VoIP's hidden costs

Don't let these sneaky project expenses blow your VoIP budget.

You've squeezed every bit of efficiency from your IT infrastructure and have started thinking the time might be right for voice over IP and its promised grand benefits.

After all, one physical infrastructure for voice and data is more efficient than dual networks. What vendors don't always mention is that achieving impressive ROI requires budgeting for potentially hidden costs.

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A comprehensive traffic study Infrastructure upgrades IP phones Inherent cost of the VoIP system architecture Performance monitoring tools Costs and the rollout plan Soft savings

You've squeezed every bit of efficiency from your IT infrastructure and have started thinking the time might be right for voice over IP and its promised grand benefits.

After all, one physical infrastructure for voice and data is more efficient than dual networks. What vendors don't always mention is that achieving impressive ROI requires budgeting for potentially hidden costs.

VoIP implementation costs can range vastly, from $20 to $150 per user (with a typical installation being in the $20-to-$30 range), vendors say. Of course, larger companies have more negotiating power with vendors to bring their projects in at the lowest per-user costs. Beyond that, if you want your costs to be as low as they can be, you'll need to avoid surprises. That starts with an accurate financial assessment. In addition to the IP PBX and gateways, consider these items for your project budget:

A comprehensive traffic study.

Users say your VoIP project should begin with a comprehensive network and telecom usage-pattern analysis, whether performed in-house or by a consultant. A thorough check of the network with a detailed traffic study is "a beautiful thing," says Kevin Lopez, national manager of telecommunications for accounting services firm Grant Thornton in Chicago. "It will help you know what kind of trunking and bandwidth you need, see what you are going to do and where you are going to do it."

Lopez learned that lesson the hard way. To standardize its voice across multiple offices and ultimately reduce costs, Grant Thornton has undergone a multiphase project to upgrade telecom equipment. As part of that project, about 18 months ago it implemented an Avaya VoIP system for sending IP-encased voice over a frame relay network connecting 48 offices nationwide. In November, the company will begin using IP over T-1 lines, and implement quality of service for voice calls.

But Grant Thornton had not performed a comprehensive voice traffic study before implementing the VoIP service. It wasn't until after deploying VoIP that Lopez discovered a large percentage of long-distance calls were between employees. While that was good news - as it meant a 40% reduction in long-distance fees - had Lopez known about that calling-pattern beforehand, he could have provisioned bandwidth differently. He now is reconfiguring some trunks to better handle the traffic flows, he says.

VoIP traffic studies should include analysis of bandwidth usage, availability, calling rates, latency and jitter, says Jorge Blanco, a vice president for Avaya's converged systems and applications group. Such analysis is typically within the abilities of network staff. But should your staff be too overloaded, your VoIP vendor can do it for $5,000 to $10,000, Blanco estimates. In-house or not, the budget should reflect expenses incurred in a traffic study.