ENTERPRISE EQUIPMENT PBX: IP, Now and Happening

Technology Options



The major technology trends that can happen in the PBX arena are support for

open architecture-server based platform; support for open OSs like Linux,

inter-operability with legacy and multiple vendors over open standards; VoIP

support (H.323 and SIP) and integration of converged applications like UMS.

l IP Is Here and It’s the

Future: IP-enabled and pure-IP voice and data switches are now the talk of

the town. While an IP-enabled EPABX is basically a circuit switch with an IP

interface, a pure IP EPABX is designed based on an IP platform. While both can

enable VoIP, the former would permit a limited number of communication channels

over IP and would require an intervening operator. Also, adding an IP line card

into the EPABX shelf will offer no real advantage since all the drawbacks of the

existing TDM platform of the EPABX, like limited scalability, high integration,

administration and management costs remain.

On the other hand, a pure IP-based platform would incorporate remote access

server (RAS) functionality and will allocate a unique IP address for each

telephone, thereby permitting free and transparent connectivity with the IP

world, without the need for an intervening operator. The key point here is that

IP offers unlimited functionality and applications that an enterprise would

surely need for achieving its business goals more efficiently and

cost-effectively. For example, an IP-EPABX will allow companies to do such

things as video-conferencing and unified messaging from a single platform. More

importantly, upgrades are easy and less costly on the non-proprietary,

open-standard platforms on which IP-EPABXs are based, unlike traditional

switches that rely on vendor-owned proprietary standards. This essentially means

that if an enterprise wants to integrate new applications into the solution, it

can always look for any vendor. On the other hand, traditional EPABXs with their

closed and proprietary architecture, bind users to one vendor for all additions

and changes.

Going the IP way is giving organisations a competitive edge over their

competitors. Even though initial investments are still high, IP does help in

reducing costs by offering single network advantage from day one, leveraging

existing WAN for intra-office traffic, lower costs of movements, additions,

changes and management. Moreover, it can also facilitate a truly mobile

enterprise as it enables employees to access applications and full

functionalities from anywhere in the world. IP also offers better

disaster-management capabilities for ensuring business continuity in case of a

disaster.

l Digital Enhanced Cordless

Telecommunications (DECT): Mobility is another area where the voice

communication has evolved. Today, in a cost optimization environment, ‘employee

movement’, ‘reachability anywhere and anytime’ have become big

necessities. The voice communication servers today offer these solutions using

DECT technology. This has helped the user to move around within the premises at

his will and still be in touch with the rest of the world and enjoy latest

features set.

l Computer Telephony

Integration (CTI): This offers a revolutionary change in the kind of desktop

tools available to the user. Today, enterprises are implementing customer

relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain

management (SCM) applications for efficient performance and good customer care.

Using CTI, telephony is integrated with any of the applications listed above to

provide a unified window to the users so that they can perform all their

telephony and application-related tasks at the click of a mouse. Now users are

able to concentrate more on their work than learning how the telephone or other

communication tools work.

l Unified Messaging: Unified

messaging has revolutionized the mail handling in the enterprise, be it

voicemail, fax mail or even e-mail. Unified messaging aims at providing a

unified management of all sorts of mails through a single storage and

management, making the system administrator’s life easier, and at the same

time providing one single client window to the users to access any of their

mails. Using the familiar window to access all his mails including voice, fax or

e-mail, has made it easier for the users to send, receive, and archive mail.

Using text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-recognition technologies, unified

messaging solutions are able to deliver the messages anywhere, anytime on

various media including the Web, on a landline or even on a mobile.

l LAN-based Telephony: Presently,

LAN-based telephony is popular in SME market. Also, some of the large

enterprises have implemented this technology for inter-office communication. The

technology has yet to reach the reliability and feature-richness of traditional

circuit-switched platforms. The best approach for enterprises today, is to go

for an IP-converged platform, since it has all the advantages of traditional

circuit-switched telephony, plus it also integrates the latest technologies like

VoIP.

l IP-enabled Traditional PBX: The

traditional PBX can be IP-enabled by adding external VoIP gateways and

gatekeepers. Many vendors offer a migration path to their customer by upgrading

the existing hardware and software. The cost for upgradation depends on the

number of users and number of gateway ports.

Buying Tips



With hundreds of choices available in the EPABX market, choosing one that

would not only meet your current business requirements, but also take care of

future needs is not going to be easy. The task is compounded by the fact that

cutthroat competition between vendors has meant that they are always more eager

to push their own product and less interested in considering the needs of the

user. Listed below are some tips that an enterprise should keep in mind before

finalizing an EPABX deal.

• Calculating Costs: To arrive at the cost of
  
  investment, avoid calculating on the basis of the immediate expenditure that
  
  would be incurred by buying a solution. Instead, you need to consider all
  
  future operational and other assorted costs.
  
  
  
  Remember a short-term saving today, could prove costly for your business
  tomorrow.
  

• Don’t Look for Boxes: Instead, buy a platform so
  
  that you can make additions and changes in the communication network built
  
  around it. This way you can maximize your investment. Buying a box will
  
  limit your options and could prove to be disruptive in the future.

