This paper describes IBM's experience with and the benefits achieved from basic network convergence and IP telephony, the convergence of applications, and the ability to transform the enterprise business model.
IBM Global Technology ServicesJanuary 2007
How IBM positioned for business
growth using integrated business
communications. How IBM positioned for business growth using integrated business communications. Page
Introduction: a movement whose time has come-and IBM is leading the wayContents At the most basic level-telephones-the movement to communications based on Internet Protocol (IP) is well on the way to reality. Recent studies project 2 Introduction: a movement annual shipments of IP telephones to grow from 10 million units in 2006 to whose time has come-and 1164 million units by 2010.IBM is leading the way3 Trigger: why IBM made the The anticipated sunset of traditional telephone technology and the shift to move to integrated business Voice over IP (VoIP) will likely drive a number of business benefits-reduced communications cost being chief among them-though many of these benefits may not be 9 Timeline: planting seeds and apparent to users. People will continue using telephones in the way they reaping business benefits always have-if telephones are all they are offered. But broader changes in 13 Functionality: IBM solutions for IP-based communications can enable organizations to give their employees moving the business forward communications capabilities beyond telephones and receive significantly more 15 Conclusion: extending benefits business benefits in return. beyond IBM to clients The advent of IP-based communications supporting voice, video and data-known variously as "converged communications" or "unified communications"-ushers in a broad range of enhanced communications based on the convergence and integration of devices and networks. This shift can profoundly affect the way people live and work. And it can enable improvements in communications, col-laboration, productivity, customer service and more-creating integrated business communications that can foster business advantages that far outweigh lowering the cost of a phone call.
Such transformation to integrated business communications is already hap-pening inside IBM. This paper tells the story of how IBM is building one of the world's largest converged networks, the business and IT benefits IBM is realizing from convergence, and the benefits other companies may realize by following a similar model.How IBM positioned for business growth using integrated business communications. Page
Trigger: why IBM made the move to integrated business communicationsHighlights The adoption of integrated business communications by businesses around the world has been growing. At the same time, technologies have matured Like most companies, IBM found and organizations have taken advantage of internal triggering events to itself adopting integrated business deploy converged communications capabilities that give their employees, communications to gain specific customers, suppliers and partners the advantages of running voice, video business advantages. and data together on one network.
Most implementations of converged communications technology occur among midsize, large and very large enterprises-and are driven by events more specific than the impending retirement of traditional telephones. Such events can include a new or expanded building, the end of a lease for a PBX system or a lack of expandability in an existing PBX, the need to support an increasingly mobile and distributed workforce, the adoption of new video devices, or the need to ensure communication in the event of a natural or human-made disaster.
IBM met these triggering criteria-with its more than 1,500 buildings in more than 160 countries, some 900 PBX systems, 400,000 telephones, 160,000 cellular phones and a mobile workforce approaching 40 percent. But beyond its large, dispersed and increasingly mobile organization, IBM found itself a prime candidate for converged communications for three other key reasons:
. Since the mid-1990s, IBM's telecommunications costs had been declining 10 percent a year. But that rate, which was principally the result of a decline in carrier rates, could not be supported indefinitely. IBM would need to find new sources for cost savings in communications.How IBM positioned for business growth using integrated business communications. Page
. IBM was asked by an internal organization planning a new laboratory in Highlights Toronto, Canada, to provide a converged communications ne... [download for more]
