Decreased costs - as the investment for VoIP service is maximized, the University of Florida will realize a significant cost savings in its total costs of ownership and operation. The immediate cost savings benefits will include:
- Single cable and backbone infrastructure supporting both Voice and Data
- Decreased cost of telephone moves
- Reduced Centrex services line costs.
Long distance savings - As IP Telephony deployment matures across the country and into various business enterprises, there will be some savings in long distance services, especially for our international calling users.
Mobility (moves, adds, changes) - When someone moves offices today, there is a corresponding change in the cabling path to reach their telephone set in its new location. With IP Telephony, in many cases you will be able to simply move your phone from one place to another. Without any additional changes your telephone number will move with the telephone. This is part of the expected significant savings the University will realize with an enterprise wide voice / communications solution.
Increase in service options - As IP Telephony gains in popularity there will be an increasing number of applications and capabilities.
- Open systems architecture and non-proprietary devices - With standards, many people will be able to create applications
- Unified Messaging – voice mail, email accessible seamlessly through various interfaces
- WEB enabled call centers - It will become easier to integrate communications capabilities like web pages, telephones, pagers, voice-mail, e-mail, etc.
- Corporate Directory and other portal services from your IP Phone
- Integration of video and teleconferencing: Large scale teleconferencing will soon be available using IP telephony services via the video MCU provided by OIT’s Video and Collaboration Services unit.
Future campus “dial tone” services - With VoIP Telephony it will eventually be possible to simply take your telephone set to other locations, even off campus, and it will still function as if it were on campus. Additionally, wireless VoIP telephony opportunities will be explored as those solutions emerge. VoIP Gatekeepers will also be deployed that will allow for H.323 based calls over the Internet and Internet2 networks.