Download Good Morning, my name is Steve frost and I am business

Cisco LiveCast – 24.01.06
Transcript
Good Morning, my name is Steve frost and I am business communications consultant at Cisco Systems here
in the UK. Welcome to this interactive live broadcast on business communications delivered to your desktop
over the internet from here at Cisco in London. Now this is an interactive broadcast so please make it so.
You can send in your questions at any time during the broadcast by typing them into the box and pressing
submit. Don’t worry only I see the questions and there is no such thing as a silly question. We will be
making more information available after the LiveCast via the website, so please stay tuned until the end.
The introduction of new Internet based technology is changing the way that businesses communicate. In this
session we are actually going to focus on the business impact of these new communications technologies
and how they will affect positively your company’s bottom line.
So really, what I would like to do to start with is just set the scene. Now-a-days voice and video can actually
be sent across the public Internet and also across private Intranets, in fact this is an example of exactly that,
where we are using the internet to broadcast live voice and video to your desk-tops. What we are seeing in
the voice world is that this technology is actually replacing expensive traditional telephone systems and
broadcast networks. This trend of moving from separate expensive networks to one single network is
actually known as IP Convergence, IP meaning Internet Protocol, which is simply the language that these
devices use, to actually communicate with each other either across the public Internet or across a company’s
private Intranet. Cisco Systems is at the heart of this trend of IP Convergence. IP Convergence actually
started around 1999/2000 and its really gathered steam over the last 5-6 years and it has now reached a
critical mass where the actual sales of new systems using IP exceed those of traditional telephone systems.
Now we are actually going to look at some of the business benefits of this technology and how it will affect
your own businesses positively.
So first of all we will look at how this technology can be used to reduce communications costs and don’t
forget you can ask questions at any time and I will respond to them directly. In this scenario around 86% of
small to medium businesses actually used reducing communication costs as part of their business case.
The real concept here is to take your existing telephone systems and PBX’s and rather than using public
telephone networks use either the public Internet or use the private Intranet to transport the voice calls. So
essentially you are getting the calls for free and I would imagine most of you have already got broadband so
it really it is a question of making more use of that broadband not just for data services but for voice services
as well.
This isn’t just for when you have remote offices it can be used to actually call from home so you can have
anybody working from home remotely and have free calls from the home system using either a physical
phone or what we call a soft phone from the PC, so that central system, so it means rather than having to
commute in the morning you might enjoy a couple of hours working from home so you avoid the rush hour,
thus saving money on phone-calls and travel costs.
The second phase in this scenario is actually to move to IP telephony where the phone system is replaced
by a server on the IT network and now all telephone calls are actually sent across IP. Both locally and across
to remote offices and the phones themselves are actually replaced with new systems called IP phones which
connect directly into the same network as the PC. So this scenario really allows a) cost saving and b)
flexibility. We will talk about flexibility as we move on.
One of the other areas that we can now take advantage is video communication as we are doing today and
video communication now becomes as easy as a phone call because we are using the same systems that
we use for data and voice. So with what we call video telephony, which is actually a much easier system
than traditional video conferencing, we can actually replace physical meetings and obviously that can save
money on both travel, maybe hotel costs and maybe allow you to spend more time at home and with the
family. The final benefit in terms of cost saving is that these systems all use the same cabling systems, so
rather than having to install separate cabling systems for voice, video and data we can actually have a single
cabling system in the building. Obviously that is much lower costs in terms of the installation and also
ongoing support for moves, adds and changes.
So I will now look to see if there are any questions coming in and I will answer them accordingly. So we have
got a question here from Tom. Tom asks:
“We are a small company with multiple locations, is voiceover IP a solution we could use for transferring calls
between a single number?”
Well Tom, certainly within a small business Voiceover IP is certainly a solution that you can use. There are a
number of ways of doing this. You can either use what we call Voiceover IP which would simply take your
existing PBX’s and connect them over a private IP network or the public Internet or you could move straight
to IP telephony to replace your telephone systems with a central server. The benefit with IP telephony is that
rather than having separate PBX’s or key systems in each office you can actually have a centralised server
at the main office and all the branch offices actually use that same system across the IP network, so you can
have the same telephone numbers the same features across all the locations and as you move around,
which is one of the benefits, you don’t get inconsistency of features and functions. So whether you are
working at the main office, a branch office or indeed a home office, you get the same feature and functions,
so you don’t have to re-train staff to use different PBX’s and systems. So it is very applicable for a small
business.
