VOIP – WHAT IS IT?

This is a great question; one that if answered from beginning to end could find us here until next month’s presentation!

For the sake of time and to focus on my agenda for tonight, I will stick to a few basic concepts and uses of VOIP.

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) — How Does This Enter the Picture?

Although “VOIP” is often used to refer to IP Telephony as described below, it also refers to using the public Internet to carry voice traffic. When the public Internet is used, you (the user) don’t have the same control over the Quality of Service as you do over your own network. Therefore it is more likely that the voice quality over the Internet could suffer compared to that of your private network.

However, if properly designed with today’s technologies, the voice quality over the public internet is much better than it used to be.

IS VOIP THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR MY BUSINESS?

The answer to this is…”The only way to tell is to really do your homework and research, focus on your business needs and take the following things into consideration:

Truly understand VOIP…(for Business) What it’s advantages are over your current

solutions What are the disadvantages Are there any reliability issues

What steps need to be taken to ensure 100% reliability for my business-We cannot stress this enough; if it is not going to be reliable and you do not have service level agreements (SLA) or guarantees from the providers or equipment, then maybe it is not a good choice.

Assess your Business Technology Needs Current Telephony Solutions (type of phone

equipment, features used and features needed, ease of upgrades etc)

Do you have needs to connect other offices or people? This is usually a determining factor whether VoIP is going to be beneficial for your business.

What does it cost to communicate with these offices or people today? This most always has to be done to truly provide an analysis on whether a total VoIP solution is right for your business or possibly VoIP in only the areas needed. This is a practical approach and one we recommend.

FIND OTHER BUSINESSES LIKE YOURS (MORE THAN ONE) THAT HAVE NOT ONLY IMPLEMENTED VOIP (SUCCESSFUL OR NOT) BUT HAVE DONE SO AND TRULY EXPERIENCED A MAJOR ADVANTAGE OR COST SAVINGS---THEY ARE OUT THERE.

Ask yourself and your company…What would this technology/features REALLY do for your bottom line?

Will it decrease costs? If so, how much? What will we have to spend to not only

implement VOIP…BUT MAKE IT 100% AS RELIABLE OR BETTER THAN our solution today? Then weigh the advantages of cost savings. Once again we feel this is a practical approach to determine whether or not VoIP is right for your business.

Will this VOIP increase productivity? – A practical approach once again.

Will this VOIP better our clients experience with us?

And how…it is easy to think about features and listen to them explained how they may help with this. We recommend

Again this is another place to step back and truly measure whether this makes sense for your business in all aspects. In many cases it will…but in some cases it may not!

The point we try to focus on is that we do not recommend any business make a choice to move forward to VOIP without taking these few simple “BUSINESS CRITICAL” questions into consideration and truly assessing them. Remember this is your business, this is your business communications, this is how you communicate with you clients and your clients communicate with you. Yes technology is changing and making it more flexible, cost effective and with features we never thought possible. This does not mean that the core reasons for any technology or equipment purchase should be left out.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT SOLUTION FOR YOUR BUSINESS AND YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS! It can be very simple with a little work in the pre-planning stages.

You likely would not introduce up a new line of product without going through a similar process; you probably would not ever hire a new employee without FULLY assessing whether this person fits your company’s needs, business model, and will be an asset to the company for time to come.

This technology (or any for that matter) should be looked at just the same.

Start with an understanding of the technology Match that with your business needs and current solutions Verify it makes financial sense for the organization Then make a decision to move forward with the best solution

for your company…TODAY and TOMORROW

2. “COST SAVINGS” – WHERE ARE THEY?

a) The fact is VOIP (FOR BUSINESS) is not free. No matter how you do it (IP-PBX – IP Private Network connecting locations etc), there is a cost somewhere and especially if it is to be done right.

In some cases after a true analysis is done (part of which described previously) we have seen businesses realize there may be minimal or NO true cost savings in switching to VoIP.

After a practical approach was taken there were no substantive reasons for their business to implement VoIP. Rather during the same analysis many businesses find that they can experience the value of VoIP in other types of services or levels allowing them to see benefits and sometimes cost savings through these means.

b) When we hear people refer to “ALL THE COST SAVINGS, you find with VOIP”, we sometimes feel as though they must be referring to “ALL THE COST SAVINGS” under an assumption that every business already has this very large, very complex network of voice connectivity between sites (Frame Relay, P2P, ATM, Centrix, Tie Lines etc)

Which…YES, if that is the case they could very well see substantial cost savings by moving to a VOIP network solution (VoIP, MPLS, VPN, Any type of secure private network all with QOS Service Level guarantees from providers that provide them). This type of service is very important and we will spend some time focusing on this later in the presentation

c) The fact is what we see (more and more) are clients who believe that by switching to some form of VoIP they will immediately experience astonishing cost savings. This is just not always true!When you begin to connect multiple sites with remote people and create an infrastructure that was not previously there and one that will support this kind of network. IT COSTS MONEY!

