Corporate IP telephony

It is beneficial to use IP telephony in a company. And that's why:
- IP telephony is the ability to use excellent quality voice communications between branches and representative offices of one company;
- IP telephony is a real chance to reduce costs for Web server users when using voice communications between company employees.

Coordination of a corporate network is greatly simplified by combining information transmission networks and a telephony complex. At the same time, the level of costs associated with operation is reduced, and, accordingly, the total cost of ownership is reduced. The benefits of combining data and telephony networks become obvious when using the capabilities of new proposals that can radically change this technology. All of them use stencil industrial architectures that make it possible to implement solutions from a range of manufacturers. The main component of the integrated product is the IP protocol - an information protocol that acts as a universal independent transport. This protocol enables network connections throughout the world.

Let's look at an illustrative example:
The main office of the company is located in Moscow. Branches are located in Murmansk and Kazan. There is no office telephone exchange in Kazan; employees use city telephone lines. Both offices are equipped with Internet access or connected by dedicated lines. The management's task is to significantly reduce the costs associated with long-distance and international calls. This task is standard, and therefore its solution will become universal advice for all companies interested in this issue. To implement this plan, it is necessary to install a telephony gateway - a telephone gateway - in each office and connect it to the telephone exchange related to this office. This will make it possible to talk with colleagues from other representative offices using any office telephone completely free of charge. It will also be possible to carry out long-distance telephone conversations from a regular landline phone using corporate servers. This implies the presence of a whole system of passwords designed to regulate access to the city and other types of access.

Let's talk about the mechanism for saving on calls with subscribers from other cities and countries, since this problem worries the heads of many companies. Savings are possible when transmitting voice traffic via WAN - a global data network. An obvious cost reduction occurs when coordination functions are combined by all connections intended to access the Network, connecting international and local calls through a unitary voice gateway or router. Companies are also concerned about the issue of accelerated reimbursement of basic costs associated with the purchase and maintenance of equipment. It is obvious that information transmission technologies are developing at a pace that the process of improving telephone exchanges cannot keep up with. In the network industry, a product “lives” for about 1.5 years. At the same time, there is a constant reduction in prices for the necessary network equipment. Based on this, IP telephony will follow the development path characteristic of such equipment. That is, there will be a gradual reduction in prices, an increase in functionality through the introduction of the latest technologies and the integration of products at a high level. Therefore, we can expect an overall reduction in the costs associated with IP telephony systems. The same cannot be said about conventional telephony systems.

Therefore, in the Russian Federation there is a continuous development of corporate IP telephony. Today there are three ways to use its capabilities.

The first is related to the use of provider IP telephony:
- in the form of an agreement with the operator working with cards. In this case, to make a call to another city, you must first dial the operator’s number, then the identification number, then the card PIN code. And after performing the above operations - enter the number of the called subscriber;
- a more popular option: changing the settings of the telephone exchange of a given institution (PBX) in such a way that calls to other cities and countries are sent in the form of IP packets to the IP communication operator through an information transmission channel (that is, through the so-called “output number” on intercity route").

The second method is the use of a corporate information transmission network by companies whose structure consists of offices located in different geographical locations for the interchange of voice traffic. To do this, you need to connect IP gateways to the office PBX in places of presence and define routing rules. This approach to IP telephony allows geographically developed companies to reduce the costs associated with paying telephone bills. But this method has a small disadvantage. Long-distance and international telephone calls addressed to places where the company does not have a presence are usually sent to an IP telephony operator.
The last, third, method allows you to use the capabilities of IP telephony more widely than the others presented here. It consists of building a unified corporate-scale IP network with functions for transmitting voice and other data (for example, video, text information). This option is not only profitable, but also promising. The undeniable convenience of this method is that the company receives a digital telephone exchange (network) with uniform numbering and a unified control center. The company also receives a large number of additional services. For example:
1. hold incoming calls and transfer them to other numbers;
2. the telephone directory of this company, which the user can view using the IP phone screen. It is located on the corporate LDAP server;
3. personal call management system (personal call management) allows you to coordinate your phone using the Web interface: forward calls to other phone numbers (another work, home or mobile) if the called subscriber cannot answer due to his absence from the workplace ;
4. unified messaging systems (unified messaging systems) send electronic or voice messages and faxes to a common mailbox, which can be used by phone or via email, as well as through a Web browser.
5. The company’s IP phone can perform the function of a personal device, which has its own number and settings selected by the user whose name and password were entered.

This method is based on combining two networks - corporate and data transmission - into one. This saves money spent on supporting these systems and their maintenance, increases operational efficiency and eliminates the “conflict” between IT and telephony support, while at the same time increasing the degree of their coordination.

When company management is faced with the question of implementing an IP-PBX level system, they are also concerned about the issue of economic efficiency and feasibility. To evaluate effectiveness, you need to take some points into account. No one doubts that corporate network infrastructure is necessary and important. Therefore, investing in the introduction of IP telephony into the work processes of an enterprise should be classified as mandatory. Why? Because companies that have an information transmission network will see a lot of positive aspects. Thus, it will be possible to abandon a number of serviced systems - technological, telephone, fire, network, security and others. That is, the costs associated with the implementation of IP telephony are the costs of all of the listed systems simultaneously. Therefore, the economic feasibility is obvious: this is the modernization of the IP infrastructure, on the one hand, and the minimization of operating costs, as well as increasing employee productivity, on the other.

Thus, the introduction of IP telephony is profitable and effective, and is also necessary for companies interested in the long-term existence of their business and competitiveness.

