A business case for managing your own voice infrastructure

Successfully managing voice infrastructure in-house is dependent on you having the ability to measure, manage, optimise and report on your voice infrastructure. Furthermore, the approach [read strategy] needs to be well thought out and documented; with objectives, deliverables, roles and responsibilities.

Most of our customers are not focused on this important area at all. It is bypassed in favour of the "low hanging fruit" and typically does not feature on the “to do lists”. All to often we see customers with LCR / VoIP installations and discounted supplier agreements, but no documented strategy on the managing their voice infrastructure.

There are 4 key areas which you should consider when making the decision to address this all important aspect of telecoms management:

1. Continuity / Risk – should key role players leave the organisation and or outsourcing to the current 3rd party no longer be an option; the replacement 3rd party or the replacement employees need to have a point of departure. A detailed point of reference with regard to your specific business needs:

a. Strategy
b. Business case for change
c. Redundancy in mission critical business units
d. Projects underway / projects completed / projects delayed
e. Role players
f. Role and Responsibility
g. Measurable and deliverables

2. Decision making - The vast number of suppliers, products and services in the South African marketplace, combined with your company’s own strategy, makes decision-making a complex process. Fully understanding and addressing your own unique business need is by no means a “quick fix”. Voice infrastructure is an essential component of your business and can be complex. It is important that a documented strategy is completed taking into account the following:

a. Best Practices for voice infrastructure
b. Business need and business processes
c. Accurate reporting on voice infrastructure and call costs
d. Project Plan with
o objectives / timelines
o role players
o roles and responsibility
e. Immediate shortfalls and opportunities
f. Budget

3. Direction – The telecoms market is evolving as breakneck speed, suppliers are hard pressed to keep up and you do not want to invest blindly in technology for technologies sake. In addition multiple site environs over large geographical areas cannot afford to have role players making ill informed decisions on their own. Your business needs to decide on vendor, product and service selection, to deliver on strategy, with focus on:

a. Aggregation of spend
b. Buying power and cost saving opportunities
c. Centralised contact person[s]
d. Current and appropriate technology to address your own unique business need
e. Market related pricing
f. Future business requirements

4. Costs – There are direct and indirect costs when it comes to managing voice infrastructure. The direct costs are supplier related and the indirect costs are driven by resource, skill and knowledge management requirements. Issues such as:

a. Telecoms specific knowledge
b. Understanding your business needs 100%
c. Delivering the right information to the right role player[s] for decision making purposes
d. Managing installations, moves, additions and changes

DataRoom believe we are uniquely positioned to partner with your business. Empowering your management team to make the right decisions through knowledge management, accurate reporting and the DataRoom Best Practices for optimised voice will ensure:

• Successful implementation
• Reduced risk
• Reduced costs
o Savings on direct costs within a short time frame
o Internal resource requirements
• Knowledge management and growth of the requisite skills in-house

Neil Buckley
neil@apexbi.co.za

27th January 2009

Managing voice costs made easy

I find inspiration from many walks of life. Movies, people, books, nature, technology and life experiences all give me regular doses of inspiration. I am full of passion for what I do, and I believe this passion comes from listening to life around me.

This passion comes to work with me every day and inspires me to strive for what I believe in. Often this drive to be different drives those around me mad. But it is my insatiable passion for what we do that drives me to listen to you, the customer, and ensure that we make a difference to your world.

This desire to change our customers’ world resonates with the message of inspiration I received from Guy Kawasaki, a motivational speaker and entrepreneur. In one of his inspirational talks, he challenges listeners to question why their business will change the world, how they can increase the quality of life and how to right a wrong.

I am not sure I can change the world by managing voice costs, but I am 100% sure I can change your world if you manage voice or voice infrastructure in a large business. In today’s fast-paced world, technology changes monthly and managing voice costs in a large business is a thankless task. A task made more difficult by both government interference [meddling would be a better word], industry regulation and vested interests. Simply put, we can make your task simpler and easier.

Businesses in South Africa face challenges in managing voice and voice infrastructure efficiently. It is technically difficult and resource intensive, requiring an “intelligent single view” to successfully manage voice in a converging telecoms world. Managers need a variety of skills, lots of experience, time [which is typically in short supply], resources and a broad technical knowledge.

I have invested 10 years of my life into finding the right ways to manage voice, so the DataRoom team could commoditise this business need into an offering that makes managing voice easy.

DataRoom’s solutions and our success in the South African market can be attributed to the fact that we answer a specific business need and we are righting a wrong. There is a right way to manage voice and there is a wrong way. We have figured out which is the right way, and have bundled the solution into an offering that makes sense to you and changes your world. Once you have used our services you will never manage voice in the same way again.

So why is our solution so easy, you may ask? Well, our offering empowers all role -players to make fact-based decisions, reduces time and resources and delivers savings, and we have figured out how to ensure success. Without a defined a set of “Best Practices Standards”, delivering on our mandate would be difficult.

To do this, DataRoom has taken its knowledge, intellectual property and considerable experience and wrapped it up into what we call the DataRoom Best Practices. Essentially we provide a list of do’s and don’t on how to optimise voice and voice infrastructure in business.

• The objective of having a defined “Best Practice” is to ensure that every role player; from DataRoom to the consultant and suppliers and on to the customer, all understand exactly what to do, how to do it and when to do it.
• DataRoom Best Practices are a measurable and deliverable methodology wrapped up in a living, breathing project plan that ensures all role players combine to reach the common objective of optimised voice costs.

Furthermore, a project that has a clearly defined set of deliverables can be measured, managed and reported on. So DataRoom Best Practices are measured and monitored by way of a “Best Practices Scorecard”, in a monthly report that highlights to the team where to focus and at what stage each aspect of the project is. Essentially it measures progress [or the lack of] by a defined set of deliverables.

Lastly, to ensure your business gets value for money, DataRoom benchmark your voice costs against –

• Your first monthly reporting period as a DataRoom customer
• The various other products available to you in the marketplace

We make managing voice easy, or as simple as it should be. We have done everything in our power to make your life easy. The next step is yours, call us.

Peter Walsh – Cape Town – Jan 2009
Email:- peter.walsh@dataroom.co.za
www.dataroom.co.za