Well Hal, I just don't see the extinction of traditional telecom types happening any time soon. As an IT guy who's learning the telecom side, I'll tell you what you already know, though from my point of view. While the delivery method of voice to an end user may change, there's so much more that needs to be considered when installing a communications infrastructure that I don't see most IT types having the knowledge (or time) to do the job properly. Heck, I'd bet that most of us probably didn't even want that job to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I am interested in learning new technologies and find this very interesting, but I still have a full-time job in networking/systems admin to worry about.
I, for one, will be enlisting the services of a good installer that knows telecom, whether I look at a new VoIP system or TDM.
I do think you are correct in that the manufacturers should leverage their existing technology and best practices when designing new equipment. Seems to make perfect sense to me. Sounds like the Cisco's of the world are reinventing the wheel when it comes to telecom (though they make some pretty bulletproof routers and switches in my experience). And, yes, Microsoft now offers its "Office Communications Server 2007" to work with PBXs/VoIP. Yikes.
