IT Roadmap

Unified Communications Generates Rapid Returns

Did you know that enterprises are realizing 40-50% savings on their investments in Unified Communications as they lay the foundations for advanced collaboration?

Here’s how.  When they migrate from traditional time-division multiplexing (TDM) to new Unified Communications platforms, they are embracing a number of capabilities that deliver accelerated ROI.  According to Cisco, there are five core capabilities delivering these impressive gains. They include:

• Full IP telephony deployment: You can achieve TCO savings of 15 to 25 percent by moving site-to-site voice traffic from the costly public switched telephone network (PSTN) to the internal data network (toll bypass). The savings stem from lower operating costs, toll bypass, and the introduction of least-cost routing.


• SIP trunking: Additional TCO savings of up to 12 to 26 percent are enabled by lowering local voice connectivity costs—achieved by eliminating multiple dedicated voice lines in favor of provisioning approximately 80-percent fewer SIP voice channels to handle the concurrent sessions. The high end of the savings range can be realized for very distributed companies such as retailers, retail banks, and other companies with multiple branch-office locations.


• Intercompany media routing: This capability can drive incremental 5- to 10-percent TCO savings by routing business-to-business calls – including rich media collaboration -- over the Internet in a secure, high quality fashion.


• Session management: Enterprises can realize an additional 4- to 8- percent TCO reduction through centralized routing and VOIP management. For a relatively low initial investment, enterprises can capture savings from existing telephony assets and achieve a rapid ROI. When combined with migration to full unified communications, session management solutions deliver even greater savings.


• Mobility:  New mobility capabilities tied to Unified Communication solutions can save enterprises 13 to 20 percent on rapidly rising mobile costs. These solutions reduce airtime charges, lower roaming costs with single number reach, and enable easier dialing and lower costs for international calls.

Given the challenging demands associated with today’s economy, enterprises of all kinds are under pressure to drive out costs and drive up efficiencies. They also are seeking ways to enable collaboration that will enhance agility and deliver a competitive advantage. What’s clear is that these gains are now within reach. To learn more about how Cisco is delivering on this promise, download this white paper.

IP Telephony is More Reliable Than You Think

Just how dependable are Cisco voice over IP solutions?  This uncertainty is why many people get concerned when they find out they will be using a phone that is attached to the data network. 

These concerns are rooted in several sources.

• Historic network performance – computer networks in general have the persona of being somewhat reliable.  Many consider the performance of an Internet connection as what they could expect of a new IP phone system. It’s the “somewhat reliable” that causes concern.


• Perceived network performance/PC performance – websites, applications or the PC appear to be sluggish at times.  While this could be due to any number of factors, to the typical end user, this is the network.


• Reliable phone systems – there is no doubt the telecommunications industry has created traditional phone systems that are extremely reliable. This minimizes the need to switch because they don’t understand the benefits beyond dial tone.

There is an industry joke that if a network engineer maintains a data network with 95% uptime, he is a hero.  If a telecommunications engineer maintains a telephone network with 95% uptime, he is fired! 

However, given the advancements that Cisco has made in this technology space, systems can now be designed and configured to provide better reliability than traditional phone systems.  The very basic concept of IP telephony allows for tremendous flexibility, scalability, and more importantly, reliability. 

Traditional phone systems have all the functionality built into the PBXs – configuration, call processing, call routing, voicemail, PSTN connectivity, and handset connectivity – to name a few.  IP telephony breaks these functions out into separate devices that can be dispersed throughout the network, as well as duplicated to provide redundancy.  Now you can have a voice gateway with PSTN connection in 2 offices and provide backup PSTN connectivity to each site or have call processors in the 2 locations to provide backup call processing and call routing to ensure that you always have the ability to send and receive phone calls.

Aside from utilizing redundant equipment, most recent voice server applications use the concept of active and in-active partitions.  This now allows for more efficient upgrading of the application but also a fall-back plan if the new upgrade doesn't perform as expected – all with minimal downtime (recall that we are using redundant equipment as well!)

Cisco’s latest development has been to move the voice application servers to a virtual environment.  This not only reduces operating cost, but also provides a robust platform for streamlining the deployment of voice application servers making the switch from a traditional telephone system easier than ever..

So what are you waiting for?  Find out how your company can benefit from Cisco Unified Communications today!

Today's post written by: Nathan Richie, boice.net Network Consultant