If we talk about the specific capabilities of business IP telephony, then it is worth highlighting the opportunity:
- holding conference calls and meetings with absolutely any number of participants;
- creating group or individual alerts;
- design of broadcast announcements;
- notifications about the user status (for example, “busy”, “unavailable”, “online”, etc.) of subscribers or other users using “Presence” technology;
- taking advantage of the fact that an IP phone can determine the “fate” of an incoming call: for example, forwarding an incoming call to voice mail or a home phone (usually depending on the time of the last outgoing call);
- support the exchange of “instant” messages appearing on the screen of an IP phone using the “Instant Messaging” program.

There are a lot of advantages from using IP telephony products (IP-PBX). Thus, the design of a unified network infrastructure for a company makes it possible to minimize costs (compared to the costs that are necessary to optimize the operation of infrastructures that can be replaced by IP telephony), to implement different methods of IP communications that are available today, as well as emerging ones. By the way, some of them cannot be implemented using established approaches: for example, Instant Messaging technology or corporate notification systems.

Employees will appreciate the lack of attachment to telephone channels, as well as the extreme ease of making adjustments to the operation of the corporate IP network. These factors affect the improvement of labor productivity of individual workers and the enterprise as a whole. Business mobility increases, as it becomes easier to monitor work groups and the stages of completing assigned tasks. This is achieved by combining IP products with CRM or ERP systems designed to improve the level of corporate governance.

The main advantage is the ability to practically combine corporate management and information systems with multimedia communication systems: from group notifications (including voice reminders) and standardized messages to changing the essence of the company in the contact center (customer appeal management center). This center is a link in the CRM system, characterized by the ability to record, process and save in a single database all personal contacts, phone calls, emails and faxes, that is, the complete history of relationships with certain clients. In this case, each employee of the enterprise plays the role of an operator involved in one of the groups.

It is also important that each employee of the company, regardless of his location (another office, foreign representative office), can receive the necessary set of information and services (including voice) if he has an IP channel with good bandwidth, by organizing a connection to the corporate networks via a VPN channel.

The main advantage that becomes real when introducing IP telephony is tangible savings on calls to cities and countries marked on the geographical map with the company’s presence sign.

It is impossible in our time to build a prosperous and dynamically developing business without telephone communication with clients and partners. Corporate mobile communications is an integral part of companies of any type, as it is important for the implementation of a wide variety of tasks.

Providing all employees with effective means of communication is not difficult nowadays, since mobile operators offer tariff plans and services that are beneficial for small, medium and large businesses. The benefits of such an organization of data transmission are very high, so more and more often company managers are abandoning landline telephone communications and switching to mobile ones.

What does corporate mobile communication provide for participants in the work process?

The possibilities of corporate mobile communications are simply enormous; it allows you to reduce the cost of organizing communication between company employees and with clients, since it allows you to choose those tariff plans that are not available to ordinary consumers.

Modern operators place high stakes on the development of small and medium-sized businesses, so even for companies starting out on the market it will not be difficult to choose suitable service packages. Participants in the work process can make calls both within the company and to communicate with clients or partners; they also have access to navigation and mobile Internet services, if provided for by the tariff plan.

What benefits do business leaders receive from corporate communications?

Mobile communications were created not only to improve communication between company employees, but also to simplify business management. Different operators offer different services for calculating tariff plans individually for each employee or for all personnel.

Payment for services is made centrally, which allows managers to always be confident in the availability of the numbers of their subordinates. There are also additional services that allow you to control the location of people, their incoming and outgoing calls. Such services allow you to minimize the use of your phone for personal purposes and increase productivity.

Automatic conversation recording

Corporate mobile communications, which are offered by modern operators, is a very powerful tool for managing the work of all company employees. The package of services provided to subscribers may include recording of telephone conversations.

This service is useful not only for preventing the use of the phone for personal purposes, but also for recording non-standard situations and their further investigation. Listening will help eliminate the likelihood of conflict situations both within the company and in the external environment.

Corporate mobile communications provides the following business benefits:

• Full control of all incoming calls;


• Individual calculation of tariff plans for each employee;


• Possibility of centralized payment of bills;


• Navigation and Internet services;


• Reduced communication costs;


• Increased labor productivity.

Additional mobile services

For corporations that are just starting to build a business, mobile operators offer a service such as virtual telephony. It is a multi-channel phone number on which you can receive several incoming calls simultaneously. This number can be used online, also on landline and mobile phones.

The versatility of this service lies in the fact that it is not tied to a specific location. In the documentation for all authorities, you can leave one phone number and not change it even if the company moves to another location.

Corporate communications as a way to reduce company costs

A high level of control over personnel and all operations they perform over the phone helps to significantly reduce the company’s communication costs. It has been proven that the use of all services provided by providers helps to minimize the use of a work phone for personal purposes, which affects the budget of companies. Also, with the ability to control all employees of the company, the level of labor productivity increases significantly.

Offers for corporations of various sizes at the exhibition

Corporate mobile communications from leading providers will be presented at a specialized exhibition to be held at the Expocentre Fairgrounds in Moscow. The event will be attended by the best modern operators who develop service packages for any business and offer profitable additional services.

Company owners can study the offers and choose the most suitable tariffs for themselves, which will help reduce the cost of communication with employees, clients or partners. Providers have offers for successful and profitable business of any size.

1. How to confirm the validity of expenses for cellular communications.

2. How to register the use of personal phones and SIM cards by employees for business purposes.

3. In what order are cellular communications expenses reflected in accounting and tax accounting?

Expenses for communication services are one of those types of expenses that almost any organization and individual entrepreneur has. Moreover, an increasingly large share of these costs is occupied by cellular communication services. And this is not surprising, because cellular, or mobile, communications allow you to solve work issues much more quickly, and for some workers, using a landline phone is simply impossible. For example, employees with a traveling nature of work, as well as whose work involves frequent business trips, cannot do without mobile phones during their work activities. Therefore, employers are faced with the need to provide their employees with cellular communications, and to do this in a way that takes into account the interests of employees and their own, while avoiding claims from the tax authorities. Read the article on how to do this.

