IP Telephony Review

We are a $265M, SEG based credit union in New Jersey.  Prior to our telephone system conversion, we had seven branches that all used either conventional phone lines or individual PBX systems that were owned and operated by the sponsor group facilities in which they were located.  Realizing that our old phone system was outdated and would not grow with us, we began to look into IP Telephony (VoIP) in the late 1990s.  In early 2002 we began to seriously research such solutions, and within six months we had all of our branches hooked up to one system.       

We decided to implement IP Telephony for four reasons: 1) to save money, 2) to increase corporate efficiencies, 3) to improve member service, and 4) to prepare ourselves for eventual growth.  We evaluated eight systems by creating a matrix that graded each company on various features.  After we had done our scoring, we eliminated all but the top three vendors and went on tours to see each of the systems in action.  Then came decision time.  At this point, all three of the systems had all of the features we were looking for, so selecting a vendor would not be easy.  In the end, we selected Inter-Tel’s Axxess system because of its price and their seemingly high dedication to providing us with frequent support.  The implementation of the system was fairly painless.  Our vendor worked with us to program much of the system prior to our cutover date.  The vendor also provided training for our employees.

This new technology allowed us to save money by sending our phone calls through our existing T1 infrastructure, thereby eliminating branch-to-branch tolls.  This also allowed us to get more use out of our T1s.  The administration is extremely easy and PC based, and the phones themselves have many more features than our old ones had.  It is those features that allow us to better serve our members, in conjunction with our ability to now establish a true call center.  Real-time reports of all kinds can be generated with a few mouse clicks.  And when the time for a new branch comes, all we have to do is purchase new phones, link them to the PCs, and they are on the phone network. 

The system we selected, it should be noted, was not True IP, but a PBX-IP hybrid.  According to research we had done, True IP was twice the cost of the hybrid, and only allowed us to better control the intricate inner-workings of the system (which we knew we’d never fiddle with ourselves).  Another disadvantage we saw in True IP was that if our network went down, all our phones would also go down.  With the hybrid, at least the phones in our main branch would still be operational.  From what we had read, True IP is supposed to be the way of the future as it is much cleaner and less complicated to install, but we felt by the time our hybrid was obsolete it would have already paid for itself a couple times over.  In the coming years though, I am sure the cost of True IP will decrease as more players enter the market, thereby possibly making it the better solution.   

Some things to think about before deciding to go IP or selecting a vendor:

1) Do you need to use true IP, or is a PBX-IP hybrid sufficient for your needs? (we resisted the temptation to purchase “the best” and bought a hybrid)

 2) Is your branch layout such that you will actually save money on toll calls? (unless you purchase individual PBX-IPs for each branch, all calls are routed through your network and are charged as if they were dialed from the branch where the PBX-IP sits)

3) Have you studied your current call distribution?  (the PC based administration makes this easy to set up, but it won’t help you define what you want)

4) Do you have the current infrastructure requirements in place? (T1s, appropriate routers, etc.)