Implementing Convergence: How One IT Organization Uses its Products and Services to Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiencies and Better Serve its Customers

Executive summary

Global Crossing provides telecommunications solutions over an integrated global IP-based network. The core network was designed for the convergence of voice, video and data, and delivers services, such as VoIP, IP VPN, Managed Solutions and IP Video to more than 600 cities in 60 countries. The company’s customer support model matches the network footprint, delivering a consistent customer experience worldwide.

Like its customers, Global Crossing is confronted every day by an array of forces that shape our future, including global economics, the pace with which we innovate, cost containment, and the need to deliver value to our customers. That’s why Global Crossing’s Information Technology Services department didn’t hesitate when it saw an opportunity to better meet the demands of the business by drawing upon some of the products and services that it sells to its customers.

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Introduction

The convergence of networking technologies today is creating powerful new ways for Enterprises to strengthen their performance. At Global Crossing, we defined convergence as a single, secure, cost efficient, scalable, any-to-any network – the convergence of voice, video and data as a mechanism for integrating differing modes of communication. We wanted an application framework that would enable new and innovative services and would generate revenue. Our expectation was that applications and services would be delivered anytime, anywhere and transparently without visible boundaries.

The keys to successfully taking advantage of convergence are to understand what convergence can achieve for your specific organization, determine which convergence areas will provide the greatest benefit, and plan and implement the steps required to make convergence a success. Like many companies today, Global Crossing was committed to reducing its operating costs and enhancing efficiency wherever possible. Network and Systems optimization were a primary focus of this effort and consuming the products and services that are available to our customers was not only attractive from a cost-efficient technology optimization perspective, but also gave the corporation an opportunity to learn from internal consumption and service delivery.

We are the customer!

Global Crossing was faced with many of the same challenges faced by most enterprise IT organizations:

1) Cost reduction – there is a need to continuously evaluate how services are delivered, while reducing costs without impacting performance, function and availability.
2) Infrastructure Simplification – always evaluating how IT operations are delivered to find faster and more effective delivery mechanisms, while reducing administration and, thus, overhead.
3) Increased productivity – converged communications over a secure, reliable network in order to meet the demands of the business’s needs.
4) Innovation in customer experience – improved application performance and real-time interactive applications to improve users’ quality of experience.

With these challenges, Global Crossing’s IT organization needed to drive change by delivering on infrastructure services that were not only forward-looking, but also eased our business transformation in a way that helped us meet the demands of the business, as well as prepared us to “live beyond convergence.”

In order to properly do this, we had to understand that our challenges are many of the same challenges our customers face. We also had to embrace the technology that would help us change our business delivery model – all while aligning to the following objectives:

• Align IT strategic plan with corporate and business vision/goals.
• Provide IT architecture foundations and fundamentals that will facilitate a corporate transformation.
• Maximize IT operational efficiencies by using next generation services. For example, presence awareness embedded within service applications and mobile access to order management software, etc.

The IT organization integrated all possible products and services into the core foundation of service delivery infrastructure and, as a result, realized many strategic advantages.

Product & service utilization

Global Crossing IT organization’s approach to enterprise information technology servic e delivery was founded upon the principle that solutions offered must deliver value and enhance the performance of the business, while not requiring substantial CAPEX expenditure. Using this approach, Global Crossing positioned its IT organization as integral to the success of the business. It did this not only by addressing the challenges, but by integrating products and services available to the marketplace into the “DNA” of Global Crossing’s Information Technology organization.

The following overview (PRODUCT & SERVICE CONSUMPTION) lists the products and services that are offered and/or used throughout the company today. It’s noteworthy that while these products have been used for some time and therefore are transparent throughout the service domain, they continue to have a significant impact on how we deliver our services to our employees, as well as to our customers.

Product – Service

Global Crossing Application Performance Management™ – Application Services
Global Crossing iVideoconferencing™ – Collaboration
Global Crossing IP Video ™ – Collaboration
Global Crossing Ready-Access® Web Meeting – Collaboration
Global Crossing eMeeting™ – Collaboration
Global Crossing Live Meeting™ – Collaboration
Global Crossing Event Call™ – Collaboration
Global Crossing Ready-Access® Video (in development) – Collaboration
Global Crossing uCommand® Customer Care Portal Management – Customer Care
Global Crossing IP VPN Service™ – Data Services
Global Crossing Wavelength Services – Data Services
Global Crossing Dedicated Internet Access Service™ – Data Services
Global Crossing Private Line Services (ATM, Frame) – Data Services Continues next page

Product – Service

Global Crossing ATM and Frame Relay Services – Data Services
Global Crossing Access Services (mid span meets, last mile) – Data Services
Global Crossing Mobile IP Connect™ – Data Services
Global Crossing VoIP On-Net Plus™ (Voice VPN) – Voice Services
Global Crossing VoIP Outbound™ – Voice Services
Global Crossing VoIP Toll Free™ – Voice Services
Global Crossing VoIP Local Service™ – Voice Services
Global Crossing Managed IP Telephony* – Voice Services
Global Crossing Long Distance services – Voice Services
*Product used in UK

Benefits

The benefits from leveraging these technologies fall into three categories: cost savings, productivity enhancements, and administrative simplification.

