If you are looking at integrating telecom into IT at your company, then the following is for you.  For decades companies procured and maintained separate systems, typically called a PBX, to provide reliable dial tone to an organization.  As telecom and IT organizations and their budgets got merged, CIOs not only want to reduce cost, but standardize operations and datacenter requirements on common best practices.  With legacy PBX systems that is not possible, so that a new solution is required to provide reliable dial tone as an IT application.  Here are the eight steps to consider for a successful migration.

1)      Assess your current environment:  Situations in different companies are much more alike than you might think.  Most large enterprise that operate several larger locations and potentially many smaller locations sit on a widely distributed and typically complex installation to provide dialtone to each location and every employee.  Requirements for access to the PSTN grew over time with many telco lines connecting into these locations.  Local or regional clusters were built, not allowing users to seamlessly roam between locations.  If your company went through acquisitions, you typically look at a multi-vendor environment.  In most cases software and hardware releases are not current and in order to be able to keep your vendor’s support contract there is a need for constant costly upgrades.  Licensing is a jungle and an inhibitor to harmonizing the system and adapt it to changing needs in your company.  Completely different skills and operating procedures are required to maintain the telephony platform.

2)      Start with an enterprise wide SIP core:  Do not fall into the trap of assessing one complete system against another complete system from a different vendor.  Successful migration into the post-PBX era requires a different layering and a departure from the vertically integrated model of the past.  The foundation for every scalable, flexible, and cost effective system is an open SIP core that can be deployed enterprise wide or globally, offering not only flexible call routing, but user roaming without boundaries.  Complete 100% standards compliance and openness should be the core requirement.  In a horizontally layered infrastructure model you will want to be able to add applications that connect to this SIP core later from different vendors, and therefore you have to insist on complete adherence to the SIP standard and openness of the solution.  This is the most critical foundation of your new system.

3)      Consider your IT best practices:  What skills, infrastructure, and best practices do you have already established in your organization in support of other business critical IT infrastructure and applications?  Have you moved into a private cloud or IaaS infrastructure?  What level of outsourcing is in your plans?  How do you do monitoring and reporting, backup & restore, and what are your DR requirements and practices?  Are you on a Linux or Windows stack?   What skills do you have in your organization to manage such an application? Answers to these questions are critical as you assess not only your needs, but also your future cost.

4)      Take stake of your network infrastructure:  Especially if this is your first move into communications over IP or VoIP, a network and plumbing infrastructure assessment is an absolute must.  Your new system will only perform as well as your network does and user experience critically depends on things such as QoS management to reserve bandwidth and guarantee low jitter and delay.  Today’s routed and switched networks are perfectly capable to deliver everything you need, provided they are properly configured and you have implemented a good network topology.  In addition, you will have to assess your DNS and DHCP infrastructure as a modern SIP core heavily relies on DNS to load-share and failover.

5)      Migration requirements:   The transition to a new system does not happen overnight, especially not in a large organization.  Therefore, you will need a carefully crafted migration strategy that allows you to migrate one location at a time, one department at a time, or one service at a time while maintaining interoperability and feature and user experience transparency during the migration.  Most legacy systems either do not provide SIP interfaces, or provide SIP capabilities not up to par with respect to standards compliance or features.  Therefore, different options for interoperability with legacy systems have to be considered.

6)      What to do with phones?   Phones represent the largest percentage of your new system cost and therefore you want to carefully assess your options.  If you are on an old TDM system it is likely that phones used by your employees are amortized and up for renewal.  For newer systems, such as Cisco CallManager implementations, you can consider re-using these phones.  An alternative strategy used more and more includes a ‘bring your own device’ program where employees might want to use tablets and smartphones as end devices instead of desk phones.  With a standards compliant and open SIP core you have the flexibility to consider end devices from a variety of vendors including all kinds of apps running on tablets and smartphones, letting your organization participate in and profit from the accelerating level of innovation in this field.

7)      Application and business process integration:   We all remember how cumbersome and expensive CTI based integration used to be in the past.  As a critical requirement your new system needs to offer a comprehensive set of Web Services based interfaces.  With that communications enablement of applications and business processes becomes easy.  Every organization uses a distinct set of critical applications to conduct its business.  The new communications solution needs to be integrated with these applications, offering communications services right in the same browser based user interface as these other applications.  This can now easily be done.  In addition you will want user profile integration, social graph integration, common activity streams, and a cohesive experience as users go from one application to another.

