Your IT environment is complex enough. Although your experience with most vendors may lead you to believe that there’s no avoiding complexity, it doesn’t have to be that way—at least not when it comes to your IP telephony infrastructure.

1. w h i t e pa p er
IT—and IP Telephony:
Don’t just manage complexity;
it’s time to beat it
Your IT environment is complex enough. Although your
experience with most vendors may lead you to believe that there’s no
avoiding complexity, it doesn’t have to be that way—at least not when
it comes to your IP telephony infrastructure.
ExEcuTIvE Summary
Many it leaders accept the idea that complexity in their infrastructures
is inevitable and that trying to do a better job of managing it is their only
recourse.
57%
of respondents consider
why? So much of their experience makes them think complexity is a fact of having a strategy to
their lives—everything from hard-to-decipher software licensing schemes to
difficult-to-accomplish integrations with other applications and workflows,
replace legacy solutions
to a ceaseless flow of security vulnerabilities due to product bloat. with multiple less complex
it’s easy to understand that they may be hesitant to add to that complexity,
solutions to be the best
even as they know they must continually advance business capabilities— way to defeat
IT complexity.
What factors do you believe are contributing most actively
to business technology complexity today?
Needing to support an increasingly diverse set of technologies 55%
Lack of standards across technologies 47%
Conflicting proprietary technologies 44%
Difficulty integrating legacy technology 43%
Vendors not making enough effort to simplify their solutions 36%
Vendors leveraging complexity to create codependency with customers 35%
Needing to keep pace with end user expectations 34%
Vendors using complexity to generate revenue from service and support 32%
Vendors protecting their complex legacy technologies or acquisitions 32%
Lacking the appropriate internal technology skill sets/knowledge 31%
inherent complexity of technology 30%
Vendors focusing too narrowly on their solutions to win market share 28%
source: iDG research; base: 324 respondents

2. white paper | it—aND ip teLephoNY: DoN’t juSt MaNaGe CoMpLexitY; it’S tiMe to beat it
including accelerating collaboration functionality with new ip telephony deployments. although unified
communications might not rank at the top of it professionals’ lists of complexity culprits, it can’t afford
fallout from introducing operational or management strains into critical communications infrastructures.
that’s especially to be avoided in it environments that are increasingly reaching outward to run applications
in the cloud, to which business communications services must connect.
Yet the truth is that many it—and ip telephony—vendors continue to benefit from fostering complexity: they
draw much of their revenue from helping customers manage it, and it leaders know it. a new iDG research
survey of 324 it leaders and line-of-business executives, “Navigating it Complexity,” reveals that two-thirds
of the respondents don’t think technology is in itself inherently complex.
rather, it’s the circumstances of its implementation in specific solutions that often are to blame: as one
survey respondent complained, the biggest contributors to it complexity are architectural, both technical
and design-related.
Frankly, it leaders are growing tired of providers’ neither acknowledging their role in creating complexity
nor devoting resources to efforts to simplify their products. Such vendor-induced complexity stands in the
way of maximizing it investments, and that’s a price no one can afford. as resigned as it professionals may
be to having to deal with the consequences of complexity, they also seem intent on minimizing it whenever
they can. the good news is that in a few areas, ip telephony among them, those opportunities do exist.
ThE BIg c: complExITy crEEpS tions is a big contributor to overall it
ThroughouT InfraSTrucTurE complexity and that just 12 percent
6 out of 10 Certainly, many organizational factors
contribute to it complexity. although ip
see moving to an ip telephony model in
a similar light implies relatively minor
respondents claim that telephony isn’t always a chief offender, concern. Yet we’ll see how ip telephony,
its relationships to other critical busi- although not perceived as a main
IT complexity poses an ness communications and collaboration complexity culprit, can still drive overall
extreme or significant issues—as well as the beginning of the it complexity. For example, nearly 40
next expected Voip upgrade cycle— percent see trying to integrate current
challenge to their mean that it has greater resonance than tools for communications and collabora-
meets the eye. tion into business processes as adding
organizations.
to overall complexity.
