Two -- at least two -- major factors steering the world enterprise telephony platform markets today, according to a new study from Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert), are the need for migration from an old legacy infrastructure to Internet protocol and the introduction of value-added applications through unified communications.

 

“The benefit of cost efficiency that IP telephony offers is too large to ignore, and enterprises will be forced to consider IP as a long-term strategic initiative,” the study concludes, adding that as the technology revolution rolls on, IP has emerged as the foundation for a number of technologies designed to build a new cost-efficient infrastructure for the enterprise.

 

The “World Enterprise Telephony Platform Markets” finds that the market generated $7.6 billion in 2008, and expects revenues to decline and then stabilize to $7.6 billion in 2014, due to saturation of the market.

 

“However,” the study’s authors add, “line shipments are expected to continue experiencing growth, increasing from 46.8 million in 2008 to 52.3 million in 2014.”

 

The challenge to adoption has been the weak value proposition at a time when cost savings were not a priority for CIOs, said Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Vanessa Alvarez.

 

“Today, cost savings, coupled with the need for tools to create a collaborative environment, which in turn drives innovation and productivity, makes IP essential to their strategy,” Alvarez said.

 

Others have concurred with this view.

 

“When we introduce calls through an IP alternative, we immediately reduce dependency on the TDM networks of the RBOCs,” Agostino Guglietta, VP of business development for Tandem Transit (News - Alert), told TMCnet recently. “By doing this, and introducing these IP alternatives, carriers not only reduce their dependency on the RBOC but their cost of local transit among other local exchange carriers”

 

Tandem Transit is one of a few emerging carrier service providers that oversee national transit services for competitive voice service providers. Carriers want to take advantage of more efficient call routing to other competitive carriers while improving QOS and reducing dependency on the RBOC.

 

The study finds vendors operating in this space “must refine their messaging not only to stress the cost-saving aspect, but also to project it as a critical component of a long-term strategic technological evolution.”

 

Given the realities on the ground that shouldn’t be too difficult, especially since, as the report notes, “IP telephony allows for a more functional and integrated communications infrastructure. Above all, it enables collaboration, a concept, which is poised to revolutionize the work environment.”