Early VoIP platforms were expensive, complex to install, difficult to customise and short on features but there’s been a major catch-up, with feature packed systems more suited to local SMEs jockeying to position themselves as frontrunners in the customers mind.

Once you can integrate voice traffic over a robust data network with the appropriate switches and management software a business is ready for deeper levels of functionality and convergence.

The IP PBX is essentially a phone switching system which controls all the phones connected to it regardless of whether they’re at opposite ends of the country on the opposite side of the world. That’s a major plus delivering savings on internal calls and those placed via the Internet but VoIP opens the door to so much more.

IP enables seamless integration of applications and the distribution of intelligence from a PBX out to desk-based, mobile IP phones or soft phones in laptops or handheld devices as well as supporting older analog handsets.

An IP PBX should handle multiple incoming lines and extensions, VoIP trunks for calls over the Internet and routing to remote extensions. Unified messaging, stores all voice mail messages as audio files and delivers them as attachments to e-mail.

Another important feature is to have your phone calls, email, text and voice messages follow you across different desks and offices and to your cellphone, if you want to be contacted that way. This opens the way for a person to share the same features on their work desk with a home phone or a temporary location.

Web configures voice

Voice mail can be retrieved over the Internet via a web browser. And there’s an evolving ability to control via the web, which callers are told what.

A good system should include among its features answer phone, voice mail and auto-fax detection along with call forwarding, hunt groups, music on hold, and the ability to have personalised ring tones.

Quality of service (QoS) itself is perhaps the most important ‘service’ to have in place to ensure all other offerings are prioritised and guaranteed but a modern IP PBX should also support the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the standard for triggering and routing multimedia applications.

In the past developing new or add-on features was a real task but that’s also changed with new standards and protocols and a move to open software development. That’s made it easier to customize solutions using Java or XML.

Some vendor are now supplying software development kits to enable this and a growing number of third parties are involved in development roles alongside vendors to ensure the VoIP system is tailored to fit customer needs.

Chris Loh, senior telecommunications analyst with IDC New Zealand says the convergence of voice and data over an IP network is now sufficiently mature and cost-effective to deliver compelling business benefits.

While there’s now plenty of choice between products, vendors and service providers he cautions users to make sure they’re walked through the business case and implementation steps.

Focus on business case

"Suppliers must focus on clearly articulating the business case of next generation infrastructures across their sales and marketing processes. Customers need to be informed and guided through the complex offerings in order to be sold on the immense value proposition and list of benefits of IP communications."

He says products are continuing to scale from the high end into the optimum New Zealand small to medium enterprise space. For example he says Nortel and Avaya in particular have introduced converged technology more suited to this market.

There’s also a trend toward more multifunction switches and devices which replace disparate phone systems and or equipment for about $10,000.

He says different vendors are approaching converged voice and data space from different directions. "Cisco is pretty strong in data but doesn’t have much voice exposure and needs to team up with people in that area. At the SME end it relies on the fact that it’s bought Linksys but its still keeping above the 100 customer space."

Avaya has a strong background in strong in voice while Nortel has strengths in voice and networks. Previously Avaya was offering ‘de-featured’ versions of its large Contivity system which was quite often unwieldy and didn’t suit the New Zealand market well. Now the release of Avaya’s IP Office has removed the channel conflict with Contivity which is much more geared to local SMEs.

And Mr Loh says Nortel has been successful with its BCM range which has over the past two years come down from 200 port high end system to 50 and now an eight port offering.

Mobile PBX integration

And there’s a profusion of value added services coming on-line. One of the main ones is mobile PBX integration enabling those who work outdoors or in open premises to use mobile IP phones linked by radio frequency back to the IP PBX.

But challenges to this kind of mobility are coming from several directions including the introduction of 3G mobile services from Telecom and Vodafone. "This complicates what enterprises can do for voice and data solutions. While Vodafone is moving aggressively into trying to replace fixed lines within business with its flat rate mobile charging Telecom is trying to cater to the anytime, anywhere market by releasing its 3G service and Wifi hotspots concurrently."

