Sr Ht 010 Review Telephone and Data Networks

In an effort to meet the Service Request (SR-ht-010) presented, and to allow for system improvements in the projected Huffman Trucking's budget, several telephone and data network recommendations will be discussed throughout this documentation.

Through an initial study performed by the Information Technology (IT) Department, several areas of Huffman's current telephone and data network systems are in need of improvement. These modifications and enhancements will not only meet the current needs of the company as a whole, but will also allow for growth into the future. The IT Department will accomplish these tasks by upgrading and documenting the current communications systems. In addition to system recommendations, proposed costs estimates will also be provided.

Upon reviewing the current Huffman Trucking communication systems, the IT Department observed many issues and hardware items to be inefficient. Current analysis of the various locations concludes that company-wide changes and upgrades should be made as an effort to maintain data integrity and ease of use.

Since 1936, Huffman Trucking has been on the fore-front for innovative transportation needs. With hubs located in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Bayonne (New Jersey), Huffman's 1,400 employees are expected to maintain explicit communication among co-workers and clients. With a mission to be "a profitable, growing, adaptive company in an intensively competitive logistical services business environment", it is imperative that Huffman leverage the technology to provide the best customer service and business efficiencies possible. And with estimated plans of growth in revenue to be 12 percent in the next 3 to 5 years, it is absolutely necessary that communication systems be improved today.

Telephone Systems

Communication in a business is the key to success. Interpersonal communication is very important in today's often technologically anonymous society. An assessment as to the current Telephone Communication Systems configurations at all four state area locations was made. Recommendations for improvements will be noted after the discussion of the current systems in order of state, followed by specific locale.

Located in Los Angeles, the California locations consist of the CA-Office and the CA-Plant. While currently functional, many improvements should be made to maintain quality of service to Huffman clients. While the CA-Office locale currently utilized a PBX Telephone System with Intercom (POTS), they do not have voice mail or caller ID abilities. The CA-Plant locale, on the other hand, is very fortunate to posses a digital phone system with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

PBX, or Private Branch/Business eXchange, is a telephone exchange that is owned by a private business. When a business owns their own exchange, all of their telephones are connected separately than public telephones are. If a business did not have a PBX, all of the offices phones would have their own line and number, and calls would have to be routed out of the building to a central switch and come back to the intended phone again.

Devices connected to PBXs in offices are usually referred to as extensions, and the PBX equipment is installed onsite. In addition to telephones, many other communication/data devices can be connected to the PBX such as Fax and Modem machines.

The CA-Office location utilizes their PBX with Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS). (POTS acts as an interface for connecting the extensions to the PBX). POTS are used in most homes and are a common two-wire interface. While cheap and operative, it does not allow for data use as effectively as an Internet Protocol interface on the PBX would. POTS can also cause a business to suffer from not being able to detect incoming calls while making outbound calls.

Located in St. Louis, the Missouri location consists of the MO-Office and MO-Plant. Just as the CA-Plant, the MO-Office is currently using a digital phone system. Although a different topology and type of VoIP is in place, both sites benefit from the resources of this modern technology. It is assumed that the MO-Plant is using standard POTS for their telephony needs, for specific systems were not disclosed. Here again, the functions of a POTS is fine for home use, however not recommended for business purposes due to lack of functionality.

The New Jersey locations in Bayonne consist of an Office and a Plant. The NJ-Office also recognized the benefits of a PBX and so utilizes these functions in their system setup, but also lacks the ability to identify callers or access voice mail. They also, as does CA-Office, have their PBX connected to the Plant PBX with the interface of POTS. The NJ-Plant routes their PBX into a Patch Panel for distribution of resources. A patch panel is typically rack-mounted and houses several cable connections. This allows for the convenience of changing the path of a signal quickly without the expense of automatic switching equipment.

The Cleveland Ohio locations (Office and Plant) are very similar to the Missouri sites systems. While the OH-Plant uses the standard Plain Old Telephone Systems for their communication needs, the OH-Office has upgraded to a digital phone system (VoIP) into a Cisco 10mb Hub just as the MO-Office does. The Hub is a device for connecting multiple devices together. This device acts as a multi-port repeater in that it repeats the signal received at one port, and out each of the remaining ports. Capable of detecting a data collision, they can forward a jammed signal as needed.

As previously mentioned, the PBX systems in place at most locations are a great start at improving the telephone systems as a whole. Most modern PBX systems easily allow for a change in interface to Internet Protocol to carry calls. IP PBX can handle both voice and multimedia calls and has numerous business enhancing features. Internet Protocol Private Business eXchange for the enterprise is growing tremendously. According to Synergy Research, "The overall market for enterprise IP telephony is predicted to grow to $4.4 billion in 2006 from $849 million in 2002, representing a compound annual growth rate of 50.5 percent". There is great cost benefits and increase productivity associated with a network-based Internet Protocol PBX. (Avaya Inc., 2006)

According to Wikipedia, IP PBX (also called VoIP, IP Telephony, Internet telephony, and Broadband Phone) "is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP-based network. The voice data flows over a general-purpose packet-switched network, instead of traditional dedicated, circuit-switched telephony transmission lines". Huffman Trucking would greatly benefit a move from traditional phone system to VoIP. Cost savings and