Current issues of VoIP adoption in UTM

Current issues of VoIP adoption in UTM HAMIDREZA MOHAJERI, MAZDAK ZAMANI, WARDAH ZAINAL-ABIDIN Advanced Informatics School Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 54100 Kuala Lumpur MALAYSIA mhamidreza3@live.utm.my, mazdak@utm.my, wardah@utm.my Abstract: - New enterprises can no longer choose time-division multiplexing (TDM) systems as their telephony services due to the favoring of IP systems by all telephony service providers in comparison to TDM systems. Voice over IP is the architecture of transmitting voice over internet networks. This architecture by using internet as a platform can reduce cost of organizations significantly.to know the current issues and key barriers to adoption and implementation of VoIP a survey has been carried out. Questionnaires were distributed between key informants, administrative and technical people in the telecommunication area in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. According to figures and statistical analysis High bandwidth cost is defined as first significant barrier for adoption of VoIP and Economic reason is most important non-technical barrier to adoption of VoIP in UTM University. Key-Words: - VoIP, Voice over IP, UTM, VoIP Adoption Issues 1 Introduction Today s legacy telephony system or PSTN, while reliable and robust, is built in hardware based circuit switches that leave little room for innovation and service differentiation. Visual Networking Index (2011) forecasted global IP traffic will increase fourfold from 2010 to 2015, and annual global IP traffic will reach 966 Exabyte per year or 80.5 Exabyte per month by the end of 2015. The number of devices connected to IP networks will be twice as high as the global population in 2015. IP traffic per capita will reach 11 gigabytes per capita in 2015, up from 3 gigabytes per capita in 2010 [1]. Amir Sinaeepourfard (2011) stated that one of the drawbacks of the PSTN is that it has complex connectivity. The VoIP strengths are cheaper in costs compared to PSTN, less usage of cable, userfriendly, simple connectivity, and services variety. Zasepa et al (2009) addressed several factors to decide about migrating to VOIP Such as Costsavings, Mobility, Functionality improvement (Appliance of VoIP brings wide range of new features including voicemail, Do not Disturb, advanced billing control, full control of user privileges, intercom etc) and Support of a new technology [2]. Many service providers are solving this problem by migrating networks to Internet protocol (IP)-based technology, but they may still have huge investments in the PSTN hardware that are not fully depreciated [3, 4]. 2 Data Collection Based on previous work patterns [5-11] the questionnaire designed and distributed between individuals. To acquire the sample size, Morgan table [12] was used,based on the required sample size is calculated to be 32. In an attempt to collect the data, according to [13], the six most commonly used sources for data collection are: documentation, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant observation and physical artifacts. In this study, the sources of evidence that are considered valuable are interviews and direct observation and extraction of call log and bills. The following methods have been applied during the data collection: 2.1 Library method To collect the information related to research literature and background (secondary data) the library method was applied. In this stage, academic journals, books, and paper proceeding to conference dealing with VoIP and cost optimization were collected in which most of them were found in UTM databases and the Internet. ISBN: 978-1-61804-179-1 124

2.2 Interview Interview with the stakeholders in various areas are conducted including management and electrical engineering. A total of 2 persons were involved in the interviews. 2.3 Questionnaire A questionnaire containing some questions which were developed and used to collect the required data during a survey.the questionnaire was based on a 5 point Likert scale for simple analysis. The questionnaire involved demographic profile questions and 20 other questions in order to answer the hypotheses. It was anticipated that the respondents would respond all questions in the questionnaire. A test of the questionnaire was carried out.random sampling was employed due to the convenience of this method. Using this method, individuals are randomly selected from a list of the population Two administration staff and two technical staff who were willingly available were requested to pilot the questionnaire and to discover possible problems in the area for instance: ambiguous or blurred questions, simplicity of instruction. The questionnaire took on average 5 minutes to answer, based on the test run. Data was captured by electronic means and analyzed using SPSS. After collecting data from respondents, because of the variety of designation we divided them into two groups, administrations or mangers in scope of ICT and telecommunication and others to technical staff. Out of 32 individuals who submitted their feedback, 31% were administration or management and 69% were technical staff. 3 Findings With the background of the literature review and providing questionnaire which in participated key informants in the telecom area, the researcher was able to interpret the quantitative results. This was presented in tables, matrices, pie charts, bar graphs and using other descriptive statistics. At last researcher draw conclusion stressing key barriers and issues. According to Table 1 and Figure 1 almost 97 % of the respondents used normal telephony line for their fixed calls and less than 4% used internet telephony, moreover approximately 20 % of correspondents used internet telephony for national calls and nearly 80% used normal telephony line furthermore 25% of respondents chose internet telephony and 75% of them chose normal telephony line for making international calls. This research represents that there are a number of key factors that will affect the adoption of Voice over IP in UTM Campus. These factors include: 3.1 Technical s Technical barriers are as follow: High Bandwidth Cost High Services Cost Low quality of Voice Communications Difficulty In Choosing Suppliers Complexity Of Deployment Timescale For ROI Lack of Staff Skills Implementation Cost Security/ Privacy Issues Satisfied With Present System Empirical research of administration /management and technical staff has represented that several key factors as technical barriers hindering the implementation and adoption of Voice over IP in UTM University are respectively high bandwidth cost, high services cost and security/privacy issues. According to Table 2 and Figure 2, High bandwidth cost is defined as the first significant barrier for adoption of VoIP in UTM University, based on statistics almost 68% of correspondents said high bandwidth cost is a significant barrier, nearly 13% replied it is as a very significant barrier. The second important barrier is high services cost, 41.94% of the correspondents answered that this is significant barrier and 35.48% of them voted very significant. Security/privacy issues are the third main barrier, 48.39% of respondents answered Security/privacy issues is very significant barrier, and 19.35% of them said that is a significant barrier. 3.2 Non- technical barriers Non- technical barriers are as follow: Economic reason Lack of Knowledge about advantages of VoIP Unavailability of Emergency Calls Involving too many parties to implement of VoIP Lack Of Regulatory Authority Based on Table 3 and Figure 3, Economic reason is most important barrier to adoption of VoIP; almost half of the respondents believed that economic reason is a very significant barrier (51.61%), while 32.26% of them also said it is a significant barrier. ISBN: 978-1-61804-179-1 125

