The take up of IP communications among large European
firms is sluggish, with many companies put off by the costs,
according to a report published by Forrester Research last
week.
Larry Velez, senior analyst at Forrester Research, said, "Fifty
per cent of the companies we surveyed do not spend anything on IP
telephony, and only a 30% have plans to increase their spending
next year.
"Cost is the primary obstacle to acquiring voice and video over
IP. However, firms and suppliers are working to overcome this and
other hurdles, such as security and interoperability."
The results of the research come despite the technology having
an increasingly high profile.
Herefordshire County Council aims to be the first local
authority to introduce a county-wide voice over IP system, and NHS
Trusts in Camden and Islington are rolling out IP telephony
projects worth £1m.
Law firm Irwin Mitchell has implemented a voice over IP system,
and aircraft manufacturer Airbus has rolled out a voice over IP
system to 40,000 staff in the UK and France.
Forrester surveyed networking IT decision makers in 305 European
enterprises with more than 1,000 employees.
"When we asked about the biggest obstacle to acquiring voice and
video over IP, 34% of the surveyed companies indicated that cost
was the biggest inhibitor," said Velez.
Unified messaging had low penetration among European firms,
Forrester found. Nearly 60% of the respondents did not know about,
or had no plans to adopt unified messaging.