Both TeleWare and other vendors have tried a variety of solutions for FMC including Wifi technology and software clients on smart phones. Mobile operators have provided a partial solution that provides a single bill but not a converged service. Feedback from customers has consistently been that they need to have more than is provided by today’s FMC benefit stories. The concepts are great but they need to be able to create complex solutions working in building, while travelling with existing PBXs and applications. They need it to be simple to deploy with no complex configuration or installation involved and low ongoing support costs. But most of all they need a solution that will deliver hard cost savings.

For businesses to deploy FMC they need it to be simple, convenient for users and to offer the users a choice of phone. The end users will typically drive the decision as to what mobile phone they use, so businesses are not interested in a solution that defines a specific phone or operating system they need to use. The solution needs to be deployable on any phone as demanded by the end user. The choice of handsets is continually changing so the solution needs to be device independent.

Mobile operators today deliver based on a tariff and then they bundle in a variety of services, but most businesses would like to integrate all mobiles into the existing infrastructure. They want the same service from FMC for their mobile users that they deliver on their fixed infrastructure. There should be no downside for the user for working out of the office. They may have invested a lot for the existing infrastructure and want to maximise use of this. For example, they may have call recording hardware, hunt groups on-site via the PBX, or an operator looking at busy lamp fields. They need to be able to integrate with these normal business functions and services and continue to see a return on the investments they have already made in fixed line related services.

Once these criteria are met, then businesses have told us they will consider the productivity and soft savings. These potential soft savings cover areas such as user productivity, a reduction in the number of desks needed in the office, less phones on desks, reduced travel, less infrastructure, reduced number of circuits, etc. For most businesses, they are not going to be truly interested in FMC unless vendors have fixed the problems the vendors  themselves have created in management and control of the network.

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