Cisco IP Telephony: Planning, Design, Implementation, Operation, and Optimization [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Getting Started

The first step in the planning phase is to understand the high-level business and technical expectations and requirements for the future IPT network, which include the following:

Company vision, goals, and forecasted growth

The plan for voice and data networks over the next 3 to 5 years

Solution expectations

Deployment and timing

Financial expectations

To simplify the discussion for this case study, assume that XYZ expects its workforce to grow 5 to 10 percent every year. XYZ requires that the new IPT system must emulate the functionality of the current PBX, voice-mail, and application systems, be scalable, and provide additional services and features that improve employee productivity. The new technology update project at XYZ received approval from the company's financial board to support the funding for the IPT project, and there are no major budget constraints.

Note

When you are working with a customer, you might have to study some of these requirements carefully. For example, a customer might have limited funding available for the IPT project, in which case you might have to adjust the hardware needed in the infrastructure and size the other expensive equipment so that the total cost of the project falls within the approved budget. In some cases, you might also have to choose a phased migration to IPT to minimize the costs.

After you understand the high-level business and technical expectations of the customer, the next step is to conduct meetings with the engineers and architects in the LAN, WAN, IT, legacy PBX, legacy voice-mail, and applications network groups. During these meetings with the various groups, you should make sure that the high-level requirements that you received from the customer in the RFP are accurate. Most importantly, make sure that you understand how the customer's existing network infrastructure is built so that you can identify the gaps in the infrastructure that need to be filled to support the converged traffic.