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FMC: doing the business?

Wednesday, 09 May 2007

Vendors lead supplier field says InfoTrack, but enterprise mobility in general has a hill to climb judges Ovum…

A new InfoTrack for Enterprise Mobility (IEM) study has found that, although enterprise expenditure on fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) was in its early stages during 2006, the trend toward adoption of such solutions will command a greater percentage of overall wireless communications budgets in 2007. Currently in lead position for supplying enterprises with FMC are enterprise solutions vendors as opposed to carriers – more so in the USA and Canada, but also by a small margin the rest of the world.

IEM says that by 2010, the majority of the firms surveyed in the USA and Canada predict having a mobile workforce of between 26% and 50%. The research firm defines a ‘mobile worker’ as an employee who is not tied to a single physical location (such as a desk), or who is required to regularly move about, spending 20% or more of his or her work week away from the primary workplace - roaming in-building or on campus, or traveling locally, regionally, nationally or internationally.

Nearly half of the US and Canadian organisations surveyed by IEM preferred enterprise-centric rather than carrier-centric FMC voice solutions, according to the ‘Fixed-Mobile Convergence In The Enterprise’ report. The split between those favouring carrier-centric and those favouring enterprise-centric FMC voice solutions was much narrower internationally, with the enterprise-centric approach coming out slightly ahead. At the same time, though, at least 22% of those quizzed had no preference for either approach, making it clear, according to IEM, that a major part of the business community doesn't hold preconceptions about which is the better way of handling FMC voice.

“The preference for enterprise-centric FMC voice solutions in the United States, Canada and globally gives vendors an early advantage in working with prospects to implement such schemes,” comments John Lilley, IEM programme director. “At the same time, carriers already have established themselves as credible alternatives. This is particularly true in the international environment, where many mobile operators have launched FMC offerings, albeit mostly for the residential market.”

Enterprise FMC is sometimes characterised as a subset of enterprise mobility, sometimes as simply enterprise mobility in a new set of clothes. Either way, according to a new Ovum ‘EuroView Daily Comment’ analysis, enterprise mobility in general has some way to go before it delivers real advantages. In the analysis, authored by Jeremy Green and Steven Hartley, Ovum concludes that its recent interviews with users of mobile enterprise applications and services highlight four areas in need of improvement by enterprises and service providers (of whatever stripe): configuration and set-up; roaming; presence functionality and corporate culture.

“For enterprise mobility to truly take off, both enterprises and service providers need to learn from the frustrations of current users. Enterprises that do will reap the true efficiency benefits and service providers will reap the revenues,” argue the Ovum duo. “Software configuration and set-up causes many problems in many areas, giving users the feeling that software is distributed before being tested properly. Our research has found that the installation of 3G cards and the associated software are the cause of particular pain, with users also expressing frustration at a lack of technical support when travelling. However, Wi-Fi access can also be problematical if, for example, a PC is configured to access the web via a proxy server when on a corporate network.”

Green and Hartley say that roaming is beset by inconsistent coverage and the lack of interconnectivity between Wi-Fi hotspot providers, that application functionality does not always take into account the user’s mobility, and that corporate cultures that assume everyone is in the office prevent changes that would reduce friction.

“The above frustrations are major barriers to the seamless integration of corporate networks with mobile working,” conclude Green and Hartley.
John Williamson