white paper - toip a winning solution for enterprise - 2015 - eng

White Paper Telephony over IP (IPBX/centrex/cloud) :

A winning solution for enterprise

Author : Lamine TALAKELA – CEO, founder of Consulting TIME - 2015 - France

White paper – ToIP a winning solution for enterprise -‐ Document produced by Consulting TIME, 2015 -‐

www.consultingtime.fr

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The company, the Digital and technical tools such as telephony over IP

From the need to reduce costs for new productivity tools and performance



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Preamble

The purpose of this document is to provide a guide to inform and assist businesses and professionals in the telecommunications and ICT sector or a completely different sectors, by curiosity or in anticipation to having an IP telephony deployment project on the necessary prerequisites and migration approaches to IP telephony ; namely : what to implement, technically what it implies, and also the functional and economic benefits of choosing this type of solution, regardless of the company size.

The author, founder and CEO of the Consulting TIME company, expert in telecommunications, associated services and digital strategy for companies, has a serious experience in terms of overall design of an innovative telephony solution IP (among the pioneers in Europe ), and about the telecom market as an engineer/project manager and was actively involved in the deployment, installation, support, training and development in commercial sale of IP telephony solutions for SME’s and multinational companies, which are references today.

Each day confronted with the problems of land users returns, and with the desire to satisfy customers, he share with you some important rules and things to know to choose a winning telephony solution for your business.



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PREAMBLE ............................................................................................................................................................ 3 1. DIFFERENT APPROACHES OF THE TELEPHONY OVER IP ............................................................... 5

1.1 THE TELEPHONY OVER IP (TOIP) .................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 THE « FULL-IP » .............................................................................................................................................. 6

2. TELEPHONY OVER IP ; THE SOLUTIONS ................................................................................................ 6 2.1 THE IPBX ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 2.2 THE DECENTRALIZED TELEPHONY ; THE IP CENTREX OR CLOUD TELEPHONY ................................................. 9 2.3 TECHNOLOGY AND TERMINALS ..................................................................................................................... 11

3. IP TELEPHONY ; THE DEPLOYMENT ..................................................................................................... 13 3.1 CHOOSING THE SOLUTION .............................................................................................................................. 13 3.2 THE DEPLOYMENT OF THE SOLUTION ............................................................................................................. 14

4. CONTRIBUTIONS OF IP TELEPHONY TECHNOLOGY FOR YOUR BUSINESS ............................ 15 4.1 WHAT ARE THE GAINS FOR THE COMPANY? ............................................................................................... 15 4.2 SOME EXAMPLES OF FEATURES LIKE, BASIC AND ADVANCED .................................................................... 16

CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................................... 17 ANNEX .................................................................................................................................................................. 18



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1. Different approaches of the telephony over ip

1.1 The Telephony over IP (ToIP)

Unlike the VoIP (Voice over IP) that is only the delivery of telephony’s voice from one network to another (whether public or private, internal or external), the ToIP (Telephony over IP) in over what VoIP, provides services and features on the transport of voice.

IP telephony can be done via IP Phones (phones running on the IP protocol) or computer (thanks to softphones).

We will see that IP telephony can be used in addition to traditional business telephony via a gateway, or "Full-‐IP"; what interests us particularly in this document.

Note :

The use of a VoIP gateway, allows to get his voice flow to an operator in VoIP (DSL or optical) rather than by a conventional connection (multichannel) rent from a service provider ; this technique saves on cost of routing voice via an IP link properly sized (and have a classic or mobile backup solution by reducing the number of leased channels, to be used only in case of failure in degraded mode).



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1.2 The « Full-‐IP »

What we call the "Full-‐IP" on IP telephony, as stated above, is the fact of using the telephony features and services as well as IP transit at all; it is both the combination of telephony and voice over IP.

The "Full-‐IP" can be used only internally to a single-‐site enterprise or a multi-‐site or in course of a communication with the outside world. Let's see two technologies of "All-‐IP" today in business. Note :

In the following paper we will only use that IP telephony term to talk about these two technologies.

2. Telephony over IP ; the solutions

2.1 The IPBX

ToIP based IPBX (IP PBX) involves the installation of a telephony server within the company (currently called IPBX or PBX).

This phone technology, allows to the company a flexibility in the choice of its internal architecture, but especially for the external the company can choose their telecom operator for connection to the traditional PSTN or IP network, to change easily, and easily back-‐up its solution. The telephony server can also easily connect remote sites with a single bond. It is a solution that brings greater independence regarding access operators and providers.



