The Modern Network is Becoming Less Complex and Less Dependent on Carrier Services

Over the last couple of years we have seen exponential growth in the adoption of cloud technologies. No longer are cloud hosted applications leading edge but they are quickly becoming the mainstream for purchasing and delivering IT applications. This fact is changing the landscape of the modern network.

Not too long ago most large enterprises were deploying Wide Area Networks (WAN) made up of primarily MPLS and private transport services that were provided by large carriers. The reason for this is they needed an efficient way to deliver their applications to multiple sites either nationally or globally that were traditionally housed in corporate data centers or colocation sites. In most cases that might have been one internal data center close to the company's IT resources and one off-site data center for back-up and disaster recovery purposes.

In recent years many companies have been forced to virtualize much of this data and computing power as data has grown significantly and the benefits of virtulization within data centers offered much efficiency and cost savings. As that trend has been going on so too has the emergence of cloud computing in public clouds (over the public Internet) along with many vendors delivering their applications that way. Enterprises have hugely adopted services like Salesforce.com, Box.net, Zendesk, AWS cloud services, Google applications, and Microsoft Office 365 for a bulk of their application needs. These trends are growing every year and the company of the future is no longer simply viewing their own data center or private cloud as the place where most of their computing is taking place but rather outsourcing it to public/private cloud providers.

This has created a major paradigm shift in the architecture of modern networks. Many enterprises are realizing that instead of needing the traditional MPLS WANs they have deployed in the past there are better options. One of those options is SD-WAN technology (software defined WANs). SD-WAN products and services vary by vendor, but many enable hybrid WAN environments-- dynamically routing traffic over both private and public links, such as leased MPLS links,broadband Internet, and wireless connections. An SD-WAN architecture allows administrators to reduce or eliminate reliance on expensive leased MPLS circuits by sending lower priority, less-sensitive data over cheaper public Internet connections.

While the ultimate goal may be an all-broadband WAN, enterprises can begin this transition with a hybrid WAN. As MPLS upgrades arise, businesses can explore lower-cost broadband Internet services as an alternative for connecting to cloud applications. This provides an opportunity to downsize MPLS bandwidth and only use that connectivity for remaining data center applications. Enterprises can begin to slowly migrate additional applications from the data center to the cloud as desired. Eventually MPLS services could be eliminated all together. There have been many enterprises that have completely moved away from MPLS technology opting for just Internet connections as they have fully embraced cloud technology and this trend is increasing due to flexibility and cost savings.

Hybrid WAN and SD-WAN solutions typically utilize multiple advanced tools to create very intelligent routing of data over public and private networks so that end users can get to cloud applications faster and in a secure environment. Also these solutions usually allow for more reliability as they monitor network performance and can switch from one network connection to the other without major packet loss. This means that you can have circuit fail-overs without losing a VoIP call or video transmission. In most cases there is evidence that VoIP quality is actually higher over SD-WAN networks as they take advantage of the best routing options and avoid network outages. Lastly, these solutions eliminate the need for more costly hardware needed at the edge of networks further simplifying the overall architecture.

When companies make this transition from traditional networks to more hybrid and SD-WAN network architecture they typically see about a 30-40 percent reduction in network costs mainly from the carriers they use. In some cases this cost reduction can be high as 90% if companies opt for an all broadband network and in many retail verticals this is very practical. There is less need for expensive hardware so overall capital costs are reduced as well which adds less complexity to networks and less IT oversight. When you factor in that many companies are very dependent on one or two carriers due to their MPLS and voice networks this transition not only offers cost savings but much more flexibility as it becomes easier for companies to use multiple vendors and to switch carriers when needed. The major carrier they work with becomes less sticky in their relationship to the network and therefore companies have more options to evaluate better broadband options when they become available.

The challenge that enterprises face when they start to evaluate these network options is how they ultimately deal with their voice services and Unified Communications (UC). Their UC platforms and tools are traditionally provided by premise based hardware and depend on MPLS networks to function efficiently. In many cases the main business driver for a large enterprise to change or purchase a large MPLS network is due to voice and video needs that depend on real-time Quality of Service that MPLS networks can offer. This is usually driven by a SIP migration project or UC initiative. Companies looking to adopt better WAN options to support their cloud operations and decrease network complexity ultimately need to evaluate putting communications in a cloud environment as well.

