What Businesses Need to Know Before Going IP

We all know IP phone systems are different from their TDM platform predecessors. But the differences go beyond architecture: IP is unique for its accompanying operations issues, business challenges and opportunities. Jon Silverman, CTO of Minneapolis VoIP software provider Spanlink Communications Inc., says companies that understand these important distinctions fare well with IP. An excerpt from his Business Communications Review article on recognizing what makes IP unique follows. The First Step: Admit VoIP is DifferentThis goes beyond the differences between TDM and packetized voice. In many VoIP deployments, the fundamental architecture of the system is vastly different. That means support roles change, too. At least they should, if the business expects to gain any transformational benefits. Take virtualization. Migrating from a traditional TDM environment with one system per site to a virtual, VoIP-based network means the new, single system will be considerably larger – and considerably more complex. Imagine that you have 50 locations migrating from a traditional TDM environment to one virtual VoIP network. You now have one system that is 50 times as big, which changes the rules and requirements in terms of how the system is maintained, and by whom. A core IT group must be responsible for the overall integrity of the system – without relinquishing all local control, which would sacrifice efficiency. In fact, as we will see later, there’s an opportunity for an even better balance of support functions. In short, an understanding of VoIP system management is critical.Following are two examples of customers who did it right. The business benefits they have achieved have little to do with how they manage their systems. But thinking through system management did enable their success, because the right management framework was established to support the customer’s vision.500 Branches, One Contact CentreA leading domestic and international industrial supply distributor, which does most of its business over the phone, sought to upgrade from its TDM environment, consisting of multiple PBX and key systems, to a VoIP configuration. Given the geographic disparity, each branch had been acting as a communication island, with no way to transfer or queue calls between the branches and the corporate call centres. This made meeting customer service expectations difficult.For example, if a salesperson wasn’t available at the branch the customer called, the customer had no choice but to wait or call a competitor. If they did reach a salesperson and their call required special technical assistance or credit attention, they were asked to hang up and redial the technical or corporate credit contact centre to resolve the issue, and then call back to the branch to complete their order.Reports were somewhere between manual and non-existent, so no one really knew how the business was performing against key customer service metrics. Where reports did exist, they were for a specific branch’s business rather than the performance of the enterprise as a whole.Previous attempts to shift customer service to a centralized call centre had been unsuccessful. Most of the distributor’s customers are served through its 500 branch locations, each known for their expertise regarding products in specific geographic regions. VoIP became a logical next step based on the promise of virtualization, but the business also needed a local-touch model that would provide some call centre-like functionality to increase service levels and to help them capture added revenue.That wasn’t in the plans when we were introduced to this customer. Instead, they were considering a solution that would merely replace every PBX and key system at every location with its IP equivalent. In other words, they were looking at replacing technology, so that they could support it in a similar model, without understanding how the new environment could actually be used to support a better business process.It was easy to understand how a better solution could be managed. The company had always had a designated administrator at each location to make routine changes. What was missing was enterprise-wide reporting that measured operations, and routing between locations.The environment they ultimately deployed centralizes the voice system resources, including the IP-PBX, ACD, voice attendants and reporting, but virtualizes the services. Leveraging a voice gateway that resides inside the Cisco Systems Inc. routers at each location, the company eliminated a PBX at each location.Now, the central VoIP system controls all voice traffic on the network, which enables calls to be routed instantly to available resources. The company also began thinking of the branch sales representatives as call centre agents: the firm established service level agreements and began routing calls based on agent availability. In this virtualized model, calls are routed from the PSTN to the local branch, with queues to another nearby branch if service levels are exceeded.Specialized corporate call centres also are now an integral part of the system. Branch representatives can transfer to or conference in corporate resources as needed. This allows the distributor to maintain its primary competitive strength – a strong local presence – while lowering voice infrastructure costs and significantly improving customer service levels: every call is answered within three rings.Translating business goals into technical requirements saved this business from taking on a massive technology overhaul that could have resulted in limited business benefits.But the new system also required a new division of labour between corporate and branch administrators. The corporate IT group would control the management and allocation of system resources and internal configurations at the system’s core. At the same time, administrators assigned to branches and business units would have partitioned access to branch- or business unit-specific moves, adds and changes. This is sometimes called "virtual system management" or "partitioned system management."Partitioning enables the branch or business unit administrators to perform the relatively easy moves, adds, changes and deletes, to select desired services (within allowable limits), and to generate voice service reports specific to