Strategies for Migrating Corporate
Voice Traffic to the Data Network
Quintum Technologies
Introduction
With the rapid changes taking place in communications today, business decision-makers face both
compelling opportunities and potentially costly pitfalls. The issue of "convergence" - whereby
voice, fax, data and multimedia traffic are transmitted over a single multi-purpose network - is a
particularly sensitive one. The business and technological advantages of combining a company's
various types of communications over a common infrastructure are appealing. These advantages
include: 1) lower recurring transmission charges, 2) reduced long-term network ownership
costs, and 3) the ability to deploy powerful voice-enabled applications for collaboration,
customer service and supply-chain integration.
On the downside, technology professionals are concerned with the quality of voice calls on the
data network, the stability of voice-over-IP (VoIP) solutions, and the consequences of being
prematurely "locked in" to a given vendor's architecture. A lack of expertise and experience with
VoIP technology is also preventing many organizations from taking even the most tentative first
steps into the world of converged networking.
