Voice over IP A Discussion of Business and IT Challenges

The VoIP Challenges

As sexy as VoIP may sound, the reality is that IP Telephony comes with its own set of challenges. These include, but are not limited to technology, infrastructure, security, governance, and management related challenges. The Technology Challenge IP telephony is relatively a new technology. Organizations who are considering VoIP in their IT and Business strategy must weigh the possibility of a disastrous and poorly designed VoIP solution against its promising new productive and useful features and significant monetary savings. A successful VoIP implementation requires a very careful study, design, and implementation. Additionally, maintenance of a VoIP system also requires highly comprehensive and sophisticated in-demand skill sets which can be very expensive. According to a quarterly index maintained by Footepartners.com, VoIP ranked No.1 as the hottest skill among 140 different IT skills and professions. (See Appendix A) Furthermore, the VoIP standards are still evolving. Microsoft has shipped Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) possibly leading to an industry standard. While Cisco Systems, a market leader in IP telephony, is pushing Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) as its standard. However, all other carriers have long standardized on H.323 protocol for transporting voice over data network. While some vendors support multi-protocol integration, they are not compatible will all VoIP systems. Organizations investing in this fairly young technology will always run a risk of purchasing non-industry standard application. Companies who have implemented IP telephony also invest in post-implementation support and maintenance. They must invest in employee training, hardware and software upgrades, and vendor support agreements. A proper ROI analysis must include these costs as they reflect a more realistic real world scenario.