• Other Important Things: Overall, an enterprise
  
  should keep these considerations in mind when deciding on an EPABX: open
  
  server-based architecture; open operating system–Linux, Unix etc; VoIP
  
  ready–H323, H.248 and future SIP compliance; support for all kind of
  
  network interfaces–ISDN, E1 and CO; support for all kind of end points–analog,
  
  digital, IP soft, hard phones, wireless phones etc.; security features on IP–encryption
  
  etc.; interoperability for smooth multi-vendor environment functioning, ease
  
  of management–GUI LAN-based administration and application and feature
  
  functionality integration, support, and roadmap.

• Bet on Non-proprietary Open Standards: Ensure that
  
  whichever solution you buy from the vendor, avoid proprietary and
  
  closed-architecture based solutions. While upgrades are easy and less costly
  
  on non-proprietary, open-standard platforms, additions and changes are
  
  either impossible or very difficult on proprietary and closed standards.

• Don’t Buy Unwanted Features or Applications: You
  
  need not buy applications, which you do not need currently. But make sure
  
  that you can easily add new applications in the future as and when the need
  
  arises and that too, without incurring considerable costs. For example,
  
  today, you may not need a video-conferencing application, but make sure that
  
  when you need it, you do not need to change the entire EPABX, but just add a
  
  video-conferencing solution to it.

• Ensure Interoperability: If you are looking for
  
  not only voice but also other applications, buy a solution that would be
  
  inter-operable with applications from a diverse set of vendors and solution
  
  providers.

• Check for Reliability and Redundancies: Don’t
  
  take every word of the vendor for granted. Should you encounter conflicting
  
  versions on issues like reliability and redundancies in a solution, it would
  
  do well to check out with the existing users.

• A Pure IP-EPABX: Before you plan for an IP EPABX,
  
  make sure that your existing infrastructure (like wiring) supports such a
  
  solution, and also check out for inter-operability of the new EPABX with the
  
  existing devices. Also ensure that the IP-addressing system can handle the
  
  new voice IP application. Also remember that in India, voice and data
  
  integration over a single network is still not allowed. So, you would not be
  
  able to fully exploit the benefits of IP. Enterprises looking for more
  
  applications in an EPABX should not necessarily buy an IP EPABX now. For
  
  many of the enterprises, it would be a costly investment that cannot be
  
  justified in a country like India that still does not permit integrated
  
  voice and data networks.

However, every enterprise willing to buy an EPABX should at

least look for a solution that would facilitate easy migration to IP whenever

such a need arises.

Most big vendors would give a definite roadmap for IP

enablement of their PBX by adding the gatekeeper, gateway functionalities and

some software upgrades. However, they do differ in the level of functionalities,

scalabilities and costs etc. Also, few would have live sites demonstrating the

same in India. Hence the customer should ensure that the road map provided is

scalable and without any loss of feature functionalities and is not a forklift

upgrade to be cost effective. Also look for demo sites to ensure local vendor

support of the solution.

l Service Is

Important: Service-level agreements with vendors are important. Services are

varied in nature, and include both usual nut-and-bolt kind of fixing of problems

and sophisticated remote management. The more complex solution you employ, the

better services you should ask for. Some vendors offer graded services, i.e.

different categories of services. So ensure what suits you best. The best

service is the one that proactively monitors the system.

l Indulge in

Some Hard Bargaining: Most vendors usually offer a price flexibility that

ranges from 15—30 percent. This means that whatever price a vendor asks for,

you can bring it down by 15 to 30 percent. But be cautious of a situation where

the vendor succeeds in selling a phone system that is too small for your growth

but sounds attractive price-wise.

Market Information

The overall enterprise voice solutions market size in India for FY 2002—03

was estimated at Rs 820 crore. PBX remains the dominant contributor to the voice

solutions market with an estimated business of Rs 450 crore, which was the same

as in the previous year. The KTS market is estimated at Rs 50 crore. The rest

was shared by IP-PBX, wireless PBX (DECT) and other call center components. The

year 2002—03 saw Tata Telecom emerging as the dominant player, edging past

Siemens and recording a revenue of Rs 244 crore, which formed 75 percent of the

company’s total sales last year. As a strategy, the company increased its

focus on services, which formed a major chunk of its revenues.

Most of the players benefited from the call center boom. This

can be gauged from the fact that Tata Telecom did a business of Rs 86.21 crore

by supplying to call centers alone with orders worth Rs 23.10 from Dell

International Services and Rs 14.24 crore from Reliance.

The fiscal also saw the completion of a deal between Alcatel

and the local management of Alcatel’s networking business in India called ABS

India. The company, which sells OmniPCX Office for small and medium businesses (SMBs)

and OmniPCX 4400 for large operations, managed to do a business of Rs 50 crore.

