August 14, 2006
VoIP System Implementation Tips
Not everyone who has switched their business to VoIP is happy with their results. A Detroit-based law firm switched their telephony a couple of years ago, but has had regular system problems, including crashing. The VoIP system was provided by a client of the firm.
The firm spent US$750K on their six-office VoIP project for a couple hundred lawyers, and had considered ditching it because of all the system problems. However, a software services firm, Compuware Vantage, helped them solve many of the problems. Compuware's management tool reduced support calls from lawyers by 50/ day down to five/ day. The law firm's additional expenditure was just under $100K. [via Computer World]
Project management practices often tell you to essentially not throw good money after bad. In this case, the extra expense was worth it, to make the initial investment bear fruit.
These problems bring some key issues that businesses considering a VoIP system should consider:
Firstly, plan to run a VoIP system on a dedicated computer server. In fact, you may need more than one server. (See steps 2 + 3.)
Secondly, make sure that you run network diagnostic tools to analyze and report on peak network times. Any server worth its salt, whether for VoIP or just a website or database, has to be able to handle peak traffic, not just average performance.
Thirdly, if your company's business is phone-based, you're probably going to need backup VoIP servers, where overflow calls get shunted at peak times. This a technique that high-volume websites, including search engines, use. Unless you are running a call center, you will not need dozens of VoIP servers, but you may need a few.
This sort of information is something any good VoIP system provider/ reseller/ consultant will tell you, but knowing this makes you more aware of what potential problems your IP telephony network might encounter. More knowledge means you're less likely to be cheated or run into problems later.
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