3. Mobile VoIP
Mobile VoIP has been garnering more than its fair share of headlines with a flurry of announcements from BT about its Fusion service and from handset manufacturers on the latest dual-mode phones but actual real world deployments of such systems are few and far between.
Research shows one-fifth of companies are looking into FMC and, for most, it is money-saving rather than a productivity boon that interests them. For that reason -- and that alone -- the buzz over FMC is unlikely to subside soon.
According to Quocirca analyst Rob Bamford: "All those other things you can do at the moment [with mobile VoIP] are all well and good but I think the initial thinking that it's a cheap way to make calls is not necessarily true, of course. A VoIP infrastructure or a [mobile] infrastructure capable of handling voice over IP calls could require some significant investment. It's not all free of course, especially in a mobile context."
Such costs can come in the form of making sure a Wi-Fi network is able to support the increased traffic, resulting from calls taking place over cellular networks, and ensuring in-building coverage (ie coverage inside buildings) is sufficient.
IP is undeniably a part of most larger organisations' telecoms plans so for some it could make sense to take the IP even further out of the network and even into users devices. However, telecoms upgrade cycles are traditionally longer than those of IT, which may hamstring CIOs in their quest for upgrades. For those in such a position, putting the squeeze on operators for cheaper bundles of minutes may be more cost-effective in the short term.
Nevertheless, the next couple of years are likely to see the advent of hosted solutions, as operators tap into SMEs that don't have the time or expertise to run a converged infrastructure. Should offerings be priced right, SMEs could boost the movement to adopt mobile VoIP.
Bamford concluded: "It's pretty early days with mobile VoIP but this is probably the year that companies that are doing something in this space will be doing something more significant."
RATING: 2.5/5 -- you should be at least thinking about this now.
4. M-payments
If mobile payments are to take off, they will doubtless affect those in the retail sector first and foremost, with some retailers potentially needing to install new infrastructure and security practices to deal with the new payment method.
With few handsets available and fewer retailers involved, it's unlikely that NFC (near field communications) -- as attached to a mobile -- will become a pressing issue within the next couple of years for corporates. However, NFC used for contactless payments with debit or credit is likely to be writ larger in enterprise thinking -- Barclays and Visa are currently trialling a scheme which may yet give the tech the kick-start it needs to become as popular in the UK as it is in places like the US and Japan.
With that in mind, retail and financial sector CIOs may need to start planning for the advent of the technology and how it will affect their infrastructure. However, analysts believe it is unlikely to be a question that bothers even retail CIOs within the next few years.
Chris Coffman, senior research analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, said: "Whether you're the CIO of someone who needs to buy all this stuff or even a company like Fujitsu who do point of sale systems, I wouldn't be too concerned about integrating it all -- it's a little ways out. You'll know which direction momentum is coming from as it will be coming from one specific application."
He added a possible kick-start to NFC could come if a scheme was built around Transport for London's (TfL) Oyster card, in the same way successful deployment in Hong Kong has been based around the country's swipe-and-pay transport card, Octopus.
While TfL and its partners did consider such a scheme, it eventually came to nothing and NFC cheerleading was officially taken over by BarclayCard and Visa, who are experimenting with a contactless card with debit card and Oyster functionality built in.
Coffman said: "It's more likely you'll see the scale of specific applications get larger and eventually it may snowball. When people get attached to one form of payment, they start to want to use it for other things."
RATING: 2/5 -- though more like 4/5 for those in retail and financial services.
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