Checklist: Getting the management dollars for VoIP

The two major IT-based reasons for the management tool investment are reduction of downtime and improvement of IT staff efficiency. The results of these improvements are higher user productivity and customer satisfaction (internal and external). With the introduction of VoIP/IPT, performance management becomes more critical. The call and voice quality for VoIP requires constant vigilance, in real time, putting greater pressure on the ability of the management solutions to cope with these quality issues.

Many enterprises expect that management tools that come with the network and endpoint products will be sufficient. For non-critical use of the network and endpoints, these may be enough. As the network and endpoints support functions that cannot afford downtime or poor performance, the management process also becomes more critical. Consider a foreign-currency trader in a financial institution. When there are automated trades programmed into the systems, even a few millis

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econds of delay or outage can make or break the trade. How would you feel about the IT environment if it went down during an emergency, all the IPT services disappeared, and 911 calls could not be made?

There are many independent management packages that provide far more capabilities than the original vendor's tools. If the original vendor's management tools were adequate, there would be no market for these third-party management tools. This is especially true for the management of Cisco network and IP telephony products. There are also IP telephony management products for Avaya and Nortel products.

How should the investment be analyzed?

In summary, the enterprise is going to be paying a bill for effective management. That bill can include the lost revenue, lost clients and extra IT staff labor. The investment in management tools can never eliminate all the problems, but the tools can resolve issues to acceptable levels for the enterprise.

About the author:
Gary Audin has more than 40 years of computer, communications and security experience. He has planned, designed, specified, implemented and operated data, LAN and telephone networks. These have included local area, national and international networks as well as VoIP and IP convergent networks in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia.

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