The first phase of VoIP is nearing the end and corporations will
soon find a variety of third-party desktop applications that run on
VoIP. IT managers need to work with their business unit
counterparts to help develop the requirements for these
applications that will drive more bang for the VoIP buck.
You've gone through the laborious process of deploying VoIP.
You've lived through the network upgrades, the migration plans and
have had to change the way you do many of the operational tasks
associated with running the network. Along the way, you've probably
noticed the following:
- Although there are cost savings, it's not quite what you had
anticipated.
- The deployment took longer than you first expected. Most of you
are still probably in the midst of deploying.
- There were many hidden costs along the way that you didn't
account for initially. Much of this falls into the areas of power,
cooling, management tools and operational support.
- Running a converged network is more complex than running
separate voice and data networks causing you to do more
firefighting than you did before.
So for all your hard work, what's changed for the end user? Most
of the users I speak with treat an IP phone like any other phone.
They make calls, they check voice mails and only the most
technically advanced users have ventured into things like unified
messaging.
 | | | | | Only the most technically
advanced [end]users have ventured into things like unified
messaging.
Zeus Kerravala
Yankee Group |
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Unfortunately, this scenario is far too common. The problem with
this type of situation is that the few users that use the advanced
features can't create a very large ROI. This places the majority of
the VoIP value proposition on whether the IT department can squeeze
enough cost savings out of the implementation to offset the cost of
deployment and that can often be hard for many companies to
quantify.
To maximise the business benefits, much of the vendor community
and many early adopter enterprises have turned to voice and
presence-enabled applications to drive more value. This transition
from VoIP for cheaper calls to VoIP for enhanced business
applications will be similar to the mainframe to PC migration of
the early 80s. When Windows-based PCs were first put in front of
users, mainframe emulators were installed to make PCs look and act
like mainframe terminals. Users complained that the Windows-based
PCs weren't as reliable as their old "green screens" (and still
aren't) and that it added no value to work functions. Similarly,
much of the historical focus on VoIP was to make IP phones look and
act like traditional TDM phones. Users today are complaining that
the IP phones aren't as reliable and that they add no incremental
value. Sound familiar?
| | | | | One of the keys to driving the
VoIP application industry forward is the creation and on going
support of developer communities by the VoIP vendors.
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The real value in the PC industry came when vertical independent
software vendors (ISVs), developed applications that integrated
into Windows. These are the things like the Internet browser,
mouse-driven word processors and spreadsheets, accounting packages
and many of the vertical software applications that deliver the
majority of business value today. In short, the advent of
developing applications integrated into the Windows desktop allowed
users to accomplish many things they could not do on a mainframe
terminal achieving new heights in productivity. Correspondingly,
over the next few years, the VoIP industry will focus on delivering
business applications integrated into the VoIP environment
delivering enhanced applications that will allow users to do things
they could not do in the old TDM world ultimately driving user
productivity up.
I want to be clear that we are at the very start of this phase
and, for the most part, these voice-enabled applications are still
a few of years away. There are a few early adopter-type enterprises
that I've spoken to that developed their own applications, but
there's very little in the way of ISV-developed applications, but
there is great interest. I recently spoke at the VoIP developer
conference (http://www.tmcnet.com/voipdeveloper) and although this
conference isn't as large as some of the traditional voice
conferences, the focus was on what else one could do with VoIP
rather than how it compares to traditional voice.
One of the keys to driving the VoIP application industry forward
is the creation and on going support of developer communities by
the VoIP vendors. Again, taking a lesson from the PC industry, one
of the reasons the ISV industry flourished was that Microsoft's
developer network (MSDN) and Intel's developer forum (IDF) are
among the best developer communities ever created. This allowed
Microsoft Windows running on Intel hardware to become the de facto
standard for the industry. That's one of the main reasons there's
more desktop software available for this combination than any
other.
Currently developer support from the VoIP vendors is spotty.
Avaya's DevConnect, Cisco's technology developer program (CTDP) and
NEC's Fusion program are among the few developer communities
available from the VoIP vendors. These currently lag traditional
software companies such as Microsoft and Oracle, but are an
increasingly large area of focus.
What's the best way for you to proceed? For IT professionals
responsible for VoIP, I recommend the following:
- Finish the deployment and make sure you have a good handle on
the operational aspects of running VoIP. The added applications and
features won't help the users if the system is unreliable.
- Find the departments that would benefit the greatest from the
advent of presence or voice-enabled applications. Finding an
application that provides value across the organisation is much
more difficult than searching for departmental value.
- Push your VoIP vendor into providing consistent application
support. Many of the vendors "talk the talk" but the application
support they give is limited or inconsistent from version to
version of software.
- Work with your top vertical ISV partners on how to improve
their application through VoIP integration. Although larger
industry support is still a few years away, it's not too early to
start thinking about it.
Zeus Kerravala manages Yankee Group's infrastructure research
and consulting. His areas of expertise involve working with
customers to solve their business issues through the deployment of
infrastructure technology solutions, including switching, routing,
network management, voice solutions and VPNs.
Before joining Yankee Group, Kerravala was a senior engineer
and technical project manager for Greenwich Technology Partners, a
leading network infrastructure and engineering consulting firm.
Prior to that, he was a vice president of IT for Ferris, Baker
Watts, a mid-Atlantic based brokerage firm, acting as both a lead
engineer and project manager deploying corporate-wide technical
solutions to support the firm's business units. Kerravala's first
task at FBW was to roll out a new frame relay infrastructure with
connections to branch offices, service providers, vendors and the
stock exchange. Kerravala was also an engineer and technical
project manager for Alex. Brown & Sons, responsible for the
technology related to the equity trading desks.
Kerravala obtained a B.S. degree in physics and mathematics
from the University of Victoria (Canada). He is also certified by
Citrix and NetScout.