Managed Hosted IP Telephony Services shared services for Government One Network. One Planet. Infinite Possibilities.

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1 Managed Hosted IP Telephony Services shared services for Government One Network. One Planet. Infinite Possibilities.

2 Managed Hosted IP Telephony Services Government organisations are under pressure to achieve the economies and efficiencies detailed in the Lyon s Review and the Gershon Report. Furthermore the subsequent Transformational Government: Enabled by Technology strategy has highlighted some key technology-enabling targets as a further focus in achieving improvements to services. The sharing and convergence of infrastructures and mobile and flexible working are highlighted as key performance improvement areas through which targeted economies and efficiencies can be delivered. As an IP based network operator and technology leading company Global Crossing is at the forefront of IP convergence technology. There has been a great deal written about the benefits of running converged IP networks, the ability to run both voice and data over the same network logically presents an opportunity to achieve cost savings and efficiencies. However these benefits come with a number of costs: the cost of complexity, the cost of procuring new technology, the cost of the roll-out, ongoing support and future upgrades and enhancements. Global Crossing has been working towards creating IP convergent services that can be delivered with greater ease and simplicity, Global Crossing s Unified CommunicationsTM suite for Government is an example. The suite is built around hosted IP telephony in addition to some efficiency-enabling solutions such as unified messaging, and presence management. The aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of Hosted IP Telephony Service and identify some key benefits enabling Government efficiencies. What is the Hosted IP Telephony feature of Global Crossing Unified Communications? The Hosted IP Telephony service of Global Crossing Unified Communications provides the traditional PBX enabled telephony services without the need to procure, install and maintain expensive PBX equipment on site. The equipment required to deliver these services and functionality is retained and managed within the core of service provider network. One other fundamental difference between traditional PBX telephony and the Hosted IP telephony service is in the physical delivery of the service. The service is delivered over the customer s data network using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), the voice and data traffic is now converged onto one infrastructure. This creates economies in terms of infrastructure maintenance and the traditional telephony network is now redundant. Furthermore, the Hosted IP telephony service is rapid to deploy and highly scaleable and resilient whilst at the same time being very flexible. It can be enabled at single user sites, such as for Homeworkers, including them within the corporate dial plan and enabling common features and applications. What are the Benefits of the Hosted IP Telephony feature of Global Crossing Unified Communications? There are some obvious economic benefits, such as the cost savings generated through the reduction in operational overhead through infrastructure convergence, and through the reduction in capital expenditure due to the elimination of capital intensive PBX deployments. There are also efficiency gains to be made through the increased flexibility for working practices, ease of deployment and enhanced business continuity that a hosted service creates. The service, when implemented with other efficiency enabling solutions such as unified messaging, presence management and work group productivity tools can promote increased levels of collaborative working. One of the key benefits

3 of deploying this type of service is the ease with which it can keep employees connected. In summary the service is flexible, cost effective, easy to implement and maintain and is the basis from which further efficiency enabling solutions can be deployed. These elements will now each be explored in greater detail. Infrastructure Convergence The obvious benefit of running one network for both voice and data applications versus one for each creates an opportunity for real cashable savings to be made. However, before deployment of the service a certain amount of analysis and preparation is required, to ensure that the data infrastructure is configured appropriately to deliver real-time voice applications. This basically translates into determining existing bandwidth availability, identifying the applications currently being run and establishing which are to be given priority over others. The next step is to implement the control procedures that will provide adequate quality of service for the priority real-time voice traffic and then finally deploy the monitoring and reporting processes to ensure the quality of service can be maintained. The customer LAN must be endorsed by Global Crossing to carry VoIP traffic before IP telephones can be connected to the infrastructure. This whole process of getting the LAN endorsed to carry VoIP involves qualifying, planning and implementing necessary LAN improvements and will be led by Global Crossing as part of the service implementation process. Reduced Capital Expenditure As highlighted earlier deploying the Managed HIPT service provides the traditional PBX enabled telephony services without the need to procure, install and maintain expensive PBX equipment on site. The funding requirement for a hosted service is therefore far less capital intensive, which results in greater operational effectiveness with managers being less constrained by capex requirements or constraints. Simplified Service Management The saving achieved through infrastructure reduction creates the opportunity for further benefits in operational efficiency, such as reduced administration overheads. With Global Crossing providing the service within the core if its network, elements like maintenance, dial plan management, moves and changes, quality assurance and upgrades are all included. This enables existing staff to be re-focussed onto other core business projects. Furthermore the onerous task and cost associated with the need to develop and retain expertise in IP telephony is avoided. Enhanced Business Continuity With the service now deployed in the Global Crossing network business continuity planning is also far less onerous. You can be assured of % carrier grade service availability with service platforms deployed within the GC core delivering geographically distribution of the VoIP switching infrastructure. Individual server failures or software upgrades no longer present a risk to business continuity.