On the other hand, Nortel, another leading player in the enterprise voice

market, recently created an enterprise business group focusing on product

development and sale of traditional and IP voice gear besides offering

integration solutions. Hinduja decided to deploy Nortel’s enterprise call

center solutions to its BPO unit in Bangalore with about 600 seats. South Indian

Bank also chose to deploy Nortel Networks’ converged IP solution to connect

150 branches in India. Cisco deployed its IPCC solutions at Transworks,

Accenture, and Phonix and did a business of around Rs 15 crore.

Siemens’ enterprise networks division (ICN-EN) launched

HiPath 3000, a next-generation EPABX/KTS, as the company did some good business.

While orders grew by 25 percent and revenues were up 24 percent over the

previous year, profits improved substantially. Apart from HiPath 3000, ICN-EN

launched several new offerings such as the HiPath Procenter, a call-center

suite, and Optipoint 500–a next-generation Workpoints family. ICN-EN also

forged alliances with Talisma in the call-center segment and with Avhan to offer

call-center CRM solutions to be integrated into the Siemens Procenter

call-center suite.

Nortel Networks, whose product lines Meridien I and Succesion

CSE 1000 platform suffered some erosion in their acceptance, launched Succession

CSE MX server with IP telephony features. Release 2 of Succession 1000 with

increased functionality did manage to get some acceptability. The march towards

IP-enablement gained momentum with a number of call centers and some corporates

going for IP-enabled voice solutions. According to Frost & Sullivan, the

market for IP-PBX will grow from its present 2.7 percent of the total PBX market

revenues to almost 84.4 percent in 2007. The Asia-Pacific market, according to

the same report for IP-PBX, will be worth $1.55 billion by 2007. NEC,

recognizing the importance of IP, and the lead taken by Avaya and Nortel,

launched its IP-PBX known as the NEAX 2000 Internet Protocol Server (IPS). 

What Can IP Do?

Enterprises typically look at three communication links to the

outside world.

• Leased-line voice traffic connections to all other branch
  
  offices;

• Voice gateway connecting the enterprise premises to the
  
  Public Network

• Leased-line for Internet access.

However, IP technology allows enterprises to invest in just a

single communications pipe that will deliver voice and data communications to

the enterprise desktop. The IP-PBX is an open-standards solution. This means

that enterprises need not be tied down to one vendor for all subsequent

enhancements to the solution. Moreover, an IP-based solution will drive other

key services such as video conferencing, collaboration and other value-added

options. These would include applications like directory integration, XML

integration, application prioritizing calls received, calling-party name and

number, calls received, missed calls and dialed calls, extension mobility, in an

easy-to-program and easy-to-use platform. This solution also comes with ease to

install and configure, and standard CAT-5 LAN cabling.

IP Benefits Amid Existing Regulatory Restrictions

• Cost Savings on Intra-office Long Distance Calls:
  
  Remember 70-80 per cent of the long distance calls are to your own offices
  
  outside the headquarter and vice versa

• Easy upgrades and Scalability: As the IP PBX
  
  technology relies on software, an IP-BPX can be upgraded (by adding new
  
  features) and scaled up easily to accommodate new users whenever there is a
  
  need.

IP PBX Sees Global Growth

Although flat between Q3 and Q4 of 2003, worldwide IP PBX revenues jumped 33

percent from 2002 to 2003 to reach $256 million, according to Infonetics

Research’s Next Gen Voice Products: IP PBXs quarterly worldwide market share

and forecast report. Annual revenue will reach $830 million in 2007,

representing a CAGR of 34 percent. "IP PBX growth was very healthy last

year, especially considering the depressed corporate spending environment in

which it happened," said Matthias Machowinski, lead analyst of the report.

"New spending cycles are heavily favoring next generation technology as the

versatility and flexibility of IP telephony continues to attract buyers. Add an

improving economy to this recipe, and we expect to see IP PBX shipments

increasing at double-digit annual growth rates for at least the next five

years."

2003 IP PBX Market Highlights According to Infonetics Research

• Cisco leads revenue market share as well as lines shipped, followed by
  
  Alcatel and Avaya
• IP lines shipped on hybrid platforms were up 52 percent from 2002
• Pure IP lines were up 29 percent from 2002
• Lines shipped on hybrid platforms accounted for 68 percent of all IP lines
  
  in 2003

According to another report by the Dell’Oro Group, in the fourth quarter of

2003, worldwide IP PBX line shipments grew 19 percent sequentially. The total

PBX market consisting of IP PBX, Traditional PBX and traditional key systems

grew slightly in fourth quarter of 2003. When compared to a year ago, IP PBXs

have more than doubled their share of the total enterprise voice market, while

the other segments are declining. Businesses’ preference for IP PBXs continues

to grow worldwide as companies focus on deploying IP PBX multi-site,

telecommuting, and application solutions.

"While North America has been an early adopter of IP PBXs, during the

fourth quarter of 2003 it was in fact Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA);

Asia Pacific; and the rest of the world that delivered 89 percent of the Q/Q

increase," said Steve Raab, director at Dell’Oro Group. "As IP PBX

shipments further align with the regional mix of the total PBX market, the

growth opportunities for this technology are broadened."