WHY MIGRATE TO IP TELEPHONY?
More and more organisations are embracing IP. While cost reduction and ease of network maintenance are good reasons to migrate to IP, the true value lies with converged applications offering improved productivity, enhanced customer experience and new sources of revenue.
Reduced Costs
Implementing IP Communications can bring significant cost efficiencies, particularly in:
- Network consolidation. Replacing voice and data networks by a single merged network, lowers costs for equipment and administration.
- Telephony costs. Companies can reduce or even eliminate their leased tie lines and long-distance charges for campus-to-campus calls.
- Physical Moves, Adds, and Changes.MACs are costly both in terms of IT resources and time. A converged network has the advantage of centralized administration that can make virtual MACs a time-saving reality.
- Unified communication applications. These applications free employees from having to monitor multiple applications for messages, and increases availability to customers and others.
Consolidated infrastructure
As technologies evolve, the responsibility of maintaining separate voice and data networks brings with it increasing challenges, and companies are beginning to look for ways to simplify and make their infrastructure more efficient. Network devices grow ever more complex, as does the support underlying them. Converged networks allow companies to put all their devices, voice and data, on one network. Administration is subsequently made easier, as configurations, upgrades and changes can now be done on a centralized basis without the need to physically visit campuses or machines.
Improved productivity
Probably the best reason for implementing IP Telephony is the benefit of increased productivity via integrated applications. Being able to access unified messaging -- e-mail, voice mail and faxes -- instantly without location dependence frees up employees to become more available to their customers and colleagues, as well as accomplish more tasks in a shorter amount of time. Telecommuters who utilize softphones can make calls from their office phone extension, even though they are away from the office. Customers also benefit from the enhanced accessibility and service that such integrated applications afford. Whatever the application, IP Communications can provide an advantage to companies looking for a competitive edge.
How to get started
While IP Communications may be a new technology that results in a major simplification of your network, the migration path need not be dramatic. Depending on your specific business requirements, TDM elements of a hybrid system, may still provide value and reliability, and can be incorporated into an IP Communications framework. Hence, we advocate an “evolution,” rather than a “revolution,” approach to migration. Hybrid IP systems can be integrated into your existing TDM network, so that you can start taking advantage of IP Communication benefits like enhanced productivity. Gradually, we can help you move towards a hybrid or pure-IP network. NEC Philips Unified Solutions can partner with you to make your technology solution start producing real returns.
