Focus…Daniel-san…Focus
If you are in the process of evaluating options for your inter-carrier voice management platform (aka OSS & BSS system) then we have some words of advice for you. Just as Mr. Miyagi told Daniel in the movie classic “Karate Kid”, “ Focus Daniel-San”,..so too should carriers stay focused. From our little corner of the world we have seen how many carriers lose focus and embark on a project that started with addressing the specific needs of inter-carrier voice but ends up trying to solve every problem on the voice side of their business. In fact, we see some carriers looking to the inter-carrier voice OSS & BSS marketplace vendors to solve non-voice related issues (SMS, data management, network inventory, etc.)
That’s why maintaining focus is so important when determining which direction to go in with your inter-carrier voice OSS & BSS solution. Inter-carrier voice has become an incredibly complex, data intensive marketplace where the frequency of data change is high. In other words, it’s not easy. It demands that carriers pay the right amount of attention and invest the right amount of resources. Luckily there are solution providers out there who have been building solutions to meet their needs. Companies like GCS. We have a great solution to help you address your inter-carrier voice needs. Almost all of them. We are talking 100% of carrier needs. It was a huge effort that has taken GCS, and many of our peers, 3, 5 or even 7 years to build. But, building these tools and capabilities means we couldn’t build other things. So, no we can’t be your subscription fraud management solution. We can’t be your A/R & A/P system. We can’t be your network inventory management system. We can’t be your workflow and contract management system. We can be your Routing Policy Engine. We can be your Voice QoS Management Solution. We can be your CDR processing & Rating management system. We can be your supplier management system. We can be your bi-lateral/peering partner management system. We can be your credit management system. We can be your network performance management system. All very important, all very critical things.
So, when you are going through your analysis of what requirements you have for your inter-carrier voice management platform, please remember to stay focused and don’t allow scope creep or feature-itis or any other nonsense to get in your way. Otherwise, just as Daniel found out in Karate Kid, you could get your legs swept out from underneath you! Stay focused!