the definitive guide to ip phones

The Definitive Guide to IP Phones

Copyright © 2007, Tippit, Inc., All Rights Reserved

This comprehensive guide contains:

The VoIP-News IP Phones Buyer’s Guide

The VoIP-News IP Phones Checklist

IP Phone Features That Will Make Your Life Better

The VoIP-News IP Phone Comparison Guide

IP Phone Buyer’s Guide

Learn what IP phone systems are on the market and understand what issues you should consider before choosing the right one for your enterprise.


IP Phones Buyer’s Guide

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Contents

Executive Summary 3

IP Phones Overview 4

Market Overview 6

The Benefits of IP Phones 8

Basic Features 9

Cost 10

Checklist 11

Conclusion 12


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Executive Summary

Yesterday’s charcoal-grey business phones are fast being displaced by touch-screen, display-outfitted IP units that do everything from facilitate Web conferences to deliver up-to-the-minute stock quotes.

But bells and whistles aren’t the only reason companies are turning to IP phones. Because they rely on private networks and the Internet instead of traditional phone lines to exchange voice and data traffic, IP phones can deliver enormous cost savings and practically eliminate long-distance charges. The list of benefits doesn’t end there — hassle-free installation, centralized call management, scalability, hot desking and easy integration with business applications are all factors prompting companies to swap their POTS (plain old telephone service) for an IP PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch eXchange) system.

The bottom line with IP phones is that they offer businesses a user-friendly and easy-to-manage alternative to traditional phone systems. Such innovation, however, comes at a price; a single IP phone can range from $150 to $700 or more, a hefty price tag for a company with limited funds or a sizeable work force.

This buyer’s guide examines the IP phone market and offers details on what to look for, how to buy, what you can expect to pay and how to get the most out of your investment.

New IP phones are getting sleeker and more advanced.


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IP Phones Overview

The average American pet dog is likely to outlive your company’s high-priced traditional telephone system. In fact, analysts estimate that the average life expectancy of a legacy phone system is just seven (human) years. There will come a time, probably sooner rather than later, when every business will have to consider trading in its age-old desktop phones for IP equivalents.

Hybrid IP PBX vs. Pure IP

The key to selecting an appropriate IP phone hinges on developing a proper telephony migration strategy. There are two primary approaches for businesses: a complete overhaul or a converged deployment. For a company looking to abandon its legacy phone system altogether, a complete overhaul of its telephone system makes the most sense, both technically and financially. This start-from-scratch approach entails implementing a pure IP solution, along with dedicated IP phones, from a single vendor. The result is a suite of feature-rich, easy-to-implement voice services that can easily be integrated with both IT applications and a unified communications plan.

But not all companies are willing to scuttle their existing investment in analog or digital phones for the sake of pure IP units. For example, companies with scarce IT resources and a limited need for innovative communication solutions may find it more cost-effective to ease into an IP PBX with a hybrid model. Many of today’s legacy PBX vendors offer a migration path that involves adding IP capabilities while leveraging current telephony assets. With this hybrid approach, businesses can connect to and between nearly any other form of telephony — from digital to POTS — thereby both extending the life of its legacy system and reaping the benefits of IP.

For a company looking to abandon its legacy phone system altogether, a complete overhaul of its telephone system makes the most sense, both technically and financially.


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IP Phone Types

The next step is deciding what IP phone best suits your business needs. Today’s IP phones range from high-priced, videoconference-enabled devices to low-end, standard machines.

Popular IP phone types include:

Desktop:• Sized and styled for the office place, today’s desktop IP phones typically include single-line access, a limited number of interactive soft keys, and a two-line LCD screen with browsing and instant-messaging capabilities. High-end IP phones are also known to feature a backlit, high-resolution, color touch screen for easy access to communications information, XML applications and special features.

Wireless:• For businesses boasting an existing 802.11 network, a wireless IP phone is an excellent choice. These increasingly popular devices allow voice and data support on the same wireless backbone.

Conferencing:• IP conferencing phones offer instant, face-to-face communication between two or more participants. Ideally suited for conference rooms of small-to-medium size, these specialty phones incorporate a camera, LCD screen, speaker, keypad and handset in a single unit.

Proprietary vs. Open Phones

Just because you’ve enlisted a VoIP provider doesn’t mean you have to turn to that same vendor for an IP phone. Selecting an IP phone manufacturer is a crucial step, and there are plenty of third-party, standards-based phones to choose from. These low-cost, no-frills handsets include upwards of 16 standard calling features and can be configured to work with the majority of today’s IP PBX systems. The downside is that third-party IP phone purchasers shouldn’t expect the same high-tech bells and whistles provided by legacy vendors such as Cisco and Nortel.

