1. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Migrating from Centrex to IP Telephony at Penn EDUCAUSE MARC 2006 Melissa Muth & Dawn Augustino University of Pennsylvania This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non- commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

2. ISC Networking & Telecommunications What is Penn? Private, Ivy League University in Philadelphia 20,000 students (undergraduate & graduate) 4,000 faculty & 13,000 staff 250 buildings 30 RDPs 23,000 phone lines 41,000 IP addresses

3. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Where we’ve been Networking & Telecom merger in 2000 Functional integration in 2004 Current environment: Centrex + Penn-owned cable infrastructure Why migrate? VoIP pilots –Telecom pilots w/Cisco, Broadsoft & others –Networking research on IC & presence –Open source was good fit for our environment –Piloted hosted service to meet open source gaps

4. ISC Networking & Telecommunications The Challenges Transitioning from pilot to production Bridging organizational gap Defining the project scope

5. ISC Networking & Telecommunications The Breakthrough Project launch meeting with managers & team leads Identified biggest issues Hired project manager

6. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Project Teams Steering Committee Technical Network Architecture Application Architecture Telephony Architecture FacilitiesProcess Installations Operations Intake Support Billing Provisioning BusinessCommunications

7. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Methods (Project Setup) Create working assumptions –Pilot one product –Deliver out-of-box functionality –Define scope of network architecture –Define support model Identify resources needed –Had: system admins, developers, network engineers, telecom experts –Needed: open-source telecom consultants

8. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Methods ( Project Setup) Implement a production pilot –Deliver production-caliber services –Use existing processes/procedures –Focus teams on specific deliverables

9. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Methods (Getting Started) Business team: “What services can we provide?” Technical team: “What do you need?” Solution: –Perform feature gap-analysis –Define and prioritize required features Recommendation: deliver single-line features in phases –Control costs –Manage risk

10. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Methods (Campus Pilot) Roll out production pilot within department Structure installations to be repetitive Train Centrex staff to be VoIP specialists Start punch-list management

11. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Methods (Project Planning) Fit project to time-line Prioritize and defer project deliverables –Mobility, multi-line services, hosted services –Documentation, 911, soft-clients, PoE Reevaluate assumptions and deliverables! Phase 3 Phase 1 Phase 2 Dec 2005Mar 2006Jun 2006 General Availability Phase 4 Sep 2006

12. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Current State of Service Production-grade –Redundant servers, gateways and PRIs –Automated monitoring (server, network, PRIs) –Single-line features, email/voicemail integration –911 Architecture: layer 2 QoS, separate VLANs & subnets Installation, support & billing

13. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Successes 160 subscribers 400 scheduled to join by March Network Architecture Team Process re-engineering Disaster recovery Open-source software (SER, Asterisk)

14. ISC Networking & Telecommunications COMMUNICATION! Context: Staff speak different languages (data vs voice) Decisions based on consensus Incomplete information Project needs: Staff communicate Move ahead with partial consensus [Avoiding] Failures

15. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Strategies used: Brown-bag training Communicate decisions to all Weekly status reports to entire organization Recognize and fix issues promptly [Avoiding] Failures

16. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Lessons Learned Pilot one technology at a time (open-source vs. commercial) Deliver service components in phases, to compatible customers Create voice development environment Use Centrex staff to manage VoIP installations Pilot support services and involve customers early

17. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Make project a priority across the organization Recognize size of project and delegate Deliver a production pilot Cross-train staff, and allow time for adjustment Technology is evolving: let current state determine scope of project Pick your battles! Practice makes perfect Recommendations

18. ISC Networking & Telecommunications Migrating from Centrex to IP Telephony at Penn EDUCAUSE MARC 2006 Melissa Muth & Dawn Augustino University of Pennsylvania This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non- commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.