More than half of the respondents said
addressing security and compliance that unified communications and ip
is a leading contributor, for example, telephony still resonate as distinct issues
followed closely by aligning technology has significance too: it shows awareness
solutions with business objectives that the population it serves does not
and addressing users’ expectations. tolerate disruptions in communications
Such problems speak, at one level, services. it professionals, then, are
to frustration with some vendors’ not sanguine about their next steps
products. Further, they reflect the into packet-switched communications
difficulties it organizations experience connections. they are contending, after
in trying to cope with the general push all, with the fact that the guaranteed
and pull of external requirements— “dial-tone service” of the public switched
such as complying with customer data telephone network (pStN) has become
protection regulations—and business code for “it infrastructures that work.”
units’ internal demands to deliver how ironic it would be if complexity were
new applications and processes that to hinder ip telephony efforts.
enhance productivity and revenue.
against that backdrop, the fact that complExITy runS In cyclES
only one-fifth of the respondents stated the survey’s finding that ip telephony
that implementing unified communica- per se is a relatively minor contributor

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to overall complexity may also reflect any kind of technology investment,
that it typically deals with such issues on as is the case for some 60 percent of
30% a cyclical basis, such as when it’s time
to replace legacy and proprietary pbx
companies. and for ip telephony systems,
much of the roi depends on the ability
see Ip telephony as technologies at end of life. but the next to seamlessly flow information across
cycle starts soon, and it will be defined resources and applications, on-premises
extremely or significantly by Voip implementations: although Voip or in the cloud, to speed access to
complex to maintain had penetrated only 42 percent of u.S. customer records, resolve issues during
businesses at the end of 2009, it should calls or track service time and billing for
and manage. reach 79 percent by 2013, according client phone calls in progress.
to in-Stat. infonetics research reports
that the ip contact center and unified Yet nearly 40 percent of the respondents
communications markets will have sales reported that integrating tools for
surpassing $1 billion by 2012 and 2013, communications and collaboration
a further respectively. as it leaders investigate into business processes is a major
56% their Voip options, they will be looking for
solutions that make the deployment and
ongoing usage and management experi-
contributor to it complexity. So it’s little
wonder that integrating ip telephony into
business processes is a challenge that
see Ip telephony as
ence as seamless as possible. more than one-third of the respondents
somewhat complex. have experienced or expected.
unfortunately, they’re not entirely
hopeful that they’re going to find what Complexity in the communications
they seek as they come closer to their infrastructure can also manifest itself
own upgrade cycles. once the proposi- in another arena that affects the overall
only tion becomes real, complexity concerns business infrastructure: managing
2% manifest themselves in a big way. More
than 40 percent of the respondents, for
instance, expect they’ll need vendor
remote and mobile users, cited by
one-third of the respondents as an it
organizational source of complexity.
see Ip telephony as not assistance to implement an ip telephony that category is broad, but an important
at all complex. solution or have needed it in the past. aspect is it’s facilitation of fixed/mobile
with as much it complexity as they convergence. after all, smartphones are
already confront—more than half of the becoming ubiquitous, raising the stakes
respondents said it represents a signifi- for ip telephony efforts to seamlessly
cant or extreme challenge—that’s not a hand off calls between cellular and
promising start. and the picture they see wi-Fi networks and support a plethora
doesn’t necessarily get much brighter of smartphone operating systems for
from there: an overwhelming majority employees’ preferred devices. (the
of the respondents said they perceive spread of smartphones—whether
today’s ip telephony solutions as being corporate-issued or employee-owned—
at least somewhat complex, with almost for business purposes was surely on the
a third regarding them as extremely or minds of the more than 40 percent of the
very complex, which has post deploy- respondents who pointed out that user
ment operations implications. More expectations and demands are organi-
than a third said they were ready to ante zational contributors to it complexity.)
up for expensive service and support Many ip telephony providers have yet to
options to carry them through or have tackle tight integration of smartphones
done so in the past: good news for with business pbx systems in a vendor-
providers whose strategies are tied to agnostic style.
