By Ben Lilienthal

The success of today's corporation depends on investing in new growth opportunities while lowering costs. The ability for a business to communicate regularly with all its constituents-employees, customers, partners, suppliers and shareholders-in an effective, immediate and cost-effective manner is a critical element of success. This is why on-demand audio conferencing has emerged as one of the most compelling ways to improve productivity, control costs, streamline business processes and collaborate more efficiently.

Innovative corporations look to dynamic service providers to deliver innovative conferencing solutions. One of the drivers in the conferencing world is the use of Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") technology to help service providers deliver new services and expand capacity while lowering capital and operating expenses.

Enterprises are beginning to move to single, converged IP networks that enable a host of new conferencing services and applications that promise to make peoples' lives simpler and more productive, at dramatically lower costs. A recent report from Wainhouse Research forecasts IP networks will facilitate a seamless integration of rich-media conferencing for the enterprise and may very well emerge as the killer app of IP.

"Rich-media conferences will blur from being distinct audio, Web and video conferences into one IP-based rich- media conferencing entity," the report reads. As a result of this move to IP, Wainhouse forecasts that the conferencing infrastructure hardware and software products industry will grow from $475 million in 2003 to more than $675 million in 2006.

The migration to IP-based conferencing services and the continual trend toward enterprise use of on-demand conferencing to save costs will become a boon for telecom industry players. They have the opportunity to lay the groundwork now-as enterprises begin to make their IP move-to offer a future-proof VoIP solution that doesn't require the enterprise to abandon its investments in legacy infrastructure, while allowing it to add capacity and continually take advantage of new flexible IP-based features such as Web and data conferencing.

Audio-conferencing solutions based on TDM technology have been retrofitted in the last two years to work with IP networks. While this approach captures some of the efficiencies of a VoIP environment it still relies on expensive and proprietary hardware to mix the audio and deliver the conference call. Vapps is distinct in that it offers service providers a VoIP-based carrier-grade conference bridge that works with both TDM and IP traffic. Calls travel over a standard phone and move into the network where they reach a soft switch or gateway that translates them from TDM to IP. That IP stream is then moved to the Vapps conference bridge that mixes the audio and delivers the conference call.

Using any device-a plain old telephone, mobile handset, soft phone or SIP phone-enterprises can use the IP network. This enables them to immediately take advantage of reduced transport costs, as well as use the Web-based tools for control and monitoring of the calls. As more IP-based phones hit the desktops of enterprises, the switch and the PBX go away, allowing businesses to eliminate expensive long-distance charges, 800 service costs and international phone rates because the call is traveling over an IP network. Furthermore, as voice traffic becomes more like data traffic, voice conferences will begin appearing in unlikely places such as on a user's desktop.

Incorporating on-demand VoIP audio conferencing today means enterprises have greater control over the conference call experience with minimal overhead. Because the conference call travels over IP networks, enterprises can use the Web to provision, in real-time, new accounts, view billing information, initiate and terminate calls, notify conference attendees via e-mail, manage rich information and conduct many more functions that were previously initiated using a touchtone pad on an office phone. This flexibility is advantageous as audio conferencing increasingly becomes an essential collaboration tool driving new levels of productivity, competitiveness and profitability for enterprises.
While the advantages of a hybrid TDM/IP audio conferencing solution are clear, choosing a bridge technology is less so. Telecom companies and their representatives need to study carefully who supplies the underlying architecture. Does the supplier offer carrier-grade products with voice quality rivaling or exceeding traditional equipment? Stumble in this area and the whole value proposition can be lost.

Flexibility also is important. Service providers should look for partners that can provide the ability to customize the call flows and DTMF commands to match the service provider's existing environment. Furthermore, the ability to use XML API's to integrate the web controls into the service providers existing web environment allows for quick and painless integration. Last, the ability to output CDR's to existing billing databases is a key component of any infrastructure product.

Providers should seek conferencing technology partners that can also incorporate rich, customizable features on a per account basis. The product should allow certain accounts to be enabled to dial out while others should be kept on a strictly dial-in mode, while additional accounts should be allowed to speak before the moderator has joined the call and others should not be enabled with this feature.

VoIP is not just a telecom buzzword anymore. Enterprises and service providers everywhere are seeing its value in reducing costs and providing unprecedented adaptability. That value proposition is most evident in the conferencing realm where the cost advantages and service flexibility translates into increased productivity and profitability. Those who can act now to offer a flexible, future-proof audio-conferencing solution to enterprises without compromising existing investments will find themselves in a position to reap the rewards as conferencing emerges as the killer app of the VoIP world.

Ben Lilienthal is founder and CEO of Vapps, a supplier of VoIP audio- conferencing bridges to conference service providers and next-generation telcos worldwide.