We have got another question here from James. James asks
“I often work abroad, are Voiceover IP calls free from other countries?”
The great thing is that the Internet is absolutely ubiquitous, so we can use the Internet to connect from any
one place to any other place across the world. There is a word of caution there, the public Internet doesn’t
have a mechanism that we call quality of service. Quality of service ensures that the quality of the voice calls
is the same, if not better, than we have been use to on the public telephone network. So yes you can use
Voiceover IP to call from one country to another but be aware on the public Internet that the quality may be
variable. So the recommendation really is for a business critical application is to use the same IP network or
the same ISP, then you have a better chance of the actual voice call’s being of higher quality.
Also, looking at a similar question, moving on from that from James, James is actually asking:
“‘Can I use the same number?”
Well, again one of the great benefits with IP telephony is that you actually take the number with you and I
have an example here. So here at Cisco we have a global telephony network and I work in several offices in
the UK and I also occasionally work abroad. I actually have a single telephone number which is a
Manchester telephone number, which is where my home office is, but no matter where I am travelling
through the country, working at home, working in our US office, I take that same telephone number with me,
so it is a great benefit for me as I only have to give one telephone number to my customers and partners but
also in terms of people calling me, they get the benefit of just having a single number and they know the
chances of getting me are much higher. So yes, absolutely, you can use the same number, but as I say,
word of caution about using the public Internet for the transport of that critical voice quality. Obviously if we
are dealing with internal calls, that is one matter but if we are dealing with customers and external calls then
it is very important that the quality of those calls is excellent. So bare in mind that quality of service on the IP
network is certainly a prerequisite for Voiceover IP and IP telephony.
So we will just cover an additional benefit now, we’ve looked at the cost saving’s in terms of the business
benefit what organisations are now finding and again 88% of small businesses cited this as a factor in the
business case, is that they are now looking to save time, make life easier and increase the efficiency of the
business. And I actually cited an example before; with IP telephony it is actually easier to get through to
people, because you have got that single number that actually goes with you wherever you are within the
organisation, so that certainly reduces time, effort and frustration from the callers point of view. We are also
seeing integration now of voice with applications like Instant messaging. I’m sure many of you have used
Instant Messaging, maybe at home or even in a business context. Now what we are seeing is Instant
Messaging being linked with telephone services so that you can actually see if somebody is available before
you call them. So in other words, rather than trying to call somebody and maybe getting their voicemail you
check via Instant Messaging, via a simple click and then click to call them, then the chances of getting
through and getting them first time is obviously drastically increased.
That facility is something called ‘Presence’. You can start to see this facility, ‘Presence’, linking Instant
Messaging, linking voice and linking video, so making it easier to get through to people with less frustration.
Remote office workers and home workers have a consistent set of features so no matter where they are in
an organisation they get access to the same voicemail, same features on the telephone systems rather than
having to work their way through complex dialling procedures to get access to this information. It is very
simple with IP telephony. Office moves, adds and changes, certainly when you are moving from one office
to another, with IP telephony it is greatly simplified, so rather than having to physically patch and cable and
having to move the phone and the extension, with IP telephony you simply log onto the IP phone. So if I go
into our Bedfont Lakes office where I am today I would simply sit down at a phone, enter my username and
password and hey presto my extension appears at that phone, along with all my features and speed dial. So
office moves, adds and changes are really of zero cost now because the phones have no dedicated
extension.
We are also looking at integrating features like voicemail and even email together into something called
integrated messaging, really what this means to a user is that all your messages are now available in one
place and can be accessed either via the web or via telephone. What the means is that is I get a voicemail
and I happen to have my PC fired up onto the network I can actually access my voicemails from my web
browser, rather than having to go through a number of different telephone options and pressing hash, option
three and all the shortcuts that we often forget. So accessing voicemail from a web browser means I can see
exactly who has called me, whether it is an important call, whether it is from my manager and I can react to
that much quicker and much more effectively by the fact that I can actually see my voicemails via a web
browser.
