IBM PUTS TRUST IN ENTERPRISE FOR PACKET VOICE GROWTH

IBM officially got off the IP telephony sidelines last week with the launch of a new network consulting, integration and deployment service that included a list of successful implementations from various parts of the globe.

In addition to beginning the conversion of its own massive network to a converged voice and data platform, IBM completed implementations for French life insurance company Group Generali, Australia's Department of Veterans' Affairs, Germany's LTG and Ada County, Idaho.

IBM is betting that voice-over-IP will be driven through the enterprise. “Our [enterprise] customers understand it is the right time to move to IP,” said Yves Lozach, director of networking services at IBM Global Services. “It is part of riding the next wave of technology to lower total cost of ownership.”

IBM partnered with Cisco Systems and Avaya to provide a variety of solutions, including migrated telephony services that use IP-based PBXs, integrated voice and data services, and unified messaging. Cisco provided its AVVID (architecture for voice, video and integrated data) and IP telephony products; Avaya deployed its converged voice, data and messaging system.

“When you deploy new business applications, the return on investment and the productivity gains you get are much better when you deploy them over a converged network,” Lozach said. “We have reached the capability to deploy these services worldwide.”

While IBM has many arrows in its consultative services quiver, the systems integration market has tough times ahead, according to a recent report by Stephanie Torto, program manager of solution integration strategies at IDC. In addition to the propensity for project-based services to get postponed in a slow economy, companies are being forced to compete more on price than competence, she said. More important, Torto said, is that the technology innovation that drove the systems integration market is absent in the short term and the foreseeable future.

Lozach, however, said that a desire for IP-based contact centers and advancements in technology helped move IBM's customers forward in migrating to IP technology. “The technology has matured,” he said. “Two years ago, most traditional PBX vendors didn't have an IP-ready solution. Today they do, and the quality problem is behind us as well.”

But IBM's play is not solutions; it's services and support. The new consulting, integration and deployment services help businesses assess, plan and migrate existing telecom services to IP and includes security and network cabling services.

IDC's Torto said that both IBM and HP have strong brand perception as systems integrators and technical expertise that give them a strong competitive advantage.

Success in the enterprise space would be complementary to moving the core telecom network to IP, whenever that may be, Lozach said.

“We would love to see that happen. It would open up a huge opportunity for us,” he said. “We just haven't seen the research that says this migration is ready.”

However, there are encouraging signs. A clearer picture of VoIP is starting to emerge as big players such as AT&T and Cisco Systems sound similar messages, said David Fraley, an analyst with Gartner Group. “They were saying the same thing about an evolution in niches such as toll bypass, TDM over IP, encapsulated frame relay over IP using MPLS for quality of service, and IP Centrex,” Fraley said.

IBM has not participated as strongly in the traditional telecom network because of the proprietary architectures of its major equipment providers, Lozach said. “But if this world opens itself to packet networking, then we are legitimate in claiming a piece of this market.”