B ACKGROUND

Within this century, Telephones and Emails have dominated as the primary forms of communication between people either locally within an organization, or remotely external to an organization. With the advent of the Internet, the use of emails and telephones drew closer to the point whereby the mechanisms to provide both emails, and telephone services integrated to form a technology called Voice-over-IP. (VOIP). In it simplest form VOIP communication utilises a communication headset all the way up to dedicated phone called an IP phone. The structure of VOIP is simply that messages are routed to an exchange (equivalent to a PABX in a Plain old telephone system (POTS) or a DNS Server in an email system) of some form at which point the messages are directed to a device which can receive and then send a return message. The cost savings of using VOIP are through: 1. 2. 3. 4. The ability to use VOIP itself, it is a technology which provides the benefit of taking advantage of existing network infrastructure which is never 100% utilised to provide communications. The ability to communicate within the organisation even if the telephone system is down. The ability (through application integration) to leave voice mail messages in clients email boxes. With minimal investment in either headsets and/or IP handsets, provide a facility whereby if the option to dial into the corporate network exists then no matter where you are located.

By far the simplest mechanism is to use an application called Skype to facilitate communications, across the Internet to allow users (clients) to communicate with each other. This mechanism has a number of drawbacks. 1. 2. 3. It relies on the Internet always being up. If the Internet is down, the communications are down It puts trust as to the integrity of enterprise voice-communications to an external service provider with whom you have no binding contractual agreement. It does not directly facilitate local VOIP communications, but instead if a message where to be sent from one client within the Head Office to another client also within the Head office, then the message would be routed out of the network to our Internet Service Provider, to the Skype Service Provider and then back to the Internet Service Provider, and then to the routing device and then to the Client. This has the drawback of causing unnecessary internet traffic for local communications. Voice communications even through a streamlined application such as Skype can still place a burden on our Internet Link, and with Internet Bandwidth being an increasingly monitored cost its usage needs to be more carefully moderated.

4.

Taking these factors into account an alternative to Skype was searched for. The solution needed to be cost effective, reliable, easy to use, and if possible integrateable into the future Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Standard upgrade.

SOLUTION 1: OFFICE SIP + WINDOWS MESSENGER

The Office SIP application was as simple application which was easy to install and configure, however, its client application which is used to facilitate voice communications proved to be unstable, crashing often. The suggested option by the developers was Microsoft Windows Messenger 5.1, which whilst a viable option as Microsfot Windows Messenger 5.1 is not supported under Windows Vista, which is the base Operating system at .

SOLUTION 2: COMMUNIGATE + WINDOWS MESSENGER 5.1

The Communigate Server application is our current mail transfer application, its natively supports the SIP protocol which is used to facilitate VOIP communication. Factors weighing against the application were the limited support base, the fact that it is an unlicensed application which we are currently using, and also the fact that as a long term solution, its benefit is outweighed by the fact that the server application is scheduled to be replaced, running both Communigate and Microsoft Exchange would also serve no purpose as they server more or less the same function. Whilst any SIP (VOIP-Enabled) client application could work, attempts to find a stable application to support VOIP were limited, and the fact that the recommended application of Windows Media Player 5.1 was not beneficial taking into account its already noted lack of support under Windows Vista.

SOLUTION 3: OFFICE COMMUNICATION SERVER

The Microsoft Office Communication Server application is a Microsoft Application which directly integrates into Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. As a Microsoft product the application also is subject to Microsofts periodic, product application updates which contribute to the applications continued stability and improvements over time. That being said Office Communication server like most Enterprise level VOIP applications does not communicate with other applications except through its client application. Combining this expenditure with the purchase of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 creates a synergistic relationship which enables us to get the best of both worlds an application which can both send and receive email, as well as providing a platform for both Internal and External VOIP communications.

SUMMARY
The need to provide VOIP communications to our clients transcends the requirement for our clients to be on the Internet at all times to communicate using the VOIP technology. The fact that local communications should stay local is a critical reason to invest in an alternative to the Skype option. The Skype option is not flawed it provides exactly what it offers an Internet to Internet voice communications option. For an Enterprise where not all users have all day Internet Access, that is however not sufficient for our requirements.