Mar 26, 2015
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Roadblocks to Business Grade VoIP
(OS-03)
Presented by:Joe Rhem
President and CTOStar2Star Communications
www.Star2Star.com January 2007
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Summary This presentation covers the obstacles to
achieving a business grade reliable, high quality and secure VoIP solution. Issues such as network reliability, bandwidth availability, Jitter, echo, failed hardware at the end user site, failed infrastructure at the network operational center and security problems will all be highlighted. Each of these obstacles has an architectural, technological or best practice that solves the problem. The audience will also go through the design of a solution that can provide high reliability, high quality, and secure Internet based VoIP service for any business (small and medium business included).
Joe Rhem,President and CTOStar2Star Communications
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
The Way People Work has Changed
• Companies have spread out and outsourced parts of their organization
• More and more employees are working from their homes
• The cell phone has become an important part of the business communications process
• Broadband Internet access is now serving most small to medium businesses and has become another important part of the communications process
• There is now an anytime, anywhere expectation for staying in communication whether we like it or not
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
The Only Thing That Has Not Changed
Is The Phone System…
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
The Traditional Phone Companies Have Changed but for the Worse
• Degrading analog lines
• Customer Service unaware, uncaring, and under-staffed
• Overpriced
• No new features in the last 30 years
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Lack of Features and Too Much Money• Small and medium businesses have had to either opt out of
sophisticated phone systems or invest a disproportionate part of their budget to get traditional features.
• Small and midsized businesses have been continuing to pay the traditional phone company twice the value for their phone service than they need to.
• Taken together the lack of modern features and the incredible expense of these systems makes them a poor choice.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
But They Will Keep Trying
• Just because traditional phone systems and traditional phone service lack features and are tremendously overpriced does not stop sales people from trying to convince you that you should keep buying those solutions.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Not All Internet Phone Solutions Are Created
Equally
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Three Architectures that Do Not Work for Business
Traditionally there have been three ways to implement VoIP for small and medium businesses.
• Consumer Grade Internet Phone Solutions
• VoIP PBX Manufacturer with Third Party Internet Phone Service
• Hosted PBX with Internet Phone Service
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
You May Have Seen Consumer Grade You May Have Seen Consumer Grade Internet Phone Service Offered on the TVInternet Phone Service Offered on the TVYou May Have Seen Consumer Grade You May Have Seen Consumer Grade Internet Phone Service Offered on the TVInternet Phone Service Offered on the TV
• VoIP, better known as Internet Phone Service, has been offered to consumers as a cut-rate service from cable companies and consumer oriented VoIP providers advertising on the television.
• These consumer grade services save money but lack the feature set, quality and reliability that a business requires.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Avoid A Science ProjectRecently you could purchase a VoIP PBX from one company and tie it to Internet phone service from another company. This approach is more of a science project than a solution and lacks features as well as quality and reliability. So much so that many VoIP PBX manufacturers are recommending more expensive traditional phone service with their products.
Company A Turns a PC Into a PBX
Company B Provides Internet Phone Service at Some Level
Internet
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Hosted VoIP PBX Over the Internet
Another option is a completely Hosted PBX with VoIP Phone Service over the Internet but this lacks quality without an expensive T1 line and actually costs more over time than traditional phone service.
Internet
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Each of These Approaches Has Certain Drawbacks
• They lack Features
• There are Quality issues
• There are Reliability issues
• You do not Save any money over regular business phone service
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Quality Issues
• Must eliminate echo• Must eliminate (almost all) jitter• Must work equally as well on any Internet connection
including DSL and cable• Must use no more than 30 Kbs per call• Must not drop calls • Must manage bandwidth and data priority issues on
the Internet• Must manage bandwidth and data priority issues on
the local LAN• Must avoid poor phone equipment quality
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Reliability Issues
• Internet goes down at customer site for extended period• Internet connection may go up and down• Cable cuts occur• Power outages happen• ISP modem may need to be reset from time to time• A PBX is based on PC technology has a high failure rate with
moving parts, hard disk, etc.• Internet may go down at SIP provider• SIP provider might go down • SIP provider might lose a component• SIP provider may not have Tier-1 data center• SIP provider may use a third party low bid SIP wholesalers• SIP provider may not use carrier grade hardware
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Saving Requirements
• PBX should start at under $400 plus $50 per port• Setup should be web based and easy enough for the
phone administrators to control features themselves in real-time. A two week long consulting contract can cost $10,000.
• Phones should cost between $100 and $200 depending on quality and features. The days of the $500 phone are gone.
• Must be able to use DSL and Cable reliably with high quality calling or it does not save any money.
