Introduction

There is no surefire recipe for enterprise adoption of mobile technology. Nevertheless, the appetite for wireless technologies continues to rapidly increase in the enterprise. The upshot of an environment with a mixture of mobile technologies is convergence. While it may be difficult for the enterprise to understand the mobile convergence landscape, given all the shifting components, realization should begin immediately.

Enterprise innovation and tactical capability will be the end product from merging mobile technologies and introducing new architectures in which multiple wireless technologies can co-exist. Still, converged mobile architectures are fundamentally premature and are not entirely ready to impact the enterprise. However, mobile convergence will not take long to mature.

Various connective mobile technologies make up the ingredients of converged mobile architectures. Connective mobile technologies include Wi-Fi, WiMAX, GSM, CDMA, UMTS, Bluetooth, LTE, and others. In addition, quite a few compelling architectures include the union of enterprise telephony technologies along with mobile technologies. The demarcation point between enterprise voice and mobile technology is becoming transparent.

Why Mobile Convergence?

Today, enterprise employees are faced with technology obstacles that set back productivity. The first hurdle is the disconnect between mobile devices and enterprise telephony technologies. Converged mobile architectures smash down the walls between enterprise voice and mobile handsets. The result is a tight integration between the enterprise PBX (Private Branch Exchange) and enterprise mobile devices, which leads to employee happiness.

No longer would enterprise employees be required to manage voicemail on their mobile device and voicemail on their office desk phone. No longer would enterprise employees be required to deal with multiple phone numbers.

The first step for an enterprise should be consulting their enterprise PBX vendor(s). Leveraging current enterprise telephony infrastructure is the best practice. Most of the major PBX vendors already have established mobile convergence products or are working towards PBX extensibility. The outcome is single number reach-ability and one voicemail container, along with opportunities for advanced Web2.0 collaboration features, such as presence.

For enterprise environments that have legacy PBX environments or a mixture of voice telephony vendors it may be healthier and provide more flexibility to employ an agnostic middleware solution rather than solution(s) from silo-focused PBX vendor(s). In addition, mobile service operators and mobile handset manufacturers have direct stakes in mobile convergence architectures and in some cases are introducing enterprise mobile convergence solutions alongside enterprise PBX vendors.

Mobile Convergence
Architectures

Mobility convergence solutions are, in general, not unfamiliar in an enterprise environment. They typically follow the traditional client-server model. For instance, a soft “mobility” client is installed on the mobile handset which works in cooperation with a “mobility” appliance/server which acts as a gateway between the enterprise PBX and the mobile service operator. This is the basic architectural approach.

Furthermore, many enterprises already have mobile convergence success stories. Most enterprises have successfully extended enterprise email to mobile handsets. The concept of converging enterprise voice with mobile handsets is essentially the same as the above model. Is it unimaginable to consider the same mobility for enterprise voice? The answer is no.

Dual-Mode Handsets

Mobile convergence architectures taken a step further, beyond straightforward PBX extension, incorporate dual-mode handsets. Dual-mode handsets support multiple connective mobile technologies, such as devices that support both Wi-Fi and GSM, or WiMAX and CDMA.

Dual-mode handsets are appealing for the reason that connectivity by means of more than one connective mobile technology is now possible. Taken a step further, dual-mode handsets are even more interesting when considering seamless cross-network roaming. An enterprise with a corporate wireless local area network can take advantage of dual-mode devices for locations where connectivity by other means is not possible. For some lines of business pervasive enterprise voice is priceless and dual-mode handsets provide a level of redundancy and alternative voice medium which has otherwise been nonexistent.

Mobile Handset Manufacturers

Handset manufacturers are releasing substantially more dual-mode handsets. However, the ongoing challenges faced by the dual-mode handset manufacturers include increased chipset costs and handset battery life limitations. At the end of the day, dual-mode handsets have a higher total cost of ownership (TCO) and are less efficient. In spite of the higher TCO and battery life drawback, users are continuing to embrace dual-mode handsets. The motivation may perhaps be to bridge enterprise voice and mobile technology, such as single number access or perhaps to sidestep mobile service operators.

Mobile service operators have much to gain through enterprise mobile convergence. The benefits are compelling to the enterprise and profitable to the mobile service operator from end to end (i.e., dual-mode handset sales and mobile convergence product sales). Today, several mobile service operators are introducing and/or developing mobile convergence solutions by means of UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) or IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) / VCC (Voice Call Continuity).

In a nutshell, UMA unites unlicensed connective mobile technologies, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with licensed connective mobile technologies, such as GSM and GPRS. One gigantic shortcoming of UMA is that current specifications do not deal with CDMA, which is the inherent connective mobile technology for two US mobile service operators and several international mobile service operators.

IMS/VCC is a more encircling mobile convergence architecture, without the drawbacks of UMA. The handover between Wi-Fi and GSM is more seamless by incorporating IP/SIP network elements into the design. This helps other network elements focus on their primary functionalities. Furthermore, IMS/VCC enables opportunities for innovative and strategic capabilities, such as advanced enterprise collaboration and multimedia features.

Conclusion

Enterprises should evaluate side-by-side mobile convergence solutions from their enterprise voice PBX vendor(s), mobile service operator(s) and mobile handset manufacturer(s) and strongly take into consideration agnostic middleware vendors. Next, it is important for an enterprise to identify the range of mobile handsets in scope and make certain that the “mobility” clients are compatible with the mobile handsets and mobile operating systems. Finally, determine which mobile convergence architecture is best suited to bring together enterprise voice and mobile technology. Finally, consider enterprise PBX extensibility with mobile handsets first and then plan ahead for dual-mode handsets and advanced collaboration features.

Scott Slater is in the Advanced Engineering group at The Bank of New York Mellon (www.bnymellon.com).

He can be reached at scott.slater@bnymellon.com or
212-815-5231.