The second significant barrier is Lack of Knowledge about the advantages of VoIP, thirteen out of thirty two (41.9%) respondents have answered lack of knowledge about the advantages of VoIP is a very significant barrier, while eleven out of thirty two (35.5%) also replied it is significant. 4 Constraints &challenges Exploring and investigating the research problem, building and approving research, collecting data from management/administration [12-21] and technical staff of telecommunication and analyzing and documenting the results in a limited amount of time caused some limitations in the scope and size of current research. First, because of lack of knowledge of respondents we could collect 32 samples. The use of more samples in our study would increase the confidence in accuracy of the results. Second, the number of research which combines cost optimizations and VoIP was almost limited. Third it is hard to get in touch with VoIP experts, administrations and management who have experience in VoIP area and have interview with them. Because of this constraint the researcher contented with quantitative evaluation and sent questionnaires to them. 5 Conclusion We adopted an explanatory research approach by use of a survey strategy. For questionnaire statistical population of the survey was the entire administration, management and technical staff which their duties related to the telecommunication in UTM University of 32 questionnaires. Questionnaires were analyzed for investigation. Some of the recommendations that can be done are to extend this study by Doing the same study with a larger sample size. Performing the similar studies in other universities or academic environment and comparing the finding and results. Assess the causes why VoIP is not commonly in use in some organization. Moreover, regarding to figures and statistical analysis, out of 32 correspondents 25 of them have little knowledge about Voice over IP technology. It means most of them are unfamiliar with VoIP solution s technology as well as its all advantages and disadvantages, furthermore just six persons have enough information about this technology. Therefore staff and management need to spend training course to improve their awareness about VoIP and IP solution so training for UTM staff is recommended. Acknowledgment This work is part of research done with support from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia. References: [1] V. N. I. V. Cisco. (2011, 14th April 2012). Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2010-2015. [2] M. Zasepa, et al., "Implementation of costeffective VoIP network," in 16th International Conference on Mixed Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, MIXDES 2009, June 25, 2009 - June 27, 2009, Lodz, Poland, 2009, pp. 159-162. [3] Lassman Jay and D. O'Connell. ( 2007). "IPT vs. TDM Life Cycle Purchase and Operations Costs. [4] Bill Douskalis, IP Telephony The Integration of Robust VoIP Services: Hewlett-Packard Professional Books, 2000. [5] S. Mathiyalakan, "VoIP Adoption: Issues & Concerns," 2006. [6] A. Sinaeepourfard and H. M. Hussain, "Comparison of VoIP and PSTN services by statistical analysis," in Research and Development (SCOReD), 2011 IEEE Student Conference on, 2011, pp. 459-461. [7] U. Varshney, et al., "Voice over IP," Communications of the ACM, vol. 45, pp. 89-96, 2002. [8] S. Zeadally, et al., "Voice over IP in intranet and Internet environments," in Communications, IEE Proceedings-, 2004, pp. 263-269. [9] C. H. Liao and P. S. Tseng, "Influential Factors of VoIP Adoption of Top 500 Export-import Enterprises in Taiwan," Contemporary Management Research, vol. 6, 2010. [10] R. V. Krejcie and D. W. Morgan, "Determining sample size for research activities," Educ Psychol Meas, 1970. [11] R. K. Yin, Case study research: Design and methods vol. 5: Sage publications, INC, 2009. [12] Shima Beigzadeh, Mazdak Zamani, Suhaimi Ibrahim, and Maslin Masrom. Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Database- Centric Management Information System for a Social Community. 2011 International Conference on Information Systems and ISBN: 978-1-61804-179-1 126

