Technology drivers 15. Why Cisco? 15. The network 16. Call control 18. Softswitch infrastructure 19. Contact management 20. Other IPC applications 24

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1 Cisco Powered Network IP Communications and IP Contact Centre Sales Toolkit A guide to selling managed IP Communications services to enterprises and small and medium businesses for Cisco Powered Network member companies Introduction 2 Why sell IP Communications and IP Contact Centre? Massive growth in IP telephony 7 Huge market for managed services 7 Importance of hosted call centre services 8 Cisco market positioning 11 The value proposition for IP telephony 11 Key applications for IP telephony 12 Service provider Business Why Cisco? 15 The network 16 Call control 18 Softswitch infrastructure 19 Contact management 20 Other IPC applications 24 Managed service versus do-it-yourself (DIY) 26 The opportunity for managed IP voice services 26 Why do companies out-task? 27 Choosing the right model for the customer 28 for IP Communications 31 What sort of companies are hot prospects and why? 31 Selling managed solutions 32 Who are the key decision makers to target 33 How to qualify a prospect 34 Opportunities for cross-selling 34 Key sales messages for IP Contact Centre 35 discussions for IP Communications Focus primarily on the business case, not the IT case 42 Help customers to show greater returns on smaller budgets 42 Legacy infrastructure barriers 42 Key lessons 43 How to handle a range of target sectors 44 Key markets for IP Communications 44 Mapping IP Communications to key enterprise vertical sectors 44 Killer applications Glossary of Terms 54 Disclaimer: Use of this toolkit is governed by the provisions of the Important Notices set out at

2 Introduction [1] [2] [2/54] What is IP Communications? Voice over IP (VoIP), or the transmission of voice telephone calls over a data network, has been available since the mid 1990s. Early doubts about its suitability for enterprise deployments have now been largely allayed, thanks to the increasingly widespread adoption of network architectures like MPLS. These networks offer Quality of Service (QoS) and can ensure time-sensitive traffic such as voice and video are given priority, along with security to ensure that data remains private on the shared VPN infrastructure. As this toolkit will explain, Cisco IP Communications offers much more than telephone calls. Firstly, it represents a new model for telephony, which is no longer centred around a PBX but is delivered as a range of services over a converged network infrastructure. Secondly, the network foundation of any Cisco IP Communications solution means that any number of additional services can be layered on top of it. As well as all the call control functions you would expect from a traditional enterprise telephony solution, Cisco IP Communications enables the deployment of powerful applications such as unified messaging, video telephony, and audio/video conferencing. All IP Communications services and applications can be managed or hosted by managed service providers, customer managed with connectivity delivered by the managed service provider or a combination of the two. This toolkit also gives one IP Communications application, Cisco IP Contact Centre (IPCC), a special focus due to the sheer size of the EMEA call centre market. This makes it an important target for providers of managed services. It is also important because IPCC is useful to customers who have not yet adopted IP telephony making it a highly flexible stand-alone solution that may become the trigger for introducing IP telephony and other IP services throughout an enterprise. IPCC is a strategic platform that allows customers to move beyond today s contact centre model towards a Customer Interaction Network, a distributed IP-based customer service infrastructure that consists of a continuously evolving suite of multi-channel services and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications. IPCC is available in three versions, IPCC Enterprise Edition which supports a large number of users, the smaller IPCC Express Edition, and IPCC Hosted Edition, designed to deliver managed services. What does this toolkit cover? This toolkit covers the key technologies behind IP Communications (IPC), including IP telephony and IP Contact Centres, and explains why IPC is such a powerful agent of change. Customers are not looking to simply replace their existing timedivision multiplexing (TDM) systems with exactly the same functionality based on IP. Instead, they are looking for new functionality that will leverage their investment in a converged IP infrastructure whilst offering them real business value through applications that improve employee productivity and customer satisfaction. This toolkit is a quick reference guide, a how-to guide and a technology and sales refresher. It explains why IP Communications is ideally suited to managed and hosted deployment, and highlights which companies are most likely to prefer this over building and managing it themselves (often referred to as a do-ityourself or DIY approach). This document will use the term managed to refer to both managed and hosted offerings unless stated otherwise.