 The reason for this is that premise based communication solutions put too much dependence on the need for traditional MPLS WANs and large carriers in order to support the enterprise. The desire for hybrid WAN topology (or SD-WANs) and the need to evaluate cloud communications sometimes go hand-in-hand in order to avoid the challenge of supporting complex internal VoIP and UC applications. Cloud based communications become a natural transition to take full advantage of hybrid WAN initiatives while reducing network complexity and costs at the same time.
Many traditional PBX vendors have started to offer virtualized platforms for their hardware and applications while some of the large carriers have become good at hosting these solutions within their own environments as well.  These solutions can offer private cloud solutions for voice and UC which can be helpful for enterprises looking to shift their network architecture but are still very costly and complex to manage. They often fail to take advantage of the real benefits that multi-tenant hosted environments can offer. There is also an emergence of several niche Hosted VoIP and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) providers in the industry that offer a full suite of services hosted in both a public and private cloud environment that do take full advantage of the benefits of multi-tenant hosting and cloud technology.

If a forward thinking company that is quickly adopting cloud technology wants to maximize their investment in less complex hybrid WAN environments they are best served by Hosted VoIP and UCaaS providers as these solutions offer the most flexibility, scalability, and independence from carriers thus furthering the cost savings and simplicity that companies are looking to achieve. I would argue that in a perfect environment an enterprise should buy their own IP phone headsets and other edge equipment but allow Hosted VoIP providers to provide all the other features and VoIP services they need in the cloud as this best lends to hybrid WAN environments and allows companies the most independence from the VoIP vendors themselves.

The advantages of UCaaS and Hosted VoIP solutions include reduced total cost of ownership, the ability to scale services up and down when needed, quicker deployment of services, centralized IT management, the release of new tools and features when they come to market, and increased mobilization for the workforce. What is unique about a network strategy that includes both Hosted VoIP and SD-WAN technology is that the time it takes to deploy new IT infrastructure at new sites can be done in a matter of hours and days rather than the weeks or months with large carriers and equipment vendors. There is also a great reduction in the amount of hardware and equipment that is needed to be maintained at individual sites so IT burden is greatly reduced.

The continued growth and adoption of cloud technologies will force the modern network to evolve making it much less complex and easier to manage. As this happens enterprises will be able to adapt to market changes quickly sizing their operations up and down as needed. This will have a major impact on carriers and network service providers making enterprises less dependent on them. The end result will be IT resources and budgets that can be better allocated for more pressing concerns in today's marketplace like IT security, further cloud adoption, and business analytics which can help IT executives create more profit centers rather than cost centers.

Five Things Telecom Companies Don't Want You To Know

When dealing with Telecom companies there are always some areas where their salespeople might use a little non-disclosure.  Here are five things that your telecom carrier doesn't really want you to know about.

1.  Local Calling

Many telecom carriers will charge an additional MRC (monthly recurring cost) in order to offer you an unlimited amount of local calling.  Buyers typically see the idea of unlimited local as a good idea.  However most of the time is not economical for them.  For instance, local calling really only applies to the area directly around your company (about 2 or 3 miles) or essentially calls that go to your local CO (Central Office).  Local calling is not calling within your region which is typically much more costly.  Most companies on average do about 10% local calling when compared to their total minutes used.  Unless this number is over 15,000 minutes it's typically a better idea to get a measured rate for local calling (usually about 1 cent per minute) because the usage costs will be nominal and the reduced MRC for your voice circuit will be less.  This is an area where telecom carriers try to upsell you. (just say no to the large fries and soda)

2.  Bundled Minute Packages

A lot of carriers offer customers a bundle of minutes at a fixed cost.  These are sometimes part of a larger bundle of services or sometimes sold along with traditional voice circuits.  Often what the carrier does is uses a blended rate for pricing out the bundled minutes based on their LD rate (Interstate usage) and the regional rates (IntraLata Intrastate/ InterLata Intrastate usage).  This rate will typically scale based on the volume of minutes used typically anywhere from 3 cents a minute to sub 2 cents a minute.  The reality is the average company uses about 60% of their total minutes on LD traffic and about 30% of their total usage on regional traffic.  An LD rate is usually much less than regional rates because regional rates are tariffed and are typically fixed per state.  The blended rate means you are usually paying a higher rate across all calls when assuming these averages.  In my 10 years in the industry you would be surprised at how accurate the averages tend to be.  The other problem is most people buy more minutes than they actually need so they can always rely on a fixed cost for usage.  This sounds good but it means they waste a lot of cost with the unused minutes.  The bottom line is in most scenarios it is better to negotiate fixed measured rates with your carrier upfront and only pay for actual usage.  You will almost always come out ahead economically.  The only exception to that rule is when your company does a high percentage of regional calling like a non-profit or heath care care provider where customers are localized.  Here you may do better with minute bundles if your state has high regional calling rates.