Providing employees with cellular communications is possible in two options:

• Corporate cellular communication: the employer enters into an agreement with the mobile operator, and employees are given SIM cards belonging to the employer for use.

• Reimbursement of employee expenses for cellular communications: each employee enters into an agreement with a mobile operator on his own behalf and uses a personal SIM card for business calls.

The chosen method (or combination thereof), as well as all the essential conditions for the use of cellular communications by employees for business purposes, must be enshrined in local regulations. Such a document could be, for example, Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications.

In tax accounting, expenses for cellular communication services, including the payment of compensation to employees for cellular communication expenses, accepted both for calculating income tax (clause 25, clause 1, article 264), and under the simplified tax system (clause 18, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). As a general rule, expenses for cellular communications must be economically justified and documented. Moreover, the procedure for documenting such expenses directly depends on the method of providing employees with cellular communications.

Corporate cellular communication

To confirm expenses for corporate cellular communications, you will need the following: documentation(Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated June 23, 2011 No. 03-03-06/1/378):

• agreement with a cellular operator;
• invoice for services rendered;
• a list of positions of employees using cellular communications to perform job duties approved by the head of the organization. The specified list of positions can be enshrined in a separate order or specified in the Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications.

In some cases, the following is also required:

• invoice – for VAT taxpayers for the purpose of deducting “input” VAT (clause 1 of Article 172 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• a document confirming payment for the services of a cellular operator - for organizations using the simplified tax system (clause 2 of article 346.17 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

In addition to the listed documents, tax inspectors often request additional documents confirming the economic justification of expenses for cellular communication services:

• job descriptions of employees who use cellular communications, as confirmation that the use of cellular communications is necessary to perform their job duties;
• employment contracts (collective agreement) with employees, which stipulate the conditions for providing cellular communications or provide a link to the relevant local act (Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications);
• details of bills for communication services, which indicate the telephone numbers of all subscribers with whom negotiations were conducted, as confirmation that the negotiations were of a work and not personal nature.

As for detailing bills for cellular communication services, the mandatory nature of such a document is ambiguous. The Ministry of Finance in some letters indicates that detail is required (Letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated January 19, 2009 No. 03-03-07/2, dated June 5, 2008 No. 03-03-06/1/350, dated July 27, 2006 No. 03-03- 04/3/15). However, the courts in most cases do not consider the lack of detail as a basis for not accepting expenses for cellular communications for tax accounting (Resolutions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow Region dated June 22, 2010 No. KA-A40/6056-10, dated January 29, 2010 No. KA-A40/14759-09- 2, FAS PO dated May 23, 2008 in case No. A55-10554/07). Basically, the courts refer to the fact that the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not contain a requirement for mandatory confirmation of communication expenses with a detailed invoice. In addition, the detail contains only telephone numbers, however, it does not reveal the nature and content of the conversation (business or personal).

! Note: If you decide to “hedge yourselves” and confirm the validity of expenses for cellular communication services by detailing the bills, you must keep in mind that if there is detail, it will certainly become the subject of an audit by the tax authorities. That's why the details need not just be attached to the invoice, but actually checked and cut off all personal conversations (that is, fees for them cannot be included in tax expenses). It is advisable to reflect the fact that the details have been verified, for example, by placing a mark on the document itself, indicating the date and signature of the responsible person.

Accounting for phones and SIM cards

With the “corporate” option of providing employees with cellular communications, SIM cards with telephone numbers “linked” to them belong to the employer and are issued to employees for use. However, SIM cards by themselves, as you know, do not work: you need phones (or other devices). And here, as a rule, one of two options is used:

• telephones are purchased by the employer and given to employees for use;
• workers use personal phones. In this case, employees may be paid, or.

A third option is often encountered: the organization does not have its own cell phones, and the use of employees’ personal phones is not formalized in any way. At the same time, cellular communications costs are regularly taken into account based on invoices issued by the operator. In this case, the legality of accepting expenses for cellular communications will most likely be questioned by tax inspectors. However, taxpayers have a chance to prove their case. Firstly, the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not contain a requirement for the mandatory availability of telephones for the recognition of communication expenses (25 clause 1 of Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Secondly, the courts have more than once sided with taxpayers, confirming the legality of accepting expenses for cellular communications for tax accounting even in the absence of telephones (Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the North-West District dated April 24, 2007 in case No. A56-33529/2006; Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow Region dated July 21, 2005 No. KA-A41/6715-05). And yet, in order not to give tax officials an extra reason for complaints, it makes sense to take care of documenting the use of cell phones by employees.

As for SIM cards, the cost of their acquisition may be reflected:

• as part of material expenses (clause 3, clause 1, clause 2, article 254, clause 5, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). If the connection fee is greater than the amount credited to the account as an advance payment, then the difference will be the cost of the SIM card;
• if the entire amount paid upon connection is credited to the account, then the cost of the SIM card is zero, and the paid amount is taken into account as an advance for communication services.

Since SIM cards are the property of the employer and are transferred to employees for temporary use, it is advisable to keep off-balance sheet accounting of SIM cards with analytics on phone numbers and employees.

! Note: The transfer of the SIM card (and phone) to the employee must be documented. For this purpose, you can use the procedure established in the organization for documenting the movement of goods, or develop and approve special forms of primary documents, for example, a log of issuing phones and SIM cards to employees. Documentation of the transfer of SIM cards to employees serves as proof that a specific employee uses a specific telephone number, and if limits on cellular communication expenses are established, this will be the basis for collecting from the employee the amount exceeding the limit.

