Enterprise IP telephony users ripe for Microsoft's offerings

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 05 June 2007 19:09

IT Industry - Deals

Twenty five percent of Australian enterprises would switch telephony vendors on the strength of a vendor's unified communication offering, According to a survey conducted by Telsyte.

Most enterprises already make extensive use of Microsoft products and the company is making an aggressive push into the enterprise telephony and unified communications space, especially through its Innovative Communications Alliance with leading IP telephony systems supplier, Nortel. Microsoft last month also introduced its own IP PBX product.

Telsyte surveyed 900 respondents as part of its 2007 Business Decision Maker Report Series and says that "Survey findings show that while most Australian businesses are likely to continue their relationship with existing telephony vendors, getting ready for unified communications would be the key reason prompting over 24 percent of businesses to switch vendors."

Telsyte senior industry analyst, Sam Yip, commented: "This result did not come as a surprise as many businesses that implemented IP telephony in 2003-04 did not take an evolutionary approach to IP communications. Early IP telephony vendors encouraged businesses to set up their IP telephony for the sake of cost savings not realising that they were supposed to be building early foundations for the real killer IP application, that is unified communications. A lack of end user understanding of existing vendor IP telephony and unified communications roadmaps will prompt them look at other companies such as Microsoft for these next generation solutions."

Yip warned vendors to "stop inflating technology hype and start concentrating on customer retention in the next 6 to 12 months before their installed bases get eaten up by their competitor."

The survey also suggested that many users are not overly happy with their existing telephone systems with only 55 percent of respondents saying they were satisfied with their current telephony vendor's ability to meet business needs and requirements.

Telsyte says the respondents to its survey were CEOs/MDs, CFOs, CIOs/CTOs, IT and telecom managers, as well as line-of-business managers.