3 Introduction [1] [2] [3/54] Although IP telephony and IP Contact Centre solutions can be delivered without an MPLS IP VPN (multi-protocol label switching IP virtual private network) infrastructure, this is their optimal platform for multi-site deployments. Providers with Cisco Powered Network designated networks are, therefore, well placed to take advantage of the huge market potential of IP Communications. The toolkit includes advice tested by Cisco sales people in the field on how to sell managed and hosted IP telephony and IPCC solutions. It also highlights the advantages of a Cisco solution over other manufacturers ( why Cisco? ). Most importantly, it covers essential facts for the sales people of companies offering managed services, including how to help customers build a business case for IP Communications, how an IP telephony or IP Contact Centre sale can generate substantial cross-selling opportunities, and how to handle to IP Communications in a market where perceptions are shifting. Capitalise on a huge opportunity IP Communications represents a huge opportunity for providers of managed services and their sales teams. Not only does it replace declining revenues from traditional voice services, it also provides the foundation for a range of enterprise-class solutions that will generate additional revenues and bring providers of managed services ever closer to a customer s core business. The Cisco Powered Network Programme This sales toolkit forms an integral part of the resources offered to members of the Cisco Powered Network programme. The programme offers the product development, market intelligence and sales tools needed to define new services, develop infrastructure and take new services to market. It enables members to accelerate successful deployment of new and enhanced managed network services like IP Communications. The programme is structured around a unique three stage life cycle model to successfully take a service to market Envision Your Service, Build and Maintain Your Service, and Market and Sell Your Service. This IP Communications sales toolkit is one of a number of powerful sales tools that support the Market and Sell Your Service stage of the life cycle. It will help you: > Identify and qualify IP Communications and IP Contact Centre opportunities > Understand the market and technology drivers > Communicate effectively with business and technical decision makers.

4 Why sell IP telephony and IP Contact Centre? [1] [2] [4/54] Today, acceptance of IP data networks as a resilient platform for voice is virtually complete. All major communications suppliers have now announced that their next generation products will be based on IP. Meanwhile in private networks, VoIP has already made significant inroads thanks to guaranteed Quality of Service and the overall cost savings achieved through convergence. Gartner Group summarised the situation in July 2003: "Companies should focus their planning effort into converged network architecture that will be the common transport layer for all business and communications applications. Investment in traditional PBX architecture should be limited to increments in capacity." Now it is no longer a question of "Why VoIP?" but "When?" and managed service providers are already beginning to see an erosion of their core business. A report entitled European Telcos Voice Support for Convergence by The Yankee Group in October 2003 shows European fixed-voice revenue for the business market declining rapidly, from 77 per cent in 2003 down to 61 per cent by VoIP no longer threatens to cannibalise service providers traditional voice business; it is set to replace it. With all this in mind, the top three reasons why IP telephony and IP Contact Centre matter to a managed service provider are: 1. Reducing churn The converged applications enabled by Cisco IP telephony can bring managed service providers much closer to a customer s business. So, too, can the application layering over the IP VPN foundation. This makes it much harder for customers to change providers than it would be for a commoditised service such as call routing. Applications such as unified messaging and IPCC, in addition to generating additional revenue streams, also reduce customer churn. According to The Yankee Group, bundling two services usually reduces customer churn by 25 per cent. Bundling a third product reduces it by an additional 13 per cent and a fourth product reduces churn by an additional six per cent. 2. Meeting customers requirements: flexibility, cost efficiency, productivity Cisco IP telephony and Cisco IP Contact Centre can improve a managed service provider s chances of closing a sale by enabling them to meet more of their enterprise customer s key requirements today. > Flexibility: through an unparalleled range of delivery options from DIY to managed and/or hosted services or a combination. > Cost efficiency: in addition to the inherent savings of a converged, IP-based solution, managed and hosted services reduce or eliminate hidden ongoing operational costs. > Productivity: applications enabled by IP Communications can change how an organisation works, leading to improved employee efficiency.

5 Why sell IP telephony and IP Contact Centre? [1] [2] [5/54] 3. Creating new revenue streams and protecting existing ones In the long term, IP Communications offers providers of managed services greater potential for new revenue generation than TDM-based services as the chart on the right indicates. Top 10 Applications Demanded by Service Providers Today Source: the Yankee Group, 2003 Type of Applications IP Communications allows managed service providers to use services such as IP telephony and IP Contact Centre to ensure that they maintain ownership of run-rate revenue streams from: telephony minutes, network connectivity and maintenance contracts. IP Centrex Conferencing Unified Communications Contact/Call Centres IP VPN A wide range of applications can be added on top of IP telephony. Converged applications that combine voice, data and other media such as video are of particular interest to enterprises because they have been shown to improve productivity significantly. Voice Mail Calling Card (Pre-paid) Mobility Voice Portal Announcements IP telephony also creates opportunities for cross-selling. It can be the catalyst that allows managed service providers to expand from wide area network (WAN) management into local area network (LAN) with offers of LAN upgrades to support QoS, security and wireless LAN features. Possibilities also include LAN management and the provision of additional services such as managed security and application hosting Per cent of Respondents