Setting limits on cell phone spending

If employees are provided with corporate cellular communications, the organization does not have the opportunity to selectively pay the operator for the cost of services: they will have to pay the entire amount indicated in the invoice, which the employees “talked” about. Therefore, in order not to overpay for personal conversations of employees, most often they are set limits on expenses for cellular communications or use an unlimited tariff.

• Unlimited tariff

The unlimited tariff has a significant advantage: you do not need to control the amount of employee expenses, since the fee for communication services is fixed and does not depend on the number and duration of calls (subscription fee). In addition, as the Ministry of Finance explained, paying for cellular communication services at an unlimited tariff does not prevent them from being taken into account for tax purposes (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated June 23, 2011 No. 03-03-06/1/378).

However, in some cases, it is more profitable for organizations to use a time-based tariff, and this, in turn, involves setting limits on cellular communications expenses for employees. If such limits are not set, all the benefits from using a time-based tariff may be canceled out by a large number of “extra” calls and, as a result, “extra” expenses.

• Setting limits

The fact of establishing limits on expenses for cellular communications for employees, as well as the amount of these limits, must be fixed in a separate order of the manager or in the Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications and made known to employees using corporate cellular communications.

Despite the fact that setting limits is primarily an internal measure aimed at disciplining employees, it should be kept in mind that for inspectors the presence of limits means only one thing: costs for cellular communications exceeding these limits are economically unjustified for the organization, and, accordingly, are not accepted for tax accounting purposes.

Of course, communication expense limits set for employees should be as close as possible to actual costs. But even this does not guarantee that the limits will not be exceeded. When employee exceeding the limit established for him costs for cellular communications, the following options are possible:

1. Exceeding the limit is caused by business needs (for example, using cellular communications on a business trip abroad, etc.).

In this case, it makes sense to make a one-time increase in the limit on cellular communications expenses for a specific employee. The increase in the limit must be documented by issuing an appropriate order from the manager (the basis may be a statement or memo from the employee indicating the reasons for the overexpenditure, as well as details of the invoice for communication services confirming the business nature of the calls).

1. Exceeding the limit is not related to the performance of work duties (making personal calls from a work number, etc.).

The fact that the above-limit cellular expenses are indeed personal in nature and not business-related can be confirmed by the itemization of the bill. In this case, the amount exceeding the limit:

• may be contributed by the employee voluntarily or collected from the employee in order to compensate for material damage caused to the employer (Chapter 39 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). With this option, the amount exceeding the limit:
  • is not the employee’s income subject to personal income tax;
  • not subject to insurance premiums;
  • taken into account as other expenses for tax purposes only after reimbursement by the employee. In this case, the amount of compensation paid by the employee (or collected from him) will be taken into account for tax purposes in income (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178).

! Note: the employer does not have the right to produce on his own initiative.

• may be “forgiven” to the employee. The amount of exceeding the limit, which is not reimbursed by the employee and is not collected from him, that is, paid at the expense of the employer:
  • is recognized as the employee’s income in kind and is subject to personal income tax (clause 1 of Article 2010, clause 1 of clause 2 of Article 211 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
  • subject to insurance premiums (clause 1, article 7 of Law No. 212-FZ);
  • is not taken into account in expenses for tax purposes (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178).

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, providing workers with cellular communications can be organized in the form of payment of compensation for cellular communications expenses. As a rule, with this option, compensation includes both payment for the use of employees’ personal cell phones for business purposes and reimbursement of expenses for communication services.

The processing and taxation of compensation for the use of personal cell phones is generally similar to the procedure that applies to any other personal property of employees, such as cars. You can read more about this in the articles: and.

To confirm the validity of compensation for cellular communications costs, the following will be required: documentation(Letters of the Ministry of Finance dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178, Ministry of Health and Social Development dated August 6, 2010 No. 2538-19 (clause 3)):

• a list of positions of employees who use cellular communications to perform job duties approved by the manager;
• employee job description;
• an employment contract or other written agreement between the employer and employee, which establishes the amount and procedure for payment of compensation;
• a copy of the employee’s agreement with the cellular operator;
• a copy of the invoice for communication services, as well as details of the invoice, as confirmation of the “working” nature of the calls.

Compensation for cellular communications costs is usually established:

• in a fixed amount - in terms of compensation for the use of a personal cell phone;
• in the amount of actual expenses or within the established limit - in terms of reimbursement of expenses for cellular communication services.

Documented amount of compensation for employee expenses for cellular communications:

• not subject to personal income tax and insurance contributions (clause 3 of article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, subparagraph “and” clause 2 of part 1 of article 9 of Law No. 212-FZ, Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated 04/20/2015 No. 03-04-06/22274 );
• accepted for profit tax purposes and under the simplified tax system, as expenses for payment for communication services (clause 25, clause 1, article 264, clause 18, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Accounting for cellular expenses

	Credit
Corporate Communications
20 (26, 44)	60	The cost of cellular operator services is reflected (to the extent not exceeding the established limit)
73	60	The cost of cellular operator services is reflected (to the extent that it exceeds the expense limit established for a specific employee)
50 (50, 70)	73	The employee was reimbursed for the excess amount of expenses for cellular communications
91-2	73	The excess amount of expenses for cellular communications is written off as other expenses (in case of non-reimbursement by the employee)
Reimbursement for cell phone expenses
20 (26, 44)	73	Compensation accrued to the employee
73	50 (51)	Compensation paid to employee

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Normative base

1. Tax Code of the Russian Federation
2. Federal Law of July 24, 2009 No. 212-FZ “On insurance contributions to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation, the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund”
3. Letter of the Ministry of Health and Social Development dated 06.08.2010 No. 2538-19
, .