3.  Ethernet Access Types

Many companies sell Ethernet access solutions in the marketplace today.  Ethernet is becoming much more popular than traditional T1s or other types of TDM access.  The reason for this is that the costs are coming down for these higher bandwidth options.  Plus a company can usually find better scalability with an Ethernet access solution.  The problem is that not all Ethernet solutions are alike and customers need to know what they are buying.  Many telecom carriers sell Ethernet access through the local LEC (baby bells) or through some other wholesaler.  Rarely are they using their own metro fiber for the last mile as this can be very expensive.  When carriers buy Ethernet loops from the LEC or wholesalers they have two options usually - use switched ethernet services or use standard point-to-point Ethernet services.  Most carriers choose switched Ethernet services because they are often cheaper and they can be more competitive with their costs. 

The problem is switched Ethernet means they are using IP aggregation.  This is when the local LEC provides last mile fiber to the end user company but then runs that traffic back to a single aggregation point with many other customers in the area buying the same type of access.  The issue is that you still have a single point of failure much like buying TDM (or T1) services unlike the benefit of being on a SONET network with fiber (ring topology).  The other issue is that the last mile path back to the aggregation point is typically sold as BEST EFFORT meaning it gets no prioritization on that last mile carrier's network.  The path is also unprotected unlike TDM circuits which are protected.  This can cause problems for applications that are sensitive to latency like voice, video, or Citrix.  Other companies offer Ethernet another way as well by bonding legacy access like T1s or copper lines together with hardware so they can hand off Ethernet to the customer.  The problem here is that customer isn't getting fiber and can still have the same access issues they experience with older access types like bad copper pairs in older buildings or issues at the CO (Central Office).  When buying Ethernet services you should ask your carrier exactly what you are getting and how it is to be delivered to you.  If you have a voice, video, or latency sensitive application you may want to opt for a standard point to point Ethernet solution which includes a Premium COS or have your carrier buy a Premium COS from the LEC to prioritize the switched Ethernet traffic (most will offer this but not all do).

When looking at Ethernet services keep in mind the following - Ethernet provided over a telecom carrier's own fiber (SONET based) is always best.  Next would be standard point-to-point Ethernet. Switched Ethernet would be the next best option with bonded solutions being the worst.  Make sure your telecom carrier is upfront with you on what they intend to provide.

4.  Taxes and Surcharges

In the telecom industry there are more taxes and surcharges than services.  Most people would have to be a lawyer and a CPA to figure out all the nuances to taxes and surcharges in our industry.  When carriers sell their services or quote solutions they typically do not address how taxes will be applied.  Customers don't find out how high their taxes are until the get their first bill and are shocked by all the different surcharges.  Here are couple things you should know about taxes.

Some taxes are legitimate in that they are always treated the same and must be charged by all carriers the same way.  These are typically local, state, and federal taxes.  One of the exceptions is the USF fund.  USF is a tax that carriers charge that they need to send to federal government to fund rural telecommunication services.  The interesting thing about USF is that carriers have the right to charge it anyway they want to and apply the USF differently across products.  At the end of the year they are accessed what has to go back to the government but they may often keep the excess that was collected.  Also the USF was intended for Interstate traffic only but many companies will charge USF on data services even if they never leave the state.  You need to be aware of this and when buying services that will remain in your state like a private line you need to ensure that your carrier won't apply USF to these circuits. 

There are many surcharges you will see that only fund the carriers themselves but are disguised as tax-like fees.  These include things like access recovery charges, property charges, billing fees etc.  All of these fees go straight back to the carrier to cover their costs of doing business in certain areas.  It is a way for them to decrease their operational expense by charging it back to the customer.  Sometimes these do not apply for some services or areas you are buying but get applied anyway.

As an educated buyer you should always do the following when buying telecom services.  Ask about estimated taxes upfront.  Ask telecom providers to explain what taxes will apply to all of your services and make sure you are not getting charged erroneous fees or USF on Intrastate traffic.  Most telecom companies have a tax department that can estimate your taxes before you buy and can explain how they treat taxes across services.

5.  Evergreen Clauses

Some carriers will include evergreen clauses in their standard master service agreements.  These basically state that at the end of your contract unless notified in writing the carrier will automatically renew your contract.  Sometimes carriers will renew your contract for the original term meaning if you had a three year term and the contract automatically renewed they would expect three more years out of you.  In many states this is illegal and the carrier can only renew you for one more year.  Also the way the renewal is usually worded you need to contact the carrier 45 to 90 days before the end of the contract in order to go month-to-month and not be renewed.  Carriers tend to hide these evergreen clauses deep in their agreements and they typically don't bring it up during the sales cycle.

Customers should know whether they will be subject to evergreen clauses before they buy services.  Most times these clauses can be negotiated out of the contract.  If they are not, a customer can simply send a letter in writing stating they do not want to be renewed as soon as their service begins in order to protect themselves from these clauses.  Keep a copy of the letter for your records.

In conclusion, make sure you cover all of these areas before buying telecom services as it will help to reduce your overall costs and protect your operational efficiency.  Always ask a lot of questions upfront in the sales cycle and get as much disclosure about what you are buying as you can.  If you feel the telecom provider isn't disclosing all of this information don't buy from them.