6 [6/54] As mentioned earlier, IP Communications is linked very closely with the customer s business processes. The managed service provider sales team has the important role of translating the features and benefits of an IP Communications infrastructure into advantages to their customer s business processes. Therefore, sales teams must be able to understand the customer s business processes that are based on or influenced by communication and determine how changes will benefit the customer. Effectively, they must be able to see the big picture and be able to translate this into advantages to the customer. Seeing the big picture means rising above the technology components, in order to obtain a 360-degree view of the customer s business and determine the obstacles that must be overcome. The chart on the right takes a look at the key business challenges a large retail bank may experience and possible solutions. All of these solutions are broader than just telephony but IP Communications is broader too and capable of addressing the bank s issues. It is, therefore, important to build up vertical knowledge of a sector and develop sales messages that form the basis of discussions with customers about their communications needs. It is, therefore, important that account managers never lose sight of the big picture. For example, a LAN upgrade that is essential to the deployment of IP telephony could be seen as expensive and complex by a customer. Once the customer is Example of key business challenges a retail bank faces include: Issues Customer retention. In a fiercely competitive market, the bank needs to become better at understanding its customers in order to provide them with appropriate service levels and contact channels. Reducing operating costs. The economic downturn has made this a high priority for all banks. Increasing employee productivity. Closely linked to the first two challenges, this is about giving employees the tools they need to work more effectively, no matter where they are located, with a strong emphasis on upgrading the environment in the branch network. Supporting mobility needs. Most retail finance institutions have specialists (e.g. real estate specialists) who have to travel between different branches for meetings with customers. convinced of the overall business benefits of convergence and sees IP telephony and IPCC as part of a wider convergence strategy, this will move the discussion away from IP telephony as just a dial tone refresh. Solution Improve customer retention, by giving all customerfacing staff (for example, in the contact centre or the branch) access to relevant data before they engage in a customer contact. Reduce costs, by rationalising branch data and communication networks (including telephony, ATM machines, key-code security) onto a single network, and by consolidating disparate call centre systems onto a single, more flexible and service-rich solution. Increase employee productivity, by using IPC and its underlying converged infrastructure to deliver applications and to employees, including elearning, business video and audio conferencing, unified messaging and employee mobility solutions. Support mobility needs, by allowing travelling specialists or regional managers to log themselves into the telephone system in all branch offices and be reached via their own telephone number, no matter which office they are in.

7 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7/54] Enterprise IP Voice Services in Europe In US Millions VoIP VPN Services 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1, Hosted and Managed IP Voice Services Source: Probe Group LLC ,028 1,450 1,730 3,553 5,739 IP Communications represents a substantial opportunity for providers of managed services to grow revenues and reduce costs. This section demonstrates the size of the opportunity, together with the main market drivers for IP telephony and IP Contact Centres. Massive growth in IP telephony Among industry analysts and enterprise users there is now a consensus that IP telephony will soon take over from traditional circuit-switched telephony as the dominant enterprise delivery method. In March 2004, IDC predicted that IP PBXs would grow to approximately 40 per cent of all installed PBX systems in Western Europe by Cisco s own calculations, based on a number of analysts forecasts, show that IP systems shipments will match traditional systems for the first time in A key factor is that a typical lifecycle of a PBX is seven years and many companies replaced or updated their PBXs in 1999 due to concerns over Y2K issues. Huge market for managed services Though enterprises recognise the compelling business benefits of a converged network for IP telephony and data, some have hesitated to migrate because of initial investment costs and perceived technical complexities. Those who hesitate typically cite the following investment concerns with implementing their own IP telephony solutions: > telephony is a tool, not the company's core competency > unwanted capital expenditure (CapEx) > fear of obsolescence > unpredictable operational expenditures (OpEx). Later sections of this document discuss these issues in more detail. The main point is that managed service providers have a significant opportunity to increase their revenues and address these customer concerns by offering managed and/or hosted IP telephony services. According to Probe Group LLC (VoIP Spreading in the European Enterprise, January 2004), hosted and managed VoIP service revenue made up 60 per cent of total VoIP revenues in 2002 and is expected to rise to 80 per cent by 2008 representing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 153 per cent and a market size of over $5.7 billion (over 4.6 billion).

8 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [8/54] Hosted call centre market size Call centres Call centres (000s) (000s) Agent Agent positions positions (000s) (000s) Importance of hosted call centre services The market for hosted and networked (managed) call centres is growing rapidly, and Datamonitor sees this as a key trend over the next three years. They also claim that 7.5 per cent of the agent positions in EMEA are in networked call centres, and this will rise to 8.4 per cent by They expect EMEA hosted agent positions to increase from 2.1 per cent to 8.4 per cent by The business case for IP telephony How IP telephony aligns with the new Chief Information Officer (CIO) mandate: > deliver revenue-generating applications and features Market drivers for IP telephony The list on the left is taken from a report by The Yankee Group which highlights a change in the way that the performance of an enterprise IT department is measured. A few years ago, IT departments would be fulfilling their mission if they stayed within budget and the company s IT systems were available. Today, however, CIOs must meet much higher expectations from their business colleagues such as using technology to drive productivity and cut costs. The Yankee Group has shown how IP telephony helps CIOs to respond to these apparently conflicting demands. On the next page, we look at three items on that list in more detail. North America APs North EMEA America APs APs EMEA North America APs CCs North EMEA America CCs CCs DATAMONITOR: EMEA Contact CCs Centre Markets and Technologies > reduce costs > service an increasingly mobile and distributed workforce > use technology to increase productivity > unify all communications platforms > align IT with business processes. (Taken from The Yankee Group report entitled Hosted IP telephony Offers a Path to Convergence by George Hamilton, September 2003)