The concept of “corporate communication system” has long been established and entrenched. Moreover, it is so strong that we often stopped even thinking about its semantic (they also say semantic) content. On the eve of the autumn conference “Corporate communication systems - lessons from convergence”, organized by our magazine, we propose to expand our understanding of the communication networks of enterprises and institutions, and at the same time think about further ways of their development and improvement.

And since there are probably as many points of view on corporate networks and systems as there are people involved in them, we considered it reasonable to turn directly to the “primary sources” and find out what meaning the leading Ukrainian experts give to this concept and what the collective mind of humanity thinks about this, called the Internet.

We asked the experts whose opinions are posted in the boxes to concentrate their answers on the definition of the term “corporate communication system” and the directions of its migration at the present time.

ABOUT obviously corporate network - This is, first of all, an enterprise network. Unlike the operator's network or home network. The purpose of these networks is different. At the very least, corporate communication systems are designed to serve enterprise employees and do not provide any services to third-party organizations and citizens (with the possible exception of personal telephone calls and use of the World Wide Web for non-productive purposes). An enterprise can be large or small, profitable or unprofitable, consisting of a single office or many branches in one country or around the world. When is it correct to talk about a corporate network, and when is it not? After all, in a small enterprise on one site we will be dealing with a relatively simple network. And if an enterprise has many geographically distributed branches, then the network can acquire a very complex architecture and developed service capabilities.

To resolve all these doubts, let's turn to the origins. Term "corporation" comes from Latin corporatio - association . Therefore, if an enterprise consists of one office and there is nothing else to combine in it except computers and printers, then there seems to be no need to talk about a corporation.

But let's remember that the concept of “corporate communication system”, or “corporate network” (enterprise network), came to us from the West. Before this, the domestic term “ institutional or industrial communication systems " The appearance in those days of the term UPBX (institutional and industrial automatic telephone exchange) once again indicates that we are talking about enterprise networks.

Intuitively, we all understand somewhere what a corporate network is. But sometimes it is useful to plunge into more subtle philological and linguistic areas. After all, the hour is uneven and it may turn out that many concepts are used by us only because “everyone says so,” nothing more, and their innermost meaning has long been lost.

In this regard, we will try to understand the etymology of the term “corporate communication network”. What is a corporation? The Internet provides many definitions of a corporation. Let's choose the most interesting ones.

Corporation [Latin corporatio - association, community] - a form of organization of business activity that provides for shared ownership of participants, independent legal status and concentration of management functions in the hands of professional managers (managers) working for hire. There are public and private corporations.

This is probably the simplest and most accessible definition. Here's one more thing though.

Corporation (legal) is a general name for many types of unions that have an internal organization that unites the members of the union into one whole, which is the subject of rights and obligations, a legal entity. The expressive force of the corporation's will is the general meeting of its members, and the executive body is the board. There are public and private law corporations. The first include territorial unions, for example, urban, rural communities, local class unions; the second includes trade unions, commercial and industrial societies, etc., operating on the basis of special charters.

The legal definition expands quite well on the previous one.

A corporation (in social psychology) is an organized group characterized by isolation, maximum centralization and authoritarian leadership, opposing itself to other social communities on the basis of its narrowly individualistic and narrow group interests. Interpersonal relationships in a corporation are mediated by asocial and often antisocial value orientations. The personalization of an individual in a corporation is carried out through the depersonalization of other individuals.

It needs to be twisted like this. It sounds like an indictment from a prosecutor (God forbid).

So, a corporation is an association. Moreover, the association of companies, branches, structural divisions and even employees of one enterprise. In other words, corporate network - really a synonym enterprise networks .

Here I would like to make an important caveat. In everyday practice we often talk about enterprise-scale networks, divisions or department. It is understood that various technical solutions, equipment and software are used for such networks. Note: this is a slightly different terminological layer that does not intersect with the subject of this article.

Corporate communication network

Having decided on the concept of a corporation, let’s move on to communication networks .

Communication network - a set of terminal devices (communication terminals) united by information transmission channels and switching devices (network nodes) that ensure the exchange of messages between all terminal devices.

However, it would not be entirely correct to talk about the communication network as a whole and not mention the type of information transmitted over this network. Ultimately, all existing networks are designed to transmit a certain type (or several types) of information. Enterprises most often build local area networks (LANs) and telephone networks, each of which uses its own hardware resources.

At the same time, the idea of ​​convergence, having captured the minds of engineers and equipment developers, gathered around itself advocates of comprehensive integration. The brainchild of this idea was multiservice networks, built on the winning concept of using packet networks to transmit multimedia traffic. Therefore, when talking about a corporate network, you should clarify what type of information will be transmitted on this network - data, voice, video traffic, etc. By the way, the concept of a corporate network is closely related to the idea of ​​systems integration, as an integrated approach to automating the design, production and creation of (corporate) information networks, requiring the solution of technical problems and the implementation of organizational measures.

Large corporate communication systems unite geographically distributed divisions or branches of an enterprise. But if there is only one branch, this is just a simpler, degenerate case. In this case, a corporate network can be intended for data transmission, voice, or be multi-service. It is obvious that the services available on branch networks (Internet, e-mail, voice mail, telephony, file transfer, etc.) must be fully implemented in the corporate communication network. Otherwise, it is hardly true to say that the corporate network fully possesses this or that functionality.

So, the result of researching the issue can be a definition that incorporates the points of view of experts, and opinions borrowed from the Internet, and one’s own reasoning, namely:

A corporate network (also known as a departmental network) is a communication network used to transmit various types of information within a company or group of companies (corporation) and is not used to provide commercial communication services to third-party organizations and individuals. Such networks are deployed both on the basis of their own infrastructure and using resources provided by telecommunications operators.

What should a corporate communication network be like?

