Fast food provider Fairwood has deployed Cisco technology to help consolidate voice and data onto an IP network which has improved customer service. Sin noted that Fairwood is now able to allocate additional phone hotlines in real-time to deal with spikes in demand. That was not possible before, resulting in unanswered calls and missed orders. Fairwood is also planning to integrate the new IPT systems with its ERP platform to enable real-time stock taking and tracking.

"It's clear that embedding IPT into workflow and business processes creates quantifiable gains," said Sin.

Another Cisco client, shipping giant OOCL, has consolidated its 100-plus TDM PBX systems into a single IP platform to save costs and enable a complete call center integration allowing for better resource allocation and customer services.

Management challenges

Even traditional IT service providers are also jumping on the IPT bandwagon as they leverage their systems integration and systems management skills to help deploy and configure IPT systems for enterprises.