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-‐ Schema 1 -‐

Overnight (with a delay of a few days anyway), it is possible for a company to change operator for the transit of its telephony, or have a back-‐up solution on the site (2nd link relief from a different operator) is an important advantage of this telephony solution "Full-‐IP" internal to the company.



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Cons of this solutions are :

The hosting of the solution on the company’s infrastructure. The management of the solution* The full cost of the solution if you have a big infrastructure;

monthly or annual maintenance fees if proprietary solution, and all costs associated with the management.

*Focus on managing a PBX solution :

Whether you choose a proprietary solution IPBX (Alcatel, Cisco, Mitel, Aastra, Panasonic ...) or free (Asterisk, SIPX, Saturn, ...), there are associated costs with configuring Services, Maintenance (IP-‐ Phones, connect, add / delete / move a user, ...).

When the solution is proprietary, even as it is often the cost of licenses by IP-‐Phones and/or annual maintenance, ... :

-‐ When adding/deleting a post sometimes require a technician to a service company authorized to configure of the solution.

-‐ When installing/uninstalling/ also move the solution.

When the solution is free, must implement a solution yourself or hire a professional service provider/expert consultant ? In either case, there is a cost in human resource internal or external services expenses. Also, for structures on a human scale (less than 50 users), these costs are often included in maintenance contracts or in the monthly total amount of the contract (installation + commissioning + packages ...).



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2.2 The decentralized telephony ; the IP centrex or cloud telephony

The telephony over IP IP-‐centrex, what is it?

It’s nothing but the « phone cloud » for enterprise ; that is to say deport internal phone company for it to be handled almost entirely by third telecom operator or service provider.

This phone technology, allows the company to dispense completely* the management of hosting the solution.

A simple connection to the service, via fiber or DSL connection to the site or in the core of the network as part of a multi-‐site service (MPLS network, or liaising main site to secondary sites) allows the company to benefit from telephony service with ease.

The telephony server, one commonly speaks Telecom switch in the case of this technical solution is hosted by the operator or the service provider, which is responsible for configuring the creation of telephone accounts, the services of the client company and the subscribers.

On the client side, it must have its IP-‐Phones (purchased or leased) on the LAN to be connected to the service.

Much of services (at some level after the operator / telecom provider; hence the need upstream from the choice of solution to thoroughly research and compare the different offers on the market) is delegated and configurable by the company simple way (through an extranet more commonly called "self-‐care" that all phone market offers propose).

See in more detail, that the choice of a decentralized telephony solution "IP Centrex" or "cloud" implies for a business practice since its choice to use, through the installation.



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* : In fact, there are 2 modes ; one in IaaS (infrastructure as a service) ie you rent an entire infrastructure service with its key in hand, you pay only for access, consumption and support, there is even talk here often TaaS because of Telephony as a service (often mutualized solution with several service provider customers). The other mode is the PaaS (Platform as a service) to the most important structures or who wish to resell a telephone service to their own customers/users ; in this case one rents or buys a platform dedicated to his business and ready to be configured for its own use, you pay a complete platform for your specific use with a support and a larger support.

-‐ Schema 2 -‐



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The entire phone server and the services are hosted by the third party operator ; the company manage the network on its voice and configures LAN functionality itself. She does not care about the maintenance of the solution, or connecting its remote sites, since all sites connected to the operator's network will benefit from the service in the same way (except in PaaS mode and hosted on its site or a data center).

2.3 Technology and terminals

IP telephony uses the switching technology of digitized voice packets to the IP. For a successful IP telephony communication, there are technical requirements related to the transmission : 1) bandwidth must be optimized for the use of ToIP on the network used (implementation of quality of service -‐ QoS -‐ to reserve bandwidth for voice and prioritize these flows compared to other network usage or separate networks using VLAN).

2) the transmission delay on the network; Today networks used by enterprises are of the order of 100/1000 Mb / s see in the transmission and reception of flows is essential for the proper functioning of the global network and its application uses, such as telephony for example.

3) the echo phenomenon signal which can be interfere with electronic elements of the network (old or defective equipment, it is very rare to meet today, but this may be a case of network analysis in research track of performance measurements or for abnormalities).

4) jitter, which changes the transmission time between two packets over a network (again, this is technically interesting when measuring performance or for abnormalities).