Other factors to consider when purchasing an IP phone include customer-support availability, as well as a manufacturer’s commitment to service levels.


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Market Overview

These days, there’s no shortage of vendors peddling IP phones, and it’s no wonder. According to Juniper Research, the market for IP PBXs will reach over $1.6 billion this year, and IP phone sales associated with IP Centrex/hosted system sales will top nearly 16 million units in 2010. Currently, vendors such as Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, Polycom, Siemens AG and ShoreTel are working hard to gobble a sizable slice of the IP phone pie. Recently, research firm In-Stat cited Cisco as a market leader for the IP phone industry, taking 43 percent of the market share with Avaya trailing at 12 percent. All this could change soon as the market becomes increasingly flooded with low-end, inexpensive, third-party phones from small-scale competitors.

Hoping to distinguish themselves from the pack, many vendors are upping the ante by adding special features to their IP phone offerings. Nortel’s IP Phone 2007, for example, includes a 5.7-inch viewable color touch screen, bringing multimedia presentation support to the desktop device. Cisco’s Unified IP Phone 7985G, a personal desktop videophone that makes instant, face-to-face communications a reality. And then there’s the new Polycom HDX 4000 series which sports multiple HD features, including HD voice, HD video and HD content-sharing capabilities.

But it’s the threat of Microsoft becoming a dominant IP telephony player that is truly raising eyebrows among top vendors. Through its Office Communications Server 2007, a SIP-based communications platform, the Redmond giant plans to provide presence-based VoIP call management, audio, video and Web conferencing, and instant messaging — all working in conjunction with existing software and applications. The rollout also includes a unified messaging server called Exchange Server 2007, which integrates email, voice mail and faxing.

What’s more, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 will serve as a presence-based, enterprise VoIP softphone, while Microsoft Office Live Meeting will provide conferencing services. So far, at least nine manufacturers have unveiled 15 IP telephones that will be compatible with Office Communications Server 2007, including LG-Nortel, NEC and Samsung.

Hoping to distinguish themselves from the pack, many vendors are upping the ante by adding special features to their IP phone offerings.


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As a result of Microsoft’s proposed plans, some industry experts recommend that companies hold off before tackling a full-scale IP PBX implementation. But not everyone is convinced that Microsoft’s entry into an already crowded space will bring about massive changes. Says Henry Dewing, a Forrester Research analyst, “[Microsoft’s unveiling of its Communications Server 2007] will be a flash in the market. It’ll be something interesting, but I don’t see markets changing in the long term.”


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The Benefits of IP Phones

Whether you’ve purchased a high-end video conferencing IP device or a bargain-basement, no-frills unit, all IP phones offer advantages above and beyond their traditional counterparts.

An IP phone’s primary perks include:

Easy Configuration and Administration:• Forget about time-consuming reconfigurations and rewiring activities. Rather, an IP phone can be moved from one site to the next simply by plugging it into the nearest Ethernet port.

Enhanced Productivity:• Businesses can easily integrate IP phones with key applications such as customer-relationship-management and contact-management tools. For example, users can place calls directly from Microsoft Outlook or instantly access a price list the moment a particular client calls.

Greater Collaboration:• By integrating videoconferencing into an IP telephony solution, companies can perform feats such as holding a conference call among worldwide offices or working jointly on development projects using Web-based collaboration tools.


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Basic Features

When selecting an IP phone, there are a number of standard features buyers have simply come to expect. While these most basic functions don’t exactly push the envelope on technical innovation, they do promise to boost productivity and improve customer service.

Standard features include:

Caller ID:• Displays incoming call information, such as a name or a phone number, on your phone screen.

Call Waiting:• Provides an auditory alert of an incoming call while on another call.

Call Transfer:• Offers the ability to transfer calls between extensions without going back to a central switchboard.

Call Parking:• Temporarily stores a call in a waiting area, then picks up the call using another phone.

Softkeys:• Programmable buttons allow for easy feature and application access that perform whatever function is shown near it on a touch-screen display.

User Directory:• Provides an address book of personal contacts that you can access directly on your phone.

Speed Dialing:• Allows you to place a call with the press of a button rather than dialing a number manually.


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Cost

When it comes to IP phones, talk isn’t always cheap. In fact, handsets make up between 40 and 45 percent of the cost of an IP telephony installation. That might help explain why only 40 percent of IP PBX seats are configured with IP phones, according to In-Stat.

“The cost of an IP phone is a major barrier to upgrades,” says Keith Nissen, an In-Stat analyst. “IP phones will typically cost anywhere from $300 to $500 each. It is the majority of the investment in a new PBX system.”

