TDM vs. IP Telephony: A Retro Conversation Still Relevant Today

If you are like 72% of organizations globally, your network still has some or all TDM and/or analog endpoints according to Nemertes Research. This is an astounding fact. Almost nowhere in the industry (including in this blog) do people talk about time division multiplexing (TDM) anymore. What’s more, some IT leaders believe that an all-IP environment will never be a reality in their organizations. Does that resonate with you?

If so, let’s bring the conversation back where we started: The benefits of an all-IP environment are significant. And with the evolution of technology, it is easier and more affordable to move. Nemertes Research just published a report detailing these benefits. Here is some of what they found…

Significant Saving and Improved Efficiencies Still Exist!
Nemertes interviewed ten companies and each achieved significant savings with an all-IP environment. In fact, operational costs dropped by 21% and total costs dropped by 9% on average.

Nemertes shows where IP telephony shines over old-school TDM.

71% Reduced Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). In an all-TDM or mixed-TDM/IP environment, research participants said they spent an average of 20.8 hours to identify a problem, determine the cause, and resolve it. By far, the most time was spent was on the repair – especially finding parts and waiting for technicians. Some even complained that they had to find replacement parts on eBay due to the age of their systems. Not good. In hybrid environments, isolating the problem took longer because they had to assess both TDM and IP systems to find the root cause. By comparison, once in an all-IP environment, the average time for MTTR fell to 4.65 hours. And what is unquantifiable but equally important is improved end-user satisfaction.

34% Reduced Equipment Maintenance: TDM environments can be costly due to aging equipment, expensive service agreements, and resources required to keep the system running. The IP telephony market, however, is more competitive which allows organizations to negotiate better maintenance contracts and drive down costs. Not all participants saw maintenance costs drop, however. Some hadn’t allocated budget for equipment maintenance because they could not find anyone to do the work. When they moved to IP, many took on a maintenance contract.

31% Lower Cost of Moves Adds and Changes (MACs): Back in the day, MACs were a huge driver to move to IP. It not only lowered costs but freed IT resources for other tasks. Things have not changed: With IP telephony, you can skip the visit to the phone closet to punch down those wires. Users can simply do bring their phones with them to a new office location. Research participants saw these costs drop by 31% – big savings considering the cost could easily be $50 to $150 per MAC. And for someone like me, who had five different offices in six years, it also improved my productivity. I moved myself: All my files fit into one box, I plugged in my phone at my new location, and I was up and running on my own time – not someone else’s.

Up to 44% Fewer Full-Time Employees: We are all doing more with fewer resources today. In fact, being stretched thin on resources is this is one of the most common complaints we hear from our own customers. Moving to an all-IP environment can free up your full-time engineers by up to 44%, allowing you to focus on the priorities that drive your business forward.

What about the Benefits of Unified Communications and Collaboration?
The results from Nemertes focus solely on the quantifiable benefits of IP telephony. Moving to all-IP also provides benefits for productivity and efficiency as users adopt unified communications and collaboration. Mobility, video, conferencing, and messaging drive further return on investment. And simply giving all users similar capabilities can improve communications while eliminating eliminate the “have” vs. “have not” mentality at work.

So here’s the equation.

IP Telephony
+
Unified Communications & Collaboration
=
Savings, Efficiencies, and Productivity

I encourage you to learn more about the benefits of an all-IP environment. An all-IP environment can be a reality.

Read the Nemertes Reseach white paper and start the discussion in your organization.

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