Why does an enterprise need a communication network at all? The question is rhetorical. Probably in order to provide employees of the enterprise with the opportunity perform your duties productively . This is especially true in the presence of an aggressive competitive environment. A high-quality communication system increases labor productivity through the implementation of a wide range of various services, as well as by ensuring the effective functioning of the enterprise’s information infrastructure.

Architecture And possibilities corporate network depends on the tasks assigned to it, on the size of the enterprise and the specifics of its activities, as well as on the prospects for further expansion. Currently, the corporate network of a small enterprise contains, as a rule, one or two components - telephone and data transmission. Moreover, telephone services can be provided directly through a local telecommunications operator (without installing a PBX), and computers are connected to a small local network with Internet access in any available way.

We see that telephony And data transfer in small enterprises they are initially separated. As the enterprise grows, each network evolves, but remains independent of each other. PBX is added, servers and databases, firewalls and call centers appear. But voice still (for the time being) remains separated from data transmission.

Proponents of unification will rightly note that there are many solutions for small SOHO-level enterprises that involve the use of IP channels for both telephony and data transmission. Indeed, such solutions can be quite effective, for example, when organizing a remote office. But we will come to this issue a little later.

Despite the well-known conservatism of employees of technical departments of enterprises, the principles convergence , the use of a single medium to transmit heterogeneous traffic is finding more and more adherents. But are all enterprises ready to implement a single multiservice network? Most likely the answer will be no. And, by and large, this is not a question at all. After all, often an enterprise has already built two separate networks, each based on traditional native architecture and equipment. In most cases, there is no talk of using a single IP environment for voice and data transmission within an enterprise. To make such a decision there must be either sufficiently significant economic arguments , or arguments of a different kind - convenience, savings on maintenance, anything else.

Enterprise networks of the future

If we are talking only about data transmission and telephony services, then we ourselves are undoubtedly in captivity of old paradigms. After all, the list of services that can be organized and provided to subscribers of a corporate network is much wider. It is worth recalling video conferencing systems, a single universal mailbox (Unified Messaging), and the DECT microcellular communication system. Currently, the issue of convergence of mobile and fixed communication services is quite acute, especially since many manufacturers offer such solutions both at the operator and corporate levels (see publications in SIB, 2006, No. 4, p. 78 - 81, “New Horizons of Corporate Communications”, as well as “SiB”, 2006, No. 4, pp. 82–85, “FMC, or the New Paradigm of the Convergence Era”). After some time, it will be appropriate to talk about the use of Wi MAX in corporate networks.

The corporate network of the future is an integrated environment that provides various types of services - traditional data transmission, telephony, video conferencing and video broadcasting, access control, security and video surveillance. Necessary components of a corporate network are mobile access tools and advanced data transmission security tools.

When discussing the feasibility of certain solutions proposed by manufacturers, first of all we should talk about the possibility and efficiency of fulfilling the production tasks that the enterprise faces. It is obvious that the problems solved in different sectors of the economy differ from each other. Therefore, communication networks of regional power companies, railways, banks, and government bodies have their own characteristics. At a certain stage, when the enterprise becomes sufficiently large and cumbersome, proposals for the creation of joint multiservice networks transmitting multimedia traffic. When the future begins to knock on the door more and more insistently, it is quite appropriate to build multi-service corporate next generation networks . In this case, the enterprise creates a single network designed to transmit heterogeneous traffic. Processing each type of traffic, as one would expect, falls on specialized systems, often traditional computing resources (servers) with appropriate software. In this case, data traffic is confined to servers and databases. Voice traffic will be consolidated into an IP PBX. Video traffic - on video conferencing servers. It's not surprising that specialized application servers will be deployed to handle different types of traffic.

Technologies do not stand still, and creative thought cannot be stopped at all. Time will pass, and traditional ways of organizing corporate communications systems will be replaced by more modern ones, ensuring the deployment of a whole range of new services and new applications. These solutions will pave the way to the hearts of business leaders and IT departments. The victory of new generation multiservice networks will be determined, first of all, by the prospects that they will open up for business. In this case, the cost of the solution will no longer play a decisive role. After all, the advantage of replacing a bicycle with a car was once also questioned. But time has made its own adjustments. Because the new opportunities provided by modern communication systems will be an order of magnitude higher than those offered today.

Who doubts that time is the most powerful innovation factor?

Vladimir SKLYAR

“...A promising direction of development modern communication systems are unified communications..."

A modern corporate communication system today consists of a universal network infrastructure and intelligent services that guarantee the effective integration of communication systems and enterprise business processes. The versatility of the infrastructure allows you to increase the speed of information exchange through the use of the most suitable transmission medium. A promising direction in the development of modern communication systems is unified communications. Within this system, users themselves can choose a convenient mode and format for their interaction at the moment. The system is characterized by a high degree of flexibility and provides users with the ability to switch between communication channels, i.e., a “transparent” transition from one communication application to another directly during the communication process, regardless of the location of the users and the devices used. The unified communications system allows employees to communicate with each other in real time, as well as exchange information through multimedia communication channels, for example, using video telephony systems, audio and web conferencing, IP telephony, voice and email messaging, fax communications, etc. At the same time, employees use all of the above types of communication in a single, unified and natural format, which does not require additional training or development of specialized skills.

“...Give us a connection, and that’s it...”

