At RADirect, when we speak to customers who are considering deployment of a pseudo-wire/TDMoIP/VoIP solution, we typically identify three major change drivers:
1. Integration
2. Technology adoption
3. Transport and other costs
Integration
Integration of voice with the user desktop, back-end/CRM, and unified messaging applications are all benefits unique to a VoIP implementation. So is ease of phone system management. If integration drives your current project, clearly VoIP is the way to go.
Technology Adoption
Does anyone still have any doubts that VoIP is the prevailing technology? Without question, VoIP is the way of the future, and manufacturers spend most of their R&D, marketing, and sales efforts promoting it.
If you are at the end-of-life cycle with your existing voice system, by all means, choose VoIP. But if you haven’t reached that point yet, I would argue that you might be better off holding on to your existing system, at least until it needs a boost or integration becomes an important factor for your business. Otherwise, you may find yourself investing much more time, effort and money than you had planned just to get to the same service level you have been at for the past ten years.
Transport and Other Costs
Customers motivated by a need to reduce their transport costs are typically the ones that pay a premium on transport (i.e. satellite links or international trunking). In cases where the business model is significantly impacted by operating costs (such as service providers, call centers, cruise lines, etc), reduction of transport costs is even more important. Such customers can get a better return on investment when they deploy a pseudo-wire solution with voice compression, designed specifically to optimize voice transport. RADirect’s vmux product line is perfect for this.
Other customers want to take a different approach to the reduction of operating costs, aiming to manage a single type of network or use excess IP network bandwidth for voice. These customers would also realize a better ROI by employing a pseudo-wire solution like TDMoIP. With no forklift upgrade to your voice system, implementation is easy, service levels are guaranteed to remain high, and the cost of pseudo-wire solutions is comparatively low.
Of course, there are always cases that involve a mixture or some variation of these drivers. The most important thing is, before you launch your pseudo-wire/TDMoIP/VoIP project, ask (and answer) yourself: ‘What are the primary business drivers for this project?’ Only when these are defined should you start the process of identifying a solution that satisfies your requirements.
Have you recently upgraded your phone system? Are you currently considering an upgrade? Share your pseudo-wire/TDMoIP/VoIP success or distress stories.
