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