Enterprise Briefing

FMC is particularly attractive to corporations because investment in PBX assets can be maximized, employee productivity can be improved, and most importantly, it provides a means to control costly ‘at desk’ mobile usage. Analyst firm Strategy Analytics is so convinced of the benefits the technology offers, it recently predicted the global enterprise FMC market would grow to US$50 billion within four years.

 

Cost cutting is not the only driver propelling FMC development. The promise of increased efficiency is equally attractive. “The emergence of a business justification for FMC based on business processes, the breaking down of technology barriers and increased interest in the concept, rather than simple cost justification, will feed through the market and drive demand for FMC,” opines David Kerr, vice president, Global Wireless Practice, Strategy Analytics.

 

 

Converged services and innovative technologies, such as femtocells, lend even greater support to the case for FMC. According to analyst firm ABI Research, the move to FMC infrastructure is a natural evolution for the mobile network as broadband services, including Voice over IP (VoIP) and other Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) services are deployed. In addition, Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) and SIP infrastructures are rolling out and dual use Wi-Fi and cellular devices will be joined by femtocells this year. ABI believes operators are fully aware of the increasing threat to their revenues posed by mobile VoIP and thinks that FMC will allow them to offer similar services and tariff packages.

 

“As we move to the end of the decade, mobile networks will emerge with a flat all-IP architecture using 3GPP standards to deliver multimedia services and VoIP,” says Ian Cox, principal analyst with ABI Research. “In the meantime, operators want to offer attractive calling plans to consumer and enterprise users. This will enable a single device to use both mobile and fixed broadband networks, improving business efficiency and enabling users to access directory information easily from their favorite devices.” Cox also acknowledges the benefits FMC offers enterprises for data offload onto the broadband fixed network and improved indoor coverage from the mobile network.

 

 

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and recent research from Aberdeen Group has revealed that ‘best-in-class’ organizations using FMC already benefit from higher levels of employee performance and workflow efficiencies. Its report Fixed Mobile Convergence in the Enterprise analyzed organizations’ planning, deployment, use and management of FMC solutions to better understand how they use the technologies.

 

“What best-in-class organizations realize is that the extension of the PBX infrastructure is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the power that a FMC solution can provide,” says Philippe Winthrop, research director for wireless and mobility at Aberdeen Group. “These organizations are also mobilizing their unified communications solutions to offer their employees a full breadth of communications solutions in the palm of their hands, thereby maximizing the mobility of their workforce.”

 

Aberdeen concludes that in the last 12 months, best-in-class businesses have enjoyed a 55% increase in their workforce’s mobility - more than four times the baseline. However, their investment in mobility solutions has been 75% larger than the average. In these bottom-line focused times, this may prove to be a bridge too far for many organizations.

 

If FMC is able to accelerate awareness of the business case that supports it in terms of providing real savings on cellular costs and delivering significant productivity gains or process efficiencies, uptake of solutions could be stimulated. From a starting point of cellular extensions to the corporate PBX that enable short-code dialing and code transfer, for example, data-oriented applications such as visual voicemail and integrated instant messaging and presence can be provided which go some way to justifying investment in the technology.

 

These applications merely scratch the surface of the eventual functionality that FMC could deliver with line-of-business applications in sales force, customer relationship management, inventory and workforce management all becoming more tightly integrated. In fact, there is the likelihood that FMC could make mobility affordable for a greater number of employees thereby delivering greater cost savings and enhanced productivity. Because of FMC, mobile could even replace landline phones in their entirety opening up the possibility of eliminating the need for LAN engineering to support VoIP and redundant investment in rarely used fixed-line phones.