Building from that, another facility is the ability to read back my urgent emails, so if I’m on the road, maybe in
the car, if I get an urgent email I wouldn’t normally have the facility to access that email from the car, so via
this integrated messaging or unified messaging I can dial in and it will actually play back over the phone my
urgent emails so I can respond back via voice, straight away, obviously responding back to customers with
urgent questions from within Cisco. The benefits are there once you have that platform in place, once you
have IP Telephony ad the cost savings in place, you really now start to enjoy the business benefits of saving
time and making life easier. So it really is a win win situation.
We have got some more questions now. Simon asks:
“How do the purchase costs of an IP telephony system compare to a traditional system?”
Good question Simon. The IP telephony is now mainstream technology and the fact that it is mainstream
technology you will see that there are many more cost effective options. It certainly isn’t a solution that is just
relevant for large enterprises; there are options for example that work directly with Cisco routers. So if you
have a Cisco router you can just upgrade the software and the Cisco router then becomes the IP telephony
system that could be relevant for an organisation with as few as 20 telephones. So certainly the cost of these
systems is relevant to all sizes of business.
The other thing to point out here is that over the coming years we will see a phasing out of traditional
telephone systems as the research and development really reduces for these traditional companies. The
cost of maintaining these traditional systems will increase, so it’s not just about the purchase cost it’s about
the total cost of ownership. So over a period we can work out based on initial cost that the total cost of
ownership and I think you will certainly see over a couple of years IP telephony more than pays it’s way
based on return and investment. If you bring in leasing to the equation that becomes even more compelling.
Certainly there should be no cost reason as to why you shouldn’t deploy IP telephony.
We have got another question now from David. David is saying:
“We experience a lot of drop offs with our Voiceover IP solution. Would the solution mentioned earlier resolve
this?”
Really what we are talking about it Voiceover IP versus Pure IP. It really comes back to the areas that I
discussed before; a system is only as good as the weakest link. You can have the best IP telephony system
in the world but without that IP network supporting what I mentioned earlier, quality of service (QOS), then
you will get those drop offs. It could be one of many reasons why you get those drop offs more the most
obvious and likely reason is that the IP network is really not up to the job of supporting that traffic. If you think
about the difference between simply going to a web browser and downloading pictures or files that is not real
time traffic, if you get a slight delay, even a few mili-seconds, it doesn’t really matter. But with voice it is
absolutely critical that the traffic is transported in real time with very little delay. There is in fact a maximum
delay of 150 mili-seconds that is allowed for Voiceover IP to allow people to have a normal conversation as
they would on a telephone system. So what I would suggest is certainly the first place to look would be the IP
network, make sure that it is up to the job and then after that I would like to think that the drop off’s would
decrease obviously Cisco would be more than happy to help you along the way, to point you in the right
direction. So whether it’s Voiceover IP or Pure IP it is really a fact of making sure that that IP network is up to
the job and it is only as good as the weakest link as I said before.
We have a few more questions that I would like to run through. We have a question here from Lucy, it
sounds like Lucy is using Skype at home and she is asking if Skype is the same thing?
Skype has certainly been a huge phenomenon, billions of consumers have been downloading the Skype
software and Skype for those who may not know, is simply a piece of free software that you download onto
your PC and it allows you to make free phone-calls, between you and other Skype users. It also allows you
to break out to the public network and people to call you as well. So it is absolutely the same thing, Skype is
a software solution that uses Voiceover IP to basically allow free phone calls over the public internet
specifically. But I would say that Skype really is not a replacement for a business telephone system and
there is a clear difference between what we talk about when we say IP telephony, which really provides
business level features to an IP phone or software application. Skype is a very good system but it is primarily
aimed at consumers and it doesn’t necessarily give you those guarantees of quality which I mentioned
before, none-the-less it should certainly be considered a great tool for maybe home use and occasional use
for business. Certainly for critical use in business where we have interaction with customers and important
suppliers Skype really doesn’t cut it at the moment, you would look for a business quality communications
solution using IP telephony.
We have another question here from David.
“What are the most common reasons for businesses to move across to these IP communication systems?”
Great question David. Really what we have seen over the five years that we have covered this area is that
one of the most compelling reasons and it is a fairly obvious one, is that people move to a new office, so they
have the opportunity to review their communications architecture with a completely, what we call, green-field
site. So there is no existing technology to worry about integration with. A move to a new office would be a
great opportunity to draw a line under your existing investment and look at this new technology. Other
compelling reasons may be that you are looking to expand, add new people, maybe new departments with
the expansion of an organisation, that would be another good reason. So possibly the current PBX telephone
system is at the end of its lease, is paid for, has been written off so maybe that is another reason, or maybe
your current PBX is becoming expensive to maintain. There are three of four compelling reasons as to why
you should look at this new technology, obviously we can work with you there to see if any of these are
actually relevant for yourself.
