests at some offices, while other offices were less busy. We looked to centralized technology as a solution to meeting our goal of total customer satisfaction.”

The company found that solution with an Internet protocol system from SOS, a Rocklin, Calif., company that provides voice, data and telephone management services for small and mid-sized businesses. The result? One big office that covers a large area to catch the rollover calls and automatically route them to the next available sales person in any of the offices.

“The IP telephony implementation easily paid for itself within 12 months,” says Ragan. “We could easily upgrade the system with new Cisco routers and switches on a Citrix environment for about the same amount of money we would’ve spent upgrading our existing phone system.

“By converging voice, data and business processes into one system, we have optimized our customer service performance, retained profitable customers and captured revenue opportunities that may previously have slipped between the cracks. Addition ally, we plan to use the converged system to up-sell, cross-sell and personalize services for recurring revenue opportunities.”

The pool supplier explored solutions by other VoIP players before selecting SOS because of its previous experience designing and implementing IP telephony solutions. SOS recommended the Cisco AWID solution, which includes an IP telephone system, an automated attendant, unified messaging, an IP contact center and a highspeed data network.

“Interconnections between branches are now seamless, the service is centrally located and all branche stap into it,” explains Ragan. “Most importantly, all routers and switches can handle the traffic levels. This single phone system practically manages itself. It ensures enhanced customer service, saves us money and eliminates our reliance on various system integrators.”

When General Pool & Spa opened a new branch in Nevada, it hired only one customer service rep, rather than the two or three who would have been needed previously. When a customer calls, she immediately reaches a customer service rep who can bring up the account, take the information, place the order or handle the inquiry. The system easily transfers customer queries through all branches with no loss of quality.

“We have been able to literally redeploy our existing group without moving the customer service reps anywhere,” says Ragan. “We are up to seven branches now, and have limitless options to tap into as we grow. We can hire the best talent anywhere in the country and easily integrate them into our system.

“At the same time,” he adds, “we can do the important task of evaluation: measuring the effectiveness, order numbers taken, number of phone calls received. Managing off-site is no longer a big deal, and we’re truly unlimited by geographical boundaries.”

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Susan Andersen is director of product marketing for CA, Islandia, N.Y.