Trends in telecommunication management and configurations

A survey which investigated organizational management of telecommunications and the current and future configurations of telecommunications equipment showed some expected results and some surprises. The survey showed that public academic institutions are in advance of private institutions in the acquisition of different types of telecommunication equipment and connections. Also surprisingly widespread is the use in academic institutions of connections usually identified with business. Fully 8% of the academic institutions report being connected to customers, 14% indicate use of EDI, and 16% indicate connection to suppliers. Another surprising result is that previous investment in telecommunications is a better predictor than revenue (for business firms) or size of student body (for academic institutions) of the presence of rare telecommunications options, if they have acquired experience by a steady progression of telecommunications acquisitions. A final, perhaps more predictable, result concerns the evolution of telecommunication configurations in organizations of all types toward more interconnectability and in the directions of organization wide networks. Over 70% of the organizations are working toward organization wide networks but only 24% to 25% of the organizations consider that they have attained this goal. This trend is evident in both the academic and business environments. While it is not clear how this will impact the availability of data, it is apparent that a need for more interconnectability and ease of communication is being felt by organizations at this time.