The very concept of “corporate communication system” has not undergone any significant transformations and, as before, implies a set of technical, organizational, technical and organizational solutions and measures to ensure sustainable management of corporate forces and assets, as well as interaction with other structures through their corporate communication networks and/or public communication networks. Naturally, each word from this definition acquires its own specific content in life for any specific organization. But the essence has remained the same since time immemorial and neatly fits into the slogan “GIVE CONTACT!” For developers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment, two aspects are important in determining development trends: the direction of technology development and the development path of consumers of these technologies, which, among other things, determines in what volumes and proportions the latest and existing technologies will be in demand by the market. I would like to outline the trends in the development of corporations - consumers of telecommunications technologies - by highlighting several areas for the Ukrainian market. The first group includes corporations that are “young” in age and not burdened with the technological communications equipment of previous generations. They, as a rule, do not have specific requirements for the principles of building a corporate network, but are quite open to the introduction of the latest technologies and, what is not unimportant, are ready for this, including in terms of the level of qualifications of their technical staff. The second direction is represented by corporations that have a certain “life” experience, but which today are experiencing a period of significant reorganization and the introduction of new technologies in their core activities, which is naturally accompanied by a significant modernization of the corporate communication network. In the third direction, corporations are moving that do not undergo any fundamental reorganization of the management system, but within the framework of the existing organizational and technical structure of communications, they are gradually replacing morally and physically outdated equipment with an increase in the level of communications services provided. Here, as a special vector, we can single out corporations whose communication system is strictly integrated into the existing management system, which determines sufficient conservatism in the organizational and technical principles of building networks and regulating the provision of communication services. These are, first of all, the so-called natural monopolies (enterprises of the mining and metallurgical complexes, railway transport, etc.), as well as law enforcement agencies. Traditionally, in such corporations, among the main requirements for communication are its guarantee and reliability. It is with regret that we have to mention the fourth direction, since this is not a direction at all, but a dead end in which there are corporations that objectively feel the need to modernize the communication network, but... I think that the skill of each telecommunications equipment manufacturer lies in correctly determining the direction of development of a particular corporate network and having in its portfolio equipment that can meet the requirements of each potential customer.

“...Corporate communication system as a set of interconnected constituent elements..."

A modern corporate communication system includes the following interconnected components: a single unified network infrastructure (usually based on Ethernet/IP) for transmitting all types of information (data, voice, video); flexible, adaptive, multi-level mechanism for prioritizing various types of data in all parts of the network; an intelligent security system with tools for analyzing transmitted multimedia data at all levels of the network hierarchy with the ability to quickly adapt when new types of threats (attacks) appear; close, “seamless” integration of terminal hardware devices (telephones, video cameras, wireless headsets) with multimedia communication applications at the user’s workplace; the ability for the user to initiate any type of communication (voice, video, short messages, collaboration with applications, etc.) directly from his workplace in any combination, with simple, random access to statistics (history) for each type of communication, the ability working with a single address book of the enterprise; availability of all types of communications in full anywhere in the corporate network and anywhere where there is Internet access; close, intuitive integration of communication tools with automated systems for planning, management, and interaction with customers. At the same time, the migration of modern communication systems occurs in the direction of the communication systems described above. The new things that have appeared on the market lately meet this trend (unified communications, the introduction of SIP, the widespread transition to IP).

“...Corporate communication systems are developing towards convergence of services..."

The corporate communication system is one of the main systems that ensures the functionality of the business of any company. It must solve several key tasks, namely: increase the efficiency of employees by optimizing interaction between them and providing effective means of communication; improve the quality of interaction with the company’s clients, ensuring high-quality processing and distribution of external calls; and reduce operating costs through the use of IP solutions, effective controls and minimizing downtime. A modern corporate communication system today is not just a telephone system and a data network. Such a system should be an integrated environment aimed at solving all communication problems of users, regardless of their location (inside or outside the office) and the available means of communication at their disposal. Corporate communications systems are evolving towards the convergence of services and the provision of new communication capabilities that become available to users. These are video conferencing, collaboration on documents, real-time availability indication, etc. As many companies increasingly employ employees working away from offices, the demands on enterprise mobility capabilities are increasing. Convergence of communication services in action may look like the ability to use all business telephone functions (dialing an internal office subscriber by name, call forwarding, conference calling, etc.) available in the office on a desktop device, also from a mobile phone outside the office over GSM or Wi Fi network; or access to corporate email and colleagues' availability status both from a web browser and using a communicator device while traveling, and so on. The Internet and distributed corporate networks are today's business environment, so security requirements are of primary importance due to the ever-increasing number of online threats. Reliability, resiliency, and network optimization for reliable operation of business applications are also critical requirements. Alcatel-Lucent this year proposed a new approach to organizing the enterprise communications environment. This approach allows you to select and implement the solutions needed to solve the communication problems of individual employees based on user profiles. Such a profile includes information about the employee’s mobility requirements (whether mobility is required within the office, outside the office, with access to telephony and data services), as well as the degree of collaboration (interaction, teamwork) with colleagues that the user needs. This approach allows you to implement communication solutions on a modular basis and directly evaluate their effectiveness.

“...Employee of a modern corporation must receive all services, no matter where he is..."

The essence of any modern technology is the ability and ability to migrate. This also applies to communication systems. From large, heavy and very expensive hardware with the manufacturer’s oath of “investment protection” and the ability to modernize - to lightweight and flexible solutions. The only thing that has not been established is the approach: many multi-tasking systems under one management and control, or one “multi-tasking combine”. An employee of a modern corporation should receive all services, regardless of where he is located. In other words, the modern corporate communication system is invariant with respect to time and space. And the migration path can be traced by the behavior of communication equipment manufacturers. Who, if not them, keeps their nose to the wind? Even the largest players in the telecommunications business attach great importance not to hardware components (after all, production is now usually located in the countries of Southeast Asia), but to the variety of software applications and the unification of these same hardware products. Surely, the secret dream of manufacturers is to sell licenses to turn a “piece of iron” into a phone, switch, router or computer, thereby relieving the ballast of hardware production. A unified device would be the most acceptable solution, be it a telephone exchange or a telephone set.

