Free Seminars

I recently attended a free one-day seminar sponsored by Network World. It was excellent. The topic was “Voice over IP: Capitalizing on Convergence.” At the beginning of the session, one of the speakers asked how many people in the audience considered themselves data or voice people. The overwhelming majority were data people. It is a shame the voice people missed the seminar, but I think it is probably attributable to the fact that Network World is often considered a data publication (at least by the voice people). That is a shame too. The weekly publication contains a lot of good information, including a lot of voice technology issues, like VoIP.

Voice experts need to start seeking out seminars like this one. Some of your data counterparts are learning as much as they can about voice. You need to do the same with the network technologies you will need to become familiar with.

One of the valuable sections of the seminar included a panel discussion with six very qualified speakers. They were asked what they considered the single biggest issue that is often overlooked in a VoIP implementation. Their answers were by no means focused on either voice or data; they were project issues. They included the following:

• Cooperation of voice and data staff
• Ongoing assessment – of the entire network
• IP address management – which requires more than a simple spreadsheet
• Good project management – always a challenge
• Runtime for the UPS – new regulations may come into play when you add voice
• Staffing – including what expertise they need

None of these issues are rocket science. But together, they are issues you need to be aware of. Make sure you are not guilty of overlooking them. A few will require some research to make sure you really have them covered. That will need to be followed with some good planning and implementation. Most require no particular data expertise.

Note that these are only the issues that are often overlooked. The list of issues to be considered is long. It will contain voice specific issues as well as network specific ones; hence, the cooperation of voice and data staff.

In future columns I will share with you some more of the information I gathered at this seminar and elsewhere. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for free information, no matter who you think is the intended audience. It could be just what you need.