What does VoIP offer to the Business Consumer?

One of the big promises of a converged network is increased simplicity. Moves, Adds, and Changes (MACs) become simple to administer. Network managers only need to focus on a single WAN infrastructure, rather than multiple networks. And a single device (phone or computer) can deliver voice and data traffic, so…fewer devices to manage.

In a single IT project, the corporate network has become increasingly simple to manage!

Yet all is not as it seems, it’s too good to be true. In fact, many network managers are finding the opposite to be true, but they don’t actually figure that out until it’s too late to budget for the appropriate management tools. Although we see some clear benefits for companies when they converge their network traffic onto a single IP backbone, we’ve found some significant pitfalls when IT staffs do not use the appropriate tools to manage these networks.

Typically, companies start a network convergence project by adding voice traffic to an IP backbone network. This alone requires network assessments and ongoing performance management. Companies don’t stop with just voice.

The network becomes a conduit for numerous applications, delivering voice, data, video, audio, and imaging traffic all with different performance requirements. This requires planning, budgeting, and testing of management tools and services to ensure that the convergence project starts—and continues—on a positive note.

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