By Andy McCue, 13 September 2005 12:05
NEWS Cost, security and a lack of skills are the main concerns of businesses looking to implement converged networks, according to new research.
Despite these fears, 25 per cent of companies have already deployed converged networks throughout all or most of their organisation and 60 per cent say they will reach that stage by 2008.
The Economist Intelligence Unit study of 236 executives worldwide, sponsored by AT&T, found that 45 per cent of the executives surveyed - which included 77 CEOs - said converged networks are "important" or "critical" to supporting future strategic business goals.
The survey also found a shift in focus among respondents from using converged networks primarily as a cost reduction tool to using it as a base for improving customer service and collaboration.
In particular convergence was seen as key to delivering good customer service across key channels such as mobile, text, video and web chat.
But convergence brings major operational challenges with it and survey respondents cited implementation costs, network security and skills shortages as key concerns.
Hossein Eslambolchi, CTO at AT&T, said in the report: "Lower capital and operational expenditures, while no doubt important, are secondary benefits of convergence. Network convergence should be more concerned with how you create the next generation of services that will enable your customers or partners to increase value."
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1. John Hall
MPLS has arrived, larger companies are looking to outsourcing to solve there skill, with not just there entry point being looked after but also VoIP, Anti-virus and Spam services being included to boot.
For smaller companies it maybe so time before they begin to see products at there level.