“...Flexibly and quickly provide "ever-increasing" business needs of the company..."

Today, scientific and technological progress, especially in the field of IT technologies, is proceeding at an extremely rapid pace. And whatever function we are trying to identify as an indicator that the communication system in question is modern, a new, more modern function or technology appears. Communication systems are developing very quickly. So I would still be tied to the business needs of the corporation. That is, a communication system can be considered modern if it allows you to flexibly and quickly solve all the “continuously growing” problems of the company’s business. Regarding the directions of migration of corporate communication systems, you won’t get off with just one phrase. It is difficult to answer this question objectively, because the information I have is based on communication with those respected Customers who contact Avaya specifically. And those who come to us are those who need the kind of functionality that Avaya is famous for. But, nevertheless, I will try to highlight some trends... 1. Almost all large corporations want to have not a network of disparate subsystems (what we lovingly call a “zoo”), but a single, geographically distributed telecommunications system. Such a system is easier to monitor, administer, ensure security, license, scale, increase functionality, etc., etc. It is more flexible and allows for quick reconfiguration to suit the company's changing business conditions. Just yesterday we were proud of our unified systems, consisting of only 7 divisions spread throughout Ukraine. And today some of our unified communication systems already number more than 200. Imagine the scale of the problem if, for example, you want to update a system of separate PBXs of similar size. If there are 250 working days in a year, then this is at least a year. In our case (when the system is single), such a procedure will take only a few minutes. 2.Integration of fixed and mobile communications. The pace of scientific and technological progress today can only be compared with the rate of growth in real estate prices. Therefore, more and more companies are allowing their employees to work from home. Constant traffic jams are an additional stimulating factor in this process. Where is the right specialist located? In the office, at home or in a traffic jam. Where to look for it? It’s convenient when “intelligent” technology takes care of this, and not the respected Customer. A single entry/search point is both convenient and cost-effective. 3. Those functions that we proudly called “Operator Center” a year ago are now requested by nine out of ten Customers. Almost all companies strive to please their Clients with a high level of service. 4.Universalization and open standards. IT systems are becoming more and more complex, and the degree of their mutual integration is becoming deeper. It’s convenient when you can use a regular analog phone to read your email and even respond to letters. But for this it is necessary to connect various subsystems (in this case, the PBX and the email server) into a single whole. If each of the subsystems operates according to its own unique protocols, the problem has no solution.

“...Communication as a control system module business processes of the enterprise..."

In my opinion, it is quite difficult to give an unambiguous definition of modern corporate communications, since this concept includes many aspects. From a technological point of view, this is, first of all, a converged voice transmission system. If we take the exact translation from the English word “convergence”, then it means “convergence, convergence” - meaning, many technologies - for their joint and simultaneous use. That is, not the replacement of all previous ones with one, for example VoI P, but the coexistence and joint use by the customer of any available technologies in any combination to achieve one goal - high-quality and reliable communication. From a functionality point of view, it is a flexibly expandable and manageable system that allows you to smoothly increase functionality, introduce new services (for example, conferences) and types of communication (in particular, video). Ideologically, it is a company management tool. The same part of a company’s business processes as, for example, CRM or ERP. From a material point of view, a corporate communications system is a complex of (often) expensive equipment designed to maximize the return on investment made in it. Finally, if we talk about aesthetics, then this is a bunch of telephones on tables that can completely ruin the design of the room. I said “finally,” but this list can be continued indefinitely, because there are many other requirements: for reliability, security/security and others, which have always been there, but in the conditions of modern complex converged networks are becoming more acute. As a manager, I am primarily interested in the possibilities of corporate communications as a module of a certain enterprise business process management system, where the communication system appears on an equal basis with other software and hardware modules. This approach is already clearly visible in the solutions of leading manufacturers, and in particular, it is very clearly reflected, for example, in the CEBP (Communications Enabled Business Processes) concept from Avaya. The point is that previously the communication system was considered either separately from everything else, or as a transport for transmitting information within a corporation. A modern communication system can, receiving information from an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, automatically make calls, send notifications, hold conferences, etc. It is clear that in such solutions there is a large share of software, and the hardware platform is being standardized and gradually unified.

Regardless of what operators say, mobile communications for corporate clients involves the use of existing tariff options. Designed, of course, wisely. But - for segments and categories of consumers. Aimed at “pulling up” customer expectations to existing tariff scales. And not vice versa. And in fact, they are not always able to meet the needs of enterprises. The current practice, in principle, does not imply the possibility of creating individual tariff solutions that fully take into account the specifics of clients’ business.

Mobile communications for corporate business from Gars Telecom is a fundamentally different approach to solving client problems. Gars Telecom is the only telecom studio on the market with unique experience in implementing non-standard projects. We do not depend on conventions and frameworks imposed by tariff schedules, as well as other conditions and conventions. Mobile communications according to the rules of the client's game - come to us!

Possibilities

Development of individual solutions for providing mobile communications to enterprises

Unlimited communication between employees within the corporate mobile network

Personal conditions for each employee of the enterprise, taking into account the profile of the use of mobile services, geography of communication, status and other indicators

Internet traffic for mobile devices at special prices

We will help you predict and subsequently easily and transparently manage your company’s communication expenses

Advantages

The entire territory of the Russian Federation

Network bandwidth – more than 1 Tbit/s

Personal manager is the prerogative of each client

"Star" technical support and service

Additionally

Mobile information – a tool for sending SMS messages to your client base

M2M solutions – a set of services for monitoring and interaction of devices without human intervention (vehicle fleet control, personnel control, remote collection of information from energy metering devices and other telemetry capabilities)

Online conferences and webinars for enterprises with an extensive network of offices and a partner/client network.