Open Source Policy for IP Telephony: Are You Behind or Ahead of the Curve? (Part 3 of 3)
beelinebill January 25th, 2010
In July 2009, Part 1 and in November 2009, Part 2 of this series was published and I am pleased to say I have finally completed the final part 3. As a reminder, the three part series includes these three blog posts:
- Introduction to Open Source Policy for IP Telephony in the Enterprise: “Open Source Policy for IP Telephony: Are You Behind or Ahead of the Curve?”
- Business Analysis of Open Source vs. Traditional Telephony: “The Metrics of Open Source Policy for IP Telephony “
- Best Practices as applied to implementation of an Open Source IP Telephony solution: “Open Source Policy Meets ROI”
As we enter 2010 with the economy showing signs of partial recovery, open source phone systems and use of open source telephony have skyrocketed as more people consider its value and use for their corporation.
Let’s look at what we have covered thus far:
In part 1, you would have already completed a project plan. This would include decisions for the following elements of the plan:
- Corporate strategy for telephony software acquisition and how Open Source Software (OSS) fits
- Open source alternatives for each component and layer of software have been considered as well as licenses and intellectual property as it applies to your company
- You have nailed down your process for building your plan, analyzing the alternatives, and trialing the software
- You have decided your support requirements – internal team or outsourced
- You have decided to take the next step beyond selection and building the OSS policy (even if you call it something like a “purchasing or technology acquisition process”)
- You have a plan to determine if your existing or planned IP network is “Voice-ready”
Your highest level of consideration for an Open Source phone system has been made and now it’s time to explore the Business Analysis of Open Source vs. Traditional Telephony. Let’s call it “The Metrics of Open Source Policy for IP Telephony” as we take a more in depth look at how to implement and measure success factors in building and executing an Open Source Policy for your enterprise.
In part 2, you would have chosen which method of acquisition of open source is right for you, maybe you are going to consider a buy vs. build decision and have a final hurdle to clear – the final selection and method to calculate ROI based on your choice.
You would have selected from one of three scenarios to select and build on for your open source solution:
- Scenario 1: Free and open source code in component form (such as Asterisk from source code)
- Scenario 2: Free and open source distributions which bundles component bits such as Linux, a graphical user interface and the telephone software such as Asterisk
- Scenario 3: Open Source-based turnkey Business Phone System and IP PBX that is based on Asterisk
This leaves us to today’s post, part 3: Best Practices as applied to implementation of an Open Source IP Telephony solution: “Open Source Policy Meets ROI”
To accomplish this, we will use case studies, innovation award winning Asterisk-based existing experiences plus ours here at Digium to showcase best practices and how they might work for your business. So buckle up and let’s dive right in! We’ll explore:
- What are best practices when selecting and implementing open source based telephony?
- What are the top ROI metrics for determining and measuring its success on an ongoing basis?
- The final word
Like any business communications system, it takes a champion to run and manage the solution. Open source is no different. Smaller and medium sized businesses usually use a reseller or trusted advisor to help refine business requirements and these occur regardless of solution implemented. Open source has a more technical following to start, but more recently technical skills are no longer required, just simply understanding your business needs. These lead to “best practices” for any business communications system. Number of users, who gets a desk phone, soft phone and mobile phone, who can call internationally, what do time-based auto-attendant messages and call flows look like, who manages/administers the systems for new moves/adds/changes, and all the basic business phone system information.
Businesses selecting a trusted and proven reseller/integrator will benefit from experience so ask your trusted advisor for references on open source based clients. Learn pitfalls of any VoIp system going in, and you can avoid them.
Next, identify the highest level ROI and cost savings opportunities such as SIP trunking vs. PSTN (typical analog or digital PRI/T1/E1 access). Depending upon your service provider, cost savings and rapid ROI is often connected these days with SIP trunking. Although it’s new and emerging, it is real recurring cost that can be slashed vs. traditional methods typically. Many customers migrate slowly a few trunks at a time until more confidence is built in the newer system.
Other ROI metrics vary depending on your current phone system and the proposed new system. Asterisk open source solutions typically have applications integrated and don’t require multiple dedicated servers for voice mail, IVR, conferencing and if you select turn key solutions from one of the many solutions it’s plug and play plus cost savings.
At the end of the day you save on acquisition costs, save on recurring costs for services and trunks, and maintain unmatched flexibility in achieving your business and budget goals. Open source based solutions also hold hte potential of being the last phone system you ever buy or acquire. Why? Unlike companies who have recently been bankrupt and get taken over in a fire sale, the source code for genuine open source is always yours. Some of the open source based turn key systems have proprietary extensions often in the user interface or on patent encumbered add-ons, but it’s part of the end user policy choices.
Here are three different types of ROI award winners from our annual program:
Emdeon Business Systems Emdeon created an Asterisk-based telephone inquiry system for healthcare providers. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and used about 22,000 times a day by 60,000 physicians and hospitals. The solution met every Maryland cost and availability requirement in a cost-effective manner.
The City of Taguig in the Phillipines Taguig has Asterisk-based VoIP telephone systems in over 73 sites, and the implementation has already brought a 50% decrease in city costs while doubling city workers’ productivity
The University of Pennsylvania by OneBizTone (Laureldale, PA) Migrated more than 10,000 voicemail users off a discontinued and unsupported legacy voicemail system. Used Asterisk to develop a highly scalable unified voicemail system. The new Asterisk-based system was deployed for approximately $2000 versus traditional systems that cost $250,000 plus stored far more hours of messages. All enhancements made to Asterisk as part of this initiative were graciously contributed back to the open source community by the University of Pennsylvania.
- – - -
The final word in having an open source policy is simple. As you look to install a new system, upgrade from an out of warranty system, scale, whatever your reason for requiring a new solution, add the following to your policy for purchasing and/or your chief financial decision makers:
- Invite at least one open-source based proposal for the solution.
It cannot be any easier. Mandatory (or at least strong urging for) consideration, basically what President Obama has done for all US Government IT software acquisitions. It is a good idea to save money and increase your flexibility – and you may very well select the “best in class” solution! Happy open source telephony hunting!
- ABE , Asterisk , Asterisk Awards , Channel , Community , Digium , Genuine Asterisk , Open Source , Open Source Policy , Partners
- Comments(1)
