Bookpool: IP Telephony Unveiled

The PBX as a Convergence Platform. The IPT Difference. Convergence: The Business Case for IPT. Issues to Ponder.

The PBX Environment. The IPT Environment. An Efficient Infrastructure. Bringing New Capabilities to Your Network. Realizing the Potential of IPT.

Assessing the Requirements. An Enhanced Feature Set. An Improved Training Process.

The IPT Architecture. Customized, Focused Applications. The Power of Convergence. Seeing Beyond the PBX.

Understanding the Value Proposition. Sample Business Cases. Right Around the Corner…

A Different Approach to ROI. Network Costs. Administration Costs. Maintenance Costs. Achieving ROI: Examples of Real-World Deployments. ROI Conclusions.

Understanding the Impact of Voice Traffic. Timing Is Everything: Identify Problems Before They Occur. Planning an IP Telephony Pilot. Common Misconceptions. Seven Steps to a Successful IP Telephony Experience.

Clients. Applications. Managing Convergence. Session Initiation Protocol. An Evolving Market/An Emerging Market/Increased Acceptance. Final Thoughts.

Jun 11, 2004 Todd Keller from Idaho Falls, ID
Direct and to the point with exceptional insight
IP Telephony Unveiled ISBN 1587200759 By Kevin Brown

Voice over IP and IP Telephony, both are arguably the same thing. Or are they really? The true test is where does it end? No Im not talking about who you are calling. I am talking about what functions your phone and network capabilities really are. Do you have a typical phone system with a Voice over IP feature? Or perhaps an extraordinary system that can change the way you do business in addition to how you use your phone?

This books goal isnt going to change the way you do business. Its not about what your phone system cant do that Ciscos can. Its not about convincing you to throw out your high dollar PBX in exchange for a new phone system. If any of these mentalities fit your thought process then this book is a must read.

If however you are looking for a book about how a phone can change the way you do business. If you are looking for a new way to look at the equipment your company uses and make it do what you only wished and never dreamed it could. This is also a must read for you as well.

The fact is this books main audience isnt the techie at all (although many will read it as its truly a mind opener). This book is about how to think outside of the box. Its about taking a new approach.

Convergence is a term thrown around the industry as the latest buzz word. It sounds really sophisticated doesnt it? But what is it really. That in itself is hard to describe but, suffice to say its more a way of thinking.

Why is it people expect and do more with what is today a common cell phone than they do the phones on their desk? Why do PBX systems have so few usable features as compared to a cell phone? The answer is simple. Todays PBX systems have done the same thing for years. Provide a way to make a phone call. But what if it could do more? Fact is they can, Ciscos definition of IP Telephony is just that. Put your phone system in your control. Make it a platform to do what you want it to.

This book shows you how a phone system can become a tool as or more powerful than the computer has become. Imagine a phone system that can show you at the push of a few buttons your profit for the day. Now imagine it could actually help you do your job.

The point is that in any other sense a PBX is just a PBX. It gives you a phone but doesnt truly do anything else for you. IP Telephony is a comcept (and very well done) to make a phone into a full blown utility capable of doing whatever it is you need. To make the business phone systems every bit as capable as modern cell phones are and then expand that to the next level.

Lets take an example from the book. K-12th grade schools for years have relied on paper hall passes. It was not only a matter of time that this paper oriented way of doing business would go away, it was a matter of safety. Its no news that most kids in school are faster and smarter at using computers than most of us older folks. Its pretty easy for a kid with a computer and scanner can mass produce legitimate looking hall passes in a matter of minutes. With hall passes being a mechanism for safety this is not a good thing indeed. So school districts have opted to create a hall pass system for their phones. Beyond that is the fact that this system can now be mass produced for any school district with an IP Telephony system.

That is Ciscos vision of IP Telephony and convergence. To make a system that isnt dependent on a particular provider, company, or manufacturer. To make a system that can not only make phone calls but that can integrate into existing systems or newly conceived systems and ideas and make them more useful and in such to impact business in ways never thought possible.

IP Telephony and Convergence mean the same thing. They are a way to empower a business to do what it does best. To make a profit and enable that profit to be maximized. They are a concept that has until now permeated every aspect of a company but its telephony systems. To make a system that each individual can utilize in their own individual way to maximize their own productivity. To empower business to make their systems return on investment instead of returning an expense.

This book provides the concepts and ideas behind whether or not your business mentality is suited for Voice over IP and IP Telephony or not. It explains in detail the differences in the two as well as why and how it can do so much more than just save you money. Its about looking at a concept and design and not only wishing it could do more but being empowered to do such. Instead of saying I wish our phone system could do _____ why not just make it?

