How many times have your heard those words from sales reps? They are the frosting on the cake that is voice over IP (VOIP), and they're largely true. But focus too closely on them at your peril. There are hidden costs to transitioning away from a tried-and-true PBX-based voice network to IP telephony, and I'm not just talking about dollars and cents.
I'm talking about people. I'm talking about the effect that your decisions are going to have on the staff you depend on to make your voice and data networks run smoothly. I'm talking about your users, the people who will be forced to use your new phones and applications. I'm talking about your help desk staff who will need to learn to support something that is tantalizingly similar to -- but quite different from -- what they're used to.
This Ain't Personal, It's Just Business
When considering IP telephony, you'll make an objective examination of the financials, and that will likely be your primary focus. You really can lower your overall costs with VOIP, often quite significantly.
As an example, it's possible to make your support system more efficient by making moves, adds and changes substantially easier for your support staff. Or perhaps you are primarily interested in the benefits of toll bypass. Regardless, these savings are the sizzle, not the steak, and your voice network staff will not be impressed by the sizzle.
Even if a move to IP telephony is a sound business decision, some of your staff may take it personally. The sooner you recognize and address that issue, the smoother your transition will be.
You must keep in mind that many voice network staffers have spent decades building some of the most resilient and reliable networks on the planet. Is your data network unavailable because a router rebooted? No problem, just call the remote branch to get those numbers you need. Is your database down because a server crashed? No problem; pick up a phone and call back to headquarters to get the data straight from the paper file.
If you have an emergency, do you send an e-mail or a text message? Of course not! You pick up the phone and dial 911 without worrying about whether or not you'll hear dial tone. It's a cliche, but it seems true that dial tone is a God-given right. When was the last time you picked up the phone and didn't get dial tone?
That's what scares voice techs about VOIP. When they hear that you want to take the responsibility for providing dial tone off a rock-solid PBX and move it onto a server, they start to get a little skittish -- and for good reason.
If the IP telephony system can't be as reliable as the old voice network, then they want no part of it. There are valid reasons to be concerned about moving your phone system to platforms that are historically less dependable than the PBX, and your voice network staff will be the first to point those reasons out to you.
Is This Voice or Is It Data?
While it's arguably true that VOIP is just another application on your network, it has very different requirements than typical data applications, and it's still telephony. If you have separate voice and data network departments, chances are that your data people don't have a lot of familiarity with telephony. This is a problem. In order to successfully migrate to IP telephony, your data people must understand voice technology. Taking the road to VOIP without a solid understanding of telephony by your data network staff is fraught with peril, and as Winnie the Pooh's friend Tigger says, "You just can't argue with a word like fraught."
The converse is also true: Your voice network staff must learn about the data world. Packetizing voice and transporting those packets over a data network introduces a lot of factors that they're probably not used to dealing with. They already know what you're trying to accomplish (telephony), but they may not know enough about how to do it over an IP network to be successful.
You're trying to marry two different technologies and two different sets of staff who have historically had different philosophies regarding network design and implementation. Talk to both groups. Get their comments, their questions and their worries. Really try to understand where both sides are coming from. Your success depends on it. Both groups must be working toward the same goal. They both must be onboard with the decision to move toward VOIP, and they must play well together. Read that again -- it's important.
Why Not Converge More Than The Network?
If you are considering converging your voice and data networks but you have distinct voice and data staff, I have to ask you this: why? Give some serious thought to converging your voice and data groups before converging your networks. Why not begin cross-training now? Get them used to working closely with each other so each can begin to truly understand the other's point of view.
I've been lucky to work for a company whose data and voice groups have worked fairly closely for some time and have actually been a single converged department for a few years. I'm a data guy -- or at least I used to be -- so the input from our voice network staff was invaluable to me during a recent and long VOIP request-for-proposal. I was drowning in a sea of telephony technology and terminology, and they helped me to stay focused as we worked through our vendor and product selection process.
If you already have an experienced voice and data network staff, make sure to involve them every step of the way, beginning in the early stages of your research. Don't let the rush toward new technology make you overlook the superb resources you may already have available within your organization. Getting your staff involved early is a strategic investment in your project and can only increase your likelihood of success.
Stay tuned for more tips on the recognizing the hidden costs of VOIP in Part 2.
John Neiberger is the senior data/voice systems analyst for a regional financial institution based in Colorado. He was an operations supervisor at a branch office before changing careers and transferring into the network services group ,where he has been for seven years.