Migrating your company's telephony system to an Internet Protocol (IP) telephony-based system with the latest and greatest Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capabilities means you have better done your homework. If not, you and your company could be left behind, still running those archaic telephony systems for which you can no longer find parts.

You had better be up on the latest trends in the IP telephony and IVR market to make wise, informed decisions about your company's migration. Here are a few trends and technologies to consider that may help make your decisions easier.

Trends to Target
It's no surprise that leading these trends is the migration toward IP telephony, while companies leave behind the traditional telephony systems. As traditional telephone environments reach their end of life, companies are turning in their Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) equipment for IP telephony-based equipment. Sending multiple digital signals along a single telecommunications transmission path is becoming a thing of the past, when Voice over IP (VoIP) allows companies to route voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network.

Gartner Research Director Drew Kraus says "companies are looking at upgrading their contact centers by replacing TDM equipment with IP technologies from vendors "with a strong leg up there." The IP vendor you select should be able to handle your company's converged communications needs, including multimedia and virtual contact centers."

Here are some of the latest figures from Avaya, as of September 2006 reflecting second quarter 2006 revenue, to give you an idea of the leaders in IP telephony. Avaya Inc. ties for market leader with Cisco Systems. Both companies tout 25 percent of the market share. They are followed by Nortel and Alcatel, respectively. In converged telephony, Avaya takes a strong lead with 34 percent of the market share, followed by Alcatel with 20 percent. 2005 figures show the contact center market to be less competitive. Avaya led in 2005 with 39 percent, followed by Nortel with 11 percent.

"Further, you should consider an outsource partner to help you with your migration," says Kraus. Why? "Contact centers now are a strategic part of many organizations, and call center applications have become more complex and larger." While larger companies may have the skills set in house, medium and smaller companies, and even some larger ones, may need to look outside the company. The skill level of the staff that implements the IP telephony migration will determine its success. So, managers, be aware of whom you commission with this task.

The trend toward self-service is driven by speed of application access, application use, and the desire to show the cost of call centers. Further, self service platforms allow you to maintain a higher level of customer service. This call center-oriented extension of Web applications bypasses the need for end users, your customers usually, to talk to an agent like they did in the past. As a result, your company can complete more transactions via IVR systems and you save money.

Technologies to Watch
In the IP telephony market, technology solutions that are expected to dominate the market over the next few months are ones that bring the whole communications process together. Companies are embracing technologies that converge the whole communications process together in one IP telephony solution. Business applications are key impactors on communications applications, especially those with a significant install base in the business arena, both small and large companies. With a variety of communications applications that are used in business everyday, such as calendars, conferencing, e-mail, and others, companies need to be able to tie it all together. You need to take a hard look at your high-end users and understand how they can communicate more effectively within the whole communications process.

In the IVR market, voice portals are providing a new channel for companies to communicate with customers. Voice portal applications tied to Web applications allow customers to easily access information when they otherwise would have had to wait for a live representative to deliver the same information.

Vendor Selection Criteria
Now that you've learned of some of the latest and upcoming trends and technologies in the IP telephony and IVR markets, let's take a look at some of the criteria you should consider when selecting a vendor to help you with your company's IP telephony migration. "Before you begin, you need to understand why you want to migrate your telephony system in the first place," Kraus recommends.

Has your telephony system met its end of life? Or, do you just want to be on the cutting edge of technology and venture out to find the latest and greatest out there?

If you answer affirmative to the first scenario, then your company's telephony system probably has become expensive to support and virtually impossible to buy parts for. Maybe your company doesn't want to venture out and buy into a new IP telephony solution; maybe replicating your existing system is your goal. It is important to consider your long-term goals and assess functionality needs up front, so no surprises occur after implementation. It is far more difficult and costly to go back and retrofit technologies into an existing solution, so make sure you define your needs up front and follow through with a complete, new solution that meets your current needs while remaining scalable, instead of creating a patchwork solution a bit at a time.

If you're the company who's venturing out and buying into the latest and greatest IP telephony and IVR systems, make sure your organizational alignment supports such changes. Driven by one business unit, collaboration must exist among many business units within the organization to make an overall migration successful.

Whichever company yours is, an "end-of-life" or "venturing out" company, be sure you remember that users are indentured to what was done before, so be prepared for some resistance. "Next, make sure the data infrastructure can support new channels and applications," says Kraus.

As a developer, you may experience some pain points in regards to your company's IP telephony and IVR systems. You're not alone. Here are a few notable ones. You see the benefits of the cutting-edge changes your company is making to its communications system, but the end users do not. They see change and they don't like it. Alignment with your customers to help them see change beyond in the traditional way is a challenge.

Another challenge you face as a developer of cutting-edge VoIP and IVR applications is the infancy of some of the standards used. "Standard protocols may not be fully defined," says Kraus. As a result, your company's attempts to create standardized VoIP and IVR applications may still result in some level of proprietary applications, as some additional code may still be required on top of standardized code.

Regardless of whether your company is an "end-of-life" or "venturing out" company, choosing the right IP telephony and IVR solution demands that you be educated and keep up with trends and technologies that affect your decisions. "Migrating your company's telephony system does not mean you should go it alone," though—Kraus recommends "leveraging your business partners." Bring in analytics to determine how your customers do business and what they need, so you can make communications more strategic. Leverage the skill sets of your business partners, such as the IP telephony vendor you choose, to make your customer interaction and communication more strategic.