XoIP – Anything over IP
Once upon a time, not very long ago, that is if the measure