4 Mobile and Flexible Working Enablement The organisational benefits of mobile and flexible working are well documented. The opportunity to improve employee s work/life balance has demonstrable benefits on employee effectiveness through increased morale and reduced levels of absenteeism, resulting in improved productivity. At the same time real savings are achievable in terms of reduction to central office overheads, as the amount of space required is reduced through flexible working practices such as hot-desking. Whilst the benefits are clear, it is often not that straightforward to achieve the technical solution to enable it to happen. The Global Crossing Unified Communications suite of products provides a real answer to the problem, as it delivers Hot-desking and home-working functionality as standard. Hot-desking IP phones require a user to log in to establish their service contact point. Once logged in the users corporate dial plan contact number and all their telephony features are available to them at that handset. As the HIPT service is deployed across the whole enterprise, employees no longer have to be at one fixed location to have access to their telephone extension and features. Home-working in the same way as in the hot-desking scenario a teleworker or mobile employee with a broadband connection can log into their IP phone and be established on their corporate extension with associated features no matter where they are. The benefits to efficiency and morale that this level of inclusion creates can be very significant. Global Crossing HIPT service provides a technical solution to the enabling of mobile and flexible workers. It provides these types of workers with inclusion to the corporate dial plan, whilst enabling common features and applications to be accessed across the whole enterprise irrespective of geographic location. Efficiency Enabling Solutions One of the key benefits that derive from creating a converged IP based communications infrastructure is that application services can communicate with all the devices connected to it. This enables new types of efficiency generating solutions to be developed. Unified messaging Quite simply the storage of all message types is consolidated into one mailbox. This benefits the ease of managing messaging, provides the user with greater control over where and how they communicate and overall enables a more efficient and effective use of their time. Presence management - IP devices provide the ability for users to log-on at multiple locations and for the system to recognise their status and broadcast this to other users on the system. This enables efficient communication between work colleagues as each user s status indicates their availability, and thus creates the opportunity to make timely and appropriate contacts. Collaborative working broadly speaking it is the outcome of creating more flexible systems and tools by which people can work together. The ease by which people can be contacted, exchange information and work together is greatly enhanced through converged IP services. Whilst the whole nature of work may have changed with people becoming more geographically distributed, however, the ease with which they can be brought together and communicate through IP convergence services produces clear operational efficiencies.

5 Why Global Crossing for your Unified Communications needs? Global Crossing has been providing secure solutions to Government for over 15 years, providing a full range of services to over 250,000 Government users. Global Crossing operates the only physically dedicated IP Network for UK Government. Service procurement is convenient, with the full and extensive range of both traditional and IP services available via the Government Telecoms contract. With this expertise in both traditional and IP technology Global Crossing is extremely well placed to advise Government organisations on the appropriate TDM to IP migration strategy for them, and is currently engaged with a number of Government customers to achieve this aim. Global Crossing s Unified Communications Service has the potential to enable a low risk, cost effective solution to the problems of migration to a converged IP infrastructure for Government. For more information or to contact a Global Crossing representative to discuss this service, or the full range of services in more detail, please contact GovernmentSales@GlobalCrossing.com or Global Crossing Holdings Ltd. Global Crossing and the 7 Cable Design are registered trademarks of Global Crossing Holdings Ltd. and ucommand is a registered service mark of Global Crossing Ltd. in the United States and other countries. Some services are subject to geographic availability. Other restrictions may apply UK 52505