Australian businesses warming up to VoIP: IDC

IDC studied the present and future IP telephony acquisitions and behaviours of over 300 businesses, the company said, concluding that "Australian organisations are seeing long-term value in increasing investments in IP services and infrastructure".

"Operations cost reduction and network availability and performance" was listed as one of the key "pain points" for companies interviewed about voice/data networking issues said IDC, adding "operational headaches remain very top of mind".

The research found that one in seven medium to large Australian organisations already have an IP telephony system deployed, with another 47 percent planning to implement one in the next three years. IDC said these figures represented "almost an AU$1 billion market of enterprise IP telephony equipment and VoIP services".

According to the survey, the main reason for companies not deploying IP telephony was due to "lack of understanding of the benefits IP telephony would provide".

The chief motivation for companies moving to IP telephony was "cost reduction," IDC said, adding that it expects a "steep price decline over the next 12 months and IP handset subsidies to become almost 'de rigueur'".

Cisco and Telstra have the biggest mindshare as equipment vendors, according to the survey, with 86 percent and 38 percent respectively.

IDC research director for telecommunications, Landry Fevre, said Cisco is now "bearing the fruits of its early entry in the [IP telephony] market and are very well positioned to continue to lead".

"They are very likely to be on most enterprise IP telephony shopping lists and remain until the final stage of bids before a decision is made on which vendor to select," he said.

"Overlap and friction between carriers, equipment vendors and system integrators are likely to occur around VoIP as competition intensifies with more players and products entering the market this year," added Fevre.