Random VoiceCon Observations

Here's a set of fairly random observations from VoiceCon, ranging from "slow" return on IP telephony to "no return," as well as the usual cautions about buyer resistance. Joe Abate, Mounrt Kisco Medical Group director of IS says " I don’t think we’ve seen any productivity gains at all after deploying IP telephony. Ouch!

Conrad Cross, City of Orlando CIO, says he "expects the return on investment on the city's TDM-to-IP migration to take four to five years. Three years or less is what most buyers probably would want to see. Small businesses won't even be willing to wait that long, I'd guess.

But Gary Grissum, BNSF Railway VP Telecom, estimates that 40 percent of his company's workforce will retire in next few years, and unified communications might be a way to attract a new generation of workers. That's a big deal. Some of us have argued we need to see a change of buyer influences (younger, in other words) before we can really assess how far technology buyers are willing to shift their preferences.

Overheard a VAR mention that the problem with selling unified communications to smaller businesses is that they don't see the benefits, forget about the price. I'd say that has emerged over the last year or so as a key impediment. Buyers in the small business segment discount all "soft" gains such as productivity, less wasted time and unified message boxes. Really, you have to show them how they save money--hard dollars--right away.

Kevin Gavin at ShoreTel points out that the tough economy is focusing IP PBX buyers on return on investement, even more than typically is the case. Duh! Customers demand very-clear ROI before buying.