Costs, security vex VoIP users

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Return on investment and budget constraints are the biggest roadblocks to convergence  projects.

Or so say large corporate customers attending last week's VoiceCon conference, where discussions focused on the business of planning, securing and cost-justifying IP telephony.

Despite the snow that inundated the East Coast last week, more than 3,000 attendees came to Washington to see keynote addresses, lively vendor debates and educational sessions. Money issues took center stage.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Return on investment and budget constraints are the biggest roadblocks to convergence  projects.

Or so say large corporate customers attending last week's VoiceCon conference, where discussions focused on the business of planning, securing and cost-justifying IP telephony.

Despite the snow that inundated the East Coast last week, more than 3,000 attendees came to Washington to see keynote addresses, lively vendor debates and educational sessions. Money issues took center stage.

"We have to look at our current infrastructure and all the [computer telephony] applications that are out there, and ask - what can be done on our current system that can't be done with IP? - before we go to the board [of directors] and ask them for money for a major technology change that will make them nervous," said Doug Crawford, director of network services for Kaiser Permanente, the largest nonprofit HMO in the U.S.

Crawford has hundreds of PBXs, thousands of pieces of network equipment to support and a $25-million-a-year budget.

David Morgan, vice president of architecture and planning at Fidelity Investment Systems, said, "ROI is a real issue with the expansion of any of our IP telephony plans. I ask other people in my position, who may have IP telephony pilots out, why they don't go all the way, and they say it's a money issue," and the ability to show ROI.

"I have a fixed IT budget and a lot of other projects that I can get at least a six-month ROI on before I go forward with IP telephony," which might have a longer ROI, and is harder to prove, he says.

Fidelity is still moving cautiously with IP telephony. Morgan talked about the company's deployment of homegrown softphone applications and USB handsets as a way to deploy IP telephony cost effectively.

Morgan said the ROI on hard phones is a "tough sell" because they are almost twice as expensive to deploy as a software-based phone and headset. Fidelity's softphone is based on the Telephony API standard and operates with a Cisco CallManager. The software integrates the company's IBM Lotus Sametime instant messaging client, as well as Microsoft Outlook, with telephony, letting end users click on a name in a directory and choose a method of communication - e-mail, chat or phone call.

Morgan said the company has about 3,200 softphones deployed among several departments and with teleworkers, but he is dealing with issues such as E-911 emergency reporting, and the reliance on a PC to make phone calls.

Voice-over-IP security issues were on the minds of many VoiceCon attendees because of all the reports of high-profile network attacks lately.

In a debate at the show on IP telephony security, Karyn Mashima, Avaya's vice president of strategy and technology, squared off with Lee Sutterfield, president of SecureLogix, which makes equipment for securing traditional PBX voice systems.

"In legacy voice, the risk has been very low" for system misuse or attack from individuals or groups outside a company, Sutterfield said. But he added that TDM toll fraud is still a threat, costing U.S. businesses around $12 billion per year.