increased service and support revenue
but not so good for their customers.
complExITy: a STEalTh paTh
To vEndor lock-In
complExITy vErSuS innovations in communications, from
SEamlESSnESS the dawn of ip telephony to the rise of
Complex ip telephony deployments smartphones, clearly bring benefits as
can really hurt the overall infrastructure well as challenges, some of them natural
where it—and the business—most need consequences of the evolution—and
them to succeed. both groups suffer some of them given a nudge by those
when complexity undermines maximizing looking to profit from them. this can lead

4. white paper | it—aND ip teLephoNY: DoN’t juSt MaNaGe CoMpLexitY; it’S tiMe to beat it 4
bringing cutting-edge capabilities than
they are about forcing lock-in.
In your organization, which areas of IT are the biggest after all, when a unified communica-
contributors to IT complexity? tions vendor doesn’t have a commit-
ment to open standards and an open
addressing it security and compliance 51% ecosystem, for example, its customers
don’t have much choice about where to
aligning technology solutions with business objectives 47% turn for hardware or other accompani-
ments to an ip telephony platform. So
addressing the expectations and demands of users 41% they frequently have to pay more for
innovative, productivity-enhancing tech-
integrating information into business processes 39%
nologies, from advanced Voip gateways
integrating communications/collaboration tools into business processes 37% to sophisticated switching and routing
network infrastructures.
integration of technology in general 36%
Managing remote and mobile users 35% ThE coSTS of vEndor lock-In
once locked in, users find they’re
implementing unified communications successfully 19% paying a lot more than a higher up-front
price for a product. they’re also adding
ongoing networking-related issues 17%
complexity to their infrastructures, in
Moving to an ip telephony model 12% many forms. Not only do buyers have to
support an increasingly diverse set of
source: iDG research; base: 324 respondents technologies and deal with the lack of
standards across them and conflicting
proprietary technologies—the survey
respondents’ topmost active culprits in
business technology complexity—but
they have additionally given the vendors
to problems for customers that want to the power to leverage the complexity.
benefit from advances but, depending these closed systems lock them into a
60% on how vendors implement these capa-
bilities, wind up facing higher costs,
codependent relationship. More than a
third of the respondents see a locked-in
of respondents claim forfeiting access to external options relationship in itself as an active contrib-
and dealing with increasingly byzantine utor to business technology complexity.
vendors are not doing systems as a result.
enough to reduce Ip it’s not surprising that 35 percent recog-
one survey respondent sadly summed nize that vendors across the technology
telephony complexity, and up the dilemma many it pros face: they spectrum aren’t making a sufficient
look forward to innovations that should effort to simplify their solutions. why
58% claim that vendors
alleviate issues—which should enable would they, when they can use that built-
are driven by other them to push the envelope in terms of in complexity to generate revenue from
where they can take the business. but services and support (a cause of busi-
interests preventing them the products so often born of those ness technology complexity identified by
from reducing complexity. innovations ultimately only generate 32 percent of the respondents) and win
greater complexity. market share with a very narrow focus
on their own solutions (according to 28
why does it leadership often view percent of the survey takers)?
complexity, wherever it turns up, as a
vendor-created—or at least vendor- in the ip telephony arena, intentional
abetted—problem? on the surface, it’s complexity will surely take its toll in
about issues such as vendors’ pushing many areas, including roi. about a
ahead with their own proprietary tech- third of the respondents said they
nology, often in the guise of having expected to see or have seen that it is
to meet users’ pressing demands for hard for users to take full advantage
new capabilities far sooner than the of such solutions—unsurprising, given
standards committees would allow. that a quarter of them complained
increasingly, it leaders suspect that about a lengthy user learning curve. it’s
those choices may be less about clear that until users are fully familiar

5. white paper | it—aND ip teLephoNY: DoN’t juSt MaNaGe CoMpLexitY; it’S tiMe to beat it 5
with the ins and outs of particularly several things into account. answers
complex ip telephony solutions, they from survey participants who have faced
65% won’t be able to completely leverage
unified communications—not on
or are in the process of confronting these
issues point to the following practical
desktop phones and certainly not on guidelines about what to avoid and what
believe that
smartphones. however, it’s not just end to embrace in an ip telephony solution:
bolted-together users who have to get over that hump.
