I f it is good enough for users as diverse as Rod Stewart and
one of the newest NHS hospitals in London, VoIP is clearly catching
on. Husky-voiced rock singer Stewart has upgraded to an IP-based
telephony system for himself and his staff at his base in
England.
He may be one of the more high-profile users to move from a
traditional telephone network to internet-based telephony, but many
other organisations are now looking at the potential benefits of
the technology.
Voice over IP has been around for a while, but its uptake has been
held back by fears about the quality and reliability of running
voice calls in the same way as data, over a packetised digital
network. Now, though, some of those quality issues have been
tackled and the benefits of VoIP, particularly the promise of lower
call costs, are beginning to attract a growing number of
organisations of all sizes.
The basic premise of VoIP is simple: rather than using a
dedicated telephony network, voice calls are carried over existing
data networks, using Internet Protocol. The concept may be
straightforward, but it has proved much tougher to put into
practice, mainly because of the different demands that voice and
data make on the underlying network.
The advantages of VoIP over traditional telephony include:
- Free inter-office calls
- Lower maintenance costs, because only a single, converged
network has to be looked after, rather than two separate
networks
- Lower costs and greater flexibility when moving staff around
within offices - this is a particular advantage for organisations
running call centres or project teams
- The ability to provide the same features, such as voicemail,
for all staff on the IP network, whether they are working in head
office, a branch office, or at home.
But there are drawbacks with VoIP. Call quality remains a
concern, although it has certainly improved since the early days of
VoIP. "Quality of service can be an issue, but 95% to 97% of calls
are fine," says Anthony Smith, IT manager at the Yorkshire
Investment Group, which has implemented VoIP. "It might not be
perfect for calling our biggest, newest prospect, but for
everything else, it is good enough."
When implementing VoIP, it is important to clarify what exactly is
included. One supplier in the US faces a possible lawsuit in Texas
for allegedly not making it clear to customers that its IP-based
telephony system would not include guaranteed access to emergency
services. It is also important to ensure that the underlying IP
network is in good order to support voice calls. This may require
additional work on the network because voice calls are highly
sensitive, unlike many data applications, such as e-mail.
Concerns have also been raised about security, because once voice
calls run over an IP-network, they are prone to the same risks as
any other application, including denial of service attacks or
eavesdropping. Protecting voice calls requires as much care as
protecting any other IP-based applications, but is not always
something buyers think about.
Overall, an increasing number of organisations are showing interest
in VoIP and IP telephony. Technically, there are a number of
options for companies looking to move into the world of VoIP. The
common factor is that the underlying network will be digitally
packetised, but within this there are various choices.
At one end of the spectrum lies pure IP telephony (Pipt), where
every part of the telephony system is IP-based, from software-based
PBXs and IP-based voice applications to IP handsets. One Pipt
customer is high street bank Abbey, which has installed IP-based
telephony at its five call centres and more than 800 of its high
street branches. The firm's contract with BT for the new system is
worth £125m, but Abbey estimates it will save millions of pounds by
running its telephony and data over a single network.
In most cases where companies move to a pure IPT system, like
Abbey, they need to replace ageing existing systems, or, more
rarely, they are starting from scratch. This is the case with the
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust, which is
building a new hospital on London's Euston Road. The trust has
opted for a VoIP system to connect about 2,000 handsets in the new
building to its network in which voice and data are running over a
single cable infrastructure.
More usual, however, is a gradual migration into VoIP, where
IP-based voice calls are transported over the IP network using
gateway products. This requires less investment. But as IP
telephony has evolved, so too has IP-PBX technology. Initially,
many PBX manufacturers added IP capabilities to their existing
switches, while third-party VoIP gateways became available as
add-ons to existing IPBXs. Now the market has moved on and
software-only IP switches are more common.
Mike Budd, managing director of Bristol-based VoIP supplier Budd
Communications, says there is a lot of interest in IP. "The most
common driver is getting free calls between sites and for remote
workers," he says. Budd's firm sells both pure IPT systems, from
Swyx, and IP-enabled traditional telephone systems. "Some 90% of
what we sell is IP-enabled. We sell Swyx to firms with remote sites
and multiple offices, who pretty much know what they want. The
others like to tick the IP box, but do n0t always know why."
