The technology industry has been talking about convergence since at least the 1984 break-up of AT&T. The idea of convergence is really more of a technically based term that has come to mean literally bringing together technologies that were once separate. AT&T has a whole microsite dedicated to discussing how they will integrate voice, video, conferencing, and messaging all over a single network (IP). Convergence is juxtaposed against the past where these service required their own special delivery technologies. Clearly, having once network/technology where you previously had several is probably better to some extent- think operations, training, and equipment costs.
For the most part, the communication technology wars are over. In the past we used to question the Internet’s ability to be a network for real time communication and rich media, but that time is long past. IP effectively won the last war. Sure, there are lots of yet to be determined standards and protocols, but it would be hard to argue that IP is anything but dominant.
So, if everything (communication-wise, anyway) is converging around IP, then what is next? My opinion is a that to truly progress, we have to move beyond considering technology convergence to considering how customer value is created through services. This next step requires a different perspective on what is the nature of customer value. This step views technologies as nothing more than containers for value. The true value comes from the needs that the technologies address through intelligent service design.
Sure, we have historically considered the source of customer value as being the technology itself. The problem with this approach is that it places limitations on what technology can accomplish. If we start with the customer needs first and then assemble the technologies to best meet these needs, we may find that many technologies and combinations of technologies can break out of what they have traditional been good at. The only way for this to happen is to focus on the customer and not the technology.