VoIP in banks
Bank CIOs convinced that “huge savings” and “improved operational efficiencies” were terms that wouldn’t be found in the same sentence have learned to rethink their IT strategy, thanks to the advent of voice-over Internet protocol. Banks are finding that VoIP, which is being rapidly adopted by mid-sized and small banks, is akin to replacing their tin-can telephones with powerful new models that promise to dramatically change the way they do business in the next decade. Think Jetsons, not Flintstones.
Instead of circuit-switched networks, sound waves of voice calls can be digitized and divided into data packets before being routed over a data network. The upside is profound: huge telecommunications savings, increased bandwidth for movement of larger pieces of data, more flexibility for mobile workforces, more security for disaster-recovery and business-continuity backup systems, more CRM capabilities and more options for in-house training with video and other applications.
Susan Cournoyer, a principal analyst at Gartner Inc., predicts VoIP will be “inevitable by 2008 in 70 percent of businesses.” The largest adopters have been education, with about 35 percent of the total market, and health care, with about 16 percent. Financial services represents less than 16 percent, says Ronald Gruia, program leader for enterprise communications solutions for Frost & Sullivan in Toronto. Sellers of VoIP gear include Cisco Systems, Avaya and Mitel Networks.
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