The movement to E-commerce and the use of the Internet will drastically reduce costs and simplify processes, but connecting to the legacy systems that make up the infrastructure backbone is a tricky and tedious matter. The telecom industry's IT domain is populated almost solely by legacy systems, making integration a continuing challenge. BellSouth is one company that has restructured its IT department to start the integration process. The company recently implemented its Message Broker and Databus systems, which will allow interaction between new and legacy systems during the transition. Migration problems escalate when acquisitions double the number of systems.
Older systems are very hard to integrate.
The IT department at WorldCom has had to combine more than 1,000 systems into 300 because of the acquisitions of MCI and other companies. After SBC acquired Ameritech Corp. last year, Glotzbach had to integrate the companies' systems and cultures, in addition to overseeing more than 17,000 IT employees. And our single-platform initiative is going smoothly. However, integration takes years to be successful, adding expenses to IT budgets already heavy with the costs of data services, E-commerce, and upgrade requirements. And competition from new names in the service market, such as Northpoint Communications Group Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc., adds more pressure to IT departments.