5) managing the QoS end to end on a network (LAN and WAN) for IP telephony and voice by definition is a sensitive service where even minimal alteration of the network (overload, transmission delay,...one of 4 previous points) is audible on, we must seek to manage QoS and all the technical parameters from end to end and not just in one location of the network that exchanges are optimal.



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To function properly, IP telephony requires technical prerequisites as we have seen, but also involves choices when the performance of the service quality in the feeling in use; why this three important points : 1) the protocol (SIP, MGCP, H.323, SCCP, IAX, ... are the most represented in the market; SIP is the most likely and most standardized in recent years). 2) codec, it is characterized by a compression method (with varying degrees of quality, low quality to the HD: G.711, G.729, G.722, G.723.1, ... etc ...) and a flow rate compression rate (6 to 64 Kbits / s; the selection of the codec and its corresponding features directly affects the bandwidth to be allocated to the ToIP -‐ and the different transmission characteristics outlined earlier -‐ as well as the choice of the terminal telephone (next point 3)).

3) the phone terminal, physical (IP phone) or soft (IP softphone) is very important for the proper functioning of the complete IP telephony solution. It’s the direct interface with the user of the service, ergonomics, functions, technical features (types of allowed codecs, network performance, number of ports, the setting mode, display, functionality, security, ... etc ...) must be chosen carefully otherwise the complete solution could be seen as non-‐functional or poorly adapted. There are IP terminals of all types and of all price ranges, and different brands.

Again, in view of the technical nature of these choices, and to help you the best in your projects and decisions, it is highly recommended that you be accompanied by an expert company for all of those choices relating to solutions existing on the market and their implementation, which depends on both the service provider and your internal own network, your architecture and you need to select the technical elements and terminals that would go best with your setup and your uses.



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3. IP telephony ; the deployment

3.1 Choosing the solution To choose a solution, we must firstly know what we want ; companies ask yourself the right questions :

What do i need ? What I would like for my company and my employees ? What is the market ? Is my infrastructure adapted ? What is my budget ?

These 5 questions represent the "why?", "for who ?", "what ?","How?", "how much ?" which are the basis of all the company services projects and will help to define the desired level of service, the needs of a particular employee, project requirements in terms of functionality and of course but obviously Services costs and future savings that are given a key to the business, ... in short, define the contours of a genuine specifications for the internal project manager who will represent the company and exchange from these data with the operator/service provider to the negotiation, implementation, monitoring and assessment of the installation the solution chosen.

Ideal for the business is to hire a consulting firm specializing who will be responsible for constituting these specifications from the collected information (answers to five key questions) and represent the company's interests in defining precise technical needs and make the intermediary between the company and the operator/telecom or service provider :

Sizing DSL or fiber link Number and type of phone terminals necessary Definition adapted from the corporate LAN architecture (connection, or not to use VLANs, specific configurations ...)

Selection of types of switch (VLAN management, trunking with data, with or without PoE, ...)



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Management of phone numbers and lines (portability, pre-‐selection/direct numbers, faxes, special lines for alarm or elevator, ...)

Services, features and rights of all phone users … etc.

All of the above will allow the company accompanied* by a consultancy specializing in the field (*: once again recommended but not required) to write the specifications and then accordingly choose the market solution that will best to all the needs expressed therein.

3.2 The deployment of the solution Next the solution to be adopted, whether to base IPBX or IP Centrex, deployment occurs in the same way according to these steps :

1. Command the link(s) -‐> get a delivery date. 2. Resiliation of links or channels -‐> obtain an effective date of termination. 3. Delivery of equipment (router (s), IP-‐Phones, Fax housings, cabling, PBX,

switches, ...) -‐> get a delivery date. 4. Number portability, if necessary -‐> obtain a portability of a date and time. 5. Based on previous answers (1, 2, 3, 4) -‐> define an implementation date of

the solution ; knowing that a failure of the telephone service will be (depending on the number of rows to migrate to the new solution and adding or deleting rows, this will determine the time required for the implementation of the solution) and therefore the duration service cutoff.

6. Until the implementation date of the solution -‐> implement the necessary prerequisites for the operation of the solution and take action on the corporate LAN (architecture, installation of equipment, ...) to the D-‐day everything is ready for installation and commissioning.

It's highly recommended to migrate your telephony in non business hours, overnight if possible, in coordination with your network / telecom supplier or installer and you (with the consulting firm you eventually mandated) so that the cut caused by migration is not to be impactful or as little as possible.