Three Key Areas Where Collaboration Tools Improve Staff Performance

There are many new technologies and tools that promise the benefits of increased productivity.  However most fail to be implemented with ease and get adopted by staff quickly.  One area of technology that can be instantly applied to staff productivity is collaboration tools.  The following overviews how collaboration tools can greatly affect three key areas - remote working, reduction of travel costs, and increasing the effectiveness of marketing and corporate communications.

When we say collaboration tools what do we mean?  Typically in the telecommunications industry this means a set of tools or solutions based around conferencing and interactive media.  This includes things like audio conferencing, video conferencing/bridging services, web conferencing, and video streaming/ web casting tools.  There are others we can mention as well but for now let's focus on collaboration as different types of conferencing and live event tools.  In the past, many companies would outsource these needs to a third party company and pay on a usage basis whenever they needed to use these tools.  The costs were very high in the past as well so the use of the tools were often limited.  Recently, many IPBXs can offer some conferencing services within the hardware itself so companies can use these features in-house without having to outsource as well as using in-house licensing of web conferencing tools.  As a company defines its conferencing needs it's good to evaluate whether we truly want to outsource or handle these services in-house.  In most cases, outsourcing offers more benefits and ease of use to staff that need to utilize these tools.

The focus of this discussion will be on where these tools can make the most impact to staff productivity.  Also, my goal is to pinpoint applications of this technology that are easily adopted by staff and easy to use.  The problem inherit in most technologies that look to improve performance is they are not widely adopted by staff so we never get the productivity gains that are expected.

Remote Working
The first area where these tools can be easily adopted is the ability to expand remote working capabilities.  The idea of remote working is very prevalent in today's workplace.  People are looking for more flexibility to work outside the office.  Audio conferencing can easily help those that want to work remotely as it provides them with a great tool for holding virtual meetings that can be set up on the fly and utilized basically anywhere someone can get to a phone.  What makes this tool even more relevant for remote workers today is the fact that just about everyone has a cell phone or a smart phone and can connect to these types of calls easily.  By using audio conferencing remote workers can participate in group meetings, connect with customers when participants might be at different locations, and connect with vendors or other third parties to improve communication.  The basic idea is that you have an 800 number that you can distribute to anyone you want to connect with and then you give them a passcode so they can dial into a specific audio bridge where everyone can talk together.

The benefits of using these services is the audio quality is better when dealing with multiple parties than trying to connect the parties yourself either through three way calling or through your own PBX's conference bridge tools.  This means hundreds of users can be supported on one call.  The other advantage is that you don't tie up the business lines of your company when you use conferencing services by a third party as opposed to doing it in-house where line capacity and conferencing ports becomes an issue.  Lastly, the cost of third party audio conferencing has come down dramatically in the last couple of years which makes it much more accessible for companies to utilize.  Many companies can purchase these services for as little as 2 cents a minute which is what their typical LD rates are today.  Not only does this improve how remote workers communicate but it keeps their costs in line with typical company cost centers for communication.

The second easy collaboration tool to implement for remote working is web conferencing.  When combined with audio conferencing these tools can again increase the reach and effectiveness of remote working.  Web conferencing is used across many companies today and has been widely popularized by tools like "Web Ex" or "Go To Meeting".  Although these services can be utilized in conjunction with audio bridges they can be utilized by themselves as well as a learning tool for example.  Web conferencing takes conferencing services to another level as we can now share video, presentations, take polls, and handle questions by utilizing our laptops or tablet devices.  Here again the remote worker gets the advantage of being able to conduct meetings and business from anywhere as long as they have a portable computing device and a decent Internet connection.  With being able to show one's desktop and presentations, web meetings offer much more features than a simple audio bridge and can be used for many purposes.  You can demo a product or solution, host a meeting, provide commercial teaching, offer training, or provide support to your staff or customers. 

Web conferencing used to be very expensive as well but since there is much more competition now pricing has also come down significantly.  Certainly companies still have to make an investment in this type of service but the productivity they gain is much more visible and provides great ROI.  It's easy for staff to adopt web conferencing because most workers have been exposed to some type of web meeting in the past whether for HR purposes or simply for a business meeting.  Most software or web solutions that support these tools are user friendly with most being intuitive to use.  Practically I see web meetings being most effectively used for demonstrations to customers who are in remote locations or abroad, teaching internally and externally throughout your organization, as well as a great support tool for providing customer services to client or internal staff when they need to see what you are doing on their own screens (i.e. IT support).  When utilizing web conferencing tools and audio conferencing a sales person or executive cannot not only work remotely with ease but they can participate in several meetings per day even if they are travelling making the most of their time.

