VoIP Now: Large Enterprise VoIP Projects Catching On

July 12, 2006

Large Enterprise VoIP Projects Catching On

More companies are realizing the value of VoIP in the enterprise, striking up ever larger deals. Rolls-Royce, the distinguished carmaker, is incorporating VoIP into their operations. Canada's Nortel, a long-time veteran in telephony equipment, was given the $20 mln deal, which spans seven years.

Rolls-Royce's network of users spans countries in Europe and North America, adding up to over 26,000 users. This is one the largest enterprise VoIP projects to date. However, consumer goods manufacturer Kimberly-Clark will be implementing VoIP for over 200 sites consisting of over 57,000 employees.

Also, if you use the term enterprise loosely, Taipei City government in Taiwan recently started rolling out their VoIP network over Municipal Wi-Fi project, aiming at 200,000 wireless VoIP phones by the end of 2006. The initial project covers only administrative offices and public schools - a sort of enterprise, albeit government.

With so many users on one subnet, there are issues of audio file storage for voice mail, etc, just as there would be for PSTN systems. However, VoIP being relatively new, and being accessible via soft clients such as Skype and Sightspeed, there may be a tendency for employees to replace modes like IM (Instant Messaging) with VoIP, thus potentially making audio file storage a more critical issue sooner.

It's interesting that the Nortel project is expected to last seven years, although no reasons were given for that length of time. I'd like to how long other large corporations give themselves for similiar projects. Small enterprises, however, could probably roll out projects in short time period, provided they plan appropriately.

[via VoIPendium, Silicon.com, NewsFactor]

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July 12, 2006 in Business, Hardware, Networks | Permalink