9 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [9/54] Deliver revenue-generating applications In the early days of IP telephony, cost savings were seen as the key market driver. Today, however, the situation is changing. Firstly there is a recognition that, when companies replace their traditional telephone systems with IP telephony, they are not simply replacing like with like. This is because IP telephony offers far greater capabilities than traditional systems in terms of the converged voice, data and video applications it enables. Secondly the market has evolved. IP VPNs are rapidly becoming the preferred platform for converged enterprise networks for more, see the Cisco Powered Network IP VPN Sales Toolkit (in the section on ). Reduce costs Clearly, companies are seeking to reduce their IT costs while at the same time ensuring that their investments generate business value. The majority of enterprises that are already planning to move towards IP telephony (and, consequently, a converged network environment) will be aware of the financial benefits of running one combined voice and data infrastructure rather than two separate ones. These benefits including reduced administrative and management complexity remain compelling. IP telephony also delivers some quantifiable savings over traditional telephony, such as low cost, low complexity moves, adds and changes and the possibility of zero charges for on-net calls between sites (toll bypass). However, managed service providers should not worry about cannibalising their existing revenue streams, as IP telephony, particularly hosted solutions, allows them to retain call minute, maintenance and connectivity revenues whilst generating new revenue. Service an increasingly mobile and distributed workforce Unlike its traditional counterpart, IP telephony is able to support flexible new working practices such as mobile and remote working. Employees are no longer tied to one particular physical location within the company, but can use their own extension number and services such as voice mail from any IP phone on the network (including remote VPN access). Similarly, it is not only cost effective but also very straightforward to offer both mobile and remote workers access to the same converged applications that their colleagues use at the company headquarters. This flexibility gives an enterprise much greater agility in responding to market and economic conditions, without busting the budget.

10 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [10/54] Market drivers for IP Contact Centres The key market drivers for the introduction of IP Contact Centres include: > consolidation of disparate legacy call centres > workforce reachability and efficiency e.g. near-shore, offshore, region-based, back office > higher call success rates using more intelligent pre-routing > growth in multimedia and demand for new services > more efficient multi-channel queue handling for small and medium-sized businesses > cost efficiency, workforce efficiency and new revenue streams. Datamonitor (Contact Center Component Technologies to 2007, November 2002) has highlighted six technologies that will dominate the call centre market through to 2007: > Multimedia > IP technology > Networked call centres > Speech recognition/interactive Voice Response (IVR) > Outbound dialling > Workforce optimisation. We look at three of these drivers in more detail, to see how technology trends are linked with business objectives. Multimedia The number of contact centres with multimedia routing capabilities in EMEA is rising and will represent, according to Datamonitor estimates, 15 per cent of the total by 2008, compared to six per cent in Enterprise markets will start to offer their customers greater choice of interaction channels as part of a wider move to improve service and customer loyalty. Media such as video are enabling new business models where consumers can be brought face to face with remote specialist consultants, for example, for financial discussions or specialist product advice. This is creating entirely new markets for IP Contact Centres which are not currently covered by most analyst data. IP technology Companies are looking for greater flexibility on the part of their call centre technology (for example, more responsive capacity management and more control over call routing changes). They also want integration between the call centre and their organisation s main network to allow them to make specialist resources (for example, mortgage experts) available to take customer calls from agents when necessary. IP technology enables this reachability, flexibility and control. Networked call centres Datamonitor sees a huge opportunity for providers of managed services to move up the value chain and make more use of their own infrastructures by capitalising on these growth areas.

