Convergence creates users' market
The convergence of telecoms and IT suppliers has created a buyers' market for products and services, according to analysts at the...
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.
