The convergence of telecoms and IT suppliers has created a
buyers' market for products and services, according to analysts at
the Yankee Group European Telecoms Industry Forum this
week.
Chris Price, vice-president of research and consulting at Yankee,
said, "Users are in a strong position. There is a confluence of
traditional telecoms, IT and systems integrators and competition is
much stronger.
"Businesses can take advantage of this to get more customer
service. The opportunity is there to get services that map to the
company's requirements."
Price said the convergence is a result of an increase in common
ground between IT and telecoms as packet-based transmission
technologies become more prevalent. This has led to convergence in
the backbone and in the local area network with, for example,
computer/telecoms integration in contact centres.
The result is that the boundary between traditional IT players and
the world of telecoms has become blurred, with companies such as
Microsoft entering the mobile space and traditional network players
providing contact centre software.