their branches or business units. Central administrators handle the complexities, but they are no longer required onsite at each branch. This allows central IT more time to focus on their business’s objectives rather than on the communications systems.Virtual system management also allowed this distributor to create and roll out the majority of its branch locations’ VoIP configurations, with a unified dial plan throughout the entire organization, over the span of eight months.Because the voice system is now a single network, regional and national managers can access customer-interaction metrics that were simply not available before, so they can make better decisions about how to manage their business. The payoffs began even before all of the locations were converted. The initial rollout of more than 400 sites was scheduled to take place over a year and a half, but when corporate managers saw reports from the first sites showing the impact that the new system had on service levels and revenues, they accelerated the project. Overall, the business benefit of the virtual system contributes millions of dollars of revenue each year.Customer as Service ProviderVirtual voice systems are similar in concept to a Centrex service, offering the full features and benefits of VoIP to smaller business or department sites. This is especially significant when an organization with many such sites faces budget constraints and limited resources, but all sites are still expected to perform at a high level. A state government is a case in point. A collection of different call centre solutions were scattered throughout the state. Outbound dialing, ACD, IVR and basic telephony services were all separate. Aside from being inefficient and unreliable, this set-up also made even basic services cost prohibitive for many of the state’s smaller government agencies.When the state sought a system upgrade, its primary business goal was to minimize capital infrastructure costs and operating expenses at the agency level.Specifically, it also sought to:leverage the existing data network and provide a shared infrastructure to reduce support costs; cost-effectively deliver e-government services, including phone, Web and email; provide all state agencies with low-cost access to higher-end contact centre features, such as CTI and call recording; reduce long-distance costs. The state wanted to replace its obsolete TDM contact centre and PBX with IP-telephony call management systems, which would be deployed over its existing data network. The IT group would host the IP contact centre and IP-telephony services, maintaining the core system while still allowing autonomous sites administrative control of their own moves, adds, changes and deletes. In the end, the state hoped this approach would help to minimize infrastructure, enhance services and share costs across agencies.The state was a savvy buyer. Because it had utilized Centrex-type services in the past, the government organization understood the concept of a hosted model and knew it needed partitioned management and reporting. The goal was to take this a step further to a multi-tenant architecture to host IP communications and contact centre services for multiple state agencies. This allowed the state to treat agencies and their users, contact centres and teams as separate sets of subscribers for local control, billing and configuration.The state’s core administrative group now is focused on enterprise-level management, such as overall network dial plans, associating sites with media gateways, and provisioning phones and servers. Local agency administrators take management control of local service delivery, using standard naming conventions, dial-plan patterns and specific rules for making moves, adds, changes and deletes.The agencies have access to more robust services at a lower cost, and they control their own changes, rather than having to wait for a vendor to add a phone or change dialing privileges. The agencies also gained the ability to focus on key initiatives, such as expanding their e-government services for constituents, rather than managing their communications systems.The state’s initial tenant was its Department of Revenue, with eight geographically distributed contact centres, and 1,200 total agents and telephone users. Within the first three months, the department deployed IP services for six call centres and non-agent users in its capital city and a sizable call centre operation in a remote location. This enabled the state to eliminate the expensive ISDN, analog and other services at both sites, for annual cost savings of $100,000.Today, the state uses this virtual voice system to deliver myriad services to a vast array of agencies, locations and users in the face of limited budgets. The state continues to add agencies and their users onto the system relatively quickly and pain-free.ConclusionVoIP system management alone is not terrible, exciting or transformational. But the wrong approach will prevent enterprises and public sector institutions from transforming their businesses to maximize VoIP gains, which include lower operational costs and better customer service. Done right, VoIP system management simplifies the planning, deployment and administration of IP-telephony services, delivering numerous advantages that drive return on investment, such as:Greater reliability: Implementation of best practices and availability of critical reports ensures that the VoIP system is robust. Greater efficiency: A converged voice and data network enables better capacity planning through a centralized call resource architecture. Disparate system components can be configured through a single interface with multi-tiered administration access and faster moves, adds, changes and deletes. Lower costs: Reduces demands on IT staff resources and provides a consistent set of rules for performing configurations and change requests, reducing calls to service desks. By including a VoIP system management framework, enterprises and public institutions can reap the full capabilities of VoIP applications and positively transform service delivery to all users, groups and locations. This article is reprinted by permission of Business Communications Review (www.bcr.com).

What Businesses Need to Know Before Going IP

News | March 1, 2007

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