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NETWORK CONVERGENCE GAINING MOMENTUM
Two-thirds of companies are planning to shift applications across most or all of their business to converged networks within the next five years, according to a new global survey. Implementation has already begun for 55% of firms, although most of these have deployed only in selected parts of the organisation thus far. The survey, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Nortel Networks, explores the topic of network convergence with 103 executives representing over 17 industries across the globe. For the purposes of the survey, convergence is defined as the coming together of voice, data, video and other applications on a single broadband delivery platform—networks based on IP (Internet protocol). The survey findings, published in a white paper entitled ‘Deploy or delay? Converged networks in the enterprise’, indicate that, among convergence applications, voice over IP (VoIP) will attract the lion’s share of enterprise investment over the next three years. VoIP’s potential to slash telephone costs is currently a key motivation for executives in pushing network convergence, as is the broader promise of reduced network management costs. The majority of executives surveyed (57%) also hope converged networks will enable broader use of applications such as videoconferencing and collaboration software, which enables multimedia dialogue and document sharing between teams. Deploy or delay? Converged networks in the enterprise is available free of charge from the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Executive Briefing website (http://eb.eiu.com).