Reduction of Travel Costs
This brings up our second key area where collaboration tools make a huge impact -  the reduction of travel costs.  When properly utilized conferencing services can eliminate the need for face-to-face meetings especially when those meetings require a lot of travel and/or many participants.  For example, if a company can provide training to hundreds of sales reps over a web meeting instead of flying them all out to their headquarters or having to fly trainers to various offices they can save on travel expense.  If a regional manager can conduct several meetings with staff or other managers without having to travel to each site it eliminates a lot of wasted travel time.  This has become increasing important as gasoline prices and airline flights has risen in cost.  The need for enterprises to reduce travel cost is increasing and conferencing tools help bridge the gap on how to get multiple groups to effectively communicate with each other. 

Of course there are some elements lost in a meeting when not meeting face-to-face.  One of the ways to ensure that non-verbal communication is not lost is to invest in video conferencing or telepresence.  True high definition video conferencing was very expensive in the past and needed a lot of bandwidth in order to work properly.  These days bandwidth is becoming much cheaper and more available while the equipment needed to perform live video conferencing is much less expensive.  There are many more competitors for such hardware and often many options to choose from based on a company's need plus budget.  Utilizing video conferencing and telepresence the look and feel of a true business meeting can be captured and recorded.  This again reduces unneeded travel time especially for companies with foreign operations.  Although most companies can afford decent video conference equipment at locations they sometime lack video bridges to connect this equipment.  This typically is needed when more than one site needs to be on a video conference at one time.  Video bridges can be very expensive and are better managed in the cloud (private network) than handled in-house.  Many conferencing vendors offer video bridges on a pay for play service so they can be utilized when needed.  When comparing the usage cost of this service against travel costs its easy to justify plus the vendor now takes care of a lot of the set-up and technical issues surrounding supporting video conferencing making it easier on users.

Increasing Effectiveness of Marketing and Corporate Communications
A third key area for collaboration is to increase the effectiveness of marketing and corporate communications to larger audiences.  What I mean by this is creating a more engaging environment for a large number of customers or internal staff by creating virtual events without the needed resources associated with live in-person events.  One of the tools that can help improve your needs for marketing or corporate events is web casting.  The ability for companies to use web casting instead of live events offers them the ability to reduce their costs while keeping the effectiveness of their communication or messaging.  An example could be a new product launch.  Maybe your customers expand a vast geography and it would be extremely costly to launch a live product event in every major city you did business.  You could use collaboration tools like web casting or web streaming to create live video based events where many participants could view your communications at once.  The benefit of these services is the ability to conduct polls, gather registrant information, and handle Q & A throughout the web cast.  These tools also offer a very effective medium as various videos and media can be merged together.  Plus a web cast can be recorded to be viewed later on if the participant couldn't make the live event. 

This eliminates the need for costly venues, travel, food service, and hospitality costs all while still increasing your brand and marketing effectiveness.  Web casting can also be used for commercial teaching, training, or company wide communications like investor events.  Lastly they can be used by executive management to communicate corporate messaging across large user groups in multiple countries with the addition of support for multiple languages.  Again the benefits are the reduction in costs to reach audiences, the effectiveness of the medium, and the ability for the audience to easily interact.  While live events often involved a lot of logistics in order for them to be effective, web casts can be set up much easier and can be turned around quickly.  This eases the burden on marketing and corporate communication departments for getting specific messaging or branding out to large audiences.

In summary, companies that start to utilize various collaboration tools can reduce their costs and increase the effectiveness of their communications.  They can easily implement these solutions so that staff can be more productive wherever they need to work and in less time.

4 Reasons Why Hosted PBX Solutions Make Sense

A lot of companies have started to take a hard look at hosted PBX solutions and for good reason. The basic idea of a hosted PBX solution is that your phone system features are provided to you from a service provider over your IP network. Most of the time the provider will supply you with IP phones and probably some switch equipment for your offices. However the service provider is now hosting, managing, and maintaining all of your functions and features from a cloud environment or essentially their data center. Typically the cost of the physical phone and supplied equipment with the managed solution and features are provided to customers at a monthly cost. This eliminates the need to purchase a phone system and have to manage it in-house yourself. Here are some key reasons why this type of solution can make sense for a company:

1. No Upfront Capital Cost

When moving from the old model of buying a new phone system to utilizing a hosted PBX you remove the large capital cost expenditure needed when having to purchase very expensive phone equipment. The technology in telecommunications moves very fast and typically a new phone system has lost 50% if not nearly all of its value within the first 12-18 months of ownership. When utilizing hosted PBX solutions you don't need to purchase equipment as it is usually provided in your monthly cost. Due to the current economic climate it has been hard for some companies to justify a large capital expense. Hosted solutions offer a way to become more productive and gain access to new technology without the need for a large IT budget.

