Is IP Telephony Mostly About Non-Voice Apps?

One might wonder whether applications other than voice now are driving IP telephony interest by business customers, and whether integrating various communication modes across mobile and fixed networks might be the most-important unified communications feature.

Nearly 40 percent of companies surveyed Frost & Sullivan report they already have deployed IP telephony. Of those that have, instant messaging and videoconferencing get the highest usage scores, with just over 50 percent of companies saying employees use each of those features.

Approximately 50 percent of respondents use mobile extensions. Of those, 70 percent use them extensively across company, and use of mobile extensions are expected to grow over the next 12 months.

About 30 percent of 200 companies surveyed by Frost & Sullivan say they have already deployed unified communications; 28% are in process; four percent are planning or evaluating; and 18 percent have no plans to adopt, says Melanie Turek, Frost and Sullivan industry director.

Roughly 60 percent of respondents say audio, video, web and telepresence conferencing are "very" important to the organization.

Also, Two thirds of companies say they use social media "extensively" for business purposes. Traditionally, social media are not UC or IP telephony core features, and the significant use of such tools illustrates how the enterprise communications function has changed over the last decade.

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