January 31, 2005, 10:56 AM — 
With today's ever-growing awareness of the benefits of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), more and more enterprises are implementing or converting to VoIP. One of the most common reasons for failed VoIP implementations is that the personnel involved in the installation, administration, and maintenance in this evolving technology were not thoroughly trained.
Who should be sent to VoIP training - data or telephony engineers - given that VoIP is a converged technology of both voice and data?
This question is a no-brainer if the data and telephony professional is one and the same person. However, in certain enterprises, there may be a separation of duties. While both telephony and data professionals stand to benefit from VoIP training, training budgets are often under heavy scrutiny. Let's take a closer look at what each group stands to benefit by training.
Those seeking training from the telephony side of the tracks may have an advantage because of their existing knowledge of call routing, PBX interfaces and signaling, voice features, and trunk capacity planning. VoIP training will help telephony engineers integrate these concepts using radically different transmission methodologies. The training will allow the telephone specialist to learn the packet delivery side of networking, including IP addressing and framing and Quality of Service (QoS) features in the networking equipment.
On the other hand, the data technician should already be well versed in the paths that the packets will flow in their network. VoIP implementations require a great deal of planning and it is up to the data professional to ensure that the VoIP packets are routed or switched correctly as well as ensure they receive the best QoS in the network. In addition, many of the IP phones utilize Power over Ethernet (POE), which inevitably will connect back to the data professional's switches or powered patch panels. Since data technicians are not typically aware of the complexities involved in dialing plans and call routing, VoIP training will bring data engineers up to speed on the multitude of voice features and technologies.
If the enterprise's staffing structure is broken down so far as to have separate administrators for the networking equipment and the servers, then it would behoove the company to allow its server administrators to attend training as well.
Cisco, being the most prevalent voice certification in the industry, has created several specialist tracks in response to the diverse roles that VoIP technicians play. Most of the tracks entail server applications. Cisco tracks include certification in the configuration of Cisco's server-based CallManager, as well as Cisco's Unity 4.0 system. However, the Cisco Unity 4.0 system track requires that professionals hold a valid MCSE: Messaging on Windows Server 2000 or MCSE: Messaging on Windows Server 2003 as a prerequisite for the certification. Since the VoIP infrastructure extends to the server administrator's domain of responsibilities, it is essential for them to be thoroughly educated before integrating these critical services.
So whether you hail from the telephony side of your enterprise's operations or you are responsible for the data networking from the routers and switches all the way down to the servers, you will inevitably benefit from VoIP training. By branching out from your traditional roots, you will be able to complete the circle of knowledge that surrounds the intricacies of VoIP.
David Minutella is Vice President of Educational Services for The Training Camp, the residential boot camp training division of TechTrain. TechTrain is the premier provider of information technology training, security, and enterprise consulting and applies an accelerated methodology to its services, delivering IT solutions that match the pace of technology. Corporations, government organizations, and IT professionals benefit from the value of TechTrain's IT expertise with increased ROI and professional development.