As the price of production has dropped, so has the cost of IP phones — by approximately 50 percent, according to industry analysts. Even still, purchasing managers have their work cut out for them. After all, presenting senior-level decision-makers with a strong argument for investing in IP phones involves pointing out soft dollar benefits such as productivity gains and enhanced customer satisfaction – intangible parameters for measuring ROI (return on investment).

What’s worse is that many purchasers of IP phones simply aren’t getting the most bang for their buck. Failing to evangelize the use of feature-rich IP phones among employees and selecting IP phones with features that extend beyond a company’s real needs are both factors that result in wasted money.

Consider this: Gartner estimates that businesses worldwide will buy more than 150 million IP phones over the next five years. However, for 75 percent of those purchases, companies will spend at least $150 more than they need to as they focus on purchasing IP screen phones.

In the end, it’s up to businesses to carefully assess what they hope to accomplish with an IP-based phone system and what they’re willing to invest in the training of their employees.

Hosted IP PBX pricing is fixed per user and entirely predictable. Monthly costs are always a flat fee per user per month.



IP Phones Checklist What to ask before you buy.

r Are you better off migrating to a hybrid IP PBX or a pure IP system?

r What features are you looking for in an IP phone?

rHow much time and money are you willing to invest in the training of your employees on IP telephony?

r How many employees will actually benefit from an IP phone in terms of increased productivity?

rDo you have the IT resources needed to manage an IP telephony system?

r Will you require videoconferencing capabilities in your IP phone?

rDo you have an existing 802.11 network that can accommodate wireless IP phones?

rDoes your budget allow for a proprietary IP phone or a low-cost, third-party device?

rWhat basic features do you expect from an IP phone?

rWhat kind of customer support does your IP phone manufacturer offer?

rWhat is the fine print in an IP phone manufacturer’s service level agreement?



Conclusion

Given the limited life span of a traditional telephone system, the majority of today’s businesses will, at some point, have to seriously consider switching to an IP-based model. Forget about being wowed by standard features such as call waiting and call transfer. The latest crop of IP phones allows users to perform feats such as holding PowerPoint presentations with Zurich-based colleagues and freely hot plugging phones from one site to the next.

But there’s a price to be paid for such innovation. IP phones can cost upwards of $700 a set. Many businesses are hard-pressed to measure their cost benefits in terms other than productivity gains and enhanced customer service — hardly convincing metrics for bottom-line-obsessed CEOs.

For those companies that take the IP plunge, the perks can be outstanding: eliminated phone wiring, easy installation, centralized management, scalability, hot desking, enhanced usability and enormous call cost reduction. The secret to success, however, involves selecting an IP phone that best suits your business needs. Carefully examine feature lists and select a vendor that understands your industry’s communication requirements. Once you’ve purchased your IP phones, be sure that employees are making the most of all those innovative features.

For a detailed comparison of IP Phones, see the VoIP-News IP Phone Comparison Guide.


What you should look for in an IP phone and how it can help boost productivity and ease of use, as well as impress your employees.

IP Phone Features That Will Make Your Life Better

VoIP has plenty of mainstream appeal for business, but many companies have yet to discover the perks of IP phones. In fact, research firm In-Stat found that while total IP phone annual shipments will grow from 10 million units in 2006 to 164 million units in 2010, only 40 percent of IP PBX (Private Branch eXchange) seats are configured with IP phones.

Certainly price is one factor keeping businesses at bay. IP phones, after all, are often the highest cost component in migrating from a traditional phone system to VoIP. Promising to help companies get more bang for their buck, however, are a whole host of special features included in most IP phones. The challenge is identifying these key attractions and ensuring that employees make proper use of them.

While key features can vary from phone to phone, here are the ones that can make your employees’ lives better:

CMC (Client Matter Code): Having trouble keeping track of your billable hours? An IP phone can help. Professional services companies, from law offices to accounting firms, can now associate inbound and outbound VoIP calls with specific billing or tracking codes. Specified by a system administrator, CMC can track factors including the length of calls for each client – information that can later be packaged into detailed reports for accounting and billing purposes.

Corporate Directory: Why keep a Rolodex when you can use your phone to search for coworkers’ and clients’ numbers? Simply press a soft key or a button to place a call to the phone number in the directory listing. These listings may range from corporate contacts stored in Microsoft Active Directory to your personal contacts in Microsoft Outlook. Either way, searchable directories appear right on the phone’s display for convenient access. Some IP phones even go so far as to provide users with at-a-glance presence information for an entire corporate directory list so that they can instantly see which co-workers are available or on the phone.

Touch-screen Display: Whether your goal is to watch streaming video or simply monitor incoming calls, an IP phone’s backlit, pixel-based, touch-screen display can bring images to life. And by simply pressing a phone screen, you can access a full range of applications in seconds instead of pressing cryptic key codes on the number pad.

