Nemertes predicts staffs will shrink 17%, which makes IP telephony team rethink strategies
The recession has forced IT staffs to make tough decisions, implement changes, and re-evaluate processes.
In terms of IT budgets, the recession has had a negative effect for most companies — 54% have decreased budgets, and 30% stayed flat in 2009. The reductions manifest themselves in several ways — putting projects on-hold, extending the life on equipment, and unfortunately, cutting IT staffs. Nemertes’ latest research shows overall IT staff sizes will shrink, on average, by 17% this year.
Not surprisingly, cutting nearly one in five people from the IT staff requires leaders to hit the reset button. They must determine how departments within IT deliver services to the business units. Although these limitations are challenging, they also have some positive results. They have forced IT staffs to assess how they are operating today, and how they can operate more efficiently tomorrow.
The communications team has seen profound effects from the economy: 90% of enterprises in Nemertes’ Spring 2009 benchmark have flat or decreasing communications teams. Long before the downturn, resource management was one of the prominent challenges facing telecom and networking staffs, especially around implementing and maintaining IP telephony.
So, hit that reset button again. How do companies manage IP telephony deployments, which now are becoming part of broader unified-communications strategies, given the communications-team reduction?
Leading companies adopt one of two approaches. They either buy specialty IP telephony management tools to make sure the existing staff can isolate and resolve problems accurately and efficiently. Or, they rely upon third-party Managed Service Providers (MSP) to monitor and manage the system and troubleshoot user issues. (Please see previous post, where outsourced VoIP management is covered in more detail.)
Both approaches help companies better utilize the employees they already have. If network administrators can demonstrate how a new monitoring tool can prevent problems or quickly diagnose root cause, budget-holders can reallocate funds (even considering the budget cuts) to acquire the tools. The justification is that the employees can shift that time to other pressing projects. If they conduct an analysis of MSPs and find the cost is less than their internal loaded salaries, they may consider such a move. And, in that case, the internal staff can work on other more strategic projects.
Whether they manage VoIP internally or externally, many IT staffs are growing wary of how difficult it is to isolate and resolve problems with VoIP. Those companies typically learned through two or three years of first-hand frustration. In fact, 54% of companies do not buy their IP telephony monitoring/management tools until two to three years after deployment. And they find problems with IP take one to four times longer to resolve than they took in the TDM world.
For organizations deciding to manage VoIP using internal resources, options are plentiful. They typically buy one to five additional monitoring products to effectively manage IP telephony switches and handsets, along with the broader VoIP traffic over the WAN. These include tools to address configuration, network, application performance, asset and change management, or event correlation.
Several IP PBX vendors offer monitoring and management tools or modules with their products. Most companies rely upon these tools to monitor their IP telephony systems, but managing the entire VoIP infrastructure generally requires additional third-party tools.
When evaluating third-party products, organizations must consider the vendors’ experience and longevity in the market. For example, vendors such as Infovista, Integrated Research (Prognosis), and NetIQ have offered IP telephony monitoring for several years. Others, such as Clarus, EMC, Fluke Networks, and Netcordia are either new to monitoring and management entirely or have extended their existing products in network management, testing or configuration to include VOIP-specific capabilities. Evaluating the vendors’ capabilities and overall experience performing IP telephony management or any type of management will help to narrow the short list of prospects.
If you’re one of the many companies deploying VoIP, while at the same time dealing with limited resources, don’t put yourself through two to three years of frustration! It’s never too early to evaluate ongoing management options.
Regardless of budget and staffing cuts, you should include management in your overall VoIP strategy. You’ll save money and years of frustration by understanding your vendor solution, and preparing yourself (and network) to augment with third-party offerings.
