How To Plan For Installing VoIP In A Single Or Mulitple Location Company
The first step is deciding when/if it might be beneficial to move from a traditional voice network to a converged network. Each company is different, but two key indicators are intra-site call charges and the need for a more agile telephony system geographically (eg. distributed call centres). For many companies the cost of converting is too high to balance the cost savings. Simply changing your voice supplier might be easier and generate better cost savings.
At the moment the whip hand is with PABX manufacturers moving into the IP market, rather than the IP hardware vendors moving into voice – but the hardware market is far from dominated by any single player. IP-enabling an existing PABX infrastructure is often the way forward in conjunction with planning your WAN carefully. This would suggest going for a PABX specialist for this element. If Cisco (et al) is your bag, then look for IPT accreditation and keep an eye on references and proof.
Be cautious about accepting too pat technical information from sales people. QoS is not strictly necessary to carry voice and can carry...