Benefit from one integrated, secure and reliable communications solution delivered by two industry leaders:
* Lower traditional telephony costs and enhance productivity with IP telephony solutions
* Implement a complete IP telephony solution on one easy-to-manage system using System i management tools
* Extend the advantages of simplicity, integration, vertical growth and security to IP telephony communications
In today?s highly competitive business environment, companies everywhere want to extract business advantage from every technology in the enterprise?especially customer-facing communications such as their telephony systems. At the same time, many companies face the challenge of an overly complex IT environment. They are seeking an integrated business system that can help them become more responsive to their customers, improve productivity, operate without interruption and secure their data and communications?without large upfront investments in time, skills or money. 3Com convergence software and IBM System i platforms deliver the perfect solution for achieving these benefits.
Switching from Traditional to IP Telephony Systems
A number of analysts believe that 2004 marked the inflection point between traditional and IP-based phone systems, with more IP telephony lines shipped than traditional telephony lines. Today, companies of all sizes are replacing traditional phone systems with IP telephony solutions to realize both the productivity benefits of easily accessible advanced applications and the infrastructure cost savings resulting from a single, converged voice and data network.
There are so many reasons for making the switch to IP telephony that deciding factors vary from one enterprise to another. However, the most common benefits cited by small and midsized companies can be categorized in two areas: cost savings and business advantage.
Cost savings can result from implementing and maintaining a single communications infrastructure across multiple offices. Converged systems can be easier to manage and modify as business needs evolve. In addition, companies may experience lower long distance calling fees by reducing or eliminating toll charges as phone services become supported by their local area networks (LANs) and wide area network (WAN) connectivity, rather than exclusively by the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Business advantages are driven by increased productivity and enhanced collaboration among employees, customers and partners. These benefits result from cutting-edge IP-based applications. Unified messaging offers IP telephony users voice mail/email integration and find me/follow me capabilities. Advanced collaborative applications such as instant messaging, presence and highly-scalable audio conferencing capabilities save time and effort. IP contact centers help drive customer satisfaction and business revenues. IP telephony solutions built on open architectures and industry standards like Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) also provide the most flexibility to connect to the third-party applications the business requires.
Delivering the Difference?3Com IP Telephony Solutions
3Com IP telephony solutions enable companies to implement a next-generation, multimedia IP communications system that uses the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) SIP standard. With support of a robust set of productivity-enhancing applications and advanced phone features traditionally supplied by Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems, 3Com solutions help organizations migrate to an open, IP-based communications system in increments that best fit business objectives. Their centralized administration, configuration, and management capabilities can lower installation and operating costs and optimize IT staff as the system is implemented throughout an organization. For further investment protection, 3Com IP telephony helps ensure business continuity with a distributed, replicated architecture that can deliver full-function services at any site even during a WAN failure.
Delivering the Difference?IBM System i
Enterprises are familiar with how the IBM System i family can help simplify IT environments and reduce operating costs by freeing people and resources to focus on business growth. The System i product line can help create an environment where business processes are integrated across the value-chain, and employees are able to quickly respond to any customer or partner demand, market opportunity or external threat.
System i platforms are designed to be easy to operate and maintain. They support all critical business applications with a single, integrated system that can now enable both full-featured data and voice communications. The database, performance tuning, backup, reporting, communications, Internet connectivity and file and printing serving are built-in, as are security features that can help businesses meet regulatory requirements and safeguard critical data across all of these application environments. By embracing open standards, System i platforms give organizations broader choices and a greater capability to use already installed systems, eliminating requirements and the expense of additional servers and added complexity.