When you get right down to it technology and computers have evolved a long way in the past 10 years. Phones on the other hand have remained basically the same during that time. Cell phones have evolved in leaps and bounds with features such as email, messaging, and cameras while desk phone users are still lucky to have a several unused features and voicemail. The time is now right to take the next logical step and dissolve that boundary.

Plain and simple this book does an exceptionally good job of explaining the common pitfalls and shortcomings of the technology and clear up the misconceptions involved with it. The only complaint I had was trivial in that a few features it presents, while still having a current implementation, do still have a slightly lackluster performance. Not due to the technologys failures but due to the current implementations lack of flexibility. This however is addressed in an unspoken way as the fact that development for the technology is very rapidly completed and the concept is much greater than the scope of such trivial minutia.

All in all a must read for anyone that has even considered Voice over IP or who thinks they may possibly benefit from one of the most elegantly written books on the subject from a business perspective.

May 30, 2004 Alan Sardella (alansar@pacbell.net) from Sunnyvale, CA
Interesting Context for Voice/Data Convergence
IP Telephony Unveiled by Kevin Brown (Cisco Press, 2004) provides some interesting history of the convergence of voice and data, and points out how early efforts in this area were focused on the PBX; it turned out this was not a good place to converge because the links were inadequate for ever-increasing data traffic. Eventually the tables were turned and now its apparent that the data network is the place to converge the two traffic types.

The book discusses new capabilities and applications: virus alerts, paging, etc. And it implies throughout that many more revolutionary (killer) applications are still to be conceived. I kept asking myself if I was convinced of this, but there werent enough true-ringing examples to sway me. Of course, the day has dawned for IP telephony (IPT). Theres no question that toll bypass and unified messagingwith its undeniable cost savings and the means to increase employee productivity and hold staff accountablewill drive a very high growth rate in the coming years. I also think that video, with highly similar requirements (more bandwidth but nearly the same service quality) to pure voice over IP (VoIP), will be another business driver, but the book doesnt touch on this in any detail.

For the CxO or IT manager, there are some interesting pointers on selecting PBX features to implement in an IPT environment. Its interesting how simple-seeming features are implemented differently from one company to the nextcall transfer is a classic example. This poses both a difficulty and an opportunity for IP telephonystandards are very nice things, even if there are sometimes too many of them, and IPT is inherently less proprietary than PBX technology.

I found the insisted-upon difference between IPT and VoIP (VoIP is just the traffic and IPT is the whole solution including clients, users, etc.) to be a bit of hair-splitting. In practice, these are used interchangeably and I dont see this resulting in any serious misunderstanding or lack of awareness of the potential of this technology.

There is a nice rundown of various PBX features such as profiles, authorization codes, time-of-day routing etc. Its easy to see the advantages of integrating these applications via softphone onto the PC. And the book points out that IP phones, though slightly harder to use because theyre so feature-rich, lend themselves to simpler rollout and training than you get with a PBX, because the solution can be deployed incrementally like any new network application.

Yet I think there is inadequate defense of a couple of key rollout drivers. Ongoing maintenance costssuch as the ability to perform moves, adds, and changesare indeed lessened with IPT as the book points out, though this was not the case only a couple of years ago, and IT management probably still needs convincing on this point. It also is fairly recently that folks are accepting that the data network provides the same reliability as a PBX based phone system, and this is also a perception that account managers still need to disabuse to get their sales.

The book does a nice job differentiating PBX from IPT architectureIPT is both revolutionary and evolutionary, and is not private, nor branch-specific, nor an exchange. In a sense, phones are just another client, and IPT is evolutionary in this sense. IPT provides all the advantages of a PBX, and allows new applications to emerge. It partly does this because of how easy it easy to merge with the web and office applications on the PCthus the book details the notion of speed URLs, which are similar to speed dials that were familiar with on our everyday phones.

In the last chapters, the book focuses on the vital few initiatives that lead to a successful rollout, and on return on investment (ROI) issues. It stresses finding the value proposition and understanding the business. There are different issues for different markets, with one common thread in that sophisticated users, who drive markets in early stages, want the same intelligence for their phones that they currently enjoy on their workstations or personal digital assistants. Maximizing ROI is a matter of driving down network, administrative, and maintenance costs, while creating applications that focus on key company initiatives. Convergence logically extends the call control platform instead of requiring (in the old paradigm) a PBX in each location. This is where I would have liked to see more on call server deployment options, such as distributed versus centralized call processing, or clustering servers over a WAN.

And this is a choice that an author faces when writing a business book about technologyhow much of the technology to include when you are focusing on the business benefits. My personal preference would have been to see more technical examples, because ultimately these details illuminate the marketing-oriented points of view. This is why I would give the book four stars out of five, with the caveat that if you are not a novice to IPT or you are looking for more meat on the real issues of deployment, its more of a three. If you need an introduction with a strong sense of historical context, its arguably a five, though it shouldnt be your only resource before engaging a vendor and working out the nuts and bolts of your IP telephony solution.

