News and Press Releases

Internet Telephony: IT Integrators Answer VoIP SOS

IT Integrators Answer VoIP SOS By Charlotte Wolter Internet Telephony, January 31, 2006 How does a VoIP service provider with one data center in the Midwestern United States provide a service for a retailer with branch offices in 15 far-flung states? The answer: Bring in the integrators. Although any VoIP service ostensibly could serve any customer in the world, given the ubiquity of the Internet, in reality many customers, particularly businesses, need expert support at each location to assess the site, and install, monitor and manage the service. Business customers need more than broadband and an ATA for their business systems to perform as expected. Their VoIP service may travel over last-mile access that already sees heavy use from the company’s data traffic. If the voice continues on the LAN, there also may be issues with traffic and blockages, such as NAT. Often, on-site equipment such as gateways, IADs and NAT traversal devices needs expert installation and monitoring. Many VoIP service providers still are relatively small entities. In theory, they should be able to compete with the AT&Ts of the world. Often they use exactly the same software package to provide the service, and the same infrastructure of servers, but support has been the sticking point. For that reason, VoIP service providers are starting to partner with large IT integrators and support firms, many of whom are adding VoIP to their IT expertise. Two arrangements of this nature were showcased at the recent Internet Telephony Conference and Expo in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., where DecisionOne, a support services firm for IT, announced agreements with FacetCorp and Pandora Networks. The two VoIP service providers will use DecisionOne’s Desktop to DialTone service to install and support their VoIP deployments, particularly those for customers with multiple locations. DecisionOne will first do site and network assessments, with particular focus on the access bandwidth to see if it is sufficient to support VoIP, and performs as advertised by the access service provider. Further, for a multisite deployment, DecisionOne can distribute and deploy all the phones and other equipment. “If there are 25 offices with 2,500 phones, we can take in all the phones where [the service provider] is not able [to] and can deploy across [the] country directly to technologists who do the installation,” said Geoff Drayton, vice president of business development at DecisionOne, “then the VoIP service provider can provide a high-quality hosted service to that customer.” “Many of our customers are buying hosted services because they have offices in different parts of the country,” said Jon Beck, chief operating officer at Pandora Networks. “We are a 40-year-old IT service company,” said Drayton. “We have 4,000 technicians, a nationwide presence and expertise in IP, and are able to provide overnight a national footprint for companies like Pandora. We do not sell VoIP, but if you have nine offices around the country, we will install it. So Pandora can chase large national customers and assure them that they have a national infrastructure to do that.” VoIP service providers are not the only ones looking for high-quality IT support. Whaleback Systems, a new vendor of IP PBXs, has named DecisionOne a certified installer of its SMB1500 business telephone system. DecisionOne will provide infrastructure assessments, installation services and first-level technical support for Whaleback Systems’ customers. VegaStream Ltd., a long-time provider of VoIP gateways for service providers that is now seeing growth in the enterprise side of its business, has forged an agreement with BAI Systems & Engineering to be its premier integration partner in the United States. BAI claims more than a decade of experience with VoIP systems, and, in particular, experience with SIP, which becomes increasingly important as more enterprise systems use SIP rather than proprietary signaling. “BAI does many things, but VoIP is one of their core competencies,” says Robert Brakeman, vice president of operations and general manager of VegaStream North America.