TMCnews Featured Article
August 03, 2011
Delaware Drives Real Savings with VoIP Management
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor
Information surrounding the development of VoIP systems tend to focus on corporate evolution and customer service enhancements. Government entities can also benefit from VoIP management, and Delaware made its move. And, while the state is not large in terms of size, it did operate a distributed enterprise with a fragmented telephone system.
According to this GCN article, Delaware wanted to make a change and turned to a method of VoIP management to take advantage of this technology that could enable a centralized approach and Unified Communications. Verizon (News 
- Alert) provided the Multiprotocol Label Switching backbone to enable IP telephony.
The state’s Technology and Infrastructure Department acted as integrator and worked with Verizon and the state to define needs and select the right products within the VoIP management strategy. Moving in this direction, the result was a variety of platforms being used separately. To address this issue, the department introduced the Cisco (News - Alert) CallManager. This call processing platform gave the IP office added control over the system, while it also reduced costs.
Even with this approach, the state still lacked a common statewide dialing plan. Savings were limited and the system couldn’t really be expanded as each agency had its own voicemail system, purchased its own service and maintained its own equipment. For optimal VoIP management, they wanted the system to talk across agencies.
To accomplish this goal, the state used Session Border Controllers to provide unification to the system, as well as handle signaling between the enterprise and the carrier. Every session is originated and terminated through the SBCs so that packets from different vendors are compatible and configuration is not needed on internal equipment. True VoIP management is delivered as the SBCs handle the VoIP carrier connection and enables VoIP communications among agencies without involving the carrier network.
A number of advantages were delivered to the state by implementing VoIP management and moving telecommunications to IP. The enterprise could unify voice, video and text on one platform, limit the necessary infrastructure to support communications, simplify management and cut overall costs. The key to realizing cost efficiencies for Delaware is centralization. All telephone connections are brought within the enterprise to a central site and a backup. Internal communications do not go onto the carrier’s network and external communications are managed through one large pipe instead of several smaller pipes. This approach to VoIP management has streamlined communications, improved efficiency and reduced overall costs.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Juliana Kenny
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