How should an enterprise test its network to prepare for Digital Voice?
Many buyers believe that Digital Voice is just another application running on the network. Not so. Digital Voice will tax and strain the network in ways that no enterprise can foresee. As a result, it is important to test the network in anticipation of a Digital Voice deployment. Numerous vendors now offer Digital Voice specific testing tools that can anticipate Digital Voice specific issues such as packet loss and latency, but IT departments must allocate time and brainpower to this effort. Understanding bandwidth, memory, and CPU requirements is critical to a successful deployment. How should a company manage the vendor selection? Adequate vendor selection depends on evaluating multiple vendors. It takes more time, but makes for a much better end result. Multiple vendor analysis can either be conducted through a formal RFP process or through less formal information collection techniques. Either way, score each vendor against a common set of criteria. From here, shortlist two to three