And says Loh says the whole space is transforming and there’s a lot of contention for investment. "While IP converged networks are an accelerator for voice and data network equipment, the strong growth in wireless LANs can detract from having a fixed line in the office."

Meanwhile Paul Ryan general manager of sales and marketing for GDC, sees VoIP as a transport layer with dubious cost savings which enables other features to come to the fore. He believes success in this marketspace has to do with the availability of applications that change people’s businesses.

"It’s more about changing your business function to make you compete better and improve productivity."

He says the reduced cost of the transport layer and having a common standard has meant software prices and functionality is now more accessible. "What was once large enterprise capability is cascading down to the SME rapidly, " says Ryan.

He cites advanced call centre, ubiquity or integrating with the cellphone and presence management which links to calendar tools to drive the behaviour of voice mail and what you do with calls.

"If I’m in a meeting with the board no-one gets through to me, if I’m in a sales meeting I want the following people to get through to me...If my wife calls, divert to mobile. These are productivity tools and makes certain customer calls in particular still get through the system rather than being left with a voice mail.

Call centre has become really affordable for SMEs, the capability that used to only be available to the largest business you can now get for a two or three seat call centre which means they can manage customer interaction much smarter than they could before.

He says people need to be considering what their business might look like in 4-5 years. "Make sure whatever you are buying in terms of voice technology is capable of dealing with the changes that are coming."

He believes web chat is the next big thing allowing customers to talk directly over the web but he warns that email, text messages and the growing use of ICQ or MSN Messenger also need to be dealt with as if they’re calls being made to a call centre rather than letting them drift down the priority list and part of measuring and managing customer service.

Networking your phones

Once you are confident servers, switches and management software are configured correctly to ensure traffic flows seamlessly and that voice in particular has no latency or delay, its time to consider phones and features.

New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) wants to collect the precious pints of liquid life to keep its supplies up to date in a more orderly fashion so it’s integrating its systems to deliver voice and data across a common network.

New Zealand Blood Services relies on public donations to meet its insatiable demand for blood supplies and has been using outbound telemarketing to contact blood donors, arrange appointments and monitor the outcome.

In an effort to improve efficiency across disparate systems it went to market for an IP approach to standardize its processes, enhance desktop and handset facilities and improve inter-site communications through a centralised operator and voicemail services.

NZBS will use its WAN connecting existing sites to handle both data and voice traffic. With IP trunking it will service about 400 people around the country who will eventually have IP phones.

SieTec, which represents Siemens in New Zealand, was chosen to provide what is potentially a $250,000 solution which has started with deployment of an IP PBX in the Waikato headquarters as the first step in a national move to VoIP.

"We’re planning for the future but to make it worthwhile we need to have several sites upgraded before we go fully VoIP. We have small teams in virtual call centres around the country contacting donors and an outsourced arrangement for 0800 numbers. We hope to bring all that together to run better and handle overflow to other sites," says NZBS IT manager Tony Carpinter.

The new system will over the next year result in easier management and the ability to view what is going on across the network including moves, adds and changes. "We feel the market is moving strongly to VoIP and we want to be ready to move this way ourselves," says Mr Carpinter.

He says greater flexibility and integration with existing systems was an important factor, including a Donor Relationships Management System which it now evaluating as a possible add-on to the call centre.

SieTech business development manager Ian McLean says SieTech won the business because it not only had IP connectivity through its HiPath IP PBXs but could develop applications and produce an outbound telemarketing list to automatically dial out for remote agents from NZBS database.

"Many customers don’t want off the shelf they want customised solutions and to have full visibility of what happening in branch and remote offices, for example whether they’re on the phone, have email, voice mail or fax mail sitting in their inboxes."

This is possible through the VisualSuite platform provided by SciTech which has a graphical interface at client or centralised operator level, and will soon include desktop videoconferencing.

NZBS is increasingly moving into mobile services including the Blood Bus traveling around the country. A cellular interface is being developed for the bus and Siemens software deployed on Palm Pilot handheld computers with provide a cellular connection back into the main network.

Hamilton is expected to be bought into the new system before the end of the year and Christchurch early in 2005 followed by Auckland, Wellington and other offices. About nine of NZBS 12 sites are expected to be live on the next system within the two years.