2004 outlook: IP telephony - not 'if' but 'when'
It's not 'if' but 'when' Australian organizations will tire of their trusty old PABXes and latch onto sexy new IP telephony according to the buzz around the convention rooms. And there's no doubt that stacked against goodies elsewhere on the information technology and telecommunication shopping list, IP telephony looks like a hot item.
It's just a pity for vendors of this stuff that many would-be customers remain wary of various hurdles and have scheduled the 'when' beyond 2004.
The first hurdle is the lack of a really solid cost justification for ditching a very useful old switchboard yet to reach the end of its economic life.
Other hurdles include the state of the in-situ data network, application integration, and personnel issues embedded in rival voice and data camps.
Bjarne Munch, senior research analyst, infrastructure strategies at Meta Group Inc. in Australia, sees all these hurdles throughout a highly fragmented market where readiness to adopt IP telephony is almost in inverse proportion to the size of company. Within this landscape are the large companies 'holding a little bit back' until they're sure that IP telephony is 'up to par' with the reliability of the PABX systems they would replace.
