If you have been thinking about transforming your office to an all-IP environment, there has never been a better time. The technology is becoming more accessible day by day and the value chain is unbeatable, especially in comparison to legacy PSTN ecosystems.
There is no mistaking the reasons for this current trend. Agility, mobility, security, omnichannel enablement, and a drastic reduction in telecom spending are just a few of the driving forces.
Some of the value that can be realized through IP transformation includes:
- 90% reduction in telecom real estate footprint
- Up to 50% reduction in power consumption
- Value-added services that drive revenue
- Massive reduction in the cost of telecom maintenance
Additionally, the demise of TDM switching is imminent. While TDM still represents a small portion of fixed business phone lines, the downward trend would suggest that it is breathing its last gasp. It is predicted that by 2020, SIP trunks will have more than doubled its current baseline. Along with this, we will see just as significant a reduction in business PSTN lines.
Simply put, this means that change is imminent, and transformation will be coming at some point. In fact, most telecom providers have either already made the switch away from PSTN or they have begun the process. By 2020, many such companies in the USA will have completed their transformation. Overseas, it is already well underway. In some countries, such as the Philippines, Japan, and Austria, it is already a done deal.
Beyond financial benefits
Value is always a primary driving force in adopting new technology, and telecom is no exception. IP telephony’s value, however, goes far beyond the obvious cost benefits, providing enhanced services to the consumer and enabling optimized processes within the office environment.
Enabling business agility
An all-IP office provides businesses with agile connectivity throughout the workforce, even in the case of businesses with multiple or international locations. These enhanced capabilities support unified communications while transforming the way companies operate and communicate both internally and externally. Better yet, these enhancements come at a much-reduced cost, opening up possibilities for increased revenue through sales enablement and better customer service.
Increasing productivity
A key motivation in IP transformation is the ability to increase productivity. The value that it brings to just about every department is very real:
- For IT: enjoy increased control over telecom inventory and transparency into communications quality, robust security and backup options, remote management
- For sales: enable unified communications, get more accomplished, seamless experience
- For marketing: enhanced services include local numbers everywhere, increase potential customer base
- For management: ability to monitor workforce activity and productivity in real-time
- For the customer: better quality voice calling, omnichannel customer service enablement, and ‘always-on’ service
Increasing security and reliability
Arguably the greatest concern of an all-IP office is the potential for a security breach, downtime, or another unforeseen event that could potentially take down their entire communications infrastructure.
In fact, IP telephony is more secure than ever, and improvements are ongoing. The security enhancements over legacy PBX are considerable, and quite effectively close the gate on issues such as eavesdropping, theft of service, and denial of service.
In terms of reliability, the concern is real: businesses do not want to risk any negative impact to their ongoing operations. While a residential customer might be able to just use their mobile during the changeover, an enterprise that is dependent on their communications won’t have that same luxury. Service outages and quality issues can resonate right through to the bottom line.
“Just make it work”
For the IP provider, being able to complete the migration on budget and in a reliable timeframe is key. If handled responsibly, the migration should have zero impact on existing services and will not compromise the end users in matters of quality or reliability.
Ultimately, most companies just want to make sure their new IP environment works and that the migration is accomplished in a timely manner. What they really want to do is to be able to deliver the services they built their reputation on – not be inadvertently focused on the pitfalls of transformation or standing by to find workarounds for issues that may come up in the process.
A best-practice TDM-to-IP migration scenario will:
- Allow for any deployment scenario, whether influenced by business size or complexity
- Avoid losing customers in the process through downtime, service or quality issues
- Minimize the cost of migration through careful planning prior to deployment
- Optimize migration by choosing times when there will be the least impact to service
- Enable future cloud services by establishing a scalable framework
CCG Telecom: supporting your TDM to IP transformation
Choosing to migrate your office to an all-IP environment may be the smartest move yet. CCG Telecom is a leader in VoIP transition, providing solutions that will support a seamless transition. Call today to speak to one of our VoIP specialists and find out how easy it is to get started.