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InfoTech
Report Reveals ‘Business-Value Gap’ In Converged Applications
Business Wire
PARSIPPANY, N.J. (January 25, 2006) -- According to a recent study
of telecom decision-makers among U.S. enterprises, almost half of
those surveyed believe Internet Protocol Telephony (IPT) can enable
applications to deliver business value that cannot be achieved by
applications running on traditional PBX solutions.
However, the
newly released “InfoTrack for Converged Communications (ICC)
Converged Applications Report,” which analyzes the market
opportunity for IPT systems and hosted IPT services, found that
only 12% of those enterprises surveyed currently implement IPT applications
that deliver real business-value. This “business-value gap”
was even wider among small and medium-sized businesses, where 65%
of respondents with fewer than 500 employees believe in IPT-based
business value, but only 10% are implementing those types of applications.
Respondents gave the following three reasons for not implementing
IPT-based business- value applications:
- There is
a need to justify IPT based on hard savings first.
- There is
a need to evaluate a variety of converged applications.
- Enterprises
are not convinced soft savings can be achieved.
There were other
underlying causes that contributed to this business-value gap. Three-quarters
of the companies currently implementing IPT admit their IPT decision
process is not set up to consider business value.
The majority of the participants in this study would
prefer to obtain business-value applications from one source: their
primary IPT vendor. They also expect vendors to provide at least
Level 1 tech support for any applications that run on their primary
IPT vendor's system, including third-party applications. However,
vendors are not doing much to promote business-value awareness of
IPT. Only 11% of the study participants had ever received a proposal
for a business-value application from their IPT vendors.
Assuming IPT vendors respond to these user needs,
U.S. market revenues for converged applications are projected to
approach $6 billion by 2010.
"Most of the IT vendors are not doing an effective job of marketing
the business value of converged applications," says Terry White,
InfoTech VP and ICC Program Director. "In many cases, the applications
designed to deliver business value for specific vertical markets
are developed by third parties. Although the manufacturers of IPT
systems offer partnering programs for these third-party developers,
their applications typically are not an integral part of the converged
solutions that are sold and supported by the major IPT vendors."
About InfoTech
InfoTech, part of The Telecom Intelligence Group, publishes four
comprehensive, primary research studies each year as part of its
“InfoTrack for Converged Communications (ICC)” program.
Its “Converged Applications” report focuses on the decision
process for these applications, while identifying and analyzing
the job titles and functions of IPT convergence decision-makers
in end-user organizations. The report also provides insight into
77 features important to different market segments within 13 different
applications categories to help technology developers prioritize
their offerings along with detailed 5-year forecasts on the 10 most
popular converged applications.
InfoTech’s other ICC program studies focus on the decision
process for IPT vendor and service selection for three distinct
market segments -- large enterprise, mid-market companies and small
businesses.
For more information on the ICC program and Converged
Applications study please see http://www.accessintel-infotech.com/ICC/applications06.
About The Telecom Intelligence Group
The Telecom Intelligence Group includes market intelligence provider
InfoTech; TelecomWeb and TelecomWeb news break; newsletters Wireless
Business Forecast, Broadband Business Forecast and Telecom Policy
Report; tariff consultancy Tarifica; and the Web-based business-telephony-product
database Telecom Tactics.
Contacts:
Terry White, vice president and ICC program director,
twhite@accessintel.com
Sharon Valencik, research director, infotechresearch@accessintel.com
Mike O'Neill, vice president and publisher, moneill@accessintel.com
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