2. Avoids Technology Obsolescence

As stated previously, technology moves very fast in IP Communications. When a company purchases a hosted PBX solution they typically have new technology, features, and updates made available to them as those new features are released in the industry. This prevents the need for costly upgrades or new equipment when managing a phone system in-house. Since a hosted environment lends itself to making features available over the network, most users can access new features themselves simply through web portals or administrative tools making the deployment of new technologies or features much easier. This avoids the cost of having service technicians come out on site to make changes to premise based PBX equipment. As technology changes so does the hosted solution thus always keeping users up to date with the latest tools the market has available and making scalability in an organization much easier to handle.

3. Reduces IT Overhead and Burden

In many companies the management of a phone system or PBX will ultimately reside with their IT staff. This might be further augmented by the use of PBX or 3rd party phone vendor who would help support and manage a phone system. With many IT departments being downsized, overburdened, and focused largely on application or internal IT support, the burden of having to manage a phone system becomes time consuming and costly. When companies move into hosted PBX solutions they reduce a large amount of this burden from an IT staff and also avoid the service/maintenance costs of using third party phone vendors. Since most hosted solutions offer on-going support and management, a company's IT staff can focus on more profit-centered issues. When your current carrier can offer a hosted PBX solution you eliminate any finger pointing when there are phone issues as to whether the issue is network based or equipment based. Now there is only one contact to call who is accountable for everything.

4. Offers Greater Flexibility

Another reason that hosted solutions make so much sense is the greater flexibility they offer companies when dealing with change. In this economic climate I find that many companies are subject to market changes that can greatly affect their staffing, size of network, or even where they need to work. When companies utilize a hosted PBX solution their voice network can essential move with them meaning it allows people to work remotely with greater ease because they can simply take their IP phone with them. They will still get all of their same features over the Internet much like they would in their office. It also means that changes to the system can happen immediately like changing hunt groups, adding or deleting users, or changing auto attendants or messaging. In the past these changes would have to be programmed into existing equipment and would take time or may involve additional cost. When using a hosted solution, a company's staff can be more mobile, features and functionality can change on a dime, and usually these changes can be made by less technical staff through on-line administration tools. It moves a company's voice network into a more outsourced model which allows them greater flexibility than having to manage physical assets. The ownership for their system is now an operational expense rather than an physical asset needing to be managed. This becomes a benefit to companies experiencing or anticipating changes to their operations.

New Year....New Goals

It has been a while since the King of Telecom has written a post. So as it is a new year I am setting a goal of writing at least one new post (article) per month. For many companies the new year means planning their own goals and reviewing the services they have in place. Your goal as it relates to telecommunications should be to try and improve your overall environment in this new year.

One easy way for companies to audit their network services is to gather their current bills and do a simple inventory of what they have in place. For instance, a company might have one vendor for voice, one for data, and lastly a maintenance contract for their phone equipment. It is a good idea to collect these bills at the end or beginning of each year and perform a simple audit.

First, get an idea of all the services you have in place and create an inventory of your network assets. It's not a bad idea to create a network map if you don't already have one. Include on your inventory a breakdown of monthly fixed costs as well as the variable usage costs for the services with associated rates. Also, list any taxes or fees associated with your services. A simple example might look like this:

3MB Dynamic T1 Circuit - $750.00/month
23B + D channels (PRI) - included
Unlimited local calling - included
3MB of dynamic bandwidth - included
100 DIDs - $10.00
1 Toll Free Number - $5.00
Router - included
10,000 minutes of LD per month with $0.025 overage - $250.00/month
Conference Calling - $0.22/minute - current billing $22.00
Cable Modem (for back-up internet) - $90.00
PBX Maintenance (broken down by monthly cost) - $200.00

Taxes: $80.00/month

Total Monthly Costs: $1,407.00

In this example you can see that the company is paying a little over $1400/month for their voice and data services. Maybe the company is looking to increase bandwidth but wants to reduce overall costs by %20. We can clearly see that one way to do this is to take advantage of the cable modem for more bandwidth by making it a primary source of Internet and maybe reducing our T1s to 1.5 MB (essentially a single T1) from 3.0 MB (essentially two T1s). This way the T1 would only be used for voice and the cable modem would be used for primary Internet. Also if the T1 was dynamic it could be used for back-up Internet as we would only need a minimum source of Internet bandwidth for back-up or redundant purposes. This would probably reduce our current costs by $300 or 21%.

Clearly, by taking a simple inventory of what we had in place and by reviewing our current costs we can easily determine where to focus cost containment activities or where we might need to improve services. Keep in mind that taking a simple audit of your network assets also allows you to identify wasteful spending and to consolidate vendors where possible. With this information we could also have other companies or consultants quickly review our environment and quote alternate solutions that could offer benefits.

Lastly, it can be a good idea to review this information with your current vendors and see if they can offer any ideas or solutions on how to improve your current cost structure or services.

