Slow on the uptake
CRN reveals the reasons why customers are holding back when it comes to adopting IP convergence, despite its benefits
We know that the convergence of voice, data and video networks into a single, unified IP infrastructure will deliver business, financial and technical benefits to your customers, but why are your customers slow to adopt convergence?
One of the reasons for the slow uptake is that IP convergence (IPC) requires a change in the way your customers do business. For example, separate funding for voice, data and video may not be contained in a single budget.
But the main reasons for not taking up IPC, as stated in a recent survey, were cost and the lack of identifiable business benefits.
The survey was commissioned by Omnetica and conducted in March. One hundred and fifty senior IT decision makers in companies across business areas including manufacturing, finance, utilities, retail/distribution and the public sector, were questioned on IPC-related topics.
So for your customers to state cost as the number-one reason for not adopting IPC indicates that it is being compared with the functionality of a traditional PBX, and for the lack of identifiable business benefits to be number two underlines that vendors are not educating the channel, or the end-user, on the return on investment and total cost of ownership that IPC brings.
As a business tool, it can help improve business continuity, increase workforce effectiveness, extend the enterprise and enhance customer care.
It also is a key element in enabling organisations to develop into converged, agile real-time enterprises, which is a growing priority for organisations across all sectors.
These results are clearly a wake-up call for the industry to clarify to buyers the true potential and business benefits of this technology.
The lack of understanding and confusion about these benefits is further compounded by the fact that companies tend to buy solutions on a tactical basis, rather than as part of a coherent strategy.
For example, mobilising the workforce is moving further up the business agenda, with 21 per cent having implemented a mobile solution to date and a further 46 per cent planning to do so over the next year.
However, there is a danger that companies are implementing these solutions on a tactical basis, rather than as part of a fully converged mobility strategy that includes personal productivity tools and takes into account the wider business issues, such as business continuity.
Surprisingly, the results for the uptake and planned uptake of storage over IP indicated that this is really moving up the agenda in terms of a solution that can solve business-critical issues.
Forty-four per cent of respondents are in the process of implementing storage over IP, rising to 74 per cent over the next three years.
This is a clear indication that users are beginning to realise the benefits of storage over IP, whether from the flexibility that IP storage brings to the network or from the fast and constant access and retrieval of mission-critical information.
However, despite the planned uptake of IP storage solutions, these figures need to be analysed carefully. IP storage is a new technology and its uptake does not necessarily support current market activity. It could be taken as a further indication of the confusion surrounding the market.
There are a number of key stages a company can employ to harness the benefits of a fully converged solution. These have been broken down into eight major elements. These are: IP voice trunking; IP telephony; personal productivity; contact centres; conferencing over IP; mobilising the workforce; storage on IP; integration/networking and middleware.
The Omnetica survey asked each company how many of the eight elements they had completed, which ones they were and the timescales for their implementation. The results are reflected in the figure on bottom right.
To see the illustrations associated with this report please click here.
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