About IP telephony
What is IP telephony? Simply stated, it is technology that sends voice communication over your data network using Internet Protocol (IP). This is in contrast to traditional phone systems where data and voice networks were totally separate. More companies of all sizes are replacing their traditional phone systems with IP telephony to realise both productivity benefits and infrastructure cost savings.
The reasons for making the switch to IP telephony vary from company to company; however, the most common benefits can be categorised in two areas: cost savings and business advantages. |
Cost savings can be realised by reducing infrastructure and operating costs because IP telephony systems have a single infrastructure across multiple offices for voice and data, and these systems are easier to manage and change with the needs of the business. In addition, companies may experience lower long distance calling fees by eliminating call charges.
Business advantages are driven by increased productivity and enhanced collaboration for employees, customers and partners. These are achieved through:
- Advanced voice applications such as
- Contact centres, where organisations can drive customer satisfaction and business revenues;
- Unified messaging, which includes voice mail/email integration and find me/follow me capabilities;and
- Advanced collaborative applications such as
- Instant messaging
- Presence, and
- Highly-scalable audio conferencing capabilities.
IP telephony solutions built on open architectures and industry standards like Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) provide the most flexibility to connect to the third-party applications the business requires.
The IBM System i Telephony solution is a comprehensive, exceptionally flexible, reliable, and manageable communications system that can increase business productivity, improve customer relationships, and reduce costs. The solution includes three major components: IP telephony Applications Suite, Media Gateways and SIP-based IP phones. Together they provide the components for secure, high-performance voice communications, while simplifying multi-site deployment and workforce flexibility.
IBM System i IP Telephony has the processing capacity to support organisations of any size with the reliability and functionality of large carrier-class systems because the call control engine that drives the solution was developed originally to address the needs of carrier deployments. And, because the solution architecture offers an incremental upgrade path, companies can add sites when ready by interconnecting them via IP. In addition, new users are added easily by administrators and IP phones are made operational by simply plugging them into a network port.
IBM System i IP Telephony enables companies to implement a next-generation, multimedia IP communications system that uses the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standard. It supports a rich set of productivity-enhancing applications while providing the phone features of a traditional phone system. The IP telephony module, which is a component of the 3Com Convergence Applications Suite, also lets organisations migrate to an open, IP-based communications system in increments that best fit business objectives. The module supports centralised administration, configuration, and management that can lower installation and operating costs and optimise IT staff as the system is implemented throughout an organisation. To ensure business continuity, the module offers a distributed, replicated architecture to ensure full-function telephony at any site even during a WAN failure.
Economically Expand Services to Multiple Sites
IBM System i IP Telephony offers a distributed multi-site architecture that allows it to meet the needs of organisations of all sizes. Businesses will be able to deploy the solution on larger, centralised System i platforms for campus sites or on distributed smaller System i platforms located in the branches of a multi-site organisation.
Ensure Business Continuity
Regardless of where users are located, their profiles are replicated to a secondary system for maximum resilience. In the unlikely event of a local system failure, service automatically continues from the backup system, which may be installed at the same site or at a separate location. In addition, a distributed architecture ensures that remote sites do not lose telephony services even if the WAN fails and the sites become isolated.
Extend Investments with Standards-based Solutions
The 3Com Convergence Applications Suite can deliver messaging, conferencing, presence, and contact centre capabilities throughout the entire organisation. Since these applications are based on the SIP industry standard they are compatible with SIP-based software and equipment available from a range of vendors-allowing companies to choose the right technologies for their business. As part of the 3Com Voice Solutions Partner Program, 3Com regularly conducts third-party interoperability tests and performs rigorous testing of selected devices and applications.
Management to Lower Costs
All the communications servers running the IBM System i IP Telephony solution can be managed centrally to lower expenses and staffing requirements. Even though multiple servers may be deployed throughout an organisation's network, local support can be minimised and system changes and updates can be done from a single location.
Migrate to IP Communications with Ease
System i IP Telephony can be deployed as an overlay to traditional Private Branch Exchanges (PBXs) by using 3Com gateways for interconnections. This allows the enterprise to integrate advanced SIP-based applications while maintaining an existing telephony infrastructure. Sites and extensions can then be migrated to IP telephony as the existing PBXs become obsolete or the organisation expands to new facilities. In addition to digital gateways, 3Com offers analogue gateways to support legacy devices such as fax machines, analogue phones, modems, and intercoms.
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