I wish everyone a happy and successful new year. Use these exercises to help improve your bottom-line.

Regards,

Harris Von Essen
"King of Telecom"

Buyer Beware: Your phone vendor does not have all the answers!

Quite often when companies look to evaluate their voice and data services they typically look for expert advice on how to make these decisions. One of the places they look first is from their phone vendor. These are the people that typically have installed their hardware or who have helped to make changes to their network over the years so certainly there is a high level of trust in working with them. There are a couple of problems associated with allowing your phone vendor to make these decisions for you.

First, they are biased. Most phone vendors are usually married to one or two carriers they work with frequently. In some cases they also resell the services of those carriers as an agent and get paid a commission for sending business to them. This creates a lot of bias in that decision making process. Sometimes the recommendation is not based on who could provide the best quality of service or even the best solution based on the company's needs but rather on whom will pay them the highest commission. There is a large number of agents who resell telecommunication services these days so this practice is quite evident in the industry. When companies look to a phone vendor to help make recommendations they should ask ahead of time if that vendor is already an agent to carriers. This would help identify when bias is present. Even if the vendor represents multiple carriers the company should look for one or two quotes from carriers that the phone vendor does not represent. Also ask about the past relationships they have had with carriers you might be evaluating. You might find that a vendor had been dropped or had a bad relationship with a carrier based on their past performance with that carrier's vendor or agent program. This should not be factored into your decision making process as it has nothing to do with the performance of that carrier yet only reflects how well the phone vendor could sell that carrier's services.

Another reason vendors can be biased is because they typically only represent a small number of hardware providers. This is due to the fact that they need to keep up with maintenance requirements of the equipment they support and this can be quite expensive. This again leads them to make recommendations that their hardware supplier or manufacturer would support and may be based on commissions, promotions, or relationships that the hardware supplier may have with certain carriers.

Secondly, phone vendors are not often educated about the new trends or new technologies present in the industry. For example the phone vendor may only be comfortable with older technologies like copper lines or PRI services that tend to be analog in nature. They may disregard the advantages of VoIP or dynamic circuits because they do not have the experience to discuss these new technologies with their clients or these technologies may take away some revenues that the phone vendor receives today based on the type of equipment that they support. Here again their opinions are highly biased on their own level of knowledge or what might be in their best interest. This knowledge base may also be limited by the number of products they sell or support and typically does not reflect a networking background that is more applicable to carrier services.

Lastly, as many carriers offer more services that are managed like managed PBXs, firewalls, routers, or enhanced features this may come in direct competition with what the phone vendor provides today. Again it causes a conflict of interest when they give recommendations to their customers. Most often than not carriers can provide managed services to customers that can reduce operating costs greatly and offer better features than are available to most customer environments today. This may overlooked by vendors who would not want to lose professional services from companies or might be looking to sell companies their own hardware upgrades to accomplish the same new features or services. A great example of this is when MPLS or VoIP services are introduced to a company. Many companies are looking for ways to provide voice services between multiple offices but don't want to pay additional Long-Distance fees to do so. An MPLS network or VoIP environment may be able to accomplish this for them. However where as many carriers can offer this to companies as a managed service such as bundled solutions with access to MPLS capabilities or plans that include unlimited calling to the various sites of a company the hardware vendor might see an opportunity to sell the customer additional equipment so that the existing PBX could do the same thing over general Internet or IP access. The difference is that the hardware vendor's solution might include a larger capital expense and not offer Class of Service or private connectivity that would ensure good voice quality while performing these functions. Do not allow a phone vendor to steer you away from carrier solutions that would enable a company to grow into these capabilities because of their own interest to sell you more hardware. In most cases adding hardware to your network is not the best approach.

-King of Telecom

Remote Working

There is a lot of hype these days about Voice over IP (VoIP) and how it can bring more productivity features to the individual user of communication services. Mostly these new features are often pitched and prevalent with many of the new IP PBXs that are available on the market.

For those less tech savvy a PBX is a phone system or can be defined as a "Private Branch eXchange (PBX)". This refers to equipment that provides switching internally to a company or an organization rather than having a carrier provide those switching features to the PSTN or public telephone network. This is different from a "Key System" which refers to phone equipment where the user must pick the line they are going to use by pushing essentially a "key" or button. In either case PBXs have come to mean phone equipment or systems. The equipment you own typically is the primary source of your phone features but features can also be provided by carriers as well.

One of the things that carriers have been able to provide because of the dawn of IP Communications is remote worker capabilities. This essentially means that a user can work outside the office and use some other phone or line than they typically would but connect somehow to their internal voice network. Imagine the typical sales executive who works outside the office on trips or from his home. Instead of customers having to know not only his work number, but also other numbers like his cell or home office line in order to reach the sales executive, they could call one business number and that number would simultaneously ring other lines or phones that he could be reached.

