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All Roads Lead to IP
People Issues
WHILE VOIP BECOMES MORE popular,
some IT managers are wrestling
with the process of merging their historically
very separate voice and data communications
staffs. “Every day I feel like
firing somebody,” says a frustrated IT
manager who works at a trucking and
transportation conglomerate. She says
an ongoing effort to blend voice and
data staffs has led to frequent battles
among workers over their roles in the
combined unit.
But it can be done. “It’s working out
for us,” says David Stever, manager of
communication technology services at
PPL Services Corp., an energy utility in
Allentown, Pa. PPL started planning for
voice and data convergence about six
years ago, so it had time to sort through
problems and plan carefully, he says.
Sixty employees who formerly were
dedicated to either voice or data networks
now work together to handle all
types of communications needs in three
integrated groups: infrastructure and
planning, application design, and operations.
Donald Van Doren, president of Vanguard
Communications Corp., a consulting
firm in Morris Plains, N.J., says
the complexity of combining voice and
data staffs is a big concern. “The heritage
of data and voice guys is just different,”
he says. “It’s in the DNA.”
Van Doren says that an organizational
structure similar to PPL’s is an effective
way to start, with staffers assigned
to support the network infrastructure,
applications or devices such as phones
and PCs.
GMAC Commercial Holding
Corp. in Horsham, Pa., has adopted a
hybrid approach that relies on older
TDM switches but also provides IP
telephony capabilities configured on
top of a Multiprotocol Label Switching
service to 106 locations globally,
says CIO Niraj Patel. The annual
costs should be 5% to 10% less than
GMAC Commercial Holding’s previous
system, with last year’s savings
amounting to $120,000, he says.
But hybrid implementations are
just a temporary phase in the evolution
of IP communications. Most
new enterprise voice systems purchased
over the next several years
will be IP-based, according to ABI
Research in Oyster Bay, N.Y. The research
firm says that by 2006, 90%
of all new IP phone systems shipped
will be pure IP, not hybrids.
In most cases, corporate IT managers
are opting to install VoIP in
small pilot programs at branch offices
or new locations. (Plus, PBXs
generally have a seven- to 15-year
life, so companies often wait until
their PBX systems die before they
move to VoIP.)
“The cost of IP [telephony] is justified
only when you start something
new, not as a replacement,” says Geir
Ramleth, CIO at engineering and
construction group Bechtel Corp.
Remaining Challenges
VoIP technology is still more difficult
to implement than the vendors
would have you believe. IT managers’
top concerns include the following:
■ Management tools. VoIP requires
special tools and skills because
voice traffic is far more sensitive
than data to common problems such
as dropped or delayed packets.
■ Reliability. When an employee
picks up the phone — whether it’s
the CEO or a sales rep — he expects
a dial tone.
■ Security. Placing voice traffic on
the IP network means that VoIP
could be subject to the same sorts of
security attacks that plague today’s
data networks.
This report provides advice —
from your peers — about the costs
and benefits of IP communications,
as well as how to solve those management
and security issues.
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