Cisco IP Telephony Enables KPMG Consulting to Improve Productivity and Reduce Costs

April 1, 2001

With analysts predicting 2001 to be the year Canadian organizations rapidly embrace Internet protocol (IP) telephony as a business necessity, KPMG Consulting in Toronto is well ahead of the game. KPMG Consulting is one of the world's largest consulting companies, providing business and technology strategy, systems design and architecture, applications implementation, network and systems integration, and related services.

The Toronto office of KPMG Consulting is the first KPMG Consulting office in the world to fully implement IP telephony, having installed 375 IP phones from Cisco Systems Canada at its newly built premises last year. The IP implementation has increased employee mobility, reduced costs, simplified system administration, and has positioned KPMG Consulting to introduce new integrated services such as unified messaging.

According to recent studies, organizations throughout North America are set to embrace IP telephony. Toronto-based market research firm IDC Canada has revised an earlier IP forecast predicting that the voice/data market wouldn't go much beyond an extremely early adoption phase.

Another study by Parsippany, N.J.-based The Phillips Group InfoTech reveals 17 per cent of U.S. businesses began the implementation of IP LAN telephony in 2000 to replace or transform their existing phone systems - up 30 per cent than previously anticipated. That number is expected to jump to 80 per cent within four years.

When KPMG Consulting's Toronto office began construction of new facilities in early 2000, the company chose to replace its PBX environment with an IP alternative. KPMG Consulting quickly turned to Cisco Systems Canada to move the project forward.

The goals were many. KPMG Consulting wanted to empower employees through added phone features such as visual call waiting, simple conference bridge set-up, and the ability to become more mobile in their daily jobs. Further, IP telephony promised to save both time and money through simplified system administration, "zero cost" phone moves, better use of available bandwidth, and the elimination of third-party conference services.

Perhaps the most important advantage of IP telephony to KPMG Consulting was the ability for the company to plan for the future. With voice, data and video traveling over one network, KPMG Consulting could enable new integrated services such as broadcast-quality audio, real-time voice-data collaboration, video telephony, and managed data, voice and video services.

Finally, by becoming an early adopter of IP telephony, the Toronto office would become a showcase for customers contemplating the technology for their own organizations. According to IDC Canada, more than 50 per cent of the Canadian business market will migrate from traditional PBX to IP/LAN telephony communications systems by 2005.

"We realized the advantages of IP telephony early on and are eager to share the benefits with our customers," says Mattell. "Many of our customers have visited our site and were very impressed with the call quality and reliability of the Cisco system."

During construction of the new Toronto office, Cisco IP phones were installed in all employees' offices as well as in the mailroom, meeting rooms and reception area. KPMG Consulting hasn't looked back since the Cisco IP solution went live in April 2000, with both users and customer touting the high quality and clarity of regular phone calls and conference calls.

IP telephony has enhanced KPMG Consulting's hoteling work environment and provided support for mobile employees. Because the IP phone always maintains its own personality, it can be moved from desk to desk, LAN to LAN, or building to building without back office support (providing there are accessible data jacks available). Gone are the PBX days when moving a phone involved reconfiguring the wires, system configuration or administrative access to the phone set. IP telephony not only reduces the requirement for technical support staff but also improves end-user satisfaction and productivity by encouraging self-service.

IP telephony has also simplified system administration at KPMG Consulting. While modern digital PBXs and even Centrex offerings have improved graphical user interface (GUI) administration interfaces, they still require specialists or maintenance contracts for support. IP telephony is more likely to employ a Web interface for administration, which means the solution can be supported part-time by LAP support or clerical personnel. By simplifying the configuration, customers can reduce costs significantly.

Mattell claims that KPMG Consulting can now extend the wide-area connectivity of its IP telephony solution by connecting the IP telephones in Toronto with the IP telephones at its four Broadband Solution Centres located around North America, with eventual rollout to the Broadband Centres in the U.K. and Asia. While traditional PBXs are premises-based solutions usually limited to a building or campus, IP solutions stretch these geographical boundaries by making use of KPMG Consulting's data network. The call processor servers of an IP solution can be easily distributed and support IP phones and PSTN gateways across a campus, city, nation or global network. This lowers support and capital costs by reducing the number of discrete voice call processors needed in the organization. The result: fast, easy and less expensive collaboration between consultants, architects and developers worldwide.

Future plans call for the rollout of IP telephony to all KPMG Consulting offices across Canada and possibly to their employees' homes, once a broadband VPN solution is in place. "IP telephony is real and it works," says Mattell. "It's the future of communications and we're proud to be an early adopter of network convergence. With Cisco as our technology partner, KPMG Consulting can continue to build a strong consulting practice based on New World opportunities."