Why Forklift When You Can Upgrade?
Making Product Investments for the Life of Your Business

BY MICHAEL DURANCE

Some telecommunication manufacturers are advocating that you replace all your existing equipment with a whole new system in order to get the cutting-edge technology and capabilities that you want. However, there’s no need to forklift your existing system when you can simply upgrade it.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MANUFACTURERS’ MIGRATION POLICES
Many manufacturers offer migration and upgrade policies that help enterprises protect their original investment. Migration typically involves both hardware and software swaps, while upgrades are typically software-only updates to your existing system. Both allow you to keep much of your existing equipment, which translates to cost savings.

Whether it’s a full migration or a simple software upgrade, smart telecommunication dealers and users work with their equipment manufacturers to take advantage of their migration policies rather than replace existing systems.

For example, you can add IP telephony as an upgrade to many communication servers or TDM systems. Upgrading one of these types of systems enables you to use IP telephony where it makes sense, allowing you to take advantage of IP while retaining TDM for other applications. This creates a hybrid system customized to the way you do business, allowing you to take advantage of technology innovations that meet your needs.

Upgrading your existing system to add IP gives you the best of both worlds -- the cost savings, applications and flexibility of an IP system combined with the durability and reliability of a TDM system -- while maximizing your original investment.

REAL-WORLD UPGRADES DELIVER ON THE COST-SAVINGS PROMISE
What does it really mean to upgrade or migrate? For most companies, it means significant investment protection, combined with improved business efficiencies. Pomp’s Tire Service, a Green Bay, Wis.-based 50-store chain of tire and car service stores, was able to retain 70–80 percent of the value of their existing telecommunications system by reusing interface cards, telephones and their voice mail system when they migrated to a new system that allowed them to add VoIP. By putting in a frame relay system on their Windows-based WAN, they IP-enabled their Toshiba Strata CTX670 telephone system without having to replace the entire system.

Atlanta-based Professional Career Development Institute (PCDI), a leading correspondence college, has migrated its telecommunication system five times over the past 15 years. In fact, the institute’s tremendous growth has demanded a significant capacity increase in its telephone system, from just 25 extensions to more than 250 extensions. Today, its Toshiba Strata CTX670 handles surges of up to 7,000 calls daily. Migrating saved PCDI more than 300 percent over buying a whole new system. (See sidebar for case study on PCDI.)

DETERMINING THE NEED TO UPGRADE
How do you know when it’s time to upgrade? As your business grows, your technology and capacity demands can outpace your system, and adding new technology can bring cost savings and/or improved efficiencies to your company. A need to add remote locations or users is also an excellent opportunity to add expanded capabilities to your system.

It’s also time to upgrade if you have multiple locations with a variety of different systems that don’t integrate. Migrating to an integrated system can allow centralized voice mail, three-digit calling, intercom and paging capabilities, and much more, regardless of where the offices are physically located. The cut in long-distance costs and improvements in productivity more than make up for the cost of upgrading.

Upgrading is also a smart idea if you want to add a new technology, such as IP telephony. IP telephony enables users to make calls over their IP data networks or the Internet, providing a significant savings on their long-distance costs as well as many other benefits. Upgrading can take you from a basic telecom system to a complete business communications solution that can deliver new technologies and capabilities from IP telephony and mobility to unified messaging and centralized voice mail.

WHAT DOES IT COST
Here’s the bottom line. Upgrading your system lets you maximize your original investment. You’ll gain increased capabilities and capacity, without having to buy a whole new system. For example, a new IP-based telecommunication system can cost up to four times as much as upgrading an existing system to add IP telephony capabilities. It makes good financial sense to keep what you already own and upgrade to enable new capabilities or extra capacity. Even if you’re not adding IP, upgrading typically costs about a third or even half less than buying a new system. Telephone handsets alone can account for up to half of the cost of a new system. Being able to keep your existing telephones is a big advantage.

Most manufacturers understand users’ need to migrate. In fact, many manufacturers now offer systems that are built specifically to migrate and grow, letting you add capabilities and capacity at a fraction of the cost of a new system. For example, with Toshiba systems, you can add capacity and capabilities, extend or integrate voice processing solutions, and build in IP telephony wherever it makes sense. You can even migrate the entire system to IP telephony if that’s what is appropriate.

Very soon, you’ll be able to wirelessly extend your Toshiba telecommunication system using any mobile IP-based device, such as a voice-enabled PDA or voice-enabled laptop (such as a tablet PC), via any media for any application for remote access to your telephone calls, voice mail and e-mail.

Before you buy a new system, ask your dealer or manufacturer about the upgrade capabilities of your system. You need to request specific details and pricing, so you know exactly what you’re getting if you decide to upgrade your system in the future. It’s likely to save you both time and money, but you will want to make sure the upgrade gives you what you need. (See sidebar, Upgrade Checklist.)

If you do decide to upgrade, the benefits can be tremendous. In terms of cost savings, it’s not uncommon to save 300-400 percent over the cost of buying a completely new system. Implementing VoIP by adding IP terminals at a remote or home office can act like an extension on your telecommunications system, allowing you to route calls through the company and even set up caller ID to look like your office extension. This also provides significant savings on long-distance. In fact, by using VoIP, many users are able to completely eliminate long-distance charges between their offices by upgrading their systems to allow intercom dialing between employees, whether their offices are across town or across the country.

Migrating your existing system also means that there’s little or no learning curve for your end users. Everything just ports over to the upgraded system and it’s business as usual, only with more capabilities.

Get the most out of your existing system and make your product investments last for the life of your business. Explore your migration and upgrade options with your dealer and manufacturer to find ways to increase cost savings, expand capacity, improve performance, and add new features and functionality. It will help your employees better communicate with customers, vendors and each other.

Michael Durance is vice president and general manager of Toshiba Telecommunication Systems Division. Toshiba Telecommunication Systems Division is a leading provider of business communication systems for small- to medium-sized enterprises. Based in Irvine, CA, Toshiba TSD markets its Strata CTX, Strata DK, Strata CS and Stratagy systems through its network of more than 500 authorized dealers.

The Upgrade Checklist: What to Ask Your Dealer About Upgrading Your Phone System 

• Does my manufacturer offer an upgrade and migration path?
• What options do I have in upgrading?
• Can I add capacity? If so, how much and in what increments?
• Can I add new technologies, such as VoIP?
• Can I enable VoIP on my existing data network?
• What other new features and capabilities can I add?
• Can I enable remote administration?
• What original equipment can I keep? Telephone handsets, telephone boards?
• Are there any downsides to upgrading over buying a new system?
• What is the cost of upgrading versus buying the new system?
• What cost savings can I expect with the upgraded system?

When can we start?