IP telephony. Basics of corporate telephony

The market for voice communication services today is extremely broad. This includes local telephone communications for residential subscribers, payphone communications, long-distance and international communications, and corporate and office communications. All of these areas are currently dominated by “traditional” telephony. However, the rapid development in recent years of voice transmission technologies over data networks has sharply intensified competition between providers of “traditional” and IP telephony systems. It is quite difficult to understand the advantages and disadvantages of a particular method, and the end consumer is faced with the problem of choosing a solution that will allow him to meet all the requirements necessary for effective business.

IP telephony has received the greatest development in long-distance networks and in business telephony systems. First of all, this is due to the high intensity of development of these segments of the telecommunications services market and, consequently, higher rates of return on investment in the solutions being developed. Let's take a break from the prospects and trends in the development of packet voice transmission in long-distance communication systems, since this market is quite specialized, and turn to the problems facing the company's manager when making decisions on organizing intra-office and corporate communications.

Of course, in order to determine how telephone communications for the office will be organized, it is necessary to clearly clarify the functionality that is required for effective business. First of all, the office telephone system must provide the ability to connect to the service provider using any of the existing protocols. The next requirement is the ability to organize automatic city, long-distance and international communications for each employee. In this case, the connection between employees of the same office should occur without using the resources of external connecting lines. The telephone system should provide the ability to establish two or more connections from one workplace - this will increase the efficiency of the organization's employees. An important requirement is the ability to control and charge outgoing long-distance and international calls in real time while storing information for subsequent analysis. Reducing the cost of renting city telephone numbers is possible if the office telephone system has the “automatic attendant” function, which allows you to forward calls incoming through a single telephone number to an additionally entered subscriber’s internal number. To ensure the highest quality service for customer subscribers, a function for routing incoming calls is necessary depending on the day of the week, time of day and the busyness of the called subscribers. The telephone system must provide the ability to differentiate user access to information resources depending on the class of service assigned to the subscriber and the class of restrictions imposed. That is, not every company employee should be able to make outgoing long-distance or international calls, call an executive, or have access to some of the built-in functions of the telephone system. If the office telephone system is connected to more than one service provider, it must support the ability to automatically select the cheapest route for establishing an outgoing connection. If the company is located in more than one office, then the telephone system must support the ability to organize a single internal numbering plan. An important feature of modern office telephony systems is the ability to organize for each subscriber a universal mailbox for storing and processing personalized voice, fax and electronic messages. And, of course, the telephone system must support all the functions that are already standard for office telephony today: intercom and conference calls, forced call forwarding, the ability to “pick up” an incoming call from another telephone, the ability to organize an automatic call back in case of no answer or subscriber busyness, the ability for subscribers to access personal, group and system lists to organize “short dialing” of telephone numbers or access to telephone system functions.

By and large, all of the above is the minimum set of functions that a telephone communication system must support to ensure effective information exchange. The specifics of the business and the pace of development of the company may require additional functionality, for example, the ability to organize a call center or create a geographically distributed corporate network. Therefore, the planned telephone system must be able to evolve to meet increasing demands without the need for radical changes to the architecture.

At the moment, the level of development of packet voice transmission technologies is rapidly approaching the quality and quantity of services offered to “traditional” office telephony systems. At the same time, leading PBX manufacturers are actively introducing integrated modules into their products for organizing trunk lines and IP-based workstations. The choice of one or another scheme for implementing an enterprise telephone system is determined, in addition to the required functionality, by a number of factors, including the presence of installed active network equipment and an office telephone exchange, the state of the cable system, local telephone network and local data network, the required number of workstations, planned growth in the number of subscribers and prospects for the introduction of new information products... In principle, there are no standard solutions, since each scheme accurately reflects the individuality of the customer and his requirements for doing business. However, the experience of the CROC company allows us to differentiate the schemes used into several areas listed below.

