VoIP goes beyond economical phone calls to enable supply chain communication

VoIP phones with XML readers bring new capabilities to manufacturing businesses.

Manufacturing Business Technology - March 2006

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems, which connect via the Internet rather than wire lines, will become the infrastructure of choice as communication devices multiply to include phones, e-mail, computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs); as well as collaboration technologies such as Web conferencing, according to Framingham, Mass.-based IDC.

For most users, the entry point to this technology is the IP phone, but its usefulness goes far beyond low-cost phone calls, says Grant Opperman, president of supply chain logistics consulting and services firm D.W. Morgan, Pleasanton, Calif. "When [Cisco Systems, Avaya, or Nortel] go to make a sale, they do it on the merit of the phones. They are flexible, easier, and cheaper than traditional phones, but built into the screen on the phones is an XML reader. That makes it a base for using Web services."

That combination of VoIP and Web services—the open standards-based mini-applications that exchange data via the Web—turns the VoIP phone into the 21st century version of the "thin client," says Opperman. "The whole thin-client vision was a terminal on employee desktops with the guts of the computer in a central spot. That's exactly what the VoIP phone is. It gets information from servers, can use applications, and send information."

Cisco is moving into this space with its Demand-Driven Supply Chain (DDSC) solutions—a blend of hardware, software, and security products that support, secure, and integrate IP-based communications with other applications. The heart of DDSC is the integrated services router (ISR), which "squashes the functionality that used to require three or four separate boxes into one, and makes it affordable," says Scott Westlake, marketing director, Cisco.

D.W. Morgan partnered with Cisco to bring the potential of IP telephony to the supply chain.

"What Cisco has done with the ISR is game-changing," says Opperman. "They have put all the stuff [necessary for integration] into one box that can be configured here."

Robot maker Adept Technology, Livermore, Calif., is adopting Internet-based communication incrementally, starting not with IP phones, but with DDSC. Adept outsourced its logistics and transportation management to D.W. Morgan, which installed Cisco ISRs at all of Adept's facilities, and those of many of its supply chain partners. Now transaction records are entered into Adept's systems via the Cisco DDSC network, and everyone in the supply chain has access to the data in real time.

In the next phase of the Adept implementation, D.W. Morgan will enable the ISRs' wireless functions so any Adept employee with a wireless device can access the system. VoIP phones are in Adept's future as well.

When asked why, if supply chain information is available on a computer or PDA, anyone would need it on the phone, Opperman replies, "The phone is to applications on the computer what instant messaging is to e-mail—a quick and dirty way to get information. An IP phone gives you quick information without having to fire up your computer."