That was my main thought
as I left the panel I moderated at Supercomm.
Rich Tehrani, President
of TMC, and I, along with a star-studded panel, faced 400 audience
members on the plenary session: How to take VoIP to the next level in
the enterprise. The general consensus from the panel was that it
was going to need applications to get there. Where are the applications
going to come from? Hint: if you are just looking at voice (as in VoIP)
you may never find them.
We have all heard the
basic cost justification models for voice over IP
(VoIP) (define - news
- alert
- tutorial)
by now. There are powerful economics to
converging voice and data onto a single network etc. and the ability to
integrate multiple locations and keep the phone traffic on internal
networks. Large-scale deployments still tend to be green field
opportunities, yet it is largely a replacement market.
Boeing’s recent
decision to deploy a VoIP network has received much publicity. Most of
the large deployments announced thus far have one of two elements. The
first is that the companies already have state of the art data networks
(it has been estimated that the data network preparation is often three
times the cost of the voice component) and that the incremental cost of
overlaying voice is minimal. The seconds is that the company has
sophisticated internal staff that has been able to deploy a homegrown
application with a compelling cost justification. Herein lies the key
to the opening question.
Looking for a killer
app in voice, as in Voice over Internet Protocol, is going to be very
difficult. The only ways to improve voice alone is to move it cheaper or
improve the quality.
VoIP is a simplistic
label to describe packetized data of which voice is the most common
application. A more colorful description is multi-media, whether it is
voice, data, text or image whatever is packetized can be transmitted
easily over Internet Protocol.
Once you start looking
at moving multiple media around in new ways, you can really start
uncovering major business solutions. Don’t expect your vendors to be
too much help here. They don’t know your business well enough and the
new solutions may include so many elements that you essentially become
the systems integrator.
VoIP allows
capabilities that are fundamentally different from that which could
occur in the Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) world. You don’t want to
simply replace a TDM phone system with a VoIP one unless you have
outgrown the old system and need a new one. New materials and
technologies allow new business capabilities to be deployed. Keith
Weiner, DiamondWare President, likens this to when bridges started being
built using metal instead of wood. There was no reason to build them
exactly the same way. Using stronger, lighter and more flexible
material allowed for the structure to be built in a new fashion while
maintaining the same purpose.
Take for example, a
somewhat new, VoIP help desk application that is being deployed at a
major company with tens of thousand of employees. Users needing help
dial into the help desk number where they are greeted by voice
recognition based IVR system. The request is funneled into a SIP based,
multimedia back end. Either web pages that address the user’s need or
self-help videos are stored there. Since the incoming call is
identified at the specific desk locations, appropriate help instruction
can be pushed to the appropriate PC.
Is the above scenario
VoIP? Voice is only a small part of this application. Recently fax and
video over IP vendors have started embracing the term VoIP rather than
launch into a lengthy explanation of how they have packetized
technologies that transmit using the same protocol as voice.
It is time to phase out
the awkward, non-user friendly term VoIP and use something more
accurate.
PIP (Packet over
Internet Protocol) anyone?
Neal Shact
serves as CEO of CommuniTech.
|
[July 30, 2004]
