Nick Hay

UK

Brands2Life

I strongly agree with Peter Hall’s point. IP technology is now mainstream and vendors offer very robust technology. A full-scale migration to IP convergence is no longer a question of "if", but "when". Cisco alone has just shipped its 5 millionth phone and the IP Telephony and VoIP represents a market opportunity of over £8.5 billion in the next four years. Since IP products are now market ready, businesses need to think about unifying their data now. A good time to implement a converged network is if an organisation is moving locations or needs to update their infrastructure. However, even if an organisation’s systems are not reaching end of life, it should take the time to determine how the productivity benefits of IP can be applied to their business. Many seemingly large costs associated with migrating to a converged network can be quickly recovered by cost savings and a boost in productivity. The sooner a business implements IP, the more competitive advantage a business will have both from a cost reduction point of view, but more importantly from increased productivity.