Convergence must, by now, rank as the single most over used and over hyped word in the vocabulary of the IT and Telecoms industries.

Yet there is no better single word to describe the very fundamental changes to business operation and performance that the marriage of traditional telephony, data networking, fax, videoconferencing and business application functionality can bring.

For most, the first step towards a implementing converged communication infrastructure is the re-engineering of the corporate communications network - voice and data, LAN and WAN. It’s often a daunting task. Our 5 step guide below is designed to help remove some of the mystery and to illustrate how Fibernet can partner with you on this first stage of the journey.

We hope you find it helpful. If you'd like to follow up with us, please click here, let us know how to make contact, and we'll be back to you shortly.

Once the network infrastructure is in place, our IP Communications portfolio of products and services will help to take you to the next level.

We'll help you plan your converged network

First, the WAN

For the majority of our customers, the first step is usually the replacement of their legacy wide area networking service. Out go leased lines, frame relay, ATM and SMDS and in comes a new MPLS enabled IP VPN, specifically designed to enable the Quality of Service controls that are essential pre-requisites for converged voice, data and video services. The IP VPN forms the core of your inter building converged communications network.

We'll help you identify the best technology, the most appropriate service types and we'll also help you to plan appropriate backup and security options.

Next, the LAN

Your LAN may need attention. Older LAN equipment may not be capable of providing either the Quality of Service controls OR the "Power over Ethernet" features necessary to support IP telephony. We'll happily provide an assessment of your LANs capability for you - or you may wish to set your existing maintainer the task - in which case we'll liaise with them to ensure we're all in sync. We'll work with you to identify constraints imposed by existing service and maintenance contracts and also the budgetary implications of equipment upgrade or replacement. Our goal at this stage is simply to help you understand what is involved.

Then, the phone system

Replacement of your PBX and ACD systems with new IP telephony equipment is a significant move and the timing has to be right. Your Local and Wide Area networks must support end to end Quality of Service before IP Telephony can be introduced. And, of course, you'll need to be convinced that an investment in IP Telephony makes financial, operational and technical good sense. We'll show you the latest IP Telephony systems and guide you in the use of Return on Investment tools.

At the end of this exercise, you will have a clear idea of benefits, costs, timescales and budgets for each stage of this 3 stage process.

And to round that off, the commercials

At this stage, we'll discuss with you how best to financially structure any deal between us. It may be, for example, that you would prefer to see all 3 elements of the project wrapped into one single commercial framework and contract. You may not want to carry the burden of one single up front payment to cover the capital cost of all of the new equipment. Fibernet are more than happy to consider either finance leasing new equipment or integrating WAN and LAN equipment and services into one single managed services contract with a payment profile and timescale to suit your individual needs. Fibernet are as flexible with commercial terms as we are in the design and implementation of our services.

With your budget approved it's time to help you design your new Converged Network platform

At this stage we'll...

• discuss sites to be connected and present service and equipment options. Remember that every Fibernet design is bespoke and individual to each customer.

• confirm the technical design of the LAN and WAN taking into account project phasing and deployment considerations.

• confirm Quality of Service Policies and resilience options.

• illustrate the many network access options that are available and recommend best choices for your particular circumstances.

• confirm equipment modules, configuration, upgrade routes, availability and any potential partnerships. We'll involve specialist staff from equipment vendors as appropriate.

• agree with you who is going to supply what to whom and when, and agree our role in your plan. Specifically we'll discuss how the final service will be managed and what each of us will be accountable for.

• agree a commercial profile for payment that makes sense to both of us and present all of this information in a fully costed proposal. Remember that Fibernet can be as creative commercially as we are technically, especially with projects that involve multiple elements like LAN, WAN and Telephony. If you agree to our proposal we'll proceed to contract.

Fibernet are a Cisco Powered Network partner. Cisco Powered Network services give customers all the benefits of an end-to-end network; simplified, cost-effective network management; higher network availability; more reliable, scalable and secure services; and faster deployment of new world network services.

Once we've agreed contracts we'll start to implement your network

Now's when the action begins

Every project is very different. We'd like to reassure you that our project managers are 'Prince 2' trained, that our processes are ISO9001:2000 approved and that we have executed many projects of this type before. With network service contract renewal rates running at over 99% our track record speaks for itself.

You can look forward to:

• A detailed and pre-agreed site by site project plan.

• Professional project management and regular project reviews.

• Provisioning teams who will manage installation of 3rd party circuits required having gained agreement from your landlords.

• When required, our civil engineering teams will undertake any civil engineering work needed to install new fibre routes.

• Managed procurement, installation and configuration of Equipment that often we'll stage at our premises prior to deployment at yours.

• Professionally managed installation work, using our own teams of Cisco trained engineers together with any agreed building wiring and engineering works.

• Where appropriate, we'll connect either your existing or your new LAN infrastructure to the new IP VPN service and test our agreed Quality of Service profiles, prior to connecting any new IP Telephony equipment or services.

• We'll arrange any network management connections from our network management centre to the new equipment and test them. Finally we'll work with you as you connect your existing IT equipment to the new network to test it to ensure that our service is functioning as you would expect.

• Assuming everything has gone to plan we'll ask you to sign off the new service against criteria we both agreed beforehand.

With your service live it's time to think about management

So what can you expect?

Every contract for service will have as a core component a service level agreement. Every one is unique. It's not unusual for them to stipulate very high levels of service availability and where this is the case we will have both agreed a design that we know can deliver the goods.

Where we are managing the equipment, you can expect a proactive monitoring service 24x7x365 from our dual network operations centres.

You can expect appropriately skilled engineers to be despatched to site in the event of alerts that require manual intervention within response times we have pre-agreed.

You can expect us to manage equipment faults, bugs, upgrades, maintenance and replacement if necessary. You decide what you need based upon your own skills and abilities - we fit in to fill the gaps.

You may have asked for service performance reports and statistics and where this is the case we will collate and deliver them to you - perhaps via our customer extranet (It's called TANet NOW!).

You might also have asked for your management systems to be connected to ours. When this is the case we will have agreed who responds to what kind of alerts.

You can also, of course, expect us to look after all of the equipment, whether it has been procured as a part of a full managed service contract (integrating LAN and WAN and telephony components) or as separate elements covered by individual maintenance contracts.

It's working now, but can we improve the service?

A regular part of any converged services contract is the formal service level review. It's a meeting between your team and ours, the purpose of which is not only to review performance, agreeing corrective actions where necessary, but also to discuss future plans on both sides.

These service level reviews are important. Fibernet prides itself on exceptional service - a conviction supported by our close to 100% renewal rate of managed service contracts.

The converged networking technologies we deploy are very flexible. They need to be. Your organisation will constantly change and the configuration of the service will need to change as well. We'll propose a formal change control process that will give you the flexibility to handle small in flight changes as well as more significant events like the opening of new sites or relocation of departments between existing locations.

At your invitation, you'll find we are very willing to share our own internal plans for service enhancement and upgrade as well as our forward technology roadmaps. Whilst not appealing to everyone, such disclosures can form a helpful part of your own planning processes.

Remember too that with more than 18 years in the Local and Wide Area networking business, Fibernet's pedigree and experience is 2nd to none.

Your investment in these services is significant. Our goal is to reward that investment with extraordinary service.

We hope that you have found our 5 step guide both interesting and useful. If you'd like to follow up with us, please click here, let us know how to make contact, and we'll be back to you shortly.