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

Day 2 Support

Supporting the converged network requires an organization to build a strong support team that has all the required expertise and to develop an escalation procedure. The support team should know the various tools available and how and when to use them.

Unlike the other support teams, the team that supports the converged network has to interact with other groups in the organization, which typically include the following:

LAN/WAN group

Enterprise messaging group

Enterprise directory group

Enterprise security group

Therefore, a strong working relationship among the groups is required. To manage the network, the support team must also understand the following:

Networking, including routing and switching technologies, various routing protocols, and QoS

Cisco CallManager and other deployed Cisco AVVID applications

How to configure and troubleshoot voice gateways

Microsoft OS operation and configuration

Escalation Procedures

In an IPT network, the end customers are users of the IP Phones. By educating users on how to use the new IP Phones and phone features, you can eliminate most basic questions and cases that might otherwise be opened by the users.

Defining clear escalation procedures for handling problems related to the IPT network reduces the problem-resolution times and increases employee productivity.

One suggested approach is to use a four-tier model:

Tier 0: end user Refers to the user-facing FAQs and tutorials posted on the internal website.

Tier 1: voice help desk Handles the basic user issues even after the user has gone through tier 0.

Tier 2: voice network administration staff Handles escalations from tier 1. This group of users has higher-level access privileges to the systems than tier 1 staff and can add new phones and handle moves, adds, and changes (MACs), adding new services based on tier 3 group decisions. This group also gathers information related to a user-reported issue or a network outage issue to pass along to tier 3.

Tier 3: voice network design/architecture staff Responsible for network expansions, design changes, and capacity planning. Works with vendors such as Cisco to further investigate and troubleshoot issues.