Business Connexion Group Ltd. says it has begun the skills upgrade process to ensure that its entire staff has the relevant skills required to operate in the recently deregulated ICT environment.

Andy Brauer, chief technology executive in Business Connexion?s networks division, says: ?Deregulation is the sign of a progressive economy. To survive in a progressive economy the workforce also has to be progressive. Skills that are relevant now might not be so in a year or two. The workforce will have to be trained to operate in the converged environment, and traditional PBX systems will steadily become irrelevant. These will be replaced by Internet Protocol (IP)-based PBXs or rather IP PBXs. Imagine the effect that this will have on the call center business.?

Brauer argues that convergence will result in companies having a single team to manage both data and telephony lines, unlike previously, when there would be two separate teams, one specializing in data, and the other voice.

?Data operators of the future must understand telephony and vice versa. Architects, systems integrators, designers of networks and IT infrastructure will increasingly start to consider voice as part of most packages that they deliver,? he explains.

He adds that, despite its monopoly having come to an end, Telkom has remained without competition in the fixed-line voice arena, and that, as a result of this convergence, we can expect to see telecommunications and IT merging ?to give Telkom a run for its money?.

?Carrying voice over a data line is cheaper for international calls than using fixed lines from Telkom. Therefore, according to IT analysts, the smarter companies will move to VoIP,? he says.

Traditional telephony skills were based on time-division multiplexing (TDM) and switching. A switch to VoIP and IP Telephony (IPT) means that servers will now run the switching, and this, Brauer says, means that employees have to understand the PC, IP and the traditional Telephone Management System (TMS) in order to remain competent.

Referring to a study by Infonetics Research Inc., which shows that IP PBX global sales grew by 50 percent last year, and that hybrid PBX revenues are to grow 73 percent by the second quarter of 2005, Brauer believes that IP PBX will be dead by 2010. ?This shows how fast the industry changes, and that the question of skills, has to, in future, be viewed holistically, with predictable changes catered for,? he says.

?For example, those in the business of supplying and installing PBXs will have to upgrade their knowledge, or be left behind with inadequate skills. They will be like the old mainframe guys who are today unemployable -- some of them did not even see it coming,? he says.

?This will also mean reductions in staff, which will have cost benefits for the company. However, if the process is not properly managed, then it might not be beneficial to the country, and that is why the transition of training and skills has to be urgently addressed,? he concludes.