An 11-step program for enterprise VoIP implementation

 by David H. Yedwab

TelephonyOnline.com, May 14 2004

In 2004, with voice-over-IP capturing over 35% of all new enterprise voice shipments according to our Monitor^SM report, most enterprises will shortly begin their road to implement VoIP, if they haven’t already. Alternative choices abound, ranging from new all-IP PBXs to service provider hosted solutions (IP Centrex). With the problems encountered by early adopters largely resolved and mainstream organizations moving from “If VoIP” to “When VoIP” decisions, this month I begin to layout a roadmap for successful VoIP implementations. The description of this 11-Step Program will be completed in my next monthly column.

The Eastern Management Group’s customer research tells us that there have now been enough experiences about what works across a large variety of organizations, locations and business applications that we can synthesize the lessons into a roadmap to help guide enterprises to move to VoIP successfully. It is not a simple recipe to follow, but it outlines a thoughtful approach containing an admixture of the ingredients that make a successful plan. The skills and determination of the team leader and the team members (including vendors and service providers, at the right times), will determine the success of the overall project. 

The key success factor is building a plan to guide your implementation from initial brainstorming about what your enterprise can accomplish with VOIP through solution selection and implementation, closing with a measurement program to evaluate the benefits--to determine how successful your plan attained its objectives and how to evolve the initial implementation to further success over its lifetime. Successful users do not select a box, but have implemented a business solution that will provide increasing benefits over time to the enterprise.

Step 1.   Create and educate a cross-organization project team (telecom, datacom, financial, planning, business, marketing, sales, customer support, maybe even customers, business partners and suppliers, etc.)

A committed interdisciplinary team is the key to project success. The goals of this team are to determine what to do, how to do it and to build performance benchmarks to evaluate progress and measure the value received from what will be a substantial investment over many years. The need for an interdisciplinary, cross-functional project team is critical. It must not only understand the technologies involved in convergence but, more importantly, ensure that the project will support and enable the business goals of your enterprise.

Step 2.    Survey capabilities and applications

Conduct a survey of the breadth and depth of the capabilities being offered and planned by the various vendors. Not just today’s availability, but a thorough look at multi-year solution roadmaps should be considered. Vendors who support both embedded systems evolution as well as new pure IP-systems should be considered. Key areas of investigation will include: networking capabilities, system and device features and functions, open interfaces to business applications, multimedia messaging, web-based applications, mobility capabilities and, where appropriate, contact centers. Of emerging importance is presence (enabled by instant messaging) and its opportunities for improved collaborative work.

Step 3.    Determine how to apply VOIP within in your enterprise

Understanding the business plan and future directions of your organization is an early gating step. As Benjamin Franklin (a very early VoIP planner) is credited with saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there!” Consider how the offerings of the various suppliers might be applied in your business today and tomorrow and where there are existing or potential opportunities to achieve business benefits. Benefits include, for example:

• Effectively manage geographical dispersion
• Extend, coordinate or disperse contact centers
• Support mobile/remote workers, road warriors and teleworkers
• Manage acquisitions of new locations
• Improve customer service
• Reduce real estate costs

Step 4.   Audit data network (LAN and WAN)

Voice places special performance requirements on your underlying network infrastructure. Be certain that your infrastructure can support the real-time, quality, class-of-service and reliability needs of business voice communications. Fortunately, this is a service that most vendors and providers now offer and audits are conducted routinely and draw upon the many experiences learned during VoIP’s gestation period.

Step 5.   Find the business hook(s)!

Now that you know what VoIP offers and what are the likely additional capabilities coming down the road, your team needs to apply this knowledge to identify how your enterprise can benefit from a VoIP implementation. The questions about how and where to use VoIP solutions and applications need to be answered for your enterprise.  And this view needs to be broad and multi-year. The implementation will not be static and, in many cases, will extend over several years.

A key benefit of these early “planning” steps is to have the project team function as a true team--to develop a shared cross-organizational sense about what a VoIP solution means for your business and what the benefits are likely to be.

Next month we will complete the discussion of our VoIP roadmap with the last six steps:

Step 6.     Develop the business case(s) for your enterprise

Step 7.     Develop a detailed functional and implementation plan

Step 8.     Obtain internal commitments and budget

Step 9.     Implement your plan, be prepared to adjust

Step 10.   Make feedback loops built into your roadmap and adjust, appropriately

Step 11.   Determine how well the benefits track the expectations

David H. Yedwab is Executive Vice President of The Eastern Management Group, Bedminster, NJ. He can be reached at dyedwab@easternmanagement.com.

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