What’s the truth about migrating to IP telephony?   Finding the right partner that delivers IP telephony without sacrificing flexibility, reliability, security, and interoperability-all while leveraging existing investments-is the key.   Deploying IP telephony enables a globally distributed enterprise to communicate and to operate as one integrated entity. This allows new business models to emerge that increase productivity and speed business change, all on a single network. The question for any business is how to implement this critical technology.   One approach preserves a company's infrastructure investment. Another builds it from scratch. It's important to support either path while protecting a company's investment. The challenge for IT managers is to leverage existing applications, user-training, and infrastructure investments while deploying new solutions that will meet their future needs.    IT managers trying to make the right choice, at the right pace, about IP telephony need facts-not confusing terms and competing claims. The truth is, decisions are driven by how applications and capabilities match business needs while meeting IT requirements for reliability, security, interoperability, and manageability.   The IP telephony market has coalesced around a common architecture consisting of open servers, highly distributed gateways that connect IP and traditional elements, and a broad range of new access devices, including IP phones, wireless phones, softphones, PDAs, and more.    Consolidated Technologies, Inc. (CTI) provides "stepping-stone" choices for IP-enabling existing PBXs, allowing customers to get started at low risk and cost. All these choices provide flexibility in supporting an organization's path to IP telephony.   Playing Games With Words Don't be thrown off track by the name game. Terms such as client server telephony, telephony-enabled LAN, pure IP telephony, converged telephony, and LAN telephony all describe the same fundamental, distributed IP telephony architecture. Simply put, CTI supports both distributed (client-server) IP telephony and IP-enabled PBXs without forcing customers to compromise on either approach.   For example, MultiVantage Communications Applications from Avaya can be tailored to match specific feature sets, whether they require IP telephony and contact centers or full-blown business continuity. Similarly, Avaya has the right hardware for any job, including S8700 Media Servers for large enterprises and IP Office for small to midsize operations. And thanks to the CTI network of highly trained professionals, customers are never forced to make any decision-from the smallest to the largest-on their own. CTI is always there to listen and advise.   CTI offers its customers unmatched freedom and flexibility, whether they want to roll out IP telephony as rapidly as possible or pace themselves so they can preserve their infrastructure investment and slowly migrate business processes. .