* Former Cisco engineer is building a global VoIP network
Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth recently chronicled how tool maker Stanley Works hired an ex-Cisco engineer to revamp its global VoIP strategy. And as the story goes, the company went with a multi-vendor (read non-Cisco) approach that in the end will service hundreds of sites and tens of thousands of SIP phones.
The ex-Cisco employee in question here is named Dave Cote. He ran Cisco’s Voice Technology Group test lab in Boxboro, Mass. for six years before taking up with the Stanley global telecommunications group last year. While Stanley already had patches of VoIP running on Cisco’s CallManager system in its network, Cote opted for a multi-vendor approach comprising call processing, gateway and handset technologies from a variety of sources. Cote’s reasoning boiled down to the bottom line — his estimate is that this chosen route could save the company up to $4 million (or $400 per user) when compared to the price of implementing a single-vendor network.
In Network World’s IT Convergence Buyer’s Guide, we’ve collected data from dozens of vendors in 10 product categories to assist in readers’ search for the right combination of VoIP products for their networks. Use this guide to compare and contrast available IP-PBX, IP Phone and VoIP security and management tools.
