By Carolyn Duffy Marsan
Network World, 09/24/01

Enum is not expected to add significantly to the cost of IP telephony products, with it likely being deployed as a software upgrade.

"With voice over IP, the whole value proposition is that you save money at the end of the day," says Lori Whitted, vice president of business development for VeriSign Global Registry Services of Dulles, Va.  "It may be that your IP PBX costs a little more with Enum, but you should be getting a return on that investment."

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Alcatel plans to offer Enum support in its enterprise-class IP PBX as soon as service providers start supporting the technology, says Jim Pilgrim, an engineer with Alcatel. Alcatel's OmniPCX 4400 currently uses directory services based on Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Customers include Software AG, Computer Associates and Hyatt Hotels.

"We're working on alpha software that does the LDAP-to-Enum conversion," Pilgrim says, adding that he doubts Alcatel will charge an extra fee for that software.

Service providers expect to charge a nominal fee - estimates range from $6 to $10 per year - for each phone number registered in an Enum database. Usage of that Enum registration likely would be unlimited, but providers would charge extra for additions, changes and deletions to Enum registrations.

Even with such fees, users should come out ahead because of hassle-free voice-over-IP management, asserts Doug Ranalli, founder and chief strategy officer at Enum service provider NetNumber of Lowell, Mass.

Companies with multiple offices must often roll out multiple call managers to route calls, he says. Every time the company needs to make a change to an employee's telephone number or e-mail address, that change must be made on all the call managers. A shared, global directory - that is, an Enum service - streamlines this process, he says.

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