Consumer FMC is a more mature market for carriers, but so far most operators are just starting to dip their toes in the enterprise FMC waters, leaving vendors and software-makers to cater to businesses. But more carriers should sign on to grab a piece of the opportunity before the market gets crowded.
When it comes to the demand side of the equation, analysts are coming around to hailing enterprise FMC as a big growth area, perhaps one of the biggest, for IT spending, with a 230 percent growth in handset usage year over year in 2009. ABI Research predicts that FMC handset voice connections for business will rise from 6.3 million this year to more than 27 million by 2014.
Research firm Frost & Sullivan says FMC solutions have become one of the “most sought-after technologies by IT departments all over the world,” because of a reduction in mobile costs and better in-building coverage. Also, businesses are embracing more and more mobility and, in the current economy, are re-evaluating mobile services and the opportunities. Offering desktop applications via mobile handset, providing remote, mobile access to corporate data applications, leveraging fixed line broadband to improve mobile device access, or all of the above can offer recession-era-friendly efficiency and productivity enhancements. Especially if bundled with features like click-to-dial, presence, IM and enhanced call routing
For operators, FMC offers new revenue opportunities from a fast deployment that requires little integration and is low-cost to roll out. FMC gives operators an opportunity to unify existing services, and tie them in with things like mobile VPNs, call center applications or managed VoIP and unified communications. And, being network owners, carriers can offer it all as a managed service that not only ensures quality but reduces the capex requirements on businesses.
One first mover is Norwegian operator Telenor, which 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 offers that link mobile business users to a company's internal network. The operator wants to have more than half of all mobile customers in the Norwegian market sign on for the solution. Telenor can use the ubiquitous broadband proposition to offer this as an add-on to other business network services. Like VoIP or 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.
Along with the consumer demand and revenue-enhancing opportunities, there are big changes afoot from the operator perspective that might make FMC a necessity: Monthly cellular network traffic will exceed today’s yearly traffic in 2014. “Data services network traffic is growing by leaps and bounds, driven by a whole new range of devices,” says Shey. “For a good user experience, highly utilized networks in a competitive environment is not what operators want, so they have to look for ways to offload that traffic. Leveraging networks like Wi-Fi and picocells makes sense.”
Click here for the full, in-depth article from sister publication VON.
