OPINION Market Feedback
“The situation has meant that the landscape has seen more digital adoption in the last few months than
in the last few years.” Dominic Martini, Head of Product Management - BT Enterprise
Hosted Drivers
In this mini-feature we asked the market if the end of the ISDN network was still driving
the uptake of hosted telephony?
Paul Gibbs, Sales Director at MyPhones - “It wasn’t but now end
users have tasted the ‘what if’ they are actively seeking an exit
from ISDN so I think the 2025 won’t be a problem as NOW is the time
for the UK Channel to move all of their users away from ISDN.”
Ian Rowan, UK Channel Manager at Wildix - “It still has an
impact, there are many people still using ISDN and over time this
will need to be replaced. I have heard suggestions that the original
dates for switch off may be impacted because of everything that
has happened over the last few months but this should not be an
excuse to not ensure all those existing clients are switched. Other
business drivers have taken precedence during the pandemic but
as things slowly return to normal then focus will need to be given
towards this again. Many people that resisted the switch from
ISDN to SIP have struggled to deploy true smart working during the
lockdown and some had even used total bearer diverts just to allow
them to operate.”
Mark Curtis-Wood, Group Sales
& Marketing Director at Vaioni
- “COVID has brought forward
a lot of businesses’ digital
transformation plans as they
realise; they don’t have the
luxury to wait until 2025 to
make the change. Hosted
voice brings many benefi ts
which customers simply
cannot do without anymore
given the way that the World has
shifted and the growing need to be
more fl exible. There will always be those that are late adopters
and choose to wait until 2025 to make that change, however
customer expectations are already starting to shift, and there will
quickly be an expectation from end customers that they can start
to interact with the business the way they did post lockdown and
that will drive businesses to strive to provide the same customer
experience even though their staff are scattered across the
country in many different single locations.”
Dominic Martini, Head of Product
Management at BT Enterprise - “The
situation has meant that the landscape
has seen more digital adoption in the
last few months than in the last few
years. The need for digital tools and
services has been ignited and there
are now numerous drivers, alongside
the ISDN switch-off, which means it will
remain the status quo. Businesses have been
encouraged to think about accelerating planned timescales, and
how best they can prepare themselves for the all-IP world ahead.
Ultimately, there are strong reasons for switching sooner rather
than later and the channel needs to make sure those benefi ts are
conveyed, particularly to those businesses who are uncertain
about the switch. For instance, early adoption will provide
organisations with enough time and resources to fully research
their options and invest in the solutions that are truly right for them.
Every business will be in a different position as they approach
the switch to all-IP and they will look to the channel for support to
ensure they take advantage of the many opportunities ahead.”
Peter Oosthuizen, Partner Service Manager at Spitfi re - “The
WLR switch off still remains a signifi cant driver for anyone not yet
converted to VoIP. It is most likely the second consideration now
that fl exible working has become top of most customer’s priority
lists. The ISDN switch off was easily addressed with implementing
SIP trunks onto an on-premise PBX. The trend towards a full Cloud
solution was well on the way but lockdown has clearly swung the
balance well in the favour of Cloud platforms against on-premise
with SIP trunks.
The announcement by BT Group stating that BT intends to
migrate all customers onto the IP network by 2025 means that
thousands of UK businesses with conventional PBX systems
face the prospect of their phone systems becoming redundant.
However, many businesses are locked into long term PBX
contracts, e.g. 5-7 year leases still running making migration
to a hosted solution impossible. That is why Spitfi re is offering
SIP Gateway which provides a simple and easy way to convert
a conventional PBX system to interface with SIP trunks for VoIP
telephony, future proofi ng customer investment in PBX hardware.”
ED SAYS…
There is still a large number of businesses
stuck on traditional ISDN technology. It is
unclear how many of them have taken the
opportunity to move towards IP services but
clearly the pandemic will have made many of
them think about their long-term futures from
a technology standpoint.
42 | Comms Business Magazine | August 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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