among the respondents, 32 percent said 4 Ip telephony complexity occurs
technologies are a the learning curve for administrators is chiefly when some leading vendors
major contributor to also steep. bolt together many different tech-
nologies, hoping they will add up to a
Ip telephony cohesive whole, said 65 percent of the
complexity today. forEWarnEd IS forEarmEd: respondents. they’re right: that’s usually
complExITy IS avoIdaBlE an approach that just doesn’t work, not
it leaders have legitimate concerns about for ip telephony—or for any other it
complexity that impedes administration, solution, for that matter. instead, look to
57% raises costs (due to factors such as labor-
intensive integrations) and limits the
systems purpose-built from the ground
up as native ip telephony solutions to
of respondents claim that usefulness of ip telephony and unified avoid the difficulties that arise when
communications solutions. everything vendors patch together an array of prod-
complexity is responsible from mashed-up combinations of organic ucts, usually from different acquisitions.
and acquired technology to closed
for most of the operating
solutions plays a role in such fiascoes. 4 Modifying cumbersome legacy tech-
and maintenance cost of nology to support modern ip telephony
but there are ways to avoid complexity in demands is not a route to success.
Ip telephony today. the process and aftermath of deploying Nearly 60 percent of the respondents
a Voip infrastructure if it buyers take blamed complexity in ip telephony on
Which of the following have you experienced or do you
expect to experience with Ip telephony solutions?
inability to implement without vendor assistance 41%
expensive vendor service and support 38%
business process integration challenges 37%
Lengthy learning curve for administrators 32%
Need for significant support resources 30%
Difficulty for users to get the most out of the solution 28%
expensive operating and maintenance costs 26%
Lengthy learning curve for users 24%
Downtime during installation 23%
Complex management and administration protocols 22%
problems stemming from not being a truly native ip solution 22%
Difficulty of scaling a given solution up or down 15%
Cumbersomeness of doing MaCs (moves, adds and changes) 14%
source: iDG research; base: 324 respondents

6. white paper | it—aND ip teLephoNY: DoN’t juSt MaNaGe CoMpLexitY; it’S tiMe to beat it 6
point of failure. automatic pickup of call
please rate your level of agreement with the processing loads as a backup can lend a
following statements. hand too.
Nearly 60 percent of the survey respon-
Some of the leading ip telephony solutions today are complex
because they consist of many different technologies bolted together
65% dents said native Ip, appliance-based
solutions that enable reliability as
ip telephony vendors are not doing enough to reduce the complexity well as scalability features would be
60% very or extremely relevant to their
that characterizes many of their solutions
organizations.
Complexity could be eliminated from ip telephony solutions, but 58%
vendors are driven by other interests that discourage this 4 Given the concerns evident in the
survey about long ip telephony learning
Some of the ip telephony solutions today are complex because curves for administrators and users alike,
they are older traditional tDM solutions that have only been 58% complex management and administration
enabled for an ip platform
protocols (a factor for almost a quarter of
Complexity is responsible for many of the overall operating and the respondents), business process inte-
maintenance costs of ip telephony 57% gration challenges and difficulty in real-
izing the most value from a deployment,
Complexity is unavoidable in ip telephony solutions, because it is solutions that smash complexity on all
inherent in the technology/process 39% these fronts will be critical.