11 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [11/54] Cisco market positioning Cisco has seen the following growth in IP telephony sales: > three years to ship one million IP phones > one year to ship its second million IP phones > nine months to ship its third million IP phones. Cisco IP telephony users cross all industry and government sectors, for example, large financial institutions like Abbey (the UK s largest bank focusing on private customers), Lehman Brothers (global investment banking and financial services), insurance companies such as Standard Life (UK) and Barmer (leading German health insurance provider), manufacturers such as Heinz, and healthcare trusts and hospitals such as Landspitali (Iceland s largest hospital). Cisco customer contact solutions are now experiencing a similar growth curve. Industry analysts Frost & Sullivan awarded Cisco IP Contact Centre their 2004 Market Penetration Leadership Award in recognition of its market share increase between 2001 and 2004 by deploying more than 1,700 IP Contact Centre systems and achieving a leadership position in IP contact centres and fifth position in the overall ACD market. Cisco IPCC users include companies as diverse as: 7CLtd (a UK service bureau), AlgoSystems (a major systems integrator in Greece), BKW (a German utilities group), Carphone Warehouse (Europe s largest independent mobile communications retailer), Ce-TIAM (a French health insurance provider), Diageo Plc UK (a consumer goods manufacturer), the First International Bank of Israel, IFDS (a UK financial services provider), Pan Gas (a German utilities company), Sony Netherlands (an electronic consumer goods manufacturer) and Telepassport (a German telecoms provider). IP Communications more than just telephony IP Communications allows people in business to communicate with each other in a variety of ways that help them to do their jobs more effectively. It includes: > IP telephony > unified messaging, including voice mail > Interactive Voice Response applications > video telephony > IP audio and video conferencing > customer contact solutions > security solutions > network management. The value proposition for IP Communications The previous list demonstrates the sheer breadth of applications enabled by IP Communications. These bring a range of productivity and financial benefits to customers. By integrating with the customer s business processes at many levels, they enhance an organisation s ability to serve its own customers. They also generate productivity improvements throughout the business: for example, employees personal and workgroup productivity has been shown to improve by 10 to 40 per cent as a result of introducing applications such as mobility and unified messaging. When used in conjunction with IP telephony, Cisco IP Contact Centre allows companies to establish a Customer Interaction Network. Traditional call centre environments placed many restrictions on how and where a company interacted with its customers. The Customer Interaction Network gives companies much greater flexibility in how they communicate with their customers, including the ability to make the entire organisation available to customers as required. The result is a business environment that really does put the customer first a key objective of virtually every commercial and public sector organisation today. In summary, the ability to integrate voice, data and video in new, multimedia applications offers customers genuine value on top of the telephony features that they already know it really is more than just telephony.

12 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [12/54] Key applications for IP telephony Cisco s own expanding series of IP telephony applications includes: > Cisco IP Contact Centre an evolving suite of multi-channel services that takes contact centres to a new level, providing organisations with access to a broader range of resources and control, including an unlimited pool of agents and specialists, creating a Customer Interaction Network > Cisco Unity enterprise and SMB unified messaging, where individuals receive their , voice and fax messages via a single inbox, accessible via telephony, PC or mobile device > Cisco Personal Assistant streamlines communication by helping employees manage how and where they can be reached > Cisco MeetingPlace a rich media collaboration tool which brings the power of shared visual images to audio conferencing by sharing data, voice, video and applications with other users over the web > Cisco VT Advantage (with CallManager Version 4.0) adds video telephony to the Cisco CallManager solution so that real-time, person-to-person video sessions can be incorporated into telephone and conference calls whilst remaining as simple to use as a telephone. In addition, there is a growing range of third party applications for Cisco IP telephony that take advantage of the solution s open standards. Among the most popular are applications written in XML (extensible mark-up language) for use on Cisco IP phones. These enable Cisco IP phones to be used as a Web browser or substitute PC, and are particularly useful for displaying in areas of the workplace where PCs are not generally found, such as on the shop floor in a retail environment, in manufacturing facilities, and at airport and railway terminals. Such applications include: > Mind Enterprise IP system (M.E.IP.S) from MIND CTI a comprehensive, centralised, easy-to-use enterprise billing, accounting and network communication management solution, featuring Web tools for voice tracking and reporting across traditional and IP telephony networks. > Nevotek V/IP-Suite is a state-of-the-art property management system gateway designed specifically for Cisco CallManager. It reduces hotels operational expenses while increasing their services revenues and providing staff with innovative ways of managing room status and availability. > NICE Systems patented VoIP technology provides a full range of recording applications for Cisco IP telephony. It allows organisations to record across new communication channels whilst capturing and analysing interactions for compliance, risk management or quality management. > equality ContactStore IP from Witness Systems allows any or all calls made on Cisco CallManager to be recorded. The XML interface on the IP phone enables the distribution of particular calls to the appropriate parties, and users with security permissions can search for and replay calls using their Web browser.

