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Assessments
Assessments
offered by 
aim to complete the picture of ongoing operation or forthcoming
projects. The following non-exhaustive list provides a general overview
of the assessments offered
- Product
Assessment
If no product decision has been taken or too little is known
about one or more components, these study may complete the picture
by critically reviewing
- Availability
- Cost
- Reliability
- Performance
- Functionality
- Usability
(by mapping existing requirements to products, a usability matrix
may be derived)
The
result may be either presented in a report or incorporated into
specification documents or a technical proposal.
- Rentability
& Feasibility Study
Either standalone or in relation to
product assessments, the rentability & feasibility study places
a stronger focus on financial and organizational aspects. Optionally,
an investment protection plan may be worked out.
- Capacity
Planning
By deploying latest queueing theory
algorithms and simulation techniques, capacities in terms of trunks,
agents, CPU load and other resources are determined. By rating
each item with cost, an optimal capacity allocation plan may be
derived.
- Reliability
Planning
Utilizing common reliability theory
and latest Markov modeling approaches, reliability interactions
in single systems or networks are examined. Various scenarios
may be tested for reliability requirements. The results are either
presented in a separate reliability report or combined with capacity
planning.
- Voice
over IP Assessment
As VoIP technology is highly dependent
on network infrastructure, an assessment is highly recommended.
The existing network topology is reviewed in terms of performance
and reliability. By deploying latest algorithms in bandwidth and
jitter estimation, a set of suggestions and recommendations will
be derived. In cooperation with our partner and / or customer,
we are then able to derive an optimal solution with balanced price
/ performance ratio. The following list provides a non-exhaustive
overview of the items to be examined
- review
of the existing topology (e.g. cabling)
- selection
of the appropriate codec preference set and their impact on
the network
- impact
of signaling traffic (e.g. RTP, RTCP) on the network
- impact
of the network topology (e.g. network segments, firewalls) on
VoIP traffic
- configuration
of switches and routers
- review
of measurements (if available)
- configuration
of DHCP, DNS, TFTP and other IP services (some vendors rely
on existing network infrastructure to run their systems)
- review
of quality of service mechanisms (DiffServ, RSVP, MPLS)
- WAN
coverage (if required)
- PSTN
interfaces (e.g. ISDN, SS7)
We strongly
recommend a detailed definition of the targets to be met and the
tasks to be performed during a VoIP assessment to prevent from
time and cost explosion. As an option customer engineers may be
trained for Voice over IP within their environment.
For assessments
to be effective, we highly recommend a heterogeneous team with domain
experts involved allowing for incorporation of inhouse knowledge.
As an option, various assessments may be combined with customer
oriented trainings. In our experience, such a combination has proven
successfully, as it allows for a significant gain in understanding.
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Assessments