IP Voice Solutions: Not Just Cheap Calls

No other technology, perhaps, has altered the way enterprises communicate and
do business the way IP has. While IP is altering the way IT applications are
deployed and are used in business organizations, the revolution has largely
lived in the closet since the beginning of this decade-when it entered an era
of hype.

For long only the amateurs and the men on the street loved it for it helped
them bypass the traditional system that they thought was too overbearing (read:
expensive). Business organizations stayed away from it as they thought the
technology wasn't mature enough to meet their benchmarks of quality
performance and reliability. However, that was then. Now, thanks to new
advancements in technology including its ability to guarantee quality of service
and the explosive growth in broadband access in the past couple of years, IP has
been gaining significant traction in the business community.

While the new converts to the virtues of IP may consider it just an enabler
of cheap long distance voice calls, IP is much more than that. There are an
array of IP solutions that not only alter the way businesses communicate, but
also the way they conduct business. The most significant impact that all these
solutions have had is on enterprise mobility. Thanks to the innumerable features
and functionalities that IP solutions offer today, their inherent flexibility
and the open nature of the technology, business workers can be much more mobile.

It's a fact that voice overwhelmingly dominates the IP landscape with an
array of solutions like hosted IP Centrex, IP-enabled PBX, IP-PBX solutions that
have gained traction in the past couple of years. More recently, solutions like
voice-enabled Instant Messaging clients like Skype and Yahoo have also emerged
as powerful business tools. No doubt as the demand of such solutions has grown,
hundreds of service providers, equipment vendors and solution providers have
entered the market.

Value Add

IP-PBX Solutions: IP-PBX facilitates the integration of voice and data
networks within an enterprise making them an attractive option. It is at the
centre of enterprise convergence that's driving new revolution at workplaces.
IP PBX solutions have matured considerably in the past few years and come with
hundreds of features and value-additions which, if used wisely, can
revolutionize an enterprise's business as well. In fact, IP-PBX has never been
so feature rich. Features such as unified messaging, voicemail, direct inward
dialing, Web-based configuration and profile management, personalized and system
wide speed dialing, personalized greetings, customized application binding, IP
conferencing etc are now readily available on IP-PBX solutions. Savings on
communication costs and enhanced flexibility to manage adds, moves and changes
apart, it is the value additions that IP-PBX brings to business that's more
noteworthy. For instance, business organizations including small and medium
businesses can look forward to integrating their PBX with their IT
infrastructure to implement a powerful customer relationship management system.
In other words, IP-PBX is not just about convergence of voice and data networks
but also about convergence of applications. In fact, such integration of
business applications with PBX switches is increasingly becoming popular.

An interesting recent development has been the launch of a strategic
Innovation Communications Alliance by Microsoft and Nortel Networks that
essentially aimed at integrating Microsoft business applications in Nortel's
IP PBX. The two already have collaboration efforts in place, such as integration
of live communications with instant messaging (IM) and presence capabilities
tied to a Nortel PBX system. The Microsoft- Nortel alliance can be termed as a
convergence of desktop and telephony-something that's been made possible by
IP.

Outsourced Voice

IP Centrex: Don't want to own and manage your own IP PBX? Then the best
option for you is to look for a telecommunication service provider who can own
and manage it for you. In the past few years a number of telecommunications
service providers across the world have launched IP based centrex services. Even
though, IP centrex is still to find any significant traction in India, the
service has been growing in many parts of the world including Asia. IP Centrex
is a set of specialized business solutions (primarily, but not exclusively, for
voice service) where the switch providing the call control and service logic
functions is owned and operated by a telecom service provider and is located on
the service provider's premises. Also called hosted PBX, IP Centrex is popular
because it frees an enterprise from the headache of owning and maintaining a PBX
switch. They only pay for the service they use.

Centrex is an old system that was born in the PSTN era itself. However, the
PSTN centrex didn't offer many of the benefits that IP centrex offers. For
instance, IP centrex is all about convergence. While IP Centrex allows an
enterprise to combine its existing solutions for voice and data into a single
network, PSTN Centrex required separate networks for voice and data. Another
major benefit offered by IP centrex is provisioning. New lines can be added or
deployed at new locations without any delay and hassles. All this naturally not
only saves costs for an enterprise but also relieves it of all solutions
management issues.

Interestingly, the integration of IP-PBX with the computer system of
enterprises can be used to build more effective customer relationship management
solutions.

Great Collaboration Tools

Voice-enabled IMS: Instant messaging started as a favorite pastime of
employees bored at their workplaces. But with new advanced features including
those that make voice and even video communication possible at the click of a
mouse, instant messaging solutions are turning out to be great productivity
enhancement tools. In fact, now instant messaging is emerging as the number one
corporate communication tool and is very much likely to leave behind corporate
telephony and email.

Realizing its growing popularity vendors are launching IM tools that are more
secure and are built to meet critical business communication benchmarks. For
instance, AOL has launched an instant messaging tool for business called AIM
Pro. It also integrates with Microsoft Outlook, encrypts and scans messages and
links to conferencing services from WebEx Communications and even desktop
sharing capabilities. Similarly, IBM's soon to be launched IM solution 7.5
will have built in VoIP, and can be integrated with Outlook, Office, and
SharePoint. It can also be connected to Blackberries and Windows Mobile devices.

IM could not have become so feature-rich and business user-friendly without
the advent of IP. Services like desktop sharing are being made possible thanks
to growing maturity of IP as a technology.
Desktop sharing lets users share their desktops with other users in other
locations. While the technology has been there for some time, it's become more
efficient because of advancements in IP.

But how are all these making enterprises more mobile?
It's being done in two ways. One, thanks to the flexibility offered by
IP, no applications are tied to desktops or desk phones; they can be accessed
from anywhere. Two, enterprises can directly and more effectively link moves,
add applications or functionalities and make changes in their system to suit
their business dynamics.

IP is at the heart of the convergence of IT and telecommunications that's
beginning to happen at many businesses. This convergence is helping businesses
not just become more mobile, it is helping them become more agile, enhance their
productivity and serve customers more efficiently. For now, this may be true
only for large organizations with the wherewithal to invest in advanced IP
technologies. However, it goes without saying that given the tendency of IP to
drive down the cost of ownership of technologies at regular intervals, it would
not take much time before the phenomenon overwhelms even the small businesses.

Ravi Shekhar Pandey

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in