Making The Convergence Switch

Rapidly evolving business applications, particularly those that enable real-time transactions and unified communications, are often touted as the selling points for upgrading the IT network for voice and video traffic. But many businesses -- including those that move conservatively on the technology front -- are preparing their networks for converged communications.

"What I'm starting to see is customers realizing that they need to set the infrastructure even if they're not going to take advantage of converged networking right away," says Mike Saulter, systems engineer manager at Evolve Technology Group in Rocklin, Calif. "I think there's an understanding that we don't know what's coming, so we'd better get the network ready."

AAA East Coast is a conservative organization that's rarely on the cutting edge of networking, according to Mike Gladish, director of corporate technology at the Cleveland-based auto club. The organization's network is made up of a hodgepodge of technologies from Avaya, Nortel Networks and Siemens, and Gladish is considering adding Cisco Systems into the mix. A spate of recent mergers has further complicated the voice and data systems.

Bringing together instant messaging, videoconferencing, presence awareness, collaboration and mobile voice technologies will allow AAA's diverse businesses--from financial services to travel to insurance--to meet customer expectations and remain competitive. Gladish, nevertheless, says convincing managers who hold the purse strings has been challenging.

"I think the ultimate goal is that you want to be able to get to the right person who has the right information at the right time," says Gladish, who also serves as president of Just US, the Siemens user group in the United States.

Click here to find out why SIP, the protocol that makes vendors' basic IP technologies play nicely, won't work for advanced business apps.

The auto club's roadside service personnel have an especially high need for greater integration of voice, data and video. Historically, when motorists had car trouble, the AAA call center would contact the dispatcher, who would send a truck to the site. For the motorist, the process often meant long waits.

Today's AAA operators are better able to locate and communicate with drivers with the help of global positioning satellite technology.

"As a call is closed up, the AAA driver moves right on to the next call right from that site. We've been able to shave off, just with that process, about three to five minutes on our average response time," Gladish says.

Integrating mobile voice technology into the enterprise network, particularly the call center, would further reduce the response time, Gladish says. "What we want is for that [mobile] device to be part of our system back here. We'd like to have as few touch points as possible but still have communications with the members."

NEXT: Ensuring quality of service, plus reducing complexity and cost.