In 2003, Richmond, B.C.-based organic food maker Nature’s Path Foods faced a move to new headquarters to accommodate a rapidly expanding workforce.
The relocation presented Ron Boucher, Nature’s Path’s technology manager, with an important decision: Should he stick with standard, tried-and-true TDM voice or make the leap to a voice over IP system?
Ultimately Boucher elected to take a chance on VoIP, despite some of the implementation horror stories he’d read in the technology trade press. Three years later, he says he has no regrets.
One of the main drivers for the shift to VoIP was simpler moves, adds and changes, Boucher explains.
“I like to run a lean IT department,” he says. “Now when a user comes to change offices, or a new employee is starting, we can let them set themselves up.
“I’ve got a box of telephones on my desk, I tell them to grab one and let me know if they have a problem.” With the old TDM system, IT staff had to go into the wiring closet if users were changing offices or new employees were starting.
“That takes time and money and there’s always an opportunity for error,” Boucher notes. Nature’s Path’s VoIP system relies on a Mitel 3300 platform and a network based on HP ProCurve 5308xl switches.
All voice and data traffic runs over the same physical infrastructure, but the voice runs over its own virtual LAN (VLAN) and gets priority over the less time-sensitive data traffic. The site’s 100-plus workstations and VoIP phones are connected directly back into a pair of 5308xls residing in the data centre.
So far Boucher hasn’t run into any serious problems. The network hasn’t had any non-scheduled downtime. He’s had to replace a few phones, but says that’s normal for any voice deployment.
Boucher credits pre-deployment planning for the VoIP system’s success. “We spent a lot of time in the planning process to make sure we addressed the quality of service issues,” he says. “I’d heard stories about VoIP not working well, so we made an extra effort to address issues.”
Part of that effort involved kicking the new network’s tires before users moved into the new building. IT staff in the new office sent large packets around the network looking for potential degradation problems. Boucher also installed some of the IP phones in the new building and ran them over the WAN without assigning any priority to the voice traffic.
No problems resulted, but Boucher still made sure to set up the voice on its own VLAN.
“When I look back, there wasn’t a lot we had to do,” he says. “You just have to worry about your VLANs and what network you’re on, make sure you have someone tagging the phones properly, and away you go.”
VoIP implementations like the one at Nature’s Path are becoming more common, notes Darren Hamilton, business category manager for ProCurve at HP Canada, in part because most switches now ship with an extensive menu of QoS features.
“These days, there are so many QoS features built into the mainstream products,” he explains. “A couple of years ago it was considered a stretch.”
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