What steps should companies take before upgrading their existing network for VoIP?

Pamela and Derek make very valid points which should be addressed AFTER a decision has been made to move to VoIP. In my experience the first step is to document the business requirements for voice communications and ensure that a move to VoIP is the right move for your individual company. Many IT initiatives fail during implementation due to the fact that requirement definition has not be done. In other words make sure that is a "problem that needs a solution" before jumping into a VoIP solution.

The general trend seems to be acquiring VoIP as the first step in moving toward unified communications and adding applications that address business issues and needs. The very first step really needs to be the development of a migration strategy that will enable a business to add when appropriate the technology "tools" that will help them be more productive, increase revenue, remain competitive, address a changing workforce (remote, mobile and young tech savvy new workers)and control expenses. With this strategy in place, any network upgrades would be planned with the future as well as the present in mind.

Very good point Rick. Every business needs to make sure that the move to VoIP is even necessary. Could be more trouble than it's worth if it's done for the wrong reasons.

If it is right to move your voice traffic onto your data network, you need to know your data network completely and know the traffic levels. Perform a complete network documentation exorcise and a complete network assessment for LAN and WAN (maps, traffic analysis).

Next examine the network gear (hardware analysis). Will there be ethernet phones? How will you support power to the phones? Do wiring closets have UPS for switches? Can routers support QoS? How rock solid is your data network? How rock solid can you make it? At what cost? Business resiliency / disaster recovery?

This, I'm afraid, is just the tip of the iceberg. As important as your data network is, its value will grow ten-fold with VoIP.

You will need to establish Operating Procedures for the IT Support Desk, MACs, Level 1/2/3 tech support, vendors, ticketing, more.

Get external help if you need it. Don't be shy about it. You are correct in assuming this is no simple task.

Good luck.

Timothy R. Loftus
Free Knowledge Network, LLC

The problem with these answers (they are not wrong per se) is more the question. Many of the technology questions need to pinpoint the company size and user base.

Large user bases will definitely fill up a data network, as will a older infrastructure (not 100 Base T or Gigabit). However, a small user-base won't be affected by these issues and if its a small user-base the company probably can't afford the breadth of research suggested.

Also, VoIP doesn't take per user all that much bandwidth, but how many users are there? Obviously a large user0base will take significants amount of bandwidth.

As for Internet connection, similar questions abound. The metrics are easier to obtain (your ISP probably has them) as to your utilization. It may make sense (and again it may not) to separate VoIP from data as it transverses your network and go to a different pipe just for data.

Again, it's easier to answer a specific question that a broad based one, because approaches can differ greatly.

Regards

Great tips so far. Once you make the decision to move to VoIP, both a network assessment and an evaluation of requirements is a good place to start. Here are a few specific questions to consider when communicating with your provider to avoid headaches down the road:

1. Does the provider have redundancy in their network?
2. Can an end user make changes and manage their own phones? What about system changes?
3. Is E911 and V911 supported?
4. What features do you need?
5. How many locations will be on the VoIP platform and where are they located?
6. How many users will need to be supported at each location?