Don't buy expensive IP, analyst warns

Businesses will waste $20.3bn (£10.7bn) on over-expensive Internet Protocol (IP) telephones over the second half of the decade, according to Gartner.

The analyst warns that many firms will invest in phones will screens that will not be needed, resulting in a huge waste of money.

In EMEA alone, the waste is likely to total up to $5bn (£2.6bn), the analysts warn.

Many companies are replacing old phones with fancy, screen-based IP phones, however, most users will continue to use the new phones like their old phones, only with a few new capabilities, such as viewing missed calls or for directory dialing, says Gartner analyst Bob Hafner.

'Ironically, in most businesses, the IP screen phone is placed on the desk beside a PC that has a much bigger and higher-resolution screen,' he said.

Over the next five years Gartner estimates  businesses worldwide will buy more than 150 million IP phones, with 50 million purchased in EMEA alone.

In both regions, for 75 per cent of those purchases, companies are spending at least $150 (£79) more than they need to as they focus on purchasing IP screen phones.

A better idea might be to buy low-end IP phones without a screen and use PCs with unified communications (UC) applications, Gartner suggests.

Companies must think about how they communicate and how this will change in the coming years, Hafner says.

'We are not saying that you don’t need an IP phone on your desk, but with limited budgets, companies should immediately reset their priorities to have a low-end IP phone and UC applications that improve productivity,' he said.

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Further Reading:

• Skype teams up with McAfee
• Mobile provider takes more cal ls with IP centres
• Rolls-Royce drives ahead with VoIP