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IPT Implementation and the RFP Process. Dean Leung Director of Information Technology Davis LLP Warren Jones Chief Information Officer Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. <File No.>. Agenda. Firm Background ROI: Financial & Productivity Central vs Distributed Architecture
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IPT Implementation and the RFP Process Dean Leung Director of Information Technology Davis LLP Warren Jones Chief Information Officer Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP <File No.>
Agenda • Firm Background • ROI: Financial & Productivity • Central vs Distributed Architecture • Phone System Design • Core, switches, power, & remote offices • WAN Design & Implementation • Consultant vs In-house Resources • Training • Current & Future Use of Technology • Lessons Learned
ROI Financial • Expansion beyond Vancouver implementation • Financial: • Significant recurring cost savings over leased and Centrex systems • Elimination of long distance toll charges between cities • Ease of moves, adds, changes saving time and technician call-in • Standardize routers, phones, dialling procedures, & training • Office renovations would only require ½ the cabling as phones and network share the same infrastructure • Cost effective DR • Reduction in the number and complexity of RightFax servers
ROI Productivity • Productivity: • Extension mobility • 4-digit dialling between offices • Single voicemail system • Multiple area code numbers per phone set • Standardize phones, dialling procedures, & training • Simplified foundation for future initiatives
Centralized versus Decentralized • CallManager Express (CME) & Unity Express • Fully independent phone system in each office • expense of additional features • Good option for firms not yet ready to implement a voice quality WAN • Future implementation of a centralized system with no loss of initial investment
Centralized Versus Decentralized • SRST vs CME • Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) mode = CallManager Express (CME) • Unavailable features in SRST/CME mode • Conferencing • Extension mobility • Call forwarding • Call parking • Call accounting • One touch voicemail access
Centralized versus Decentralized • Centralize system with full CallManager and Unity Voicemail: • Capital Preservation: The existing Vancouver-based CallManager and Unity hardware was capable of supporting all users. • Business Continuity (BC): It was more cost effective to implement a BC strategy in a centralized environment. • Integration: In a decentralized model you would not have features such as extension mobility and voicemail forwarding between offices.
Phone System Design - Core • “PBX” • 2 Cisco Unified CallManagers - HP DL360 • Voicemail • Cisco Unity - HP DL360 • DR Site: • CallManager • Virtualized Unity • Network: • VLAN voice and data on switches with QoS • Other vendors or Open Source Asterisk
Phone Power • Switches with Power over Ethernet (PoE) • major offices • enough for phones only • re-use old switches at edge • UPS upgraded to match CallManager to maintain phone operation • Power bricks • smaller offices • UPS added for key phones
Phone System Design - Remote Office • Utilized central CallManager’s and voicemail servers • phone set, switch, and UPS requirements identical to the Vancouver office. • Each office require local phone and fax DIDs. • Ensure that phone service un-interrupted if there was a WAN outage • Cisco router (2800 – 3800 series) in each remote office: • Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) • Phone and V-mail failover • VPN tunnel between offices • Private WAN to Internet VPN failover and failback • QoS tagging for voice priority • PRI voice and fax termination • Analogue modem gateway
WAN Design • Cost and availability limited scope of design • MPLS mesh between 5 major offices • Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Tokyo via internet VPN • Mesh VPN for redundancy & low time sensitive traffic: e-mail, intranet, printing • Award contracts to those with different physical infrastructure to minimize single point of failure - last mile issue
Quality of Service (QoS) • Ensure voice and video have carpool lane over WAN • VPN links without QoS during failover • QoS Design and Overflow to PSTN • 1 MBps=10 concurrent calls • Overflow 11th and subsequent calls to PSTN
WAN Implementation • Largely invisible to user • Provisioning times best guess only • Static routes to cut over and back as required • MPLS first then VPN to Tokyo, Yellowkinfe, & Whitehorse via Cisco routers with seamless failover to backup VPN site • Finally mesh VPN links and route low priority traffic over VPN - use what you have
Consultant Implementation • Managed every aspect of the deployment • Leverage the expertise of our integrators • Not able to take ownership of the new system - black box • typically in traditional PBX based systems • No touch maintenance clauses • longer diagnostic and repair times as we would have to call in the integrators for issues and installation of patches which could otherwise be handled in-house. • new Cisco switches were running IOS • CallManager and Unity servers were running Windows 2000 Server as the OS and Microsoft Exchange 2000 for voicemail.
Hip-to-Hip: Firm Ownership • Hip-to-hip deployment • integrators worked closely with Cisco certified in-house IT staff • Integrators implemented, optimized, and documented first remote office • IT team took ownership of the project and deployed the balance of the offices with the integrators monitoring and assisting as required. • Model of the router and number of phone in each office being the only variables this process was largely a cut and paste operation
Install Workflow At a high level the steps were as follows: • Install new switches in each office • Deploy phones to each user • Configure Cisco router • SRST functionality • Fax routing • Voice routing • Long distance routing • Analog lines • Test failover and failback of WAN • Train users and provide hands on testing - KEY • Port lines over or move PRI to new system once users are comfortable • Retire old system and collect phones
User Training • Boardroom demos • Pre-recorded WebEx sessions • Quick reference cards • Pre-train secretaries to support lawyers • Phones already deployed for inter and intra-office use and v-mail setup • Minimized support after cutover
Leverage New Infrastructure • Fax server consolidation (3:1) • Inbound DID Faxing • Consolidation of RightFax Servers • Local office PRIs for Fax DIDs • Routing faxes back to Vancouver & e-mailed to user
Leverage New Infrastructure • Cost Recovery • Centralized cost recovery of fax and phone calls • Standardization across the firm • Video Conferencing (VC) • QoS tagging • Voice, video (codec better), other • 4-digit dialing between Tandberg systems and phones • Webcam and software turns desktop into VC station
Future Telephony Possibility • 3rd party applications • IP Phones are XML browsers – endless possibilities • Cisco’s IP Softphone • Hands-free Outlook contact dialling • File voicemail into the DMS • Firmwide or targeted broadcast messages (e.g. outages, weather, bulletins, stock quotes) on phone displays • Paging system • WiFi Phones for meeting areas
Lessons Learned • Find a good implementer with extensive experience and knowledge of both voice and data systems • Ensure you have provisions with the implementer and train techs to avoid “black box” systems • Buy support directly from the vendor, not the implementer • Stick with the local incumbent Telco to reduce delays and complexity for phone services • Track WAN uptime to ensure Service Level Agreements are met
Lessons Learned 2 • Get physical data paths from your WAN provider and perform periodic audits to ensure traffic takes the most direct route • Setup one office first and wait until everything matures before expanding • Patch Cisco products only if there is an identified fix as features and functionality can be removed between patches • Telco install/provisioning dates are best guesses • ILTA Voice and Data Communications Whitepaper - http://www.iltanet.org/communications/pub_detail.aspx?nvID=000000011205&h4ID=000000872605
IPT Implementation and the RFP Process Dean Leung Director of Information Technology Davis LLP Warren Jones Chief Information Officer Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP <File No.>