Gartner : Businesses Will Spend $20 Billion on Unnecessary IP Telephones With Screens
Wow good article on exacly where the UC strategy of Microsoft (and IBM for that matter) will make a huge difference. Costsavings, costsavings, costsavings. No need for expensive “I can do everything a PC can do” IP phones and “hey I am a softphone and look exactly like a real telephone” softwaretools that hardly integrate with your everyday productivity apps and collaboration platform. This report and related message is not that good news for those companies that bet on selling those expensive devices …
… As the migration to IP telephony systems continues, many businesses will needlessly spend $20.3 billion on expensive IP screen phones from 2005 through the beginning of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, it will amount to more than €5 billion.
“Many companies are replacing old phones with fancy, screen-based IP phones and IP/PBXs with related hardware, however, most users continue to use the new phones like their old phones, only with a few new capabilities, such as viewing missed calls or for directory dialing,” said Bob Hafner, managing vice president for Gartner. “Ironically, in most businesses, the IP screen phone is placed on the desk beside a PC that has a much bigger and higher-resolution screen.” …
…With the money saved on the lower-cost IP phones, Mr. Hafner said companies should purchase UC applications. This option enables the user to improve productivity integrating communications applications with services such as instant messaging, unified messaging, presence, personal agent, conferencing and mobility services to create a converged desktop with the voice communications on the phone. These applications are far more productive than the screen on an IP phone and are about the same cost….
… Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Don’t Purchase IP Screen Phones If You Have a PC on Your Desk.” The report provides analysis on IP phone migration plans and unified communications options. The report is available on the Gartner Web site at www.gartner.com/….
Source : VOIPMagazine.net
Phones very, very rarely crash in the middle of a call. Desktops do. And when your desktop crashes, how will you place a call to the help desk if you have no phone?
Richard,
You do have a point there, although desktops aren’t as shakey as you indicate I think. If I look at my machihne, despite all the Vista Beta’s I’ve run is very stable (running RC2 now) and I can really rely on it for most of my communication.
I think what you address is the perception of most people. the availability of the phone infrastructure vs the ‘data’ infrastructure. But if you look at IPT environments, it is ‘data’ infrastructure for the most part if not all.
As for the reliability of the IP telephone vs the desktop, I wouldn’t compare an IP telephone with a ‘normal’ phone, it is almost if not completely a PC …
I sure think Gartner has a point, although it may be early in the ‘hype cycle’ the desktop / laptop will displace a large quantity of the ‘hard phones’ in the coming 2-5 years …
Matt,
Your absolutely right. This concept works with current “old” phones as well as new phones (at least in the examples and solutions I’ve seen from a Microsoft perspective).
The Gartner report I assume primairly is about phones with screen / camera’s, etc.
To be complete it is also good to add that also IP phones (SIP based) come in a variety of price ranges and not all are expensive. As for the current leading IP Telephony vendors, the revenue share of IP phones as part of their overall IP Tel revenue is substantial in many cases (around 50-60% according to my information).
I would think that the proper distinction of this article is whether companies buy phones with or without screens. It is perfectly possible to have PC based call control, offering rich Unified Communications functionality, but retaining the voice ‘device’ whether desk or mobile phone, for resilience and continuity. I have this every day, without having to worry about VOIP security, and without investing in a replacement telephony system.