| Top ten tips for successful convergence projects
According to Sabio, convergence concerns should include key issues such as operating system platforms, vendor suitability, open standards, forward looking solutions roadmaps and increasingly vital security requirements. Sabio's convergence guidelines are designed to provide advice on which factors are important and how to make informed decisions within this selection process. "Converging voice and data networks can deliver significant bottom line savings if done correctly - however short-term savings shouldn't necessarily be the sole driver," commented Adam Faulkner, director, Sabio. "A well thought out choice made now can not only deliver the initial cost saving goals but go on to continue to produce further business benefits and provide a highly flexible platform for future directions. Many of our customers are now experiencing unforeseen benefits or realising benefits they had underestimated, been sceptical about or completely unaware of." The key is to see the bigger picture of the convergence story. Convergence is the realisation of the open systems concept. Open systems and standards is a big part of what has driven the IT revolution. These forces are now moving into the telephony world and will continue to break into more areas. It is therefore vital to see past the vendor hype and focus on what will move your business forward; and will enable or enhance your ability to remain open to future developments. Sabio's ten key guidelines are: 2. Check the vendor's track record - has your vendor got a strong background in telephony, IT and data networking? You need to get all the pieces right for successful convergence; 3. Have you got the right OS platform for your IPT solution? - You need to think carefully about your core IPT platform and its operating system - do you want a proprietary OS which may limit future options, have future licence issues or leave you open to forced upgrades? Also are you sure you're fully protected against viruses and hack attacks? 4. Insist on a modular solutions architecture - a modular approach means that you can deploy your converged network organisation-wide, while still managing it as a single solution. This approach also brings huge benefits in terms of resilience and flexibility, while still meeting your technical and budgetary requirements. Take care, not all modular solutions offer full feature resilience; 5. Look for a clear forward roadmap - insist that your vendor provides a clear development roadmap, as the future of its solution could have a dramatic impact on the development of your business. Roadmaps should also take full advantage of open standards such as (Session Initiation Protocols) SIP; 6. Stick to open standards - if there's any doubt, go down an open standards route - this will ensure the optimum investment protection going forward; 7. Insist on customer references - organisations should look for at least three directly-relevant reference sites - this should clearly illustrate both the technical solution and the overall quality of service; 8. Overall solutions maturity - it's important that the solution you buy matches your current and future requirements - so don't buy features and functionality you don't need; 9. Security - as critical for voice as for data, security should be a paramount requirement and not impacted in any way by the nature of your IPT platform. Check with existing customers for outages related to security, and look out for vendors who need you to deploy additional security measures; 10. Quality of service - positive perceptions of voice quality and resilience are essential for successful convergence projects - ensure that factors such as latency, jitter, conversion algorithms and hardware don't impact on the quality of your converged networks running IP telephony.
•Date:
4th June 2004 •Region: Worldwide •Type:
Article •Topic: IT
continuity |