Computational Intelligence (ICISCI 2011). January 18, 2011. Harbin, Northeastern China. [13] Shima Beigzadeh, Mazdak Zamani, Suhaimi Ibrahim. Development of a Web-Based Community Management Information System. The Fourth International Conference on Information and Computing (ICIC2011). 25-27 April 2011. Phuket, Thailand. [14] Farnaz Arab, Harihodin Selamat, and Mazdak Zamani. An Overview of Success Factors for CRM. 2010 2nd IEEE International Conference on Information and Financial Engineering. 17 19 September 2010. Chongqing, China. [15] Farnaz Arab, Harihodin Selamat, Suhaimi Ibrahim, and Mazdak Zamani. A Survey of Success Factors for CRM. International Conference on Computer Science and Applications (ICCSA'10). 20-2222 October 2010. San Francisco, USA. [16] Farhang Jaryani, Shamsul Sahibudin, Maslin Masrom, Babak Zandi, Mazdak Zamani and Samaneh Salehy. Framework of a Reflective E- portfolio Supported by Outcome Based Education and Problem Based Learning. 2010 International Conference on Computer Research and Development (ICCRD 2010). May 7-9, 2010. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [17] Farnaz Arab, Harihodin Selamat, Suhaimi Ibrahim, and Mazdak Zamani. A Survey of Success Factors for CRM. Lecture Notes in Engineering and Computer Science. ISSN 20780958. EISSN 20780966. 2010. Volume 2187. Issue 1. Pages 1121-1125. [18] Hamed Taherdoost, Mazdak Zamani, and Meysam Namayandeh. Study of Smart Card Technology and Probe User Awareness about It: A Case Study of Middle Eastern Students. The 2009 International Conference on Management Technology and Applications. ISBN: 978-1-4244-4520-2. Volume 5. Pages 334-338. 8-11 August 2009. Beijing, China. [19] Neda Jalaliyoon, Hamed Taherdoost, & Mazdak Zamani. Utilizing the BSC and EFQM as a Combination Framework; Scrutinizing the Possibility by TOPSIS Method. International Journal of Business Research and Management, (IJBRM), ISSN: 2180-2165. Volume (2): Issue (1). 2011. [20] Hamed Taherdoost, Meysam Namayandeh, Neda Jalaliyoon, Kaveh Ahmadi, Mazdak Zamani, and Mohammad Zargar. Study of Internet Protocol Television in Iran. 2010 3rd IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technology. 9 11 July 2010 Chengdu, China. [21] Hamed Taherdoost, Arash Forghani, Meysam Namayandeh, Mazdak Zamani and Neda Jalaliyoon. Adoption Framework Expansion based on the Computer Ethics' Related Research Models and Ethical Scenarios Analysis. International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research. Vol. 2 (2011) IAC S IT Press. ISSN: 2010-4626. DOI: 10.7763/IPEDR. TABLE 1. PERCENTAGE OF PHONE CONNECTION Phone connection made by Normal telephony line Internet telephony Fixed calls National calls 96.88% 3.12% 80.65% 19.35% International calls 75% 25% 100,00% 50,00% 0,00% 3,12% 19,35% 25% 96,88% 80,65% 75% Normal telephony line Internet telephony Figure 1. Percentage of phone connection ISBN: 978-1-61804-179-1 127

TABLE 2. TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO ADOPTION OF VOIP Technical barriers to adoption of VoIP No Relatively Uncertain Very Significance Insignificant High Bandwidth cost 6.5% 3.2% 9.7% 67.7% 12.9% High service cost 3.2% 0% 19.4% 41.9% 35.5% Low quality of voice communication 6.5% 3.2% 61.3% 22.6% 6.5% Difficulty in choosing suppliers 3.2% 16.1% 29.0% 51.6% 0% Complexity of deployment 0% 9.7% 35.5% 25.8% 29.0% Timescale for return on investment 0% 6.5% 19.4% 64.5% 9.7% Implementation cost 0% 6.5% 25.8% 58.1% 9.7% Security/privacy issues 0% 12.9% 19.4% 19.4% 48.4% Lack of staff skills 6.5% 22.6% 38.7% 25.8% 6.5% Satisfied with present system 3.2% 0% 35.5% 29.0% 32.3% Figure 2. Technical barriers to adoption of VoIP ISBN: 978-1-61804-179-1 128

TABLE 3. NON-TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO ADOPTION OF VOIP Non-technical barriers to adoption of VoIP No Significance Relatively Insignificant Uncertain Very Economic reason 6.5% 6.5% 3.2% 32.3% 51.6% Lack of knowledge about advantages of VoIP 0% 12.9% 9.7% 35.5% 41.9% Unavailability of emergency calls 0% 6.5% 64.5% 22.6% 6.5% Involving too many parties to implement of VoIP 0% 16.1% 19.4% 32.3% 32.3% Lack of regulatory Authority 0% 29.0% 22.6% 32.3% 16.1% Figure 3. Non-technical barriers to adoption of VoIP ISBN: 978-1-61804-179-1 129