Challenges facing the convergence of networks in business organizations:
1. Incompatibility of different organizational networks
Organizational networks may be incompatible because of the hardware in the networks or the protocols in the networks and this may prevent the convergence of networks.
2. Security concerns
Organizations may be reluctant to converge their networks because converging the networks would expose individual organizational networks to more security threats e.g. hackers who may corrupt organizational data
3. Competition amongst business organizations
Fierce business competitors may be reluctant to converge their networks because convergence would imply sharing of data in the network which may be perceived as a threat to the competitive advantage of an organization with respect to its competitors.
4. Cost concerns
Convergence of networks would imply interconnection costs which vary according to the medium used to interconnect the networks. For instance, a satellite link to the nodes in the network would be very expensive as compared to a phone line link.
5. Lack of uniformity in legislation across many countries
Most countries in Africa lack well-defined data protection laws and computer crime laws in contrast to European nations that have well defined laws put in place (e.g. The Data protection act of England). It‘s clear that convergence of networks across such states may bring about problems since what may pass as law in one country may not pass as law in another country. Perpetrators of computer crime may take advantage of this opportunity.
6. Poor telecommunications infrastructure
This hinders the establishment of links between organizational networks thus posing a challenge to the convergence of networks.