InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
December 13, 1999
 Printer ready |
Companies integrate telecom and datacom groups to take advantage of voice over IP
By Brian Riggs
| Related links from our sister publications: |
|
|
iggybacking voice traffic over data networks is emerging as an increasingly popular and straightforward way for businesses with a significant number of calls between dispersed branch offices to cut telecommunications costs. Last week, 3Com Corp. started shipping a new release of its NBX 100 LAN telephony system. Also last week, Lucent Technologies Inc. and digital subscriber line equipment developer Accelerated Networks Inc. completed interoperability tests for networking gear that will let providers offer voice-over-DSL services to businesses.What is less straightforward is how to get IT and telecommunications engineers speaking the same language. "Voice technology has remained pretty much the same for years, whereas the data side changes constantly. This has created two very different cultures, one that is used to keeping things mostly the same and the other that is used to changing a lot," says Gian Zoppo, information systems director at The Designory, a graphics arts firm in the initial stages of a voice-over-IP implementation.
Indeed, the different technologies managed by telecom and datacom departments have often fueled a mutual animosity between the groups. "They don't have to, they don't want to, and they won't talk to each other," says Jeff Pulver, president of consulting firm Pulver.com Inc. But technology that lets companies simplify network design and management by converging voice and data is forcing the rivals into closer quarters. 3Com's NBX 100 LAN telephony switch is one among many new products that will change the relationship between telecom and datacom professionals. The switch can support as many as 200 standard analog telephones, rather than the proprietary handsets customers previously had to purchase. It also has call-center features such as agent routing and call queuing, and can interface with circuits interconnecting branch offices.
Merging telecom and datacom departments makes financial sense. "The two departments often order services from the same providers separately, missing out on reduced prices associated with bundled services," says Dataquest analyst John Coons.
Jack Gelman, director of enterprise network services at Dow Jones & Co., says leasing tie lines to connect bureaus in Brussels, Belgium; London; and elsewhere in Europe back to the United States costs about three times the price of running voice on frame relay lines for international traffic. The company is deploying an IP networking architecture that accommodates both data and voice traffic. "We are working on developing a single network architecture and a set of technology standards. When we invest going forward, we are heading toward that common goal," Gelman says.
Among the most challenging technical hurdles of the network convergence: connecting PBXs and data routers, according to Gelman. Telecom engineers had to identify the PBX trunk interfaces and pass them off to the IT staff, which connected them to the routers. "That's where different worlds colliding started to show itself," he says. "We had telecom people talking about telecom signaling to a bunch of router engineers who didn't understand a word of it."
Next, the staffs of the two departments had to develop testing processes to make sure the signaling leads were identified properly, in order to get the wiring done. "It took a while to get a process that worked where the telecom people and the data engineers could work together," Gelman says. "But once they got that defined jointly, they broke it into a series of small steps where each one had their role."
To help facilitate communication and cooperation in the future, Dow Jones has integrated its datacom and telecom departments into a single enterprise networking organization that ultimately reports to the chief technology officer. Combining the departments not only facilitates communications, but helps bring together staffs that have not traditionally worked well together. "They have developed a joint respect for each other," Gelman says. "Data engineers are realizing there is a lot they don't know about voice applications."
In contrast, the city of Oceanside, Calif., has completely eliminated its telecom department, retraining those technicians as IT staffers. Oceanside is replacing its PBXs with a Sphere Communications Inc. LAN telephony system. Without PBXs and a separate telecom network, the need for telecommunications technicians all but disappeared.
"Originally, I had a bunch of telecom techs who did nothing but phones, networking engineers who did nothing but networking, and IT technicians who supported nothing but PCs," says Michael Sherwood, Oceanside's information technologies manager. "We took our phone people and trained them to be computer technicians so they could do help-desk type troubleshooting." Oceanside's former telecom technicians now spend most of their time staffing the PC help desk, occasionally assisting with the replacement of legacy PBXs with datacom systems.
Back to This Week's Issue
Send Us Your Feedback
Top of the Page