There is some good technical advice towards the endthe author stresses the importance of an infrastructure that can handle voice. This section talked about some of the key gotchas to watch out for: lack of WAN bandwidth and over-utilized routers that might have trouble handling the Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities to ensure delay and jitter are within end to end limits for acceptable conversation. There are also some tips on planning the pilot and ensuring you have some voice expertise in house.

Provocatively the book ends by pointing out how little anyone foresaw the quick impact of the web and the productivity enhancements of connectivity and opines that increased convergence of voice and data may turn out to be just as catalytic. Again, Im not personally convinced o

Apr 8, 2004 Rick Hindman from Gardendale Alabama
Great for people starting an IP Telephony System
IP Telephony Unveiled ISBN 1587200759 By Kevin Brown

Do you have questions like these? What is IP telephony? What is Voice over IP (VoIP)? What is an IP telephone? Is this a new PBX system? How can I use IP telephony and make it work for me? Where Do I start?

If you do have these and other questions then Kevin Brown and Ciscopress have the answers for you. The book is IP Telephony Unveiled ISBN 157200759 by Kevin Brown, and Published by Ciscopress. It will answer all of your questions without being to technical. In Ciscopress own words This volume is in the Network Business Series. And just what is this Network Business Series? It is a series that explains a technical subject without all the geek speak. Dont let that fool you, the subject is well covered, and all of your questions will answered. But thats not all, it also gives direction to get IP Telephony started the right way at you company. The book will help you avoid pitfalls, (if you will follow Mr. Browns directions), and explains the differences between your PBX and IP Telephony. It also tells you the many amazing things you can do with this new Telephone (client) on your network.

If you are a hard core techie wanting to know the nuts and bolts of how to set-up and maintain an IP telephone system then I would suggest looking at the technical books that Ciscopress has to offer on this subject. If you are a tech, manager, or executive that needs information to make a decision about IP Telephony at your company, this is the book for you.

Even though it is not a big book, (only 170 pages including the index), it is full of information and the experience if the author. The book is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter covers the similarities and differences of a PBX system compared to an IP Telephony system. It also covers the convergence of the phone and data network system. Chapter two explains the advantage of IP Telephony over the PBX. It also shows the potential of IP Telephony. Chapter three cover the fact that you keep all of the function of the PBX and add so much more. In chapter four called If this isnt a PBX, what is it? Mr. Brown gives real world examples of IP Telephony system proving this is not just a phone but a client on the network. To me chapters five thru eight is worth the price of the book. In these chapters Mr. Brown shows his tremendous experience with IP Telephony. The subjects in these chapters are topics such as, sample business cases, ROI, ROI real-world examples, planning, and the seven steps to a successful IP Telephony experience. Mr. Brown also covers what is coming in the future.

Kevin Brown shows he knows his stuff , and once again Ciscopress comes up with a great book. I know you will enjoy this book. I did.

Feb 27, 2004 A review from MN
A must read before tackling IP Telephony!
IP Telephony Unveiled (ISBN: 1-58720-075-9) needs to be required reading for any manager or executive wondering about, or planning to implement IP Telephony. There in lies the key distinction for this book: the difference between VOIP and IP Telephony.

Most people writing or looking into this topic blend these two areas into a single topic. The author goes to great lengths to make the differences clear. Brown uses clear examples from the past to show where convergence has been, and where it can go with IP Telephony.

The author examines the top questions he has seen asked over and over in regards to implementing IPT. How is this different from my existing phone system? Why do I need a new phone system when mine already works? These questions show the misunderstanding into IPT. This book clearly answers these questions and more. Brown has woven into the various answers the point that IPT is not a technology so much, as it is a process.

The second half of the book discusses the business impacting issues related to IP Telephony. There are well thought out case studies that show clear examples of positive business affecting implementations. There is a clear emphasis on planning for making a successful rollout of IP Telephony. The author states that doing your homework up front and planning out the deployment will matter much greater than the technology deployed.

Overall, this is an excellent book for executives looking at IP Telephony and all it holds for their company. Anyone reading this will walk away infinitely more qualified to make intelligent decisions on deploying IP Telephony. IS staff would benefit as well, as they sometimes dont see the business impact of the technologies they work with on a day to day basis.

Feb 11, 2004 Russ Grossman (grossman.r@gowden.com) from Colorado
Well written for the decision maker thinking about convergence.
Not too long and to the point. IP Telephony and network convergence is so fundamental it will form the basis for most IT investment for the next 5 years and perhaps beyond. The CxO must understand the fundamental shift that convergence means for a company's infrastructure, employees, and customer relationships. IP Telephony is the infrastructure piece that leads to the wider benefits of computer-telephony integration.

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