Embracing Technology

Making IP Telephony WorkRomolo Pallini

GIPS, Director Networks,

Internet Technologies & Telecom

Getronics

Agenda

• Our E-World• Why VoIP at Getronics?• How did we do it?• Where are we today?• What did we learn?• Current VoIP status at Getronics• Future steps• Example of cost savings

Getronics E-World

• Cisco-based network• >450 cities, 30 countries • >600 Network connected sites• 1,000+ customers connected via

Internet/extranet• Globally >8000 Cisco IP phones deployed

internally • Unity and Active directory fully integrated • Monitoring performed by ESC’s

• 2 major data centers (Tewksbury & Brussels)• >800 W2000 server infrastructure• >26,000 networked PCs • Common operating environment

(Windows/Office)• MS Exchange messaging & collaboration• 50 critical NT/UNIX global computer systems • ISO 9002 compliant data centers

Sites, Countries & Customers

Employees, Contractors & Suppliers

Investment & Cost

VoIP … Why?

• Cost effective & future-proof• Unity

–Active directory integration

• Phone/Web-based directory services

• Universal cabling• Reduced admin. costs• Showcase technology deployment

How did we do it? Planning, planning, planning….

• Assessment – Traffic study (data & voice)– IP addressing, DHCP, DNS– WAN, LANs, VLANs– QoS, or other prioritization techniques

• Design – Multidiscipline, international team – High availability infrastructure– Dial plan, IP addresses schema, QoS

How did we do it? Planning, planning, planning….

• Deploy– Phased deployment approach – Help-desk escalation procedures– Training

• Review– Evaluate based on monitoring reports– Call and IP routing traffic– Document

• Support – Monitor, maintain (outsourced to Getronics BU’s)– Core technical team

Justifying VoIP

• New Buildings – Savings: cost of cabling, one infrastructure, MACs.

• Existing facilities – Strongly recommended if expansion is needed – Lower TCO than legacy telephony equipment– Savings: One infrastructure, MACs

• Cabling saving may not be realized due to infrastructure already in place.

• Remote and mobile workforce – Productivity increase: unified messaging– Soft phones, Unity ,…….

Lessons Learned

• Planning – Involve all infrastructure teams

• NT, Exchange, Active Directory to install VoIP• Voice team involvement

– Understand and prepare the network infrastructure• Traffic study• IP addressing• VLANS• QoS, or other prioritization techniques• Security

Lessons Learned, cont.

• Think about your users– Communicate and make them part of the

process– Training

• Interactive web-based training created

– Help-desk support

• Maximize ROI by understanding your calling patterns and your links utilization

Current VoIP Status at Getronics

• First Installation in US: February 1999• VoIP locations

– US, UK, Belgium, NL, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Austria, Australia, Singapore, Middle East, ……

• Features– Cisco-Nortel-Avaya interconnected – Unity (unified messaging) integrated with Active Directory – Inter-clustering to Getronics’ Global sites – IP phone applications

• Weather forecast• Stock info• Directory services

What next?

• Clusters consolidation– Central European cluster installed

• Belgium and NL live • Planned migrations for Germany, Switzerland….• Target 10K to 15K users

– Central European Unity installed

• IPCC/ICM– Call centers migration to IPCC planned

• US, Mexico, Canada

– ICM multimedia installed (contact center ) • Voice, web chats, e-mails

Some examples of savings

• $35K/month for international call center traffic

• $50/month for each remote user

• $50K cabling in Billerica HQ

• $100K/year savings in MAC (Billerica-Tewksbury)