 Convergence & VoIPNetwork World's Convergence & VoIP Newsletter, 06/04/07The real strength of Avaya's IP Telephony system, Part 1By Steve Taylor and Larry HettickLast week, we highlighted an Avaya announcement about the company’s new IP Telephony (IPT) system called Avaya Distributed Office, designed to meet the challenges of smaller offices that are part of a larger enterprise. Although we reported that the Avaya Distributed Office can well-serve the SMB office with single-office configurations available for 40 and 120 users, Avaya suggested in a follow-up briefing that the real strength of their SIP-based system architecture is to link many hundreds or even thousands of small offices together as part of a larger enterprise configuration. So we’d like to dig deeper and outline both the similarities and differences between a stand-alone SMB location and the remote branch office—with a focus on how IPT system requirements for the SMB and the branch location can simultaneously be alike and different. Today, we’d like to highlight the similarities. When considering a move to a premise-based VoIP system, both the SMB and the branch office need a solution that offers affordability, usability, and manageability. Technical support in the office is typically limited; an SMB usually can’t support a large IT staff while the large enterprise usually centralizes IT support and network management. Consequently, onsite configuration and management needs to be simplified for both.
A user-friendly experience is also important in both environments, so intuitive user controls for both the phone and any unified communications feature need to be offered in a way that doesn’t require hours or days of training. For example, if an office worker has come to rely on key system features on their existing phone or a Microsoft application for their e-mail and calendaring, then support for these features on an IPT system facilitates user comfort levels with a new system. Next time—how IPT requirements for the SMB office and branch office are different.
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| Contact the author: Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to Webtorials, the premier site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and market research. Taylor can be reached at taylor@webtorials.com Larry Hettick is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in voice and data. He is Vice President for Telecom Services and Infrastructure at Current Analysis, the leading competitive response solutions company. He can be reached at lhettick@currentanalysis.com ARCHIVEArchive of the Convergence & VoIP Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007  |
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