8)      Add up your cost:   Cost matters to every organization, small and large.  The variance on solution pricing is huge and the general rule is that the more vendor specific and vertically integrated a solution is, the more it costs.  That might seem counterintuitive to a customer, but it makes perfect sense to a vendor.  As solutions are more and more looked at as a service, operating cost is often more important than upfront CAPEX.  Lowest possible OPEX depends on the degree you can apply established IT best practices to both operations as well as hardware requirements.  The pricing model is critical too.  Do you buy a fully featured seat, or does the vendor itemize pricing and charge for every single thing separately?  What operating system, database, and middleware stack does the solution run on?  There is a significant different in price between a free Linux stack and a vendor specific stack with a commercial database such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL.  Do you have to build regional clusters or can you create one global cluster instead.  We have shown that for e.g. a four location global deployment the difference in the number of servers required to build the solution can be as much as 6x.  This translates directly into operating cost and not just CAPEX.

We hope the above steps are helpful in your assessment of your dialtone solution requirements.  Times have changed and the decade old vertically integrated model is giving way to an IT application as we enter the post-PBX era.

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phones, applications and mobile Internet services, companies are now at risk of losing control over managing their costs.”

 Some tips that will allow you to reduce your costs:

1. Businesses often have multiple providers for multiple devices, one easy tip is to consider consolidating everyone under one company plan.   If one vendor has all of your business, it will give you more leverage to negotiate better or the best rates out there, not to mention the one stop shop is easier to track your payments and your analyze your costs.
2. Always keep abreast of the changing plans offered to businesses.  These plans can include pooled minutes as well as plans that give you a peak amount of minutes a month, is one example.  You will be surprised how much you can save by analyzing usage and calling patterns.
3. Don’t overlook your bill but instead review everything you are being charged for (i.e. call waiting etc).  If you don’t need it, don’t pay for it.
4. Find an interconnect company that Leverages new technology such as IP soft phones and Skype to reduce expensive roaming charges. Many IP PBX’s will also allow you to transfer calls received on cellular while in the office to a landline without the caller even knowing it happened.
5. Depending on your Smartphone, you may have the option to automatically detect and switch to wireless network(s) or hotspots when available resulting in savings on Data usage charges.
6. Know your Roaming plan! There is nothing worse than getting an outrageous bill for a few phone calls south of the border. You may also want to call your provider in advance of your trip to enquire about special roaming packages. Depending on your Smartphone, you can change your settings to “Off while roaming” and save yourself a surprise.
7. Make sure you review your bills. Often you will find mistakes, wrong rates or catch devices which should have been cancelled, all adding up to big savings.

This is where we come in.  HTCS is an interconnect company that is a partner with Avaya Cisco giving you the advantage of our position in the VoIP and SiPtel market.  We understand the whole idea of the one stop shop.   We can keep things simple for you as we keep our customers current with the changing technology.

Here are our top tips to help you project a professional and friendly company.

1) Create a company policy on how to pick up incoming calls.  That way if we all agree, incoming callers know who they’ve reach by your opening line.

I favour “Good morning/afternoon. This is Phone systems Toronto. Michelle (or whoever) speaking and leave it at that. If you must add something then “How may I help you?”

Personally I dislike the commonly used phrase “What can we do for you today?” because it makes a reply difficult – my most usual reply is “You can put me through to Fred (or whoever I’m trying to speak to)”.

2) Smile when you pick up the phone.  Believe it or the not, the person on the receiving end can sense your cheery disposition.

3) If a caller is waiting, keep checking in on them and ask whether they are okay to wait.  This makes them feel important and that you are looking out for them, so being kept on hold isn’t so painful.

4) A little recognition doesn’t hurt, so acknowledge them if you know them.  It gives that personal touch.

5) Remember that old adage the customer is always right?  Well they are! So try and deal with difficult callers courteously even if you want to join them in a rebuttal match.  Of course this doesn’t mean that you are required to tolerate intimidating or offensive language.  If people use offensive or intimidating language then it is appropriate to warn them that you will disconnect the line if they carry on (and to do so).

Most companies will have a policy allowing you to resolve the complaint if you can even if there is some small cost to the company. If you cannot resolve the complaint then you can at least offer to get someone to call the complainer back – but make sure they return the call.

6) Another important purchase is a phone system that allows everyone to answer the calls directly.  A good idea is everyone should have their own phone number (otherwise known as a DID)

7) Learn how to use your phone system’s features smoothly.  No one wants to be hung up on, especially if it was unintentional so ensure your staff know how to work all the necessary features like transferring a call.

