Voice & data still separate

Almost one fifth of the UK's largest businesses do not see any benefits in voice and data convergence, with nearly half having not yet implemented convergence strategies.

Resisting telcos that are keen to sell additional services, 46 per cent of the 200 businesses surveyed by international carrier, Global One, said there are no convergence voice and data communications in their organisations.

But this figure is expected to drop by 35 per cent in the next two to three years.

Of the 54 per cent who said there was some convergence, 36.5 per cent had voice and data in the backbone but carried to the desktop separately, while 11.5 per cent had voice and data combined from the backbone to the desktop.

Respondents believed benefits include lower communications costs, greater operational efficiency and better customer service.

Interestingly, telecoms managers felt that they will become more involved with IT issues while IT managers did not foresee much change in their telecommunications dealings.

About 46 per cent of staff implementing large scale convergence strategies did not believe they had the skills required. Larger companies, and those with high telecoms spend, were more likely to have adequately-trained staff, as were those in finance and business sectors. Just over half of those using voice-data convergence are using 10/100mbps ethernet and 18 per cent are using ATM.

60 per cent of respondents believed their board did not have sufficient understanding of convergence's technical issues.

Nonetheless, corporates are aiming for combined voice and data on the desktop, as well as in the backbone, within the next two to three years.

The main inhibitors include cost, and a lack of recognition of the benefits of convergence.

See feature page 35.