OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 1-10-08

1993-2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
January 10, 2008 meeting

Present: Chris Andreozzi, Kim Troxel, Jim Sutter, Sean Brown, Jeff Hecht, Joel Manfredo, Subbu Murthy, Rich Hoffman, Joe Cracchiolo, Mitch Morris, Gregg Klang, John Pringle, Dave Phillips

The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.

We welcomed new members Joe Cracchiolo (FluidMaster) and Mitch Morris (IAMPO), and guests Kim Troxel (KnowledgeCentrix), and Gregg Klang (Sprint) to the OC CIO Round Table.

Topic – VoIP

Chris Andreozzi, KnowledgeCentrix, described the market place for VoIP by referring to 2 Cisco slides (see Chris’s presentation slides which are attached)
Individual consumers and the enterprise represent 2 different types of needs and expectations. Companies like Vonage, the cable companies and Skype go after the consumer market, while Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel, Avaya, Mitel and Asterisk go after the enterprise market. It is not clear that the feature set available/suitable for the enterprise is as rich as the one available to the consumer. The enterprise demands much more but it is not clear that it can prevent the infiltration of consumer technologies. The ROI can be elusive especially now that long distance telephone costs have come down. The major savings are in moves/adds/changes and you gain advantages from application integration (UC – Unified Communications), removal of human latency and in support of business continuity (BC) solutions. He described a recent project where they were able to realize most of the benefits – 40 locations, 250 employees, leveraged SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for BC, moved contact center to Costa Rica, and adopted a complete UC solution. What is UC? It is the integration of disparate communications systems, media, devices and applications. This includes fixed and mobile voice, email, instant messaging, desktop and advanced applications, IP-PBX, VoIP, presence, voice mail, fax, audio video and web conferencing, unified messaging and voicemail, and whiteboarding into a single environment offering the user a more complete but simpler experience. No one vendor really provides this yet but this is where we are heading. Chris then compared the offerings from Microsoft and Cisco (see slides). Again he wished they were more compatible. The challenge for the IT department is to use best of breed from each, understanding the hidden costs of integration. He described KnowledgeCentrix’s qualifications, business relationship with those vendors, (and with Citrix and VMWARE), their solutions and success/growth.

We asked each member to share with us his/her experience with implementing VoIP, and the major reason driving that implementation.

Mitch Morris, IAMPO, said that he has been involved with 2 implementations of VoIP. In one case, it was to support an international organization needing reception in any location. There was no immediate ROI, but it was worth the effort as it was function driven. The second implementation is a fully integrated Cisco system, with lots more function than they will use to begin with. Again this was not driven by a positive ROI.

Joe Cracchiolo, FluidMaster, said that in one division, they were able to upgrade their switch and save $50,000. However, corporate is sticking with a uniform call center, as it has been hard to justify a positive ROI.

Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, said that about a year ago they implemented a Cisco VoIP solution in the new KIA building, and it worked great. The finance company, HMFC, will be implementing VoIP soon, and it is justified totally on moves/adds/changes as they have a heavy turnover of staff. Hyundai will not be making that move in the immediate future.

Subbu Murthy, USourceIT, said that 5 years ago he was involved with a $500,000 VoIP failure using Avaya – compare with success at the consumer level with Skype for $150. Even though the industry has matured, he warned to treat this as a major project and manage it appropriately.

Joel Manfredo has implemented Cisco VoIP twice and both times, ROI was not a problem. With the Irvine Company, it was justified on moves/adds/changes. There is an issue with 911 – they implemented a 9911 alternative. Employees are less reliant on the desk-top, unless they work in the call center. He noted that Cisco went after the big companies first; Microsoft went after the small ones.

Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said that VoIP has eliminated all long distance costs – they have implemented 5 digit dialing to all locations. They won’t be replacing the PBX in the homeoffice as there is no ROI. He is not sure that the features justify VoIP, but the sales staff are much more efficient. He likes it from a DR perspective.

Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, remembered savings lots of $ in the 80’s going to digitized voice over T1 lines. Dow Chemical does most things very well in IT but it cost them big bucks implementing VoIP several years ago. At the Winery, all international traffic is VoIP – some savings but not much, and they are interested in the Microsoft approach to unified communications.

John Pringle, RCMT, said that they had implemented VoIP across 35 offices in the US, and they enjoy unified messaging, video conferencing, and a positive ROI (10-15%), but it was not driven by ROI but by features. He can’t wait to get off their PBX.
Gregg Klang, Sprint, thanked Chris for the presentation. He warned about paying attention to the underlying infrastructure. Avaya is a big player in the VoIP implementation space, followed by Nortel. Hybrid solution sets are popular. The drivers are convergence, and mobile handsets. The ROI is mostly in the moves/adds/changes.


We thanked Chris for a great presentation and interactive discussion.

See you on February 14, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:

940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.