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The SAS Group webcast scopes key components of an IP telephony project for RFP

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London, 23 November 2007 - The SAS Group, an international provider of IP-based network and communication infrastructure services, will broadcast its latest live webcast, entitled ‘Scoping your IP telephony project for an RFP’ at 11.00am on Tuesday 27th November 2007.

The webcast aims to equip IT and telecoms managers with a watertight process for effectively scoping their IP telephony (IPT) and unified communications (UC) projects to develop an RFP. Part of a larger series of online briefings designed to help companies understand the technical aspects of implementing and maintaining IPT and unified communications, this webcast is available free-of-charge to registered users at www.sas.co.uk/webevents/webcasts and will then be made available on demand.

Whilst most businesses are familiar with the technical requirements of their legacy PBX systems, many fall into the trap of using this as the basis for developing an RFP to upgrade to IPT. However, IPT is about more than just changing your phone system, as, unlike PBX, IPT does not stand alone on the network. In fact, it has multiple interdependencies, and interfaces with almost all components of the infrastructure. Failure to address these areas of cross-over could lead to reduced call quality, and compromise ease of use and even the availability of the system itself. Therefore, to ensure a successful implementation and smooth ongoing management of IPT and UC, it is essential to expand the scope of the project at the RFP stage and review data requirements, LAN and WAN upgrades, cabling and other physical site requirements, applications support and telephone features.

In this latest webcast, Simon Cranford, chief information officer at the SAS Group, will also bring to the forefront those facets of the project that product vendors are likely to overlook when drafting their RFP submission, simply because they do not directly relate to their own area of expertise.

“Developing a detailed and accurate RFP is a vital part of the planning process for a successful IPT implementation,” said Charles Davis, CEO of the SAS Group. “However, this isn’t as easy as it sounds; it requires a comprehensive understanding of the way IPT works and how it impacts the rest of the network. A further potential stumbling block is that product vendors won’t necessarily recognise or highlight infrastructure requirements that fall outside their remit when responding to the RFP, and this could seriously impact the success of the project.”

Future webcasts in the series will cover some of the other technical challenges involved in undertaking IPT and unified communications projects, including ‘How to implement IPT and UC on a global network’ and ‘Adding video conferencing to your IPT network’. Previous webcasts are available on-demand to registered users; the SAS Group has also recently published a white paper entitled ‘Identifying if existing network equipment will work with IP telephony’ which is available to download from www.sas.co.uk/Company/Research.asp