Johannesburg, 04 Nov 2005
Although the world was not ready for the first Selsius Systems Internet Protocol (IP) phone, introduced in 1997, the benefits of that early release are now being reaped.
This is according to Richard Dodsworth, business development manager, Voice Technology Group, Cisco Systems, Asia-Pacific, who was speaking at VoiceComm 2005 in Johannesburg yesterday.
Simplification, applications, service optimisation and security are some of the key issues regarding IP convergence, he said. "Convergence is not just about saving money, it drives applications to join voice and data together."
Citing teleworking, e-government, economic loss due to the resilience of networks and IT spending as key trends of the IT convergence environment, he said that Cisco`s technology vision is to integrate people, networks and applications.
"It`s Cisco`s vision to integrate technology while accommodating the individual`s requirements of providing them with the type of notification they would like to receive. The idea is to create rich media, which will be a combined, single interface which includes video, Web, data, voice, telephony and desktop functions."
[VIDEO]The company has identified the applications that drive convergence and topping the list is conferencing (61%), which facilitates the running of large corporations, especially those that operate on a global scale. IP phone-based productivity (58%) and remote access (52%) have also been found to be major drivers.
This vision is being facilitated through product development and releases, such as one-number-reach. This technology allows an individual`s cellphone, office phone and/or home phone to be accessed via a single telephone number. This personalisation will allow the user to be tracked, not the device or directory service.
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