13 Service provider Business [1] [2] [13/54] Managed service providers can capitalise on enterprise adoption of IP telephony by offering managed business voice services to multiple business customers over a shared infrastructure. Managed IP Communications can be divided into two main deployment models: > managed on-site, where nearly all the equipment is located on the customer s own premises, and may be owned either by the customer or by the managed service provider. The managed service provider actively manages the service via an always on connection and typically also provides WAN connectivity and PSTN breakout. > hosted services, where the majority of the call control components reside within the managed services provider s infrastructure, with customer equipment limited to phones and, in some cases, gateways. The managed service provider will nearly always manage the service and provide WAN and PSTN connectivity. Whether managed or hosted, leading managed service providers are offering a comprehensive portfolio of revenue generating services, including some or all of the following: > managed or hosted IP telephony services: providing IP subscriber and group calling features, such as paging, intercom, multi-party conferencing, hunt groups, call forwarding and call transfer on a range of CPE, including Cisco CallManager, Cisco CallManager Express, remote IP phones, and even traditional TDM PBXs with a VoIP CPE gateway. > site-to-site voice VPNs: enabling a business to use the provider's VoIP infrastructure for toll bypass between its sites/branches. This is a business voice service delivered over an IP VPN that offers private site-to-site voice connectivity. The service allows customers to interconnect existing onsite TDM or IP telephony systems. For the managed service provider, these services increase demand for VPN capacity, creating opportunities to upgrade customers from basic low-speed IP VPNs to higher value, faster ones with QoS whilst using the same core IP VPN infrastructure. > PSTN access: PSTN connectivity is typically included with the Voice VPN service, enabling the service provider to secure the customer s PSTN call minutes. Having connected all the enterprise s branches/sites together and to the PSTN over a single converged IP VPN, providers can then pass on some of the savings of the central PSTN breakout to make the service even more attractive. These savings can be gained from use of the IP network to get to the closest PSTN gateway to the destination ( forced on-net ), volume discounts through aggregating multiple businesses traffic, or savings from lower cost IP to IP interconnects to other carriers. > managed and hosted unified communications: the managed service provider delivers unified messaging services (voice mail, , fax and find me/follow me) allowing end users to decide how they choose to receive messages and calls. The solution can be deployed at the customer s premises or reside in the managed service provider s network. As a centrally provisioned service, it is easy for a provider to let a customer try the service with a few users before a full scale deployment. > enhanced IP Communications services: managed service providers can also capitalise on the emerging revenue opportunities from managing enhanced IP applications.

14 Service provider Business [1] [2] [14/54] Service providers can leverage the scale of their shared VoIP infrastructure to offer additional value-added network services such as: > managed service network-based private dial plan management with a softswitch like the PGW 2200 within the infrastructure, a managed service provider is able to manage a customer s dial plan centrally. This is considerably more efficient than configuring each PBX separately. > call barring for example, the managed service provider can, at an enterprise s request, prevent calls to international, mobile, premium rate or any other set of numbers, by extension and/or time of day. > call reporting most businesses like to monitor their telephony usage, in order to control how employees are using their phones and make educated decisions about future requirements. Businesses also need to monitor their provider s performance against service level agreements. Cisco s Business Voice Services enable providers to offer online, Web-based reporting, ensuring customers can retain full control over their outsourced services and providing them with peace of mind about the level of service they are receiving.

15 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [15/54] This section of the toolkit provides an overview of the key elements that make up Cisco IP Communications. These are: > the network > call control > the softswitch infrastructure > contact management > IPC applications. Key selling points are highlighted alongside a summary of each technology or solution. First, however, is an answer to the question: "Why Cisco?" Why Cisco? Cisco entered the IP Communications market in 1995 and has more experience in IP telephony and its enterprise applications than any other vendor. As well as this track record, here are six good reasons why managed service providers should sell Cisco IP Communications in preference to other vendors solutions: > To leverage their companies investments in Cisco technology, in particular MPLS IP VPNs, as this platform is typically the basis of every IP Communications solution. > To ensure a steady stream of opportunities in future because Cisco s IP Communications and network services portfolio is so comprehensive (including, for example, contact centre, wireless, security and storage), it gives managed service providers many opportunities for future up-sales based on integrated solutions. > To reduce customers risk Cisco IP Communications is an end-to-end solution whose individual components were designed to work together. This ensures that essential functions such as security, performance and reliability are not just present in point products but interwoven throughout the network, which reinforces their effectiveness. > To enable customers to migrate from TDM-based systems to IP at their own pace. Cisco IP telephony and Cisco IP Contact Centre solutions were designed to interoperate with traditional systems. > To leverage Cisco s world class service and support. The Cisco Advanced Services organisation has unique experience in network assessment, design and deployment, as well as ongoing support services, which can complement the capabilities of service providers. Specifically it can offer an assessment service for a company s IPT readiness and its financial justification. > Cisco Capital Financing Cisco Capital is Cisco s in-house financial services company, providing competitively priced financing to both service providers and end user customers. Leasing can be an important tool in selling IP Communications, enabling service providers and customers to reduce initial capital expenditure, improve return on investment, lower total cost of ownership, and manage cash flows. Many of Cisco s largest IP Communications sales have incorporated leasing solutions.