One good reason for "ticking the IP box" is that it provides a
migration path forward. Few customers buying a new telephony system
today will opt for a traditional system only; they want at least
the possibility of moving on into IP-based telephony when they are
ready to do so.
As a result, although there are some innovative new players in the
market selling pure IPT systems, the market for IP-enabled systems
is dominated by traditional telephone and network manufacturers
that have realised they cannot ignore the inexorable move towards
VoIP.
On the one hand, there are suppliers such as Avaya and Nortel, both
of which have a large installed base of users running their
existing, traditional telephony systems. On the other hand, there
are data network providers, such as Cisco, which are looking to IP
telephony to bring in new customers.
"In both markets - traditional, IP-enabled voice systems and IP
telephony - there are only three main players - ourselves, Nortel
and Cisco," says Bruce Everest, convergence business development
manager at Avaya UK. Avaya's main product for enterprise IP-based
telephony is its Communications Manager platform, which it launched
three years ago. It also has IP Office, aimed at small and
medium-sized organisations.
There is also burgeoning interest at the lower end of the market
for PC-based internet telephony from suppliers such as Vonage and
Skype. Skype has grown rapidly and now has one million customers
for its internet-based telephony software.
"The proposition from players like Skype is very simple and many
people are using these kinds of product as a secondary form of
communications, but they are difficult to deploy and manage across
an enterprise, so we do not see them as competition in our
enterprise business," says Everest.
Interest in VoIP and in IP-based telephony continues to rise, as
companies look for ways not just to cut costs, but to handle their
overall communications more effectively. The day may dawn when we
no longer have anything resembling a phone on our desks and calls
are another screen-based application.
Case study: Yorkshire Investment Group finds greater
business flexibility
The Yorkshire Investment Group offers professional financial
services to business and personal financial planning. It employs
100 staff and operates from five sites, including its head office
in Pontefract and two branch offices in Leeds, as well as a couple
of smaller, satellite offices.
"We wanted to bring in technology to help us to meet our
business goals and VoIP seemed to be the technology that could help
us with how we operate and provide potential cost savings,"
explains Anthony Smith, the company's ICT manager.
Although the company hoped to cut costs, it was mainly
interested in VoIP as a way to provide a more consistent and
flexible phone system for all staff, wherever they were working, as
well as for callers.
"In our smaller offices, for instance, it was not worth having a
receptionist, but with VoIP, all calls come in through the head
office, can be answered by the receptionist there and passed on to
any of our users, wherever they are," says Smith.
The firm used its existing supplier, Dartford-based iQual, to
implement VoIP equipment from manufacturer Avaya, linking up all
parts of the organisation, including staff who want to work from
home.
"I myself have a VoIP connection and an IP phone at home, which
means I can work flexibly," says Smith. "IPT certainly makes home
working a lot more effective."
The main benefit has been in the way the company now operates.
"Staff in satellite offices, and those working from home, now feel
more part of the organisation as a whole," says Smith.
"They have an internal number, they have voicemail and they can
see when their colleagues are on the phone. It gives us a lot of
additional options in structuring the business and looking at where
we put staff."
Smith says cost savings have been relatively low. "But then we
are not talking about a lot of investment, provided you have a good
IP network in the first place."
Internal calls are now free and there have been other savings,
such as replacing a dedicated leased line from the head office out
to a satellite office with a simple connection into a much nearer
branch office.
"The leased line was obviously fairly expensive and we were able
to rip that out and put in a line that only cost about £100," says
Smith.
Glossary
IP-enabled: telephony systems that include some IP
components, such as gateways to transfer calls from traditional TDM
circuits over to IP-based networks
Pure IPT: software-based IP telephony, where all
components are IP-based
Voice over IP: technology that makes it possible to have a
telephone conversation over the internet or a dedicated IP network,
instead of dedicated voice transmission lines.