The Future of Telecommunication 

IP telephony has emerged as the dominant architecture for future voice communications. As the line between voice and data applications continues to blur, new innovative features and services will continue to emerge that will drive measurable business value. While most IP growth today is concentrated in smaller, more nimble organizations, some large deployments are under way.

We can take the example of AGC's (leader in voice solutions) recent IP telephony solutions to Hikal chemicals which will show us how IP telephony technology is transforming enterprises communication services in a huge way.

Case in Point

Hikal, a partner to companies dealing in pharmaceuticals, biotech, agrochemicals and speciality chemicals industries, was facing a significant challenge as all its sites had primitive EPABX systems. The connectivity and voice quality was extremely poor and it was often extremely difficult to reach the employees when required.

“There was an increased level of dependency on the operator to connect to our employees at other sites. This not only increased our communication cost but also several calls were going unanswered due to unavailability of the recipient. There was no facility to capture voice messages. At the end of the day, the company was finding it difficult to meet its communication needs as business expanded globally,” said Falgun Shukla, senior general manager, IT, Hikal. At the end of the day, the company was finding it difficult to meet its communication needs as business expanded globally and became 24x7. “Hikal was looking for a modern Enterprise Communication Solution for its 500 users, scattered across the various offices and plant locations of the company. We wanted a best-of- breed solution that would cater to the current and future communication requirements of different stakeholders, while also reducing the overall costs that we were incurring as an Enterprise,” added Shukla.

The Need of the New Technology

What was needed the most for Hikal was the transformation of its aging ICT environment into a state-of-the-art setup, shaped by modern telecom and unified communications solutions. They required help of an ICT solution provider that had expertise and experience within the Unified Communications Management (UCM) space, a company that could understand its business environment and priorities.

“There are always some difficulties when you plan to replace an existing system with a new one. The solution lies in defining the solution clearly, detailed execution planning, involvement of end users, and constant communication with stakeholders,” said Shukla.

Hikal had previous experiences in dealing with AGC networks and have successfully deployed an Avaya solution at Acoris Research, a 100% subsidiary of Hikal.

“We have worked with AGC earlier and their consultative and business-centric approach met with our requirements. We knew that AGC's technical superiority in designing and delivering customized Avaya solutions was unquestionable. The company could work seamlessly as an extended arm of Hikal. It was clear to us that AGC was the partner of our choice,” stated Shukla.

Solutions Provided

“A centralized solution, connecting different locations over a WAN network, featuring high availability and local survivability has been designed for Hikal,” confirmed Samir Sayed, vice president, sales, AGC Networks. The single system was logically partitioned for CUG and PSTN access (meeting Trai regulations). AGC networks recommended a cost-efficient design, centered around a PRI (Primary Rate Interface) line for PSTN access at each site, and analog trunks to provide back-ups. A Direct Dialing In (DID) facility was introduced so that the senior managers and other key persons could be contacted directly instead of every call going through operators.

Falgun Shukla, Hikal stated that, “It took us about 8 to 9 months, right from charting out our requirements to deployment of this solution.”

A call billing application was put in place alongside a central 'redundant call processing solution. In order to cater to the needs of senior executives and managers at Hikal, the solution provided deskphone to GSM mobility features, as well as soft video endpoints and voice mail with fax messaging capabilities. The inter-circle phone calling was configured on a Reliance voice network. The intra-circle phone calls first traveled on the Wide Area Network (WAN) and then on the Reliance network, in case there was a jam in WAN.

“An important feature of the solution was its focus on risk minimization and fault tolerance. A Local Survivable Processor (LSP) was placed at Jigani, so that in case of a failure of the main processor at CBD, the LSP would be activated and take control of all the media gateways and IP phones. At the same time, the SLS would also take control of local IP phones and the PSTN line, in case the WAN link between the local site and main site (CBD) failed. These features ensured that the system would always remain up and available,” said Samir Sayed, vice president, sales, AGC Networks.

Value Addition

The AGC solution has brought significant benefits to Hikal, the most important being improvement in employee productivity. There has been an overall reduction in costs, as in-circle calling has become free and intra-circle more cost-effective. Calls now travel through the WAN network, where the cost is zero and are charged at a competitive rate rather than the normal STD rate, which is higher.

Another major benefit is in the area of conferencing. Hikal employees can now hold a secure 6-party 'Meet Me' encrypted conferences and make point-to-point video calls. Some of the other advantages of the AGC solution include group paging, which can substantially enhance emergency response time, the mobility feature of remote access to extension, secured and encrypted calls and centralized administration, and control with uniform communications experience across all locations.

“AGC has enabled Hikal to modernize its ICT systems and improve communication between the company's various facilities, employees, and customers. This has enabled Hikal to emerge as a better, more efficient, productive, and customer responsive organization,” Shukla added.

The Road Ahead

IP based voice is universally regarded as the future of telecommunications. What is more interesting is that there are many open source UC platforms such as Druid and Fonality emerging, which could ultimately lead to the widespread adoption and deployment of these platforms. This is when UC will go beyond the enterprise and into the homes and hands of individual customers, and service providers will use cloud computing to offer UC as a value-added service. It is certainly safe to say that the market is moving ahead in terms of migration and adoption of IP telephony as a beginning. The price points for IP telephony lines and phones are expected to decline in the future and this could prove to be a significant driver for the adoption of IP telephony and UC.

Akanksha Singh
akankshas@cybermedia.co.in