Is Enterprise FMC the Next Big Thing?

Meanwhile, structural market changes are beginning to make FMC a necessity: Driven by the new range of application-intensive devices, monthly cellular network traffic will exceed today’s yearly traffic in 2014. Operators formerly wary of cannibalizing cellular minutes must now look for ways to offload that traffic. Leveraging alternative networks like Wi-Fi and picocells is one way to do so.

Voice still makes up about 80 percent of most mobile operators’ revenue, and Frost and Sullivan says FMC solutions can provide savings of at least 10 to 20 percent on the monthly mobile bill. But ABI’s Shey says that carriers can’t focus on lost minutes. “I don’t think they should be too concerned about voice over Wi-Fi, because Wi-Fi can’t provide the same call quality,” said Shey.

So far, most operators are just starting to dip their toes in the enterprise FMC waters. Several are offering it as an add-on to a managed unified communications solution. Norwegian operator Telenor, for instance, will deploy a new service throughout the summer of 2010 called Mobilt Bedriftsnett, which lets third parties integrate directly with its mobile network with open APIs to produce mobile UC services that link mobile business users to a company's internal network. The operator hopes to sign up more than half its mobile customers for the solution.

Lose the Deskphone

“Telenor is combining nearly ubiquitous mobile coverage in Norway and an early mover initiative that will appeal to both heavy local mobile users (i.e., sales people and executives) as well as business people that rely less on mobile services, such as office-based managers,” explained research firm Current Analysis in a report on the service strategy. “The ‘wherever you are’ coverage must be harnessed to the full by Telenor to sell this service concept as an add-on to other business network services such as IP telephony and IP VPNs.”

Meanwhile, the international services arm of BT has begun customer trials of OnRelay’s cellular FMC software as part of its UC offering. OnRelay’s MBX extends PBX functionality to a mobile handset, allowing companies to replace IP desk phones with mobile phones within a managed solution. The software's architecture works over any public mobile network, providing customers with a globally accessible managed FMC service.

"We see this demand accelerating as our customers look to maximize their existing infrastructure, improve employee productivity and continue their drive to manage and control costs,” said Malcolm Pilcher, head of voice CPE & FMC at BT Global Services.

Also in the pipeline are mobile VoIP clients for smartphones, which, while not yet business-grade when it comes to call quality, might still provide a more attractive, free alternative for some road warriors.