The way this technology works is though a Broadsoft or other softswitch that the carrier would be using on their network. As most IP communications is handle through a softswitch there are new capabilities that these carrier platforms can offer users. Broadsoft for example has a toolbar that can be placed in Outlook or a web browser that allows users to remotely talk to the switch to enable certain functionalities. This includes remote worker functionality like simultaneous ringing, click-to-dial, feature management, and outbound calling over your business' voice network. All these features are essentially turned on through the Internet by making a connection to the softswitch directly. Conversely this could also happen through directly connecting to an IP PBX through the web as well where your phone system itself would be responsible for these advanced features but I want to focus on carrier capabilities in this post. The idea is that by using a computer and a broadband connection you connect to the softswitch through the Internet and let it know that you are working remotely. Many of the features I will describe below are "turned on" through this process so that the softswitch knows that the user is working remotely. This typically happens through an above mentioned toolbar which would have certain features built into it.

Let's take a minute to break down each these key remote work features. First is simultaneous ringing. This essentially tells the switch that when your number is dialed (i.e. your work line) that you want the switch to also dial other numbers where you can be reached. Most systems can support up to 10 simultaneous rings at once. When you pick up a phone at any one of these other numbers the softswitch then connects the call to that line and hangs up on the rest. The idea is that you never miss a important call plus you don't have to manage multiple call forward scenarios yet you simply pick up the phone where you are closest. This is perfect not only for the home user but also for the users that works out of several offices like a roaming manager or a staff member working at multiple job sites. I often find service industry professionals like CPAs and lawyers to find this tool useful as they often working at client's sites and might be given access to a temporary desk or phone in a conference room.

Second most notable feature is click-to-dial. This allows a user to simply click on a phone number within a contact field like in Outlook or one that they have on a website through a web browser. When they click on the number the number is sent through the toolbar to the switch over the internet connection that was set-up and dials the phone number called and the number that the person is working from. In this scenario the switch dials two legs of the phone call. One leg is to connect the user from where they are dialing from and the other leg is to the caller or destination that is being dialed. It is important to note that for many carriers this means you need to pay for both legs of the call but it can be a handy feature. One use is to have the call billed directly to the service of your company rather than that of the remote phone you are working from. So let's say you are in a hotel or other company where you don't have immediate access to long-distance or international calling. You could use this feature to make that call and have it billed to your company's phone circuits. To the phone that you are using it is only seen as simply an inbound call. The second reason click-to-dial features are useful is it provides the other person you dial with your company's caller ID so it seems like you are calling from your office and creates a seamless professional appearance to the person being called. This also might allow you to transfer or use other features just like you were in the office.

Lastly remote worker features allow users to instantly make feature changes to their lines remotely so for instance you can tell the switch that you will be in a meeting and all calls should be forwarded to your secretary or your voice-mail whereas as soon as you are out of that meeting you can instantly have the calls get to you live wherever you are working. This is much easy than the remote executive who is constantly banging out calls on their blackberry checking messages and checking in with internal staff letting them know their availability.

There are some real world applications of these remote worker features beyond just giving users more flexibility and some neat features. First there are many companies who have remote offices across large geographic regions. In many cases these remote offices might be much smaller than their headquarters or main offices and may not be with the same carriers or network configuration of the main office. Sometimes it becomes very hard for an IT manager or administrator to address external telecom issues for remote sites such as local lines going down or a hardware issue with a remote office's phone system. Because it may take time to resolve the issue remote worker capabilities can act as a disaster recovery feature for these offices.

Another common application is for the typical road warrior, salesperson, or executive who is out of the office a lot. To handle all of their communications on a cell phone can be cumbersome. The ability to turn other phones (especially land lines like a hotel phone or a phone at a customer's site) into a temporay work phone is very helpful for these types of workers. Also the fact that anyone can reach them by simply dialing their single business line or number makes things much more easier and simplistic in order to contact them.

Environmental issues can also be a good application for remote worker features. Sometimes when offices are rural or on a large campus it may be difficult to run typical land line to them. A good example might be an agricultural business or a college that has older annex buildings without good wiring. Also warehouse typically have this problem. The remote worker capability can often bridge the gap between this type of offcie environment or single worker who could easily access wireless broadband or use broadband wireless cards in order to connect their telephony to the major T1 service that the organization has in place. This eliminates the high cost of try to get wired connectivity to these office or perfrom costly build-outs of cabling.

In summary, the new available remote workers features of phone carriers and iPBXs offer a greater flexibility to staff and office environments who struggle with communication issues or want to become more productive whereever they are. In time the industry will offer more and more types of these features that will make communications seamless everywhere.

-Harris Von Essen
"King of Telecom"