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4. Contributions of IP telephony technology for your business

4.1 What are the gains for the company?

The gains for the company are different and often economic, but above, all modernity and performance of a solution tailored to the needs of today's business.

An IPBX brings as much and even more features than a traditional PBX, the most basic functions to more advanced features; everything depends on the type of IPBX and chosen more or less advanced phone terminals.

An IP Centrex/cloud solution brings almost as many features as a PBX, but has a particular advantage of flexibility in the management, configuration and cost compared to a PBX solution (generally about 20% less expensive of equivalents).

The IPBX solutions addressed a few years ago mainly for large organizations, but more and more manufacturers offer solutions to functionally small and medium businesses.

The IP Centrex/cloud solutions exist in the market for almost 10 years now and are actually proven, reliable, and mature. Their deployment simplicities and their levels of functionality allow them to apply to all types of businesses from TPE to big business, especially for multi-‐site enterprises.

Technologically, an IP Centrex solution is actually in the era of time (we are in the age of cloud) and represents the cost of management and maintenance that are not taken into account by the company. The company usually has to pay a subscription for its connection, your router and lines of each subscriber of the company, with the operator / telecom provider (as with a mobile operator).



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Whatever the choice of solution (IP PBX or IP Centrex/cloud) IP telephony now allows to share costs with the data of the company, because today the vast majority of operators / providers offer telecom services voice and data. This also helps to have a single contact and a single invoice.

With unified communications technologies based on IP, IP telephony solutions can couple with a lot of modern practices such as mobility, presence, enterprise CRM, messaging, social networks, ... and many other modern solutions used independently in companies.

4.2 Some examples of features like, basic and advanced

• Speed dial (via shortcodes)

• Calls and function group (call groups, incoming, outgoing, automatic distribution of calls following conditions, call center, ...)

• Voicemail

• Supervision

• Standard automatic

• Parking

• Call Screening functions and boss / secretary

• Management and configuration services Interface (Selfcare desktop or mobile)

• PO-‐PC (post operator on PC)

• Presence, IM (instant messaging), Video calls

• … etc.

Plus, many other features and services if unified communication is added, see the convergence and mobility (plug ascent on incoming calls with identification of even unknown to the address book numbers, fixed-‐mobile convergence, single number , call continuity from one terminal to another, etc ...).



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Conclusion

To increase the productivity of the company, to expand its availability, and improve its image, telephony over IP is a technical tool and a useful tool for any company of the TPE to big business to be competitive and powerful in a modern world, demanding and open to the outside. All of the features offered by IP telephony is important and constantly growing due to technological advances and developments of builders and engineering companies in the field, and unlimited options for unified communications that can adapt to the needs of each business according to use. The company must before embarking on a ToIP project to know what she wants by answering five key questions :

What for ? For who ? What ? How? How many ?

and do not hesitate to seek assistance or completely delegate the complete management task of the project (market research, preparation of specifications, functional and technical choices, followed by deployment, coordination, etc ...) to a specialized consulting firm represent your interests in a vast and varied market, where knowledge of solutions and products is important for success.



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Annex Consulting TIME is a company specialized in consulting and expertise in the telecommunications and digital communication solutions for companies and professionals of Digital (operators, manufacturers, editors solutions). Both advise companies compared to market solutions, and designer of telecom solutions, Consulting TIME is able to know better what solutions can match you in relation to your needs and constraints, and what are the advantages and weaknesses this or that existing solution. This is the specific faculty Consulting TIME, be both a promoter of market innovations, and simultaneously creates value, by its contribution to existing and future solutions ; that is what makes that many big companies work with us. About Consulting TIME :

8 years in telecom and ITC/digital industry Major customers : LG-Ericsson, Bouygues Telecom, Numericable group

La Poste, Technicolor (Thomson Group), SNI (Caisse des dépôts et consignations), Fiducial, …

More than 100 000 users using recommanded or integrated solutions by Consulting TIME since 2011 : - IP telephony (IPBX/IP Centrex/Cloud) - Fixed-mobile convergence & mobile centrex - Mobility - Unified communications - Strategy for operators, R&D and engineering - Training - ICT tools for communication - Integration & implementation - … etc

Launch of international activity in January 2014 (Europe / MENA / ASIA)

Consulting TIME, promote innovation and create value : “it ’s t ime to communicate”

Mail : [email protected] Website : www.consultingtime.fr

Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/consultingtime Twitter : twitter.com/consultingtime Google+ : plus.google.com/+consultingtimeFR

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