Try us- we know what we're doing!

CSC Survey: CFOs Unhappy with IT

ContractorUK: Some finance chiefs have become so dissatisfied with IT that they are considering outsourcing their companies' IT functions. According to a CSC survey of 700 U.S. CFOs, 7 percent of respondents say they will evaluate this option over the next 12 months. Large financial companies are among companies most likely to outsource IT. A lack of communication appears to be at the crux of the dissatisfaction. Sixty percent of CFOs say they have no strategic IT plan in writing, despite all of the investment dollars going to IT. And one in three CFOs said that past IT projects were "less than successful." Some respondents cited IT's failure to understand the IT/business relationship and its "deficient" project management practices.

> Read "Finance Chiefs See Value in Outsourcing IT" at ContractorUK

VoIP Continues to Grow — and Vonage Laps the Field

Source: Central Valley Business Times | Priority: Voice & Data Convergence | Topic: VoIP
Date Published: 6/21/2006 | Date Reviewed: 7/26/2006

TAKEAWAY: There are a lot of interesting questions raised by this story, which cites research from market watchers Telephia. Subscriptions to "pure play" VoIP are still growing. The number of new subscribers replacing or complementing traditional telephone lines rose from 2.2 million in the first quarter to 2.9 million in the second. Vonage leads the market with 53.9 percent, followed distantly by Verizon's VoiceWing and AT&T's CallVantage with 5.5 percent. SunRocket, Lingo and NetZero Voice follow with 4 percent, 2.6 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively. In addition to the wide gap between Verizon and the others, the absence of any cable company VoIP offering seems odd. The survey said that 27 percent of people who would change VoIP providers would do so because of quality issues, and that 12 percent are likely to switch within a year.

> Read "Hello? Can You Hear Me Now? VoIP..." at Central Valley Business Times

Unlimited Conferencing Models Emerge

Source: Communications News | Priority: Voice & Data Convergence | Topic: Groupware and Collaboration
Date Published: 8/1/2006 | Date Reviewed: 8/9/2006

TAKEAWAY: Clearly, one of the biggest advantages of conferencing — which increasingly is done via the Internet — is that it cuts down on costly travel. Yet conferencing isn't cheap. Global companies of about 1,000 employees can pay $250,000 per year for basic voice and video conferencing, while companies that employ 10,000 people can pay $2 million. More complex "all-hands" meetings can run an additional $10,000 per event. The second half of the story is particularly interesting. The writer says that the high cost of conferencing tends to limit the number of people in an organization allowed to participate. In order to alleviate this, some conferencing service providers are using the cost structure of VoIP as a reference point in building fixed-price unlimited models. In this way, more people in the organization can participate — which is particularly important as workers become more mobile and decentralized.

> Read "Flat-Rate Conferencing" at Communications News

Click here to have one of our friendly Netservice sales staff explain a cost-effective Conferencing Solution to you!

Click here to have the friendly Netservice sales staff contact you within 1 business day!