Here's an interesting report on a Gartner study that predicts that within 2 years, enterprises will have more mobile endpoints than fixed-line.Apparently Gartner expects that IP communications will drive enterprises to integrate fixed and mobile, and eliminate redundant endpoints--those being the landlines. Gartner also sees continued growth in corporate-liable cellular service for enterprise users, according to the article. The article quotes Gartner's Phil Redman: "The majority of companies we talk to are moving to corporate liability (for mobile phone costs)."
These are companies with 500 to 1,000 users or more. As they've had to support wireless e-mail and data services on their IT platform, they've become more concerned about security and device management. In some industries--financial services, for instance--it's 100% corporate liability, because they're regulated.
All of these trends--ever-growing mobile use, greater corporate-liable contracts--are ones that we're seeing in the VoiceCon audience as well. But
If the downturn does anything, it's likely to freeze investment in IP communications systems, in which case the kind of flexible fixed-mobile convergence that IP offers will not be available as a source of cost savings and landline replacement.
The question is, if companies continue to invest in IP-PBX platforms at whatever reduced rate during the downturn, will they opt to save money by not buying phones? In theory, they could save up to 30-40% of a typical procurement if they don't buy phones--depending on how many phones they don't buy. Lots of people think cost savings--MACs, WANs, management--may drive IPT investments the next year or 2--but that's almost always in the context of replacing existing functionality--there's not much talk about actually scaling back functionality by getting rid of phones.
Telecom managers typically see their phone systems as a source of business value to their companies, and are loathe to diminish the value that these systems can provide. For those who truly don't work out of an office, maybe cutting the cord will be the way to go. But for the various categories of road-, corridor- and other types of warriors, I don't see it.