No matter how you look at it…VoIP is not the magical voice savior who defends us against bad providers who make us pay to communicate today.

While doing research and trying to prepare for this presentation I used the internet to see if I could find some additional information about VoIP that could shed some light on my focus…I quickly began to feel as though regular phone service was “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS…GET YOUR VoIP NOW BECAUSE PRETTY SOON YOU JUST WON’T BE ABLE TO!” It occurred to me that many clients I’ve sat with over the years who had this insatiable need to move to VoIP had probably gotten their source of information from the same places. Most of which appeared to be very credible sources.

It was harder for me to find any information on VoIP change or implementation involving the proper way to accomplish this than to find very misleading information that does not coincide with the views shared by many in the industry.

No matter how “low cost” VOIP is…No matter how easy it is for you to manage once implemented…if you do not have your offices or people connected through some sort of network now (and switch to VoIP type network tomorrow) you could very well end up spending more than you do today.

AGAIN DO YOUR HOMEWORK AND BE SMART FOR BUSINESS! YOU MAY EASILY FIND WAYS TO SAVE MONEY BUT DO IT WITH A PRACTICAL APPROACH!

3. FEATURES ARE COOL…BUT RELIABILITY IS COOLER!

a) Remember to focus on what makes sense for the business.We all love features!!I have more gadgets than most people would ever need – They look cool…I play with them for bit and then they sit and rarely (if ever) get used again.

Admittedly I recognize this is not practical; and thankfully this is not the approach I take for my business. This is also not the approach we recommend our clients take either.

b) I have sold systems and services to businesses for some time now and I have seen a very common thing happen with the majority of them…

During a long process of selection, most companies want to see and hear about features, features and more features.

During a long implementation and training we would be so excited about the features and ready to show the “end users” or employees how “cool” they are…Then BOOM!

It never failed; most did not have any interest or even understand half of what was just purchased to make them more productive “and cool”

Me, liking the coolness of technology so much often wondered…

“How could you not be interested in this Cool 500 button multi-color display phone that rings your house, your office, your cell phone, your neighbors…? (you get the picture) oh and you can pick it up and take it across the world with you when you go on vacation to…let’s say…India to find another job in a Call Center perhaps?” It just is not practical sometimes.

c) The typical end user does not want to change the way they used their phone or check voicemail. Many even have a hard time trying to take a different route to the office in the morning.

We sometimes have a hard time excepting that; it is the case though more times than not. Many times, there are ways to avoid implementing changes that the end user just will not use. At the same time getting the same effects. If you properly plan for your needs it may help eliminate spending money on features and focus on solutions.

d) If you are being pitched (Equipment or Services) and all you hear is Features, Features, and Features – then reliability is probably not the focus of their product or services.

If you ask the right questions and dig a little; you will probably find most, (if not all) of the same features in a very reliable solution. (If you are like me and must have these features)

4. GAMBLE WITH QUALITY… AND YOU GAMBLE WITH YOUR BUSINESS!

a. All of your Tier I providers (AT&T, Qwest, Nuvox, Sprint and more) today offer a level of services that provide some of these VOIP technologies, lower costs, increased features, remote capabilities, increased productivity and better the client experience.

b. Not to mention, much more control than ever before. Basically, there are many of the same promises of the smaller level VOIP gateway providers but these carriers are bringing 100% reliable backbone and Infrastructure at much lower rates.

This should be part of your true focus on VOIP reliability. These services have evolved and continue to evolve to provide levels of service and quality matched to that of the PSTN or TDM networks. You need this kind of reliability for your business communications.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT SERVICE PROVIDER

a) During your research to find if VOIP (for Business) is suited for your company. It is just vital today (if not more so) who provides your Voice/Data/LD/Video Services as it was during your last change in technology.

b) Whether it is local IP T1/PRI services or a 100 site MPLS voice network. THIS PLAYS A CRITICAL ROLE IN RELIABILITY!

c) With the advancements in these technologies and the levels of Reliability, it is safe to say (in Many cases) at the Service Provider level is where we recommend organizations start. We can see if they can utilize IP, lower costs on services and equipment infrastructure, and increase their capabilities in some case 2 times what they are able to do today.

INTRO

I would like to start by saying although there are many types of VoIP; I intend to focus tonight only on business class VoIP, really dive into the importance of reliability and how we recommend taking a practical “business needs” approach to whether or not VoIP is truly a good choice for your business.

With proper education and a focus on business needs, and practical solutions you can ensure your company makes the right choices when considering voice over IP in any form of the technology!