Convergence - that misunderstood and much-abused term - has been used to describe everything from form factors to networks. But while laptops, cellphones and PCs haven't quite unified into one form factor yet, voice and data networks have converged, even if the tools and programs that enable business to take advantage of this aren't, strictly speaking, a single, unified set.
Nevertheless, that long-awaited network convergence has arrived and, depending on who you speak to, it's going to make life easier, harder, cheaper, more expensive, simpler, more complex, as well as improve productivity, automate loafing, and/or make you tea in the morning. Or not.
Says Warwick Talbot, lead, Accenture-Cisco Business Group: “Voice and data convergence is already happening, and the increased availability of bandwidth is now sufficient to support this convergence. However, the challenge is not only the quantity of bandwidth but also the quality and predictability. These factors are still inconsistent, with different levels of contention (and therefore quality) in different areas and at different times of the day.”
“Convergence in ICT has revolutionised the way we do business, and is essential in helping organisations of all sizes to connect, collaborate and compete more effectively. In the past, companies typically had a number of different ICT service providers that would supply essential business requirements such as fixed and mobile telephone, e-mail and Internet access. Nowadays, however, organisations are choosing only one or two vendors that can provide all of these services - and more,” says Ermano Quartero, managing executive of converged sales, Vodacom Business.
“While it is understood that converged communications increases productivity, consistency, competitiveness and cuts down on optimisation costs, what is still not largely understood is how to translate this correctly into tangible cost benefits for organisations.
“Therefore, it has become crucially important for businesses to understand the parameters and impacts of 'enhanced convergence' when selecting the correct solutions provider to ensure that they achieve valuable results that actually attain a return on their investment (ROI).”
All of which sums up the status quo quite nicely, to wit, convergence is happening, bandwidth is becoming less of a problem, convergence can have huge, positive implications, but businesses need to have a plan first.
It's how you use it
The most obvious benefit convergence brings to businesses is that it enables unified communications. Says Talbot: “Proper unified communications should lead to improved efficiencies and productivity but organisations need to do things differently to realise the benefits. Unified communications and collaboration needs to be embedded into the business process to ensure that the tools are used to shorten process cycles. This will result in a true ROI.”
It has become crucially important for businesses to understand the parameters and impacts of 'enhanced convergence'.
Scott Corry, business unit manager for Jabra, Kathea
Says Rudie Raath, practice principal, network consulting practice, HP Technology Solutions: “It's a known fact that unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) comes with various business benefits, with the biggest measurable one being cost reductions.
“Most of the articles I see today address how much companies can save by investing in new UC&C technologies, but Mark Fabbi, VP of Gartner, warns that `enterprises will waste $130 billion buying the wrong network technologies and services during the next five years'.
“It clearly has a huge impact on a company's bottom line if the technology decisions made today are not aligned with the company strategy. The support for open standards now becomes the de facto compliancy check when initiating the road to full enterprise convergence, with offerings that include unified voice, video, Web conferencing, enterprise instant messaging, central information portals, mobility solutions and many more.”
And then there are your users.
Says Dean Young, head of telecommunication presales at T-Systems: “The affordability of UC solutions lies largely in user behaviour. For example, if the implementation of a UC platform results in an increasing use of instant messaging (IM), which uses a low percentage of bandwidth, and a decline in call volumes, the result would be big cost savings. However, video-conferencing is highly bandwidth-intensive and a company would need to do a proper cost/benefit analysis in order to assess whether its propensity to reduce travel costs would warrant its widespread use in the organisation.
“Implementing a UC solution is complex, and one of its biggest disadvantages is that it puts a lot at risk should the wrong decision be made,” he continues. “It is a huge investment and entails a significant change to the end-users' way or working and the daily operations of the organisation.”
“A proper user adoption process needs to be followed to ensure that people make use of the new technologies and buy into the improved way of working,” comments Talbot.
“It really does come down to business case,” says Steve Casey, converged communications technology & solutions manager, MEA at Dimension Data. “It's imperative that organisations consider what is required for their businesses. We realised that we need to scale up our ability to understand the business challenges and requirements of our customers, for example.
“There are a number of technologies out there - video is the sexiest of the components in the UC stable,” he comments. “People are starting to realise there is a place for UC in their business. They are realising that there are other components in that space and how best to adopt presence, IM etc. and how best to adopt it in the business for real benefit not just because of itself.”
All rosy?
It's worth noting, however, that Gartner VP and distinguished analyst Nick Jones recently asked, on his blog, whether UC is the biggest scam since Ponzi.
Enterprises will waste $130 billion buying the wrong network technologies and services during the next five years.
Mark Fabbi, VP, Gartner
As he put it: “I am an unashamed unified communications sceptic for a mixture of technological and business reasons. UC looks to me like an ill-assorted mix of technologies that vendors want to sell in a single bundle because it's convenient for them, rather than because they're what your employees actually need.
“UC is a dinosaur in a world of fast-moving little furry mammals; the leading edge of communication and collaboration is happening in the consumer space driven by companies like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Fring, Nimbuzz and dozens more. These are better, cheaper and more fashionable than UC and there is no way the so-called 'enterprise' vendors can keep up with their rate of evolution.
“And as for softphone clients, why exactly would I want clunky integration with a stone-age PBX anyway? Worse still, UC is technically unachievable because many communications channels such as SMS and MMS aren't accessible to enterprise servers. The only place where everything actually comes together is on your mobile handset.”
Your mileage may vary, of course, but it's an opinion worth considering, if only because it neatly summarises many of the criticisms that are often levelled at so-called UC solutions.
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