16 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [16/54] The network Cisco IP Communications solutions are designed for deployment over a Cisco-based MPLS IP VPN infrastructure. This section of the toolkit explains why this is the ideal scenario, the alternatives, and the benefits of the infrastructure to both the provider and their customers. MPLS any-to-any connectivity with QoS Although there are several ways to build IP VPN services, only MPLS fully satisfies all of the enterprise and SMB requirements for connectivity, resilience, security and Quality of Service, while also being easy and cost efficient to implement for the managed service provider. KEY SELLING POINTS: Because MPLS is connectionless, it is ideally suited to companies that need direct connections between many distributed sites (often known as any-to-any connectivity). In addition, MPLS is flexible and scalable, allowing managed service providers to change bandwidth or connect new sites more rapidly and easily than other solutions. Traffic engineering and Quality of Service supporting voice, video and data Quality of Service (QoS) is essential in order to run time-sensitive traffic such as voice or video over a converged network. One of MPLS s key differentiators is class of service. Class of service is a set of QoS parameters pre-selected by the managed service provider to support various types of traffic. Another advantage of MPLS is its traffic engineering capabilities. By making transmission more efficient, it reduces the cost of the network and interoperates with QoS to improve the overall level of service delivered to customers. KEY SELLING POINTS: Class of service allows managed service providers to offer differentiated IP services. The three classes below are the most common, however some providers offer as many as five different classes. Gold would guarantee latency and delivery for mission critical business applications such as packet telephony/voip traffic or real-time video. Silver would guarantee delivery and be used for more general applications that are not as sensitive to delay and jitter, such as e-commerce SNA and Oracle. Bronze could be used to support File Transfer Protocol, and other best effort applications. IPSec enabling remote VPN access One of the key issues for companies with mobile and home workers is providing them with secure and cost-effective access to their corporate network. IPSecurity (IPSec) is a VPN architecture that ensures confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of data communications across the public Internet. Based on open standards, it is easy to deploy and uses a range of tunnelling and encryption mechanisms to protect packets in transit. This makes IPSec ideal for securing remote access connections to a corporate VPN. KEY SELLING POINTS: Cisco has a comprehensive IPSec-based solution which interoperates fully with its MPLS IP VPN solutions.

17 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [17/54] The network (continued) Broadband access leveraging a pervasive technology KEY SELLING POINT: Broadband is becoming widely available, not only in hotels, libraries and other public places but also in the home. Broadband s ubiquity makes it ideal for both IPSec access and direct MPLS delivery. Remote workers can then save money by making and receiving calls over these connections using PC-based Softphones (a Cisco IP telephony application) instead of their mobile telephones. QoS engineering in the LAN opening up a new managed service provider market IP Communications deployments require QoS, and this requirement extends to the LAN as, even at high bandwidths, multiple data streams compete. Virtual LANs (VLANs) are a typical mechanism to separate voice endpoints (IP phones) from data endpoints in the LAN for both QoS and security. This means the capabilities of the LAN must be considered for each deployment and upgraded if necessary. KEY SELLING POINTS: It is important for managed service providers to ensure that the customer s LAN infrastructure is able to support converged IP Communications applications. The fact that this discussion needs to happen during the sales process also allows the managed service provider to explore the possibility of not only upgrading the customer s LAN, but also taking on its management. Typical topologies evolving at the customer s pace When selling IP Communications, managed service providers are able to assure potential customers that all elements of the solution will be compatible with their traditional telephony systems and existing applications because: 1. They can make a strong case for an end-to-end Cisco solution in the enterprise market where the majority of companies are already using Cisco IP-based technology in their data networks. 2. Cisco IP telephony solutions are designed to interoperate with TDM-based telephony systems. 3. Cisco IP Contact Centre solutions were created to co-exist with traditional TDM-based call centre systems. The key to being able to support a mixed environment is that Cisco IPCC and Cisco Customer Voice Portal 3.0 both contain built-in hooks to traditional systems. 4. IP Communications applications are designed for interoperability. Cisco IP Contact Centre supports connections to all leading CRM packages, including Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP and Siebel. It also provides open integration points enabling custom integration, where necessary, via Cisco or third-party channel partners. Cisco Unity supports 80 per cent of all traditional PBX and the majority of those in use within EMEA. When used in conjunction with an existing voice mail system, it enables both sets of users to access exactly the same voice mail services but with the obvious advantage of being able to turn on unified messaging very easily.

