Switching to VoIP

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

366

|

Chapter 15: What Can Go Wrong?

The old-timers are complaining about the new phones, the new voice mail

greeting, or the new ___________

As nice as new IP phones are, if your rollout is big enough, somebody is going to

complain about something. It could be the angle of the new handsets causing (proba-

bly exaggerated) neck strains, or it could be that the buttons on the keypads aren’t

dimpled, making it harder to dial without looking at the keypad. There may be slight

differences in the sound of the phone receivers that aggravate certain users (MOS

scoring can help you evaluate demonstration equipment before you make a big

purchase).

The key to minimizing complaints after the implementation is to evaluate end user

input before it. This means engaging end users, and allowing their requirements to

drive the project. It also means defining your service-level agreement in terms that

are as specific and practical as possible. The mean opinion score metric is a good

guarantor of SLA attainment (MOS is covered in Chapter 9).

When the legacy equipment is gone, though, attrition will deal with the matters of

opinion and nuance that you just can’t do anything about. If complainers are the

usual suspects, those people who complain no matter what, then you’ve probably

done a good job. Eventually, ...