Discussion Questions

Riordan Manufacturing phone systems vary from each location. The corporate headquarters is in San Jose, California and that location along with the Hangzhou, China location uses Voice Over Internet Protocol as their telephone systems. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a process that will take information the way current data systems transfer the information in an audible format. The VoIP digitizes the analog voice and then shrinks the data and applies it to packets (Dodd, 2005). An organization that uses a VoIP system may benefit by greatly by combining the operations of VoIP with their current employees because the voice data is handled similarly as other data (Dodd, 2005). Additional advantages include the compatibility of existing networks, and geographic independence.

The disadvantages that surround business interested in VoIP systems are surrounded by uncertainty because of the way business is conducted today. Such as email contracts, phones conversations all of the technology that a business comes in contact with on a daily basis. Those difficulties include; security, reliability, durability, and cost (Dodd, 2005). The concern of others being able to hack into an organization’s network is a reality in conducting business and therefore, it is a concern about VoIP being hacked as well. Similarly how a hacker would be able compromise the network, network failure could also occur. Having a strong and sound network would be essential for a business to operate this type of system. Among the rest of the hindering factors, an organization may not be able to afford the cost to replace an old system with VoIP.

The other two Riordan locations, Albany, GA and Pontiac, MI, use a Private Branch Exchange phone system. A PBX system will support a business that may have 100 extensions to reach for the cost of about ten phone trunks from a telephone company. A trunk is defined as a path from a telephone system to a central office. This is considered an advantage of...