18 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [18/54] Call control Cisco CallManager the enterprise class solution Cisco CallManager is the software equivalent of a PBX, providing enterprise telephony capabilities to packet telephony network devices (e.g. IP phones, media processing devices, VoIP gateways, and multimedia applications). KEY SELLING POINTS: Cisco CallManager is a scalable, distributed and highly available enterprise IP telephony call processing solution. > Scalable: multiple call processing servers can be clustered and managed as a single entity, with capacity for up to 30,000 IP phones per cluster. > Distributed: the ability to cluster Cisco call processing servers on an IP network is unique in the industry. It gives both managed service providers and their customers greater flexibility in how they deploy and manage their systems. > Available: Multiple redundancy options provide high levels of resilience. Cisco CallManager Express rich functionality for fewer users Cisco CallManager Express turns a Cisco access router into a PBX. Offering a robust set of common business features, it provides a cost-effective and feature-rich IP telephony solution for up to 100 users. KEY SELLING POINTS: Cisco CallManager Express makes deployment to a small site or branch office cost effective and very simple to deploy, administer and maintain. > Cost effective: One device (a Cisco access router) can deliver all business communications to the small office or branch, including IP telephony and voice mail as well as content networking, firewall security and enhanced VPN services. For small deployments, the same device can also provide LAN switching. > Feature rich: Cisco CallManager Express provides IP phone users with both key system and many commonly used PBX features.

19 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [19/54] Softswitch infrastructure The softswitch infrastructure that supports Cisco IP telephony solutions provides carrier-class PSTN signalling and call-control with multiple interfaces that allow full integration of TDM PBXs, IP telephony and PSTN connectivity. KEY SELLING POINTS: > Exceptional flexibility in terms of industrystandard control protocols. These include Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), H.323, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and over 100 variants of Signalling System 7 (SS7). Service Portfolio Business Phone Services Site-to-Site Voice VPN PSTN Access Remote Network Management and Operations Voice Infrastructure Hosted Call Manager M M M M M M PGW 2200 Softswitch AS5000 MGX8000 V Unified Communications PRI/ISUP PSTN IP Contact Centre Enhanced IP Services > Full integration with Cisco IP Contact Centre the softswitch allows the intelligent routing engine (ICM) within IPCC to instruct the softswitch how to handle each call. > A central billing platform for managed service providers which reduces the administrative costs of billing and offers the ability to provide enhanced reporting, leading to improved customer service. > Intelligent call routing in the IP network, enabling the Voice VPN service features such as private multi-site dial plans, least-cost routing, PSTN and IP carrier interconnects. Customer Deployment Options Hosted CCM Onsite CCM Call Manager Express TDM PBX IP IP V IP IP M IP IP M V > A high level of versatility resulting from a managed service provider-designed, end-to-end infrastructure that offers scalability, resilience, efficient breakout to the PSTN, and the option of integrating multiple PBX and IP PBX technologies into one complete service.

20 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [20/54] Contact management The changing face of customer service towards a Customer Interaction Network TDM-based call centre systems were designed to fulfil specific business requirements. Yet for most companies with a critical customer service function those requirements have now changed. Services based on Cisco IP Contact Centre meet the key business requirements of companies today, which are: > Multi-channel capabilities consumer demand for new communications channels, such as and the Internet, mean that multi-channel capabilities are now becoming essential for most companies. > Protection of legacy investment companies have invested heavily in TDM-based call centre systems. According to IDC, $2.53 billion (over 2 billion) worldwide between 1997 and Successful migration from TDM to IP systems is, therefore, a crucial issue. > Location independence in order to improve their service to customers, companies are looking for greater flexibility in how they deploy and run their contact centres. The ability to have agents anywhere whether in a dedicated facility, in a branch office, at home, or in an off-shore location is becoming increasingly important. > Application integration and CTI (computer telephony integration) companies are also looking for much greater integration between agents and the business, in particular through links to back-office systems such as CRM applications and CTI screen pops. > Integration with the corporate telephony system a truly integrated IP telephony and IP Contact Centre solution allows companies to extend customer service capabilities across their entire organisation, thereby achieving a more cohesive and collaborative approach to customer service. This proposition, which Cisco calls a Customer Interaction Network, is unique in the industry today. The following section explains in a little more detail how the Cisco solution works and highlights the key selling points that will interest a managed service provider. Cisco IP Contact Centre Hosted Edition a strategic platform Managed service providers can position Cisco IP Contact Centre Hosted Edition as a strategic platform that enables their customers to move towards a true Customer Interaction Network. Cisco IPCC Hosted Edition was specifically designed for managed service deployments, and enables a series of integrated services that can be introduced all together or in a phased manner. Managed service providers host the contact centre infrastructure software which is shared by multiple customers within their infrastructure. This enables them to provide a service to customers with IP or TDM infrastructures, or a combination of the two. The core components of Cisco IPCC Hosted Edition reside within the managed service provider s network, with the Cisco IP phones and agents PCs at the customer s premises. The two are connected via a QoS IP network, such as a MPLS VPN. Some of the key capabilities within Cisco IPCC Hosted Edition are summarised on the next page.