* DuPont discusses cost-justifying new mobile investments
At the Interop trade show last week, the sobering reality of IT budgets and cost containment mandates tempered the enthusiasm surrounding fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) — at least, during one panel session.
One large enterprise, for example, must cost justify new mobility investments while operating under a “do more with less” telecom edict. Hard dollar savings, not “soft” productivity and user convenience benefits, are what count with senior management at worldwide chemicals and materials giant DuPont, said Tom Marcin, director of global telecommunications, during a conference session on “The Technologies of Fixed/Mobile and Mobile/Mobile Convergence.”
To that end, Marcin said, he’s been dabbling with Siemens enterprise-based FMC gear with his eye primarily on curbing the cellular charges incurred when on-premises workers use their cell phones and services instead of the corporate PBX and associated dial plan. He said DuPont attempted to “stop the culture” of using cell phones as business desk phones but was unsuccessful.
“So now we’re looking to embrace the culture and use technology to minimize the cost associated with it,” he explained.
That’s where bridging corporate PBX and cellular environments comes in. Employees with a single business phone number can use their cellular phones as their business phones, whether they are on premises and attached to a Wi-Fi network or outside with only cellular coverage available. But when they are in the office, the corporate dial plan and associated calling rates apply.
Beyond those cost savings, any strategic benefits associated with FMC are gravy for DuPont.
“We’re under pressure, year after year, to cut costs by double digit [percentages],” explained Marcin. The multifaceted benefits of collaboration afforded by full-blown FMC, with presence and unified messaging capabilities, “has a value to us. But I can’t sell a full FMC rollout on soft benefits. I have to rely on cellular cost savings.”
Marcin estimated that his company spends about $100 million a year on telecom, but that management expects his group to cut 10%, or $10 million, each year without forfeiting any capabilities. “What’s growing is mobile costs,” Marcin said. “We spend almost as much on cellular as the rest of our voice and data combined.”
Marcin said he “can’t wait for traditional carriers to integrate their networks with our IP telephony networks” so that FMC can be bought as a service. “FMC is too complicated of an environment for us to figure out how to build it ourselves,” he said.
