As the march of technology continues unabated, the telecommunications industry is no exception. In particular, there are key dates on the horizon that businesses should not ignore if they are going to sensibly plan forward and gain an advantage from the solutions they deploy and the business opportunities they create.

There is a strong market expectation that new ISDN lines are unlikely to be sold much past 2020 and as a technology there are public statements that Openreach will be retiring ISDN in 2025. It might all seem a long way off but many organisations are already benefitting from moving to new IP-style solutions, although quite a few have also fallen foul of poorly planned deployments that lack adequate evaluation and identification of risks; e.g. unlike ISDN, not all VoIP is the same.

Part of the issue for many businesses is that in the past they have “sweated the asset” with many telecommunications solutions in place for almost double their written down expected 5 year life. Thus, they have been seen as not costing the business in recent times; we believe this is a false economy as not only is there the increasing cost of maintaining aged systems, (much that has been historically robust has either already passed manufacturer “end of life” or will shortly do so as manufactures concentrate efforts into new technology) but what is the opportunity cost of being a telecommunications dinosaur, with breakdowns and falling behind peers that provide a much better all-round communications experience?

In 2016 / 2017 the market saw some major movement towards alternative solutions such as on premise style “box on the wall” with, for example, cloud adoption of telephony, now a serious consideration for all types and size of business.

It was also an important price point juncture with the economies of scale now pushing through the supply chain to bring the cost of new technology down below traditional style solutions. Indeed market evidence shows that cost is actually increasing in the supply chain for traditional style services, with for example, BT Retail increasing its line rental and call prices on at least an annual basis for several years now.

Each business should have an IT strategy that will examine the whole IT infrastructure going forward and indicate what the business solutions will look like from an “on premise” style of solution, compared to either private or public cloud adoption or indeed potentially even a mixture, either transitionally or permanently.

The role of telecommunications in this should be carefully measured and not exempted from the same style of planning. However it is often surprisingly not subject to the same degree of forward thinking.

In times of change businesses should be considering:

  • What communications tools do their organisation need to;
    • Empower staff
    • Be cost effective
    • Enhance the Business
    • Improve relations with customers
  • What new technology and solutions are available
  • Planning an ongoing replacement cycle
  • Maintaining flexibility & managing contracts to limit long term lock in when there is fast pace change occurring
  • How is investment in new technology going to be funded & what are capex versus opex implications?
  • How do their staff best work, from home, office or in the field and what communications tools do they need for the job?
  • How do all forms of communication integrate with each other, such as CRM systems with telephony activity for example?
  • What type of communication is needed, and for whom? For example integration of Webchat, Social Media and SMS into staff, procurement and client communication streams, and how do they work together?
  • How will new systems impact upon data usage within the organisation at both fixed sites and whilst mobile?
  • Ensuring the business is fully resilient in its telecommunications Disaster Recovery
  • Which suppliers are going to be around in the future as we have seen many fall by the wayside;
    • What is the difference between different suppliers and their solutions
    • Robustness of solution
    • Empirical data surrounding historical success
    • Their plans for the future and funding
    • Do they come from an IT background or Telecommunications and do they understand both areas?

In conclusion, businesses should not wait for the last minute rush as we expect many will be locked into poor long term replacement solutions that don’t support and enhance business communications as we approach 2020 and 2025.

We also recommend that you don’t under-estimate the time involved in properly planning and executing such a plan- start now and if needs be get some independent help through the maze!

Contact us today to learn more about our cost reduction techniques.

Article by: Nigel Rosehill