We have a question here from Anna.
“Is the technology secure and is it reliable?”
Well, I think I can safely say yes to both of those things, as I say Cisco has been at the heart of this for the
last five years and really the reliability was solved based on the fact that we had to build a reliable system,
based on the fact that our key corporate customers demanded this and the good news now for smaller
businesses is that they can also take advantage of this reliable technology and at a much more cost effective
price. So reliability is absolutely there, we can certainly approach and exceed the reliability of an existing
phone system by virtually the fact that an IP network is spread across many sites, so even if one site was to
go down we have back up at different locations, so reliability is actually key and Cisco runs its business on IP
telephony and we have done for several years, so we walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
The security issue, I’m not sure if any of you actually tuned into this broadcast last week but my colleague
Paul King covered security and it is an absolutely key fundamental issue that this network has to be secure
before we actually consider putting voice on it. So the answer is yes to both of those. Reliability and security
are there and obviously Cisco can help you really get to those fundamental building blocks to actually build a
robust Voiceover IP or IP telephony system.
So, hopefully we have covered many of the questions which you raised so what I will do is summarise some
of the key points that come out of this discussion and reach some conclusions. So the good news is that this
new business communication technology using IP or Internet Protocol will positively impact your company’s
bottom line, it is all good news. The first area is obviously to reduce communication costs, you can take
advantage of existing broadband connections, we can use the public Internet, we can work from home with
zero cost telephone calls, so we have got great opportunities there to actually reduce costs.
We can also save time and improve efficiency. We have got these new little features that mean we can save
time rather than looking up someone with three or four telephone numbers with just one telephone number
the chances of actually reaching them are heavily increased, so it reduces time and effort so that leads to a
more efficient business and that leads to productivity, so we’ve got a double bonus their: we can save costs
as well as increasing productivity.
One thing that is fundamental is that it is the future and is available now; don’t think that this thing is going to
happen sometime, it is actually happening now. Small businesses are actually taking advantage of this, cost
savings and productivity, it is not just for large companies. But really the fundamental thing is that you need
a reliable, secure network foundation to actually build on, to actually deploy voice and video in real time. You
need a fast and smart network to be able to handle this real time traffic, this real time voice and video.
We have got another question now in from Paul that I would like to cover. Paul is asking another great
question:
“For IP telephony do I need to replace my entire infrastructure or can I do it in stages?”
Well Paul the good news is you certainly don’t have to replace your entire infrastructure that would be too big
a pill to swallow. Most organizations will start small, they’ll maybe start with a pilot in a particular department,
so maybe you can integrate this new IP telephony with your existing voice systems and that is the important
point, it is not what we call a fork-lift upgrade. So certainly phase one would be integrate with what you have
got, start to see some of the benefits, start to see some of the cost savings and then gradually over time you
can actually work IP telephony across the business and at a pace to suit you and that is the important thing,
it certainly isn’t a wholesale replacement of what you have got you can do it in nice phases. So
departmentally, then maybe office by office and then eventually replace the whole thing and then the PBX’s
can be removed completely.
So just to wrap up, we’ve discovered there are significant benefits, we need this reliable network, we need
the smarts in the network to cover that traffic and hopefully you can take away a good feeling that this is the
future but it is available now.
We have got a final question that I will cover, that has literally just come in, hot off the press and this is from
Dan.
“If I implement IP telephony will it costs a lot of time and maintenance?”
Really I think the answer to that Dan is no. The goal of this is to reduce time and effort and save you in
maintenance. We can provide a compelling business case over a couple of years, to actually say the total
cost of ownership of IP telephony will actually save you money and save you time.
So I would like to thank you very much for listening, if there are any unanswered questions we will certainly
respond to those, we will email you directly. There will be more information by clicking on the link after the
broadcast. What I would like to do is invite you to tune in same time same place next week, on 31st Jan at
10am, when my colleague Andy Oldfield will be covering an area that links indirectly to this topic which is
how do you actually connect to a mobile work-force. So tune in same time same place and I would like to bid
you goodbye, have a great day and I would like to say thanks for listening.