• Must be able to get 33 calls across DSL or 66 on T1 or it consumes too much bandwidth per call which translates to more cost.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Meeting The Challenges of Delivering a True Business
Grade Internet Phone Solution Requires an Single
Integrated End-to-End Architecture
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Only an End-To-End Architecture Delivers a Business Grade Solution Over the Internet
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
It Requires an End-To-End Approach to Deliver Powerful Features
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Find-Me/Follow-Me
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Call RoutingHave the option to add as many phone numbers as you wish (not phone lines). Setup multiple companies, departments or personal numbers. Each can behave differently when people call or after business hours.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Your Phone System Should Integrate with Outlook and Your PC
Your cell phone, PC and office phone systems should all dial from the same list of contacts in Outlook.
Click and Call any contact so you do not have to dial the same phone number twice in your lifetime.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Voice to Email
Never miss a message:
Voicemail should be accessible through email as well as through the phone system.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
911 Support
Make Sure That Your VoIP Solution Fully Supports Making 911 Calls From Your Office Phone and Remote Extensions
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Business Grade Customer Site Components
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
You Can not Deliver Business Grade Service without an Integrated PBX on Your Premises
If you have more than 4 phones you need a PBX on site (should cost $400 or less)
• Support 5-100 Users
• Support DSL, Cable or T1
• Support VoIP 2.0 Features
•100% Solid State (no moving parts/no PCs)
•QOS, 729a Codec
• Monitored 24x7x365
• Self Healing
If you have more than 100 phones then you need a larger PBX which cost around $1500
• Support 500 Users
• Support Up to 4 T1 Lines
• Support VoIP 2.0 Features
•100% Solid State (no moving parts/ no PCs)
•QOS, 729a Codec
• Monitored 24x7x365
• Self Healing
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
The VoIP Phones Should Be Full Featured Business Phones
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
The System Must Still Support Analog Phones, Fax Machines… Even Other Phone Systems
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Business Grade VoIP Service Over the Internet
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Superior Quality Requires Having Control of Both Ends of the Connection
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
The Service Should be Housed in a Tier-1 Data Center
The Data Center houses the core telecommunication infrastructure for a VoIP solution.
It should be a Tier-1 facility and have multiple redundant fiber loops and multiple carriers POPs.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Business Grade Systems Require End-To-End Monitoring and Service Desk Around the Clock
Online System Monitor Automatic Detection of
Quality or Reliability Issues
Service Tickets Should Be Created by Automatic Detection, from a Web Site or By Calling an Around the Clock Support Center
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
To Guarantee Reliability You Must Control the Data Center and Customer Site
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Data Center Reliability Requires Total Redundancy
100% Redundant Cisco Network at Tier-1 Data Center
Powered by Redundant Connections
Inergen Gas Fire Suppression System
Redundant Environment Control System
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
The Solution Should be Connected By a Nationwide Network of Tier-1 POPs
Service should extend far beyond a provider’s core infrastructure in the Data Center. When you make a call, your vendor should be able to determine the best quality route for your call and send your call through that route to guarantee the highest possible call quality.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Savings
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Only an End-To-End Solution Can Actually Cut the Typical Business Phone Bill in Half
• VoIP Service with an End-To-End approach with Business Grade Service over Cable and DSL will cut the typical business phone bill in half
• If you buy the system you will get a quick return on your investment
• Some vendors offer financing as low as Prime +2
• When you finance the system you can usually save enough on the phone bill to completely pay for the brand new phone system and phones with little or no additional out of pocket expense
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
How to Switch To Business Grade VoIP
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Step 1: Get Out Your Old Phone Bill
• How many lines?
• How many phones?
• Do you want to keep your old phone number?
• Will you keep at least one analog line?
• Do you have a broadband internet connection?
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Step 2: Get a Quote From a VoIP Dealer
Have a Local Dealer Create
a Quote
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Step 3: Place an Order• With the help of a Local
Certified Dealer some VoIP vendors offer an intuitive web wizard to determine how your system will work.
• Fill out and fax the number porting document
• Include a copy of a recent phone bill
• Select Payment option (Lease, Purchase, Credit)
• Sign the Service Contract
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Step 4: Run a Side-by-Side Test
• Run your old system (incoming calls only) and the new VoIP system (outgoing calls only) side-by-side
• Most vendors offer a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee if you are not completely satisfied with the solution
Old Phone System Internet Phone Solution
Side by Side Test
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Step 5: Trade-In Your Old System
Many vendors will accept your old system as a trade-in. This saves you
even more money.
January 23-26, 2007• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Question and Answers