Voice-Data Integration: Resurgence Of Convergence
[Good 4/13/98 InformationWeek article in 6 parts
Huge business opportunites for ASND, CSCO, LU, etc.]
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Excerpt: "Today, with voice traffic growing only 8% to 10% a year and
data traffic doubling each year, more than half of all bandwidth
will be consumed by data traffic by 2000; 80% by 2003. That
means the networks of tomorrow are being engineered to carry
data. Eventually, proponents argue, voice will piggyback on
data instead of requiring its own separate infrastructure.
"We're going back to the days where voice and data were to
be integrated," says Berge Ayvazian, an analyst with the
Yankee Group Inc. "But now, instead of data riding for free on
the voice network, it's voice riding for free on the data network.""
Piping voice and data over the same network could
save users big money and improve operations. A
handful of innovative companies are giving it a try--but
plenty of issues remain.
By Mary E. Thyfault, 4/13/98
The traditionally discrete worlds
of voice and data are starting to
come together, letting companies focus more on their
information and less on how they access or deliver it. This
utopian state is known as "convergence," and a number of
innovative user companies--including Boeing, Kaiser
Permanente, Qualcomm, and Strong Capital
Management--are beginning to buy into the promise, albeit
cautiously.
At the transport level, convergence means data networks also
carrying voice, video, and images. At the user-interface level,
it means PCs becoming telephones and mobile phones
becoming devices that can browse the Web and send E-mail.
At the infrastructure level, it means PBXs and other phone
switches being replaced or augmented by servers.
The promise: Companies can lower their communications
costs by as much as 40% by pumping voice traffic through the
unused space in data networks for a "free ride." Managing
and supporting one "converged" network is much easier than
managing two or three. And when traffic of all kinds rides on
the same rail, conventional voice- and data-system vendors
can no longer be so proprietary--leading to lower product
prices and more innovation.
More important, convergence can help companies create
networked multimedia applications that can tie together
employees, internal processes, and external partners in more
productive ways. Among those applications: Web-integrated
call centers, multimedia conferencing, unified messaging, and
computer-telephony customer-service apps.
More Effective
Take Strong Capital. Its clients soon will be able to click on a
"call agent" button on the group's Web site to initiate a voice
call to a customer-service rep. Clients with Web telephony
software on their multimedia PCs will communicate directly
with Strong Capital's Aspect Telecommunications Web Agent
software. Strong Capital's service reps then can access the
client's account information while looking at the same Web
page the customer is viewing. The software also will let the
agent send the client additional pages--such as those
containing information about a specific mutual fund--and let
the agent mark up pages for the customer. Clients who don't
have multimedia PCs can receive calls over a separate
phone line by typing in their number on the Web site.
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