Using the latest communications to drive business objectives

To successfully achieve business objectives it is critical for a business to understand and leverage the latest communications technologies. These fall into the following main categories:

• Equipment – (e.g. CPE and PBX) supplied by the vendors or manufacturers.
• Network – (e.g. Private circuits and IPVPNs) supplied by service providers.
• Applications – (e.g. CRM, CCTV or Citrix) supplied and managed by the reseller or integrator, if not directly supplied by the supplier.

To source, deliver and manage these component parts some businesses employ a ‘DIY’ approach, but predominantly they leverage the skills and resources of a reseller or integrator.

Tiscali’s expertise is in the supply of the underlying network infrastructure

From a network perspective, the big questions around VoIP (a key driver for convergence) that should be considered are:

1. Are you making the most of your current IP network?

To manage delay sensitive traffic and real-time applications (e.g. voice) successfully over an IP network you need to evaluate:

• Bandwidth – Deploying greater bandwidth in conjunction with managing and differentiating the Class of Service (CoS) can ensure that your services are run at an acceptable level. This can be expensive, and is akin to throwing money at the problem.
• Access medium - The majority of the cost of traditional networks remains at the “access” level. Therefore traditional networks have been limited to large permanent sites, high data centric organisations and big budgets. This has left many remote sites or employees relying on costly dial-up solutions (PSTN/ISDN). These separate networks limit corporate wide applications and efficient working. An IPVPN can address this with remote sites/employees accessing over cost effective, secure and private DSL lines.
• Quality of Service - QoS is used to prioritise voice traffic across the same network infrastructure as lesser prioritised traffic. Now that QoS can be managed over DSL (broadband) lines, an organisation can cost effectively deploy business applications across an entire organisation.
2. What impact do you want to make on your business?
• Consider what business benefits you desire and what new ways of working you want to employ. Then, achieve your objectives by leveraging existing resources and applications as well as investing strategically in others.
• These may include collaboration, more efficient data sharing capabilities, VoIP solutions, remote/flexible working, virtualised contact centres and disaster recovery solutions.
3. How do you balance the business & employee benefits against all the potential issues?

The key issues to consider are:

• Voice quality – business voice calls require an assured level of quality. Whist Voice over the Internet is starting to be adopted because of the potential cost savings (e.g. Skype), many businesses have quality & security concerns. Voice calls over an IP infrastructure (e.g. an IPVPN) is a business grade alternative and a broadband connection (QoS enabled) to a VPN can enable this extremely cost effectively.
• Security – The network must be secure from external factors. It traffic is to travel over the Internet it must be protected and made secure. Alternatively it can be carried over an IPVPN within a company’s control and with full visibility.