Interview: Converged comms brings challenges

Converged communications is growing in importance in the business world, but merging the traditionally separate worlds of IT and telecoms has posed some problems, particularly when it comes to bringing mobility into the equation.

Fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) holds out the promise of savings by letting workers make mobile calls over alternative channels, such as the corporate network or Wi-Fi hotspots. However, Lars-Michaël Paqvalén of Swedish converged communications specialist Telepo believes FMC is a distraction from the real challenges facing firms.

“FMC is not solving the real problem, it is adding to it,” Paqvalén said. He compared the current state of telecoms with enterprise IT in the 1980s, before PCs and the client-server architecture opened up the market to greater competition.

“The PBX vendors are like the mainframe companies - they want to protect their turf, whereas customers want the freedom to migrate as they see fit,” he added.
Any converged solution has to be fully mobile, and independent of the network and location, so an application simply bolted onto a PBX is not a satisfactory answer, according to Paqvalén. One of the major headaches is the sheer complexity of mobile technology, with lots of new features and applications coming to market.

Usability is another problem. “One user interface is important - users shouldn’t have to re-learn functionality for every device they use,” he argued.

Telepo bases its software on the client-server model using open standards. The firm said it will have a client for any device, desktop or mobile, and already supports Windows, Windows Mobile, Symbian and BlackBerry devices.

Microsoft’s move into the market is bound to shake things up, with the general release of Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 and the Office Communicator 2007 client this October, according to Paqvalén. “This is a very attractive option for IT departments. It’s a natural extension of [current IT infrastructure] and will change the market,” he said.

However, while Microsoft is going in the right direction with its support for standards such as SIP, its solution lacks wider cross-platform support, Paqvalén claimed.
“Much of its technology is linked to its own mobile platform. In the mobile industry this is a huge problem because of the diversity of devices and platforms available,” Paqvalén said.

Telepo is working with Microsoft, however, and said it intends to ensure its client software will integrate fully with OCS.