Majority of Enterprises Now Want IP Telephony

IP-based telephony system shipments have surpassed the demand for traditional enterprise-class telecommunications for the first time, according to a new study.

Research from consulting firm InfoTech showed IP telephony systems exceeded 50 percent of total lines shipped in the first quarter of 2005.

But while demand for systems remain strong, another study from Keynote Systems suggest that the business-class network connections on which the systems rely rank highly in audio clarity but behind residential market in terms of reliability.

In addition, the InfoTech study found that many enterprises are not using the full IP functionality of their new systems. Fully a third of all U.S. IPT lines shipped in the first quarter were deployed in an "IP-Ready" configuration, which supports end-user environments where less than 5 percent of the desk-top sets are IP, with digital and analog stations comprising the balance.

"These research findings underscore a big opportunity for manufacturers and channels," remarked Frank Stinson, director for InfoTech's InfoTrack for Enterprise Communications research program.

"The fact that many businesses with new IP systems are choosing to re-use their existing digital and analog phone sets significantly reduces near-term manufacturer revenues. If manufacturers and channels want to turn this situation around," adds Stinson, "they need to do a much better job of articulating the business value of IP-based applications. Once enterprises understand that there are real business benefits to extending IP telephony straight through to the desktop, we'll start seeing big replacements of traditional endpoints with IP telephones."

TMCnet will be hosting an exclusive webinar with Keynote Systems' Dharmesh Thakker on July 12 to discuss the findings of VoIP Quality study. To gain invaluable insight into how end-users perceive VoIP service providers and network carriers, register now for the free webinar.

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Robert Liu is executive editor at TMCnet.� Previously, he was executive editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg.� For more articles by Robert Liu, please click here.

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