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E911 (Enhanced 911): E911 is an enhanced version of the 911 emergency service that automatically delivers a caller’s personal information, such as name and address, to a local dispatch center or Public Safety Answering Point, as required by the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999. Although increasingly incorporated into VoIP packages, E911 has long been plagued with implementation problems, so it’s worth asking your service provider what steps – and obstacles – are involved. The Federal Communications Commission has even jumped on board, issuing an order to providers to notify their customers of the limitations of E911 service.

Enhanced Voice Mail: For a modern-day road warrior, picking up voice mail messages can be a painstaking process. Pagers, cell phones, BlackBerrys, laptops – there’s simply no shortage of devices you need to check. With an IP phone’s enhanced voice mail, however, you can listen to your voice mail over the Internet using the Web interface of your VoIP service provider or receive your messages as email attachments. What’s more, the media files can be saved for future access or archiving. Enhanced voice mail also allows you to be notified of new messages wherever you are, through your mobile phone or pager. Additionally, travelers can listen to their messages from any phone available.

IP Video: It may not earn you frequent-flyer miles, but video-over-IP is the next best thing to being there in the flesh. As a result, some IP phones include features such as advanced VGA resolution camera sensors, color and rotatable LCDs, video call Hold/Transfer/Forward, video phone books, and video-capture capabilities. At least in a basic sense, you can engage in videoconferencing with geographically scattered colleagues and co-workers.

Communications Control: So your entire California-based executive team is attending a conference in Utah? Rather than have them waste time calling in for voice mail messages, redirect all business-related calls to their cell phones using an IP phone’s communications control features. In fact, nowadays, companies can manage an entire VoIP system across multiple sites with nothing more than a browser-based interface.

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The Complete Guide to IP Telephony Solutions

IP Phone Comparison Guide

Manufacturer Nortel Networks ShoreTel Avaya Polycom Siemens Cisco SystemsProduct IP Audio Conference

Phone 2033

ShorePhone IP 560g 4690 IP Speakerphone SoundPoint IP 650 optiPoint 420 advance IP Phone 7971G-GE

FeaturesSystem PoE (Power over

Ethernet) support

Integrated Ethernet

switch, PoE support

PoE support PoE support Integrated Ethernet switch,

PoE support

Integrated Ethernet

switch, PoE supportVoice Codecs G.711a, G.729a G.711a, G.711u, G.729a G.711, G.729a G.722, G.711 ïa, G.729a G.711, G.722, G.723.1, G.729ab G.711, G.729a

Function Buttons Goodbye, Hold, Mute Conference, Directory,

Hold, Intercom, Mute,

Redial, Transfer,

Voicemail

Mute, Redial Hold, Mute, Defer,

Redial, Handsfree

Speakerphone, Mute, Auto

redial

Directory, Headset, Menu-

navigation keys, Voice

Mail, Mute

Speakerphone Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Display Resolution 248 x 68 pixels 168 x 80 pixels 248 x 68 pixels 320 x 160 pixels N/A 320 x 240 pixels

Weight 1.8 lbs. 2.6 lbs. 2.1 lbs. 2.75 lbs. 2.1 lbs. 4.7 lbs.

Price $1,145 $429 $1,299 $290 $475 $790

VoIP-News

Comments

A hands-free

conference phone that

is ideally suited for

conference rooms of

small-to-medium size

and

managerial/executive

offices. The device

features 360-degree

room coverage and a

backlit three-line, 24-

character LCD.

Features six-line

appearances, four soft

keys, a full duplex

speakerphone, a large

backlit display and a

headset jack. The

unique aluminum top

cover is both pleasing

to the eye as well as

cool to the touch.

Incorporates a number

of convenient features,

such as a message-

waiting indicator, easily

readable displays,

hearing-aid

compatibility,

NetMeeting

compatibility, multiple

programmable feature

keys and display

navigation keys.

Hello HD. Polycom's

Sound Point IP 650's HD

voice technology raises

the standard for VoIP

voice quality. It's a

phone fit for an

executive that every

receptionist will love.

Combines tap-proof telephony

via voice encryption with an

effective authentification

mechanism. Good voice

quality, thanks to G.722

Wideband Codec technology,

or unrestricted access to all

HiPath features and a

multitude of convenient

adapters and modules, make

for even better functionality

when making calls.

Features a backlit, high-

resolution, color, touch-

screen display for easy

access to communication

information, time-saving

applications and features.

The unit offers access to

eight telephone lines, a

high-quality, hands-free

speakerphone and a built-

in headset connection.

For more information see the VoIP News Phone Systems Resource Center

Copyright VoIP-News 2007. All Rights Reserved.

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Tippit, Inc. 514 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 Phone: 415-318-7200 / Fax: [email protected]



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