One of the best solutions I have found in business is to work with an interconnect company that can service the phone system, program the phone system.  Set up the phone, so that if they can’t take the call, then the system should allow a colleague to answer – you can use call cascading or have multiple phones ring at once.
o put people in queue until answered (though most people hate this)
o work with a live answering service so that another company answers the call on your behalf in your name. Cloud Net provides an excellent service with no subscription
o set up a voicemail service which allows people to leave a message – say you will get back to people (people don’t like this either)

 Whether you’re an Enterprise or a Service Provider, you can now have the deep VoIP, SIP, and UC quality and service level management you need – without the strain on your budget and your resources.

 HTCS Cloud is Right-Sized to Fit Your Business and Your Budget with:

•             Small Up-Front Costs – Pay only for what you need today, easily funded with operating budget

•             Quick Deployment – No IT hassle, lengthy implementations, or expensive hardware to deploy

•             No Staff Resource Drain – All configuration and system administration is handled for you

•             Initiate New Clients Instantly – No installs, configs, or licensing hassles to deal with

•             Immediate Scalability – Start with what you need now, and easily scale up as you grow

•             Multi-Vendor Support – Manages VoIP, SIP, and UC across Avaya, Nortel, Cisco, and more

•             End-to-End Solution – Includes VoIP QoS, Fault, Performance, Automation, and CDR Reporting

For our loyal and satisfied existing customers and new clients, the month of March brings in some Spring Cleaning!

We will give you a free phone bill analysis and come up with ways to save you money on your long distance calls!

Some other services we provide in the Toronto and Surrounding areas!

Whether you have an Avaya – Nortel or Cisco phone system, HTCS has professional service technicians that can provide the following for you:

• Training for you & your staff on the phone and voice mail system
• Any programming you require (mobile phone/iPhone to work with the phone system)
• Upgrading (includes adding phones, jacks and cabling)
• Relocating phone system including moves, setup and reprogramming
• Trouble with your phone line? (too much static or customers getting cut off?)

If you are also considering a Service and Maintenance contract to put a security blanket on your current  phone system, we can arrange this too!

We offer Service and Maintenance contracts on all the phone systems we sell and support, including extended warranties.

First of all ask yourself these questions:

Does your business ever have conference calls?

1. If you need to have a conference call with 10 or 15 people on the line, how do you do it?

2. Would it help your company if you could host your own conference calls at any time without paying extra fees?

This is actually a great example of how Avaya IP Office starts delivering savings from Day 1.  You can actually have dozens of people on the conference call.  You can also connect it to a web conference too!  For some companies, this feature alone is why they make the move ot Avaya IP Office.  Do you think your company might do even more conference calling if you had this capability?

Call today to find out more amazing benefits of the Avaya IP Office suite!

• Free North America long distance
• Free local and office-to-office calling.
• Number portability (keep your number).
• Web provisioned in seconds not weeks!
• Bandwidth agnostic (Use your existing broadband).
• Supports high-call capacity without voice degradation.
• Eliminates the need for expensive and un-flexible traditional voice circuits.
• Easy integration with gateways or IP-PBX equipment.
• Cheaper international long distance on a SIP trunk when compared to traditional rates.

Keep your existing PBX equipment

The Best Part!!

 For business enterprises that want to keep their existing PBX system, we have a solution!  By using our SIP TRUNKS, you can keep your existing PBX system, all of your currents phones and user configurations.  And enjoy the cost savings of IP Communications

..what you didn’t know..

• SIP Trunking is simply a single conduit pipeline for multimedia elements (voice, video and data) that reduces or eliminates the need for PSTN media gateways, as well as reduce or eliminate the need for narrow-band voice circuits. SIP Trunks are a perfect substitute for traditional PRI or analog circuits.

• SIP Trunks can work with a SIP-ready PBX. SIP Trunks can also be made to work with traditional analog or key systems by adding a gateway behind the PBX in order to connect to the SIP Trunk. Gateway prices start below $200 and range in size from 4 to 8 ports, and can be ganged to provide increased ports. 

• SIP Trunks are virtual circuits delivered over an Internet Access line.

Depending on the number of SIP Trunks purchased, and the amount of excess Internet connectivity, a business should consider purchasing more Internet Access. However, it’s important to know that when a SIP Trunk is not being used, the bandwidth otherwise allocated to a SIP Trunk is freed up for use in less intensive

applications, such as e-mail and general web use. This dynamic allocation of bandwidth is yet another feature of SIP Trunks versus more traditional technologies, such as analog or PRI circuits.