Solving the problem of complexity in ip telephony solutions is likely what’s important for enabling ease of
to come from a new provider rather than from one of the leading 37% use in ip telephony and unified commu-
vendors today nications deployments? For administra-
source: iDG research; base: 324 respondents tors, how about providing the ability
to manage an entire phone system
centrally from a single browser-
based interface, from anywhere on
vendors’ attempts to enable older, tradi- the network? For end users, there’s
tional tDM solutions for an ip platform. huge value in seamlessly enabling an
58% a voIp/unified communications
solution that started out with a clean
integrated environment for multimedia
communications, enterprise applica-
claim that traditional Tdm slate has the advantage of being tions and personal information to
designed to support ease of use for accelerate collaboration. and prebuilt
solutions that are only IT and the business, not the vendor’s tight integration with core CrM and
Ip-enabled (instead of real desire to continue growing revenue from accounting business processes helps
outdated technology. too—as does support for open applica-
purpose-built Ip solutions) tion programming interfaces that enable
are a main reason for Ip 4 Server-based solutions don’t seam- customers to create their own connec-
lessly address modular scalability tions between applications and business
telephony complexity. concerns of companies, especially those communications systems.
positioning themselves for rapid growth.
what will reduce complexity for scale- 4 just as a lack of standards across
up requirements is a switch-based technologies is perceived as one of
appliance platform and a distributed the foremost contributors to busi-
software architecture that makes ness technology complexity, standards
each switch and site an independent adherence has a large lead among the
call processor capable of supporting steps companies are taking to reduce
thousands of ports. it complexity in general, according to
the survey. open Voip architectures that
4 appliances also rule over server-based account for industry-supported open
solutions when it comes to that vaunted standards such as Sip (for multimedia
dial-tone reliability so characteristic of communication session setup and termi-
pStN. Not only do you avoid the moving- nation) support ease of integration with
parts peril of server-based solutions that ip-standard phones. Standards support
can complicate uptime requirements is equally important for no-complications
but completely distributed intelligence integration with networking switches
across voice switches avoids any single and routers from many leading vendors,

7. white paper | it—aND ip teLephoNY: DoN’t juSt MaNaGe CoMpLexitY; it’S tiMe to beat it 7
avoiding costs attributable to proprietary
solutions that demand network infra-
know the signs of high total cost of ownership and a structure upgrades.
highly complex Ip telephony system, and avoid them:
4 these days complexity—and costs—
can bedevil efforts to integrate ip-based
high low unified communications across cellular
complexity/ complexity/ and wi-Fi wireless networks. both can
high Tco low Tco
be avoided if the Voip vendor offers a
way to accommodate smartphones
Server-based system 3 in a business’s heterogeneous ip pbx
Appliance-based system 3 systems. clearing that hurdle means
that roaming employees can take
Purpose-built, native IP solution 3 advantage of features such as pres-
ence and location on their mobile
IP-enabled traditional TDM solution 3 phones when they need to contact
colleagues. More importantly, it means
Inclusion of disparate technologies 3 that clients don’t have to dial three
different numbers before they can reach
Open architecture for seamless integration
of all business applications and processes
3 an employee who’s away from the desk.
Proprietary platform 3 alIgnIng communIcaTIonS
WITh BuSInESS procESSES
Pure IP telephony focus 3 ip telephony offerings that provide
these qualities promise to take a big bite
Vendor-agnostic integration with
smartphones
3 out of users’ concerns about investing
in expensive support and service
Distributed software architecture 3 options to deal with the complexities of
deploying and operating these systems.
No single point of failure: N+1 reliability 3 as one survey respondent said of
appliance-based, purpose-built, native ip
telephony solutions, benefits should also
Single intuitive Web-based management
interface
3 include fewer system outages and easier
troubleshooting—both important for
Multiple management interfaces and
protocols
3 minimizing service and support costs.
rather than paying dearly for service and
Modular scalability 3 support, it can invest those dollars and
staff time in making their Voip invest-
Forklift upgrades to scale 3 ments pay off by strategically aligning
communications with business processes.
High reliance on vendor support 3 that must happen if employees—whether
onsite or mobile—are to realize the full
source: Shoretel inc., 2010 potential of ip telephony. n
To find out more about how ShoreTel can support your
Ip telephony needs, please visit www.shoretel.com.