By John Mark V. Tuazon
With notes from Leo King, Computerworld UK

Communication is an integral part of the business process which enables the smooth flow of transactions from one stakeholder to another. It allows businesses to deliver information whenever and wherever it is needed. Hence, it is important that communication lines remain open and accessible to all concerned users in a particular business group to ensure efficiency of operations.

It is therefore no surprise that Unified Communications (UC)—touted as the second coming of business communication tools, taking after PBX (Private Branch Exchange) carriers—has seen greater adoption among companies over the years. Seamlessly integrating different communication channels in a single pipeline has produced significant effects on business productivity and operational costs.

In a 2008 survey conducted by Vanson Bourne as commissioned by IT services provider Dimension Data, it was found that on average, companies save 10% of communication costs using unified communications solutions, causing a 21% improvement in customer satisfaction. While the current savings seems insignificant, the long-term gains with UC are proving to be an advantage for companies.

That was the reward reaped by Larry delos Santos, assistant vice president, technical services department—information services division at Insular Life. In early 2008, his company has started to implement Cisco’s IP Telephony solutions to integrate its three offices in Makati, Alabang and Cebu and subsequently connecting its more than 800 employees.

“One of our quick wins with IP Telephony is saving on NDD costs, especially when calling our branch in Cebu,” he points out. “The availability of dedicated communication facilities also enables us to manage it better.”

The company’s primary goal in implementing the solution is to become very reachable by customers, delos Santos says. And in a year’s time of having the system in place, they have definitely experienced its impact on operations.

A difficult legacy to handle
Prior to having IP Telephony in place, Insular Life’s internal communications is handled by their PBX system. They had to avail of third-party services for the voice logger and IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) functions when handling calls. “There are different bits and pieces of the entire system, which was very difficult to manage,” delos Santos laments.

But the headaches didn’t stop with the acquisition of services. As more hands started to meddle with the system, accountability and liability became a lost cause. “At one point we had vendors pointing fingers at each other whenever something goes wrong with the system,” he remarks.

A good thing about IP Telephony, delos Santos muses, is the availability of tools and functionalities that can sit on top of the new system. “All the services we need are already provided—voice mail, call forwarding, call back features—it’s all there. And we don’t even have to print directories for local numbers, because they’re all on the IP phone,” he explains, adding that management is easier because all the functionalities come from a single provider.

Transitioning to the new system, however, proved to be a logistical feat. “The key concern was timing, because we couldn’t afford to have even a short downtime,” he says. “We had to make the transition as transparent as possible.”

Implementing a new communication system meant doing away with legacy systems that are not compatible with IP telephony. To make sure that communication lines are open when needed, they hooked up the new system with the old PBX which enabled forwarding of calls to the IP gateway. They also called all their service providers to be able to work as a group in transitioning to IP Telephony. “In the two months of transitioning to the new system, I’m happy to say that there were no downtimes reported,” delos Santos quips.

Now that the new system is in place, how has the quality of their calls changed? “During the first few days of using IP telephony, there were complaints

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