That install experience proved vital after Serta had moved past the pilot stage and implemented VoIP in several of its locations. Zett had opted to use the wide area network to do routine Sphere software upgrades. But after a few of the sites had moved to VoIP, it turned out that slow server response time could temporarily suspend phone service.

"We could lose phone operations for 15 or 20 minutes," she says. "And that’s way too long."

Because they’d installed the system, Zett and her staff knew they had several ways to fix this problem, the easiest of which was to schedule the updates at night. So they decided to install local upgrade servers (ordinary PC blade servers) that download updates only at prearranged times, usually at night, which allows for a much quicker update to the hub in the local facility. Serta’s IT team also created the option of having local operators at each plant, instead of routing all calls through headquarters.

Zett’s been happy with VoIP, and especially happy that she had her staff do the rollout. "Doing our own rollout meant we learned a great, great deal about what we liked and didn’t like—we’re not dependent on our vendor," she says.

Beat the Vendor Blues

The problem: What do you do when your vendor can’t deliver as promised?

The answer: Know when to pull the plug on one vendor, and know what questions to ask the replacement.

Saving mad money on telephone costs is what makes most CIOs check out VoIP. That’s what got the interest of Marty Resnick, director of technology operations at Norman’s Nursery, a $65 million nursery wholesaler in San Gabriel, Calif. The cost savings are what kept him going through a "Nightmare on IT Street" technology pilot, which he hopes has no sequel.

Norman’s Nursery has three facilities, none closer to each other than about 100 miles. Its phone bills in 2004 were running close to $6,000 a month, much of the cost due to calls among its three facilities. The company couldn’t transfer calls between facilities, and none of its employees had their own extensions. Resnick thought VoIP should fix that problem.

He had a laundry list of other things he’d like in a new phone system as well: a unified paging system, message boxes that combined voice mail and Outlook e-mail, and faxing from Outlook. He went to his telecom provider, SBC, which recommended a specific Nortel BCM (Business Communications Manager) and a third-party systems integrator to implement it.