MOVING UP TO NEXT

LEVEL ENTERPRISE
COMMUNICATIONS
INCREASE EFFICIENCY AND IMPROVE
OPERATIONS BY MITIGATING THE RISKS
OF AGING SYSTEMS

ABSTRACT
Aging communication systems make enterprises vulnerable to security threats
and system failures, and often restrict an organization’s ability to evolve
business processes to meet operational requirements and business objectives.
Unplanned operational and capital costs continue to increase as these systems
remain in service beyond their support contracts and expected life cycle.
And when these systems fail, they seriously restrict an organization’s ability
to deal with customers. By analyzing existing risks, identifying new system
requirements, and adopting centralized and virtualized solutions that leverage
existing infrastructure elements, every organization can mitigate the risks
and eliminate unplanned costs associated with continuing to operate and
maintain aging systems. At the same time, they can lay the foundation for
the introduction of new capabilities, features, and functions that will improve
business processes, increase employee efficiency, and deliver a higher return
on communication network investments.

AGING COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS CREATE RISKS
Communication systems that have been in service for a long time usually continue to
perform as expected. Operational costs associated with these systems appear to be under
control. But aging systems are very vulnerable to three main risks:
• Security threats, such as toll fraud
• System failures, which create major disruptions in daily business processes
• Inability to accommodate business group or corporate evolution requirements
Usually, unplanned operational and capital costs associated with these risks increase as
systems age:
• Outdated security policies increase vulnerability to expensive toll fraud attacks.
• Spare parts are expensive and are more difficult to find as the system ages, so the
duration of downtimes increases during failures.
• The lack of service contracts and vendor support when systems reach end of life often
leads to hasty and expensive fixes for every outage.
• System maintenance personnel with the right skills are no longer on staff because they
have left or retired, so ongoing operations costs are high.
• Unavailable system features or options to support new requirements can only be added
by purchasing a new system, which usually comes with high upfront costs.
In addition to these unplanned costs, the cost of business disruptions and loss of
customer satisfaction can be huge if telephony services are down for several hours or
days. Therefore, to avoid potential disruptions and increases to operations budgets, all
organizations with aging communication systems should identify the risks they face and
take action to avoid them before they affect the bottom line.

AGING COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
ARE EXPENSIVE
Despite an old communication system’s apparent stability, most organizations
underestimate the cost of maintaining and operating an aging system beyond its
end-of-life date. Every organization should be aware of the three areas that can
create substantial operational cost increases and address them before they affect
operations budgets.

Underestimated costs of toll fraud attacks
A typical statement from Information Technology (IT) managers with old systems is:
“We cannot be hacked. The system was secured during installation.”
However, maintaining security for communication systems is a continuous improvement
process. Unfortunately, aging systems cannot always comply with the latest security
requirements because they are built with outdated security policies and insufficient
protections. For this reason, aging Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems are prime
targets for toll fraud. Hackers take advantage of known security breaches in old systems,
such as weak password controls or no replay counters, to divert PBX features. For
example, a hacker may use transfer features to resell call minutes or place calls to
international premium rate numbers, which belong to the hacker. This toll fraud usually
happens during non-business hours and is only detected when the phone bill is received.
Moving Up To Next Level Enterprise Communications

It may result in tremendous financial losses over a few hours, and can be as much as
between $4,000 to more than $150,000.

ALCATEL-LUCENT ENTERPRISE APPROACH TO
AGING SYSTEMS
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise can provide organizations with end-to-end support for a smooth transition from legacy infrastructures to new systems with
a three-step process that:
• Mitigates risks with up-to-date software that leverages existing investments
• Curbs maintenance costs and drastically reduces communication bills with centralized
communications and voice over WAN (VoWAN)
• Virtualizes applications to save on operations and get budgets for innovations that
meet business expectations

Get up-to-date software that leverages existing investments
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise helps organizations leverage the components of their
communications system that have value and update only components that are no
longer able to meet operations objectives. An existing Alcatel-Lucent system, such
as the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX™ 4400 or an Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise
Communication Server (CS) PBX, can be transformed to the latest version of the
OmniPCX Enterprise CS. Valuable assets such as telephone sets, wireless infrastructure
and existing cabling can be reused, and third parties can be interconnected with Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP) or Q-Signaling (QSIG) protocol.
In addition, commercial programs can help transform Time-division Multiplexing (TDM)
licenses to Internet Protocol (IP) or SIP user licenses to improve user experiences with
the latest business telephony features. This includes wideband audio, touchscreen
desk phones, software-based clients on PC and MAC, call shifting, desk sharing, and
embedded conferencing capabilities.
Installing the latest software also mitigates the risk of toll fraud attacks and addresses
further business continuity requirements. The OmniPCX Enterprise CS redundancy
capabilities offer business continuity for data centers and remote sites, and disaster
recovery plans can be put in place to meet company standards.

Although aging communications systems may continue to deliver the level of service
and functionality they were configured to provide when they were originally designed
and installed, keeping them in service makes an enterprise vulnerable to unseen costs.
Security threats, such as toll fraud, system failures that create major disruptions in daily
business processes, and inability to accommodate business group or corporate evolution
requirements can seriously compromise any business operation.
To avoid potential process disruptions and increases to operations budgets, all
organizations with aging communication systems should identify the risks they face and
take action to avoid them before they affect the bottom line. A thorough analysis by all
internal stakeholders can identify internal and external drivers for change, and a path
towards a system transformation that addresses all business requirements.
The ideal solution:
• Mitigates potential risks with up-to-date software that leverages existing investments
• Curbs maintenance costs and drastically reduce communication bills with centralized
communications and VoWAN
• Centralizes and virtualizes applications to save on operations costs and free funds for
innovations that meet business expectations
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise helps organizations leverage the components of their
communications system that have value and update only components that are no longer
able to meet operations objectives. A business communications solution built on the
Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise CS can mitigate the risk of security threats, system
failures, and major disruptions that can seriously affect daily operations. In addition,
it can provide all the advanced features and functions an enterprise needs to address
business and customer service requirements today, while laying a solid foundation for
evolution to new OpenTouch Suite capabilities when they are needed tomorrow.

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