2018 is rapidly approaching…are you ready?
Can you believe we are less than 45 days away from 2018? The second decade of the 20th century is coming to a close. Just think about where we have come from and the technological advances that have been made in the communications industry. From flip phones to BlackBerry, from IM to SMS, from BlackBerry to smart phones, etc.
As we sit here, we can’t even imagine what the industry will look like 20 years from now. Take for example, our little corner of the world, the interconnect voice industry. 20 years ago the industry was booming. It was an unbelievable land grab as VoIP technology started becoming mainstream and the 1996 U.S. Telecommunications Act started to really influence companies and how they entered and exited the marketplace. 20 years ago, voice traffic seemed to grow by double digits every year and the future looked incredibly bright for interconnect voice. There was excitement and enthusiasm in the industry.
Now, as we approach 2018 a lot of that excitement has faded away and has led to anxiety. The daily grind of the voice interconnect operations of a telecommunications carrier’s business is, at best, challenging and, at worst, destructive. Let’s face it, it’s a tough business. It imposes complexities on a carrier that many, if not all, would like to eliminate. Well, as with all evolutions, whether they be disruptive or smooth, there is ebb to every flow, a Yin to every Yang, an off to every on. In the world of interconnect voice where the challenges seemingly continue to increase and the margins decrease, the Yin to that Yang is the OSS & BSS interconnect voice platform. Yes, the lnterconnect voice platforms that pretty much act as the central nervous system or brains for the interconnect voice operations. Carriers no longer just build a spreadsheet and create a Least Cost Routing table and load it into their switch. Those are legacy methods of the last century. No, today, interconnect voice platforms have to intelligently manage voice routing, on a call-by-call, carrier-by-carrier, product-by-product basis. These platforms are the equivalent of the enterprise systems that companies employ for just-in-time inventory, to sophisticated order, and fulfillment. The voice interconnect management platform is the critical element to the profitable and successful operation of a carrier’s voice business. It’s as important as any switch, any CRM tool and any billing tool.
Think about the areas of interconnect voice operations these platforms need to touch:
1) Routing
2) Rating
3) Pricing
4) Buying
5) NOC
6) Finance/Billing
7) Sales
8) Risk Assurance
9) Product Management
10) CDR Processing and Mediation
11) Reporting
12) Alarming
The interconnect voice management systems of today have literally thousands of features that are used every day in a carrier’s operations. So, by now, all of you should have made the investment to upgrade or switch your interconnect voice management platform to a next gen solution. If you haven’t, you are in trouble. If you haven’t, then you aren’t ready for 2018.
What are you waiting for?