BT and Siemens are combining to develop a converged communications solution aimed at multinational companies.

The collaboration hopes that the technology will help companies centrally manage the wide range of communication technology available and converge their voice and data communications at their own pace.

Wu Zhou, a senior analyst at IT research firm IDC, said that chief information officers (CIOs) face a dilemma as maintaining existing IT infrastructures costs so much that little is left for innovation.

"Many, if not most CIOs now recognise the clear advantages of IP-based converged communications but they cannot see how to get there without a lot of cost and complexity that can adversely impact the business," he added.

Earlier this week, research by iLocus, published on Web Wire, indicated that despite the uncertain economic climate, investment in voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology has seen an increase in the last year.

VoIP access server licenses shipped worldwide increased by 67 per cent this year and the amount of overall traffic increased by 35 per cent, according to the study.


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