Cost savings:

Global Crossing saw a 20% cost savings on internal communications during the first year these technologies were used. These efficiencies are derived from a number of sources.

They are:

• Toll bypass: Unlike traditional voice traffic, packetized voice communications run over the company network, bypassing long-distance tolls (termination costs are still incurred). Intracompany traffic rides over the corporate VPN between company sites at no cost.
• Wiring expenses, power consumption costs, and space requirements also have been greatly reduced. A single network cable now carries both voice and data communications to the user’s desk. With this overhead eliminated, deploying IP telephony to a new facility was more cost-effective than moving a traditional PBX we already owned. Similarly data center requirements also reduced, in kind.
• Deploying converged services allowed us to repurpose network equipment and server assets to support the required infrastructure.
• Converging voice and data circuits onto a single network produced greater efficiency on those circuits, helping drive down access costs.
• By converging our IT services, we were able to reduce costs in both CAPEX and OPEX, as well as reduce the total number of vendors we used. As we moved more towards convergence and next -generation services, Global Crossing IT organization’s costs went down to 3.4% of corporate revenue from 10%. • Since convergence consolidates infrastructure, it can therefore reduce spend associated to fundamentals, such as security, because security-related efforts become highly focused on a smaller number of services to protect thus eliminating bloated costs.

Productivity enhancements:

• The unified network capability achieved through our convergence efforts also significantly simplified administrative responsibilities. It also eased the implementation of new services, such as enhanced collaboration, which lead to maximized productivity.
• Enhanced collaboration also improved employee morale – employees were more engaged and connected, and productivity increased because response times improved.
• Voice VPN services that enabled core network dialing plans enabled short-digit dialing. This also increased employees’ productivity by making it simpler to stay connected.

Simplified administration:

Another benefit of converged services was that administrative responsibilities were significantly optimized without experiencing a loss in quality.

• By adopting services, such as Enterprise VoIP and On-Net Plus, we were able to move administrative functions, such as managing dial plans or interaction between LECs, PTTs and Carrier Hotels, to other organizations, eliminating that administrative overhead from day-to-day IT operations.
• Moves, adds and changes also have been dramatically simplified. With phone extensions tied to the IP phone instead of a piece of wire, employees simply pick up their phone and plug it in at their new desk. The IP phone automatically downloads the user’s unique set of features (network identity, voicemail box, email account, telephone extension, etc.). Remote users enjoy the same ease of use through a site-to-site or client-based VPN connection back to the corporate network.
• Since less equipment was required to deliver services, we also were able to reduce the total number of servers and network devices that required management and administration. Space, power and electrical administration also reduced considerably through the consolidation of service infrastructure components associated with the convergence initiative.

Customer credibility:

Generally speaking most customers want to know whether or not we are consumers of our own products. Invariably the customers think “if it’s good for them it must be good for us.” Customers also want to know how using and adopting the products and services address some pain point, reduce spend or increase value-added services, while not increasing risk.

By integrating these products and services into the IT organization’s “DNA,” Global Crossing has boosted its credibility with its customers – it illustrates we have “walked a mile in their shoes,” so to speak, as they are contemplating a similar transition.

Conclusion

Within our first year of using our own products and services we were able to reduce our internal IT service delivery costs by 20%, while delivering new features to employees and simplifying administration and support for a more efficient, streamlined organization. At the same time, our business communications has experienced unsurpassed quality and security.

Global Crossing convergence products and services have the potential to deliver significant benefits to enterprises. CIOs may want to consider selecting a leader in Next Generation services, such as Global Crossing. That choice could ease the challenges faced by many IT organizations, while the benefits of truly converged enterprise IT infrastructure environment are delivering communications more quickly, reliably and -- most imp ortantly – more cost effectively.

The following Global Crossing team members contributed to this white paper:

Tom Hobika – Director, Strategic NextGen Development
Mike Vannest – Senior Manager, Applications Programming
Ian Taylor – Senior Technical Analyst
Bill Haskins – Director, Directory and Collaboration Services

Document references:

1. How One Service Provider Made the Move to IP Telephony: The Global Crossing Case Study, Berthier, Catherine, Online – TMC Net, August 2004.
2. What’s Important to IT Management In 2006? By Laurie M. Orlov with Alex Cullen, Craig Symons, Tom Pohlmann, and Samuel Bright, Forrester Research, September 2005.
3. Information Technology: The new context by John Gantz, IDC Research, 2004.
4. Global Crossing Story of Migrating to IP Tel, Hobika, Taylor, Global Crossing, A look back at the history of the IP Telephony Cost savings, July 2005.

Click Here to Download PDF: Implementing Convergence – White Paper By Dan Wagner