How to choose an interconnect voice platform to best fit your business

The interconnect voice industry has long been considered an intricate, complex component of the voice telecommunications industry. While we are no longer in the “heyday” of the industry where fortunes could be made quickly as the economics of trading voice traffic was, compared to today’s economics, extremely lucrative.

Interconnect voice is not going anywhere.

While today’s top line revenues are significantly reduced compared to those of 15 years ago, the industry continues to exist. Simply put, the voice services industry requires interconnect voice. Calling all over the world requires a globally interconnected voice telecommunications infrastructure. It’s like the electric system or the plumbing system. It really is a public utility that has been freed from most regulation and the marketplace has responded by reducing costs and increasing availability (thank you VoIP).

How do we deal with our interconnect voice business today?

Now, carriers are faced with how best to invest and manage this part of their business. While this is a necessary component of a voice service provider’s day-to-day operations, it is not a growth portion of their business. Carriers often struggle with how to address this area of the business. They need to focus on reducing the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of managing this portion of their business. Primarily, this is going to be driven through massive automation that significantly reduces the human overhead required to manage this portion of a voice service carrier’s operations.

Solution providers have responded by building highly intelligent and automated solutions that are comprehensive and offer carriers a massive feature set.

How are carriers to select which is the right solution for them? It seems like a daunting task, one that can mire a team and company down in technological details that, at times, can be mind numbing.

But there is a simpler, and in fact, better way to select the best solution and vendor for your needs. It’s the reference customer that the vendor has and can make available. These companies serve as validation that the solution provider’s product works and will meet your needs.

So, instead of spending a lot of time and money building lengthy requirements documents, internal meetings, and running through an RFI/RFP process, pick a few vendors and interview their existing customers. Remember, this isn’t a strategic growth asset for you. This is a necessary component like electricity, or the plumbing in your data center. You need it to work, be reliable, and not be a negative burden on your operations. The best way to identify the right solution for you is to talk to carriers using a vendor’s solution, that are similar in size, scale and sophistication to you. They will let you know what works, what doesn’t, and then you can choose the best one for you. Plus, you’ll save yourself months, if not years, of time getting the solution you need!