The recently announced partnership between Telkom and 3Com SA will spawn a host of new LAN Telephony solutions for private consumers and result in one of the most significant shifts in business communications yet seen in South Africa.
This is the view of 3Com general manager (sub-Saharan Africa), Buddie Ceronie, who says 3Com intends to bring a range of new-generation telecommunications solutions to Telkom customers in South Africa.
He says 3Com`s recent acquisition of NBX Corp, a US-based developer of network-based telephony systems, has placed 3Com at the forefront of the LAN telephony arena and honed its expertise in the field of integrated voice and data communications.
"By unifying data and telephony infrastructures, customers will now be able to reduce the cost of installing and maintaining separate data and voice systems and be able to customise features down to a per-user level," explains Ceronie.
"We see high growth opportunities for LAN telephony solutions in a number of market sectors, but particularly within the customer interaction centre market - one of the fastest-growing segments in the digital economy. According to Gartner Group, the global customer interaction centre market is expected to reach $14 billion by 2003.
"Both 3Com, from its position of leadership in the global LAN Telephony arena, and Telkom with its vast sales and support infrastructure countrywide, are ready to meet this challenge," adds Ceronie. Telkom`s Dan Winter - executive Product Development - says communications providers the world over are being confronted by ever-increasing competitive pressures and are adapting to the dramatically changing business landscape.
"Telkom intends to offer business solutions to the market that will enable improved productivity, customer relations and integrated call centre technology in one cost-effective solution.
"It will enable customers to select sophisticated telephony management options, including inbound and outbound call management, voicemail, unified messaging, automated attendant, call centre services and Computer Telephony Integration (CTI).
"All these features will be managed remotely without a dedicated IT resource on site. Telkom will leverage these powerful facilities to further enhance their management capabilities, which will reduce the total costs of ownership and increase service levels."
He explains that Telkom is developing new solutions and services by bringing together the two telephony models of smart carrier networks and smart voice clients.
"Our partnership promises to bring together the best of breed products from 3Com and high-end infrastructure capabilities from Telkom`s existing and growing Public Switched Telecommunications Network (PSTN).
"The communications solution will aim to improve customer relationships and lower the operating costs associated with adds, moves and changes. It will also improve the overall manageability of solutions while increasing bottom-line profits," he adds.
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