Reduced costs for renting the “last mile” and outgoing intercity-international traffic

If the organization has already installed an office telephone exchange, a local data network has been organized, the available network resources allow you to increase the number of jobs in accordance with the company's growth trends, and there are no plans to change the set of services for subscribers of the office telephone system, then the most rational use of the capabilities of IP telephony will be organizing the transmission of outgoing long-distance and international telephone traffic using the network of an IP telephony provider. Access to such a service can be achieved in two ways: by routing an outgoing call over a standard telephone network with the organization of automatic dialing and authorization on the service provider’s equipment based on the telephone exchange through the public telephone network, or by organizing call routing to equipment for converting the voice signal into packets and further transmission voice packages over a dedicated line between the office and the provider’s equipment. Taking into account the use of compression mechanisms, in the second case, significantly less channel capacity is required to organize a voice connection, which significantly reduces the cost of renting trunk lines while maintaining the quality of the connection.

Reorganization of the existing telephone system

Sometimes, when designing office information systems, it becomes necessary to replace outdated telephone equipment with new equipment that meets modern requirements and has the necessary functionality. In this case, the choice of scheme will be determined primarily by the customer’s readiness to completely dismantle the local telephone network and reorganize the data network or the ability to obtain the required functionality at minimal financial costs. If the most preferable option is to use the existing telephone system cabling and telephone sets already installed at employee workplaces, then replacing the telephone exchange with a new generation PBX would be an acceptable and most economical option. Taking into account the current trend of combining data and voice transmission media, all the largest PBX manufacturers include in the new equipment the ability to organize connections both on the basis of a circuit switching mechanism and on the basis of packet switching, that is, the customer will not be strictly tied to “traditional” telephony, but will be able to introduce new IP-based services if necessary. It is also necessary to take into account that all new generation PBXs have very high intelligence, an expanded set of functions and, as a rule, support the ability to organize access to network information resources.

Designing a new telephone system

In this case, the average cost of a workplace for a given functionality will be decisive. Of course, the very idea of ​​​​a universal workplace, which allows for the implementation of voice transmission technology in the form of packets over a data network, is very rational, since it halves the cost of organizing a cable network. However, often the cost of such a solution, taking into account the cost of IP phones, software and the necessary IP telephony licenses, significantly exceeds the total costs of organizing separate local, computer and telephone networks. This is typical for enterprises with a small number of jobs that do not have a geographically distributed structure.

It is much more difficult to make a choice when it comes to companies with a large number of regional offices. In this case, the use of a solution entirely focused on VoIP technology for organizing intra-office and corporate telephone communications is justified, since it significantly reduces operating costs for the telecommunications system as a whole. But, on the other hand, manufacturers of “traditional” PBX systems are already offering solutions that allow organizing remote offices as part of a single corporate distributed telephone network based both on standard telephone network protocols and on VoIP technology. And taking into account the enormous experience of manufacturers of “traditional” telephone exchanges, their introduction of a new mechanism for transmitting a voice signal makes it possible to implement not just voice over IP, but full-featured telephony over IP.

Almost any solution developed today for enterprise information exchange systems is built on the principles not of conflict, but of the unification and merging of various technologies. To a large extent this also applies to telephony. The use of additional mechanisms for monitoring and ensuring the quality of speech and services within the framework of packet-switched voice traffic transmission allowed this technology not only to become competitive with “traditional” telephony, but also to de facto become another standard for building voice traffic service systems. This, of course, forces all the major players in the telecommunications equipment and services market to support VoIP technology in their product offerings. Already, the mutual penetration of VoIP and “traditional” telephony into each other is so great that it is almost impossible to make a choice in favor of one or another technology without taking into account the highly specialized requirements of a particular customer. Developing a solution that would meet all the requirements for functionality, a set of services and services, would be as efficient as possible in terms of investment and total cost of ownership, would have the necessary scalability, flexibility, stability and viability, and is today the primary task of the system integrator.

ComputerPress 10"2001

IP telephony is the youngest, yet promising and inexpensive type of communication, which has many advantages over a traditional connection. This is a qualitatively new way of transmitting data without using a fixed telephone line. Making a call via IP can be compared to receiving mail via e-mail - it is convenient, free (or very cheap), available wherever there is an Internet connection.

How does IP telephony work?

When using a dedicated PBX line, you pay not only for the conversation, but also for the construction and maintenance of telephone exchanges. That is why, unlike IP telephony, PBX always requires a subscription fee, regardless of the number of calls made. Long-distance and international calls are charged separately and, as a rule, are not very profitable for the client. Data transmission over IP is an excellent alternative for those who keep up with the times, actively use the achievements of recent years in their business and do everything to minimize costs without losing communication quality.

In what business is IP telephony applicable?

You can freely use IP telephony from anywhere in the world. If your business involves frequent travel around the country and abroad, communication via IP is the ideal choice. Using regular telephone lines, you are forced to pay for communication services in proportion to the distance between you and the interlocutor, while in the case of IP telephony, the cost of the call will change slightly, regardless of whether you and the other subscriber are in the same room or there are hundreds of kilometers between you.

IP telephony is an excellent solution for both small, medium and large businesses, as well as for individuals. While a dedicated telephone line is a specific connection to the office, IP telephony is suitable for mobile people and companies. Even if you decide to change your office or are forced to go on a business trip, you can continue to use IP telephony wherever there is Internet. Agree, each time setting up a new dedicated telephone line for your business is a feasible task, but it requires a certain amount of time and money. If you use IP telephony, you won’t even have to pay for the connection again, re-register your number, or perform other unnecessary manipulations. The number to contact your office will remain the same, since the IP to which it is associated has not changed. This means you can stay connected no matter where you are using IP data transfer.

Due to the rapid growth in popularity of IP telephony recently, many operators are ready to provide such services.

What is the advantage of our offer?

• Excellent communication quality, which is especially important during business negotiations. Stable communication with high quality data transmission is an important component of the company’s image.
• High level of service: we value and respect our clients, so we try to solve any difficulties that arise as quickly and efficiently as possible, our specialists are always available to you. You can submit a request to connect to IP telephony, ask a question, or get help from a qualified specialist on our website, or by calling a toll-free number through an operator.
• Affordable tariffs: conversation via IP technologies is very, very affordable in terms of price. You already pay for traffic to the selected operator, so outgoing calls to mobile and landline numbers have extremely low prices. Incoming calls are free for you, connection to the service is also free of charge.
• A high degree of protection of conversations from eavesdropping when using telephony via IP: data exchange via an IP connection guarantees the confidentiality of information. When using standard telephone communications, unfortunately, there are often cases of attackers connecting to your telephone line and, as a result, their long-distance and international calls at your expense. When using data transmission over IP, the risk of becoming a victim of intruders is eliminated.
• Additional services that are always available to IP telephony users: Caller ID for incoming calls, the ability to set up call forwarding, organizing conference calls with the participation of several subscribers and much more. You can receive calls both on your phone and on your computer (this option is confirmed in the user’s Personal Account), and funds are debited from one account, which is convenient for both individuals and legal entities.
• Electronic document circulation system: you no longer need to worry about the safety of paper documents, organize their sending and receiving, use the services of couriers, or wait a long time for the necessary originals. We offer an electronic document management system that is popular among many international companies. You will be able to receive the necessary paper-based documentation in electronic form as soon as possible. Acts, invoices and other reporting documents are always available in your Personal Account.

The IP telephony service is often used by corporate clients whose branches are located in different cities. They have the opportunity to set up short internal numbers for company employees, as well as significantly reduce telephone costs by using traffic instead of dedicated telephone lines. A nice bonus is the ability to “unify” telephone numbers - you can choose uniform numbers for your employees or offices in different geographical locations.

What devices are required to make a call over IP?

You can access telephony via IP using simple IP equipment: a PC (you will need to install a standard softphone), a special IP telephone device that is easy to use, or an IP gateway. Which IP devices to choose for making and receiving calls is up to you. Many companies today actively use video communication - a mobile phone, laptop or PC is suitable for organizing a video call. However, if you do not want to give up the equipment that is familiar to you and your employees, data transmission via IP channels can be configured on a regular radiotelephone and even a fax using an IP gateway.

How to activate the service?

Once again, please note that the procedure for connecting to IP telephony is free.

All instructions and explanations can be obtained from our specialist by leaving a request for connecting telephony via IP on our website. Becoming a MegaFon IP telephony user is easy: just be our client and apply for the service

IP technology, like a greedy conqueror, is seizing more and more new lands: LAN, voice, video... Victorious reports are coming from the camp of IP telephony apologists. Is there still room in the market for classic circuit switching (TDM) technology? And what trends determine the development of IP telephone systems themselves?

Corporate IPtelephony is a very broad concept and implies a set of protocols, technologies, and methods for transmitting regular telephone communications over the Internet.

The use of the concepts and meaning of this technology can be described in other words: SIP-telephony – IP is usedtelephony, but SIP signaling protocol, VoIP (voice over IP) is a more general concept is any voice transmission over a protocol IP, including voice from video, from microphones, video recorders.

Corporate IP telephony from canmos

Corporate IP telephony from canmos differs in that office telephony and the provider’s PBX are connected by an optical cable, and IP telephony can work on a local network, but by and large there is no big fundamental difference between these concepts for a telephone user.

Application of IP telephony allows you to reduce the cost of calls. I suggest you consider installing a server IP telephony in corporations and reducing the cost of telephone communications.

Let's take the most common directions and tariffs (cost of 1 minute of conversation)

Moscow landline – 60 kopecks.
Moscow mobile – 1.27 rubles.
Russia mobile – 1.50 rub.
Europe from 1 rub. up to 4 rub.
USA – 1 rub.
Canada – 30 kopecks.
Other countries from 1 rub. up to 17 rub.

Any small or large business (corporation) uses telephone communications. Communication between employees, communication with clients, with suppliers, sometimes it is necessary to hold a meeting using a telephone connection - a conference call. Telephone communication was originally invented to facilitate communication, so as not to travel far away, but to be able to dial the subscriber’s number and talk while staying in place. Nowadays, in modern conditions, communication has become more diverse: WhatsApp, Viber and many other ways to communicate mobile communications. Due to the many different ways of communication, many managers of especially small businesses try to save on telephone costs by using employees' personal mobile phones to communicate on work matters. If you are a manager, don't do this.

Why? First, the employee does not like to use his phone, which he pays for, for work purposes. Secondly, personal calls (to home, mother, children, girlfriends, friends, etc.) and business calls for which a person actually works (communication with a client, supplier, with various government authorities) are largely confused. When mixing calls, you, as a boss, will not be able to complain to an employee about incorrect communication with a client, missing an important call, or wasting working time on empty conversations with friends. Using a virtual PBX to manage will significantly simplify call management.

IP telephony now allows any manager to purchase a telephone number with several communication channels, install it in the office or on employees’ mobile phones, fully control the situation and be the master of their corporate telephony. The cost of corporate telephone communication is now not so high that it would be possible to save on this, otherwise losing operational management of the company and employees. Modern telephone communications purchased by a corporation allow you to exercise full control (if necessary, or when the need arises) over incoming and outgoing calls: recording of conversations, time of call, caller number, etc. All necessary information can be obtained from the provider or from the system administrator of your corporation. The monthly cost of owning a multi-channel telephone number starts from 500 rubles, it seems to me that this is not money worth saving. A mobile phone sometimes costs more!

IP telephony allows you to set a city telephone number on any device connected to the Internet: smartphone, computer, tablet or laptop. By purchasing a phone number and installing the program on an Internet device, you will be able to make and receive calls from the telephone network, managing the order of receiving a call through your personal account. You will be able to listen to all telephone calls and evaluate the quality of communication with the client, which is not available on personal mobile phones. Don’t skimp on corporate telephony; corporate telephony is necessary but must be used correctly.

Now I suggest we talk about saving! Telephone communication at some point becomes expensive; when new employees are hired, the corporation grows, call volumes grow, call times increase, many employees use corporate communications for personal purposes. So it's time to buy CANMOS B wear-ATS.

IP telephony, of course, does not exist on its own, but is directly related to such concepts as Internet telephony, VoIP, corporate Internet network, corporate data network, corporate intranet network, corporate WiFi network, corporate telephone network. In general, a corporation is an association of people to solve economic problems. And IP telephony is a technical way of such unification.

Important Note: in Moscow we provide significant discounts on our services, we provide the laying of optical communication channels and connections through optical lines of communication services: Internet, telephony, installation of office IP-PBX, digital television. Purchasing IP phones at a discount.

Quick connection to IP telephony

Order IP telephony

Igor Maslennikov, director of business development at SomrTek

When it comes to corporate IP-telephony in Russia, then, as a rule, a “bast” stereotype comes into play - they say, nothing good can happen in Russia and things don’t go beyond talking about IP-telephony in enterprises.

Meanwhile, corporate IP telephony in Russia really exists and is developing. Moreover, it exists and develops in at least three versions, and I don’t know of enterprises and organizations that would not use at least one of them.

The many faces of IP telephony

The first option is based on the use of “provider” IP telephony - either in the form of a corporate contract with a “card” IP telephony operator (in this case, to call another city, employees dial the operator’s telephone number, identification number and card PIN code, and then - the telephone number they need), or by reconfiguring the private telephone exchange (PBX) in such a way that long-distance and international calls in a “transparent” manner or through a special “long-distance access number” are sent to the IP-telephony operator immediately in the form of IP- packets over a data link. This is the most widespread option (according to my data, many Russian enterprises and organizations use it).

The second option is the use by enterprises with a geographically distributed structure of a corporate data network to exchange voice traffic between the company's points of presence. Typically, this is done by connecting IP telephony gateways to corporate telephone exchanges at points of presence and setting routing rules on them. This system allows you to save significantly on telephone bills. In this case, of course, calls to cities and countries where there are no points of presence of the company are sent, as a rule, to an IP telephony operator. This option is also used very widely: I don’t know any enterprises with any significant “geography” that would not use it.

The third option, which most fully realizes the capabilities of IP telephony, is to build an integrated corporate IP network with functions for transmitting voice and data (and possibly also video, technological information, etc.). This option is the most convenient, economical and promising. Convenient - because the company has a digital telephone network with a single numbering plan, a single control center, with many additional services, ranging from the usual hold and transfer of calls to other numbers, which is familiar to all users of corporate telephone exchanges, to the capabilities inherent only in IP telephone systems, among of which:

• a corporate telephone directory that lives on the company’s LDAP server and is accessible directly from the IP phone screen;
• personal call management systems, which make it possible to control the behavior of the phone via a Web interface, for example, forward calls received in your absence - all or only some, depending on who called - to mobile, home or another corporate phone;
• unified messaging systems, which send voice messages, faxes, and email messages to a single mailbox that the user can access through a Web browser, email system, or telephone;
• the ability to turn any corporate IP phone into your own, with your number and all personal settings (to do this, just enter the username and password on its keyboard).

The cost-effectiveness of the option is ensured by the integration of corporate communications and data networks, which reduces the cost of supporting and maintaining corporate communications systems and increases their coordination and efficiency. Firstly, it is enough to support only one network, and not two different ones - telephone and data transmission - and, secondly, the merger of two networks into one eliminates the peculiar competition between “telephone operators” and “computer specialists”, which often interferes with business.

Let us dwell on this third option as the most promising - now few experts doubt that such systems are the future.

IP telephony in the hands of employees

What new, useful and interesting does an IP phone bring to the daily activities of a company employee, besides voice communication itself?

Today there is no comprehensive answer to this question, since IP-PBX systems are still too young, their differences and advantages have not yet fully emerged, the process of gaining experience and the emergence of new ways to use IP phones has only recently begun, and yet some What can you say now?

Having a graphical display on an IP phone looks set to become standard, at least in corporate environments. This display and the standard (that is, based on open industrial standards Java, XML) tools used to display information through it (of course, along with the ability to work with sound) allow you to build corporate communications, warning and information systems in a completely new way. In my opinion, in the future, it is the integration of voice services with corporate applications that will be the main driving force behind the transition of enterprises to IP-PBX systems.

The main requirement that is placed on the enterprise network infrastructure when deploying IP telephony is well known: the network must support standard mechanisms for ensuring the required quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS) at the network and link levels, be able to separate voice and data traffic and transmit voice packets with higher priority than other types of data. Of course, it must be reliable: fault tolerance must be ensured at all levels of the network.

In addition, there are a number of requirements specific to IP telephone elements of the network infrastructure. For example, in a geographically distributed network, gateways that provide access from the corporate network to the local telephone network must be able to route calls through the public telephone network if it is impossible to send them through the IP network (this may be necessary in the event of an IP link failure) . Second example: LAN switches should be able to electrically power IP phones via an Ethernet cable, this is very convenient and reasonable. It would be nice for IP phones to have a built-in two-port switch, as is done, say, in older models of Cisco IP phones, so that each workstation equipped with an IP phone and a computer does not require two Ethernet sockets: an Ethernet socket can be connected connect an IP phone, and then connect a computer to it.

Efficiency mark

As a rule, when it comes to deploying a full-fledged IP-PBX class system at any enterprise, the most controversial assessment is the assessment of the economic efficiency of such implementation. What should you keep in mind when preparing such an assessment? First of all, it makes sense to compare two different strategies for the development of an enterprise’s infocommunication infrastructure, and not the actual IP-PBX with a traditional corporate telephone exchange. (Considering IP-PBX in isolation from other functional systems of a corporate IP network means about the same as trying to discuss what is better - a wheel or a caterpillar, without deciding on the vehicle - a tank or a motorcycle?)

If an enterprise has a strategy aimed at integrating all types of communications within a single IP network, increasing the efficiency of employees and their interaction through the introduction of new corporate converged applications, improving their mobility, reducing capital and operating costs for construction, support and coordination activities of several different infrastructures, then in this case the introduction of IP telephony will be only a logical and consistent step in the implementation of this strategy.

Since no one today doubts the feasibility and justification of investments in building a corporate network infrastructure, when introducing IP telephony in an enterprise that already has a data network, the costs of upgrading it (so that the network can provide the required level of quality of network services) should not relate solely to the costs of implementing IP telephony. Good network infrastructure isn't cheap, but it's worth it. A network with integration of services makes it possible to abandon the multitude of parallel existing and maintained systems available today at all enterprises (network, telephone, fire, technological, security, etc.). IP telephony is just one type of IP services that can be provided within a corporate network.

Thus, on one side of the scale are the costs of upgrading (or building from scratch) a “correct” IP infrastructure (reliable, supporting QoS mechanisms, equipped with additional technical means such as the ability to power IP devices via a network cable or wireless access points of the IEEE 802.11 standard b for the operation of wireless IP phones along with wireless network access, both of which are needed not only for IP telephony!), and on the other - reducing construction and operating costs and increasing the efficiency of the enterprise through the introduction of new integrated applications and changes in the way employees work. Conducting an analysis of the benefits and costs of IP telephony is a very complex matter, and it must be done in the context of a long-term enterprise development strategy.

Prospects

How will events develop in the future? How soon will IP-PBX replace traditional telephone systems? Of course, this will not happen in the near future; the transition process will take many years. But the world's leading analysts believe that at the turn of 2005-2007 a turning point will occur: the number of IP telephone business systems will be equal to traditional ones both in the number of telephone lines and in market volumes. Thus, according to IDC forecast, by 2006 50% of all telephone traffic will be IP traffic. Analysts at Frost and Sullivan estimate that by 2006, more than 50% of PBX systems sold will be IP systems. Yankee Group experts believe that by the end of 2005, 28% of all business telephone lines will be IP lines, and IP phones will become the dominant desktop voice terminal by then.

Today, the widespread implementation of systems of this class in Russia is hampered by such a circumstance as the low level of real demand for information and management systems in general. Only in conditions of a developed, highly cultured economy, information and management systems are a serious competitive factor.

In the meantime, we have to deal with the poor awareness of people making business decisions about the implementation of such systems and strategies, with the technological and functional immaturity of existing proposals (the professional community of specialists in the field of IP telephony is in search of, in the process of inventing and developing functional and business models of using IP communications in enterprise activities), with a relatively high price level for IP phones and other infrastructure elements, as well as with the problem of compatibility of equipment from different manufacturers and different IP telephony protocols.

It is not surprising, therefore, that today almost all examples of the implementation of systems of this class in Russia relate to enterprises of highly profitable and at the same time highly competitive industries, or to federal and municipal authorities, which, as a rule, have a geographically distributed structure and/or are building new networks at the level of a building complex, that is, to situations in which the advantages of converged IP networks are most clearly manifested.

The development of corporate IP telephony in Russia will occur gradually and in stages. Those enterprises that are currently using IP telephony gateways to reduce communication costs (this is the second option discussed at the very beginning), at some point will definitely face a choice: continue to develop and maintain two networks in parallel - telephone and data transmission (IP). -network) or integrate voice communications into a single corporate IP network. And in the long term, the choice is a foregone conclusion.