• Monetary Savings
  • One of the key drivers of combining voice and data networks is monetary savings. In North America, however, many large corporations pay 3 cents or less per minute for long-distance calls they make within the United States.
• Portability
  • If you have an IP phone configured with DHCP, you can move the phone wherever you need and still keep the same phone number. This is similar to moving your laptop from office to office and still being able to log in to the same network server.
• Aggregated Information System (IS) department
  • Only one Information Services (IS) department that supports both voice and data networks is necessary, as the networks are now one entity.
• Common Infrastructure tools
• VoIP enables voice mail systems to be put on standards-based platforms (such as PCs and UNIX machines). After a feature is on a standards-based platform, price gouging is much less likely to occur.
• Voicemails can be delivered through an email or a telephone.

This process entails looking carefully at call quality, from one call to the maximum number of expected calls at peak network usage across a range of locations. If the call quality is okay and the other traffic is relatively unaffected, great – start VoIP deployment. If the call quality is not okay, determine what the problems are and where they’re located. What influences poor call quality:

• Delay/latency
• Jitter
• Digital sampling
• Voice compression
• Echo
• Packet loss
• Voice activity detection
• Digital-to-analog conversion
• Tandem encoding
• Transport protocols
• Dial-plan design

Can a simple change in the VoIP configuration options, such as the
choice of codec, improve the call quality sufficiently? What are the costs of making the required network improvements. Choices include:

• Adding more bandwidth
• Upgrading or replacing your existing equipment
• Laying out your network architecture in an improved manner
• Reconfiguring or tuning the network for QoS
• OR a combination of the above

As professional and ethical consultants, NetCal does not always recommend implementing VoIP to our clients. VoIP is only considered if the goals of the client are aligned with the benefits from a VoIP implementation. Our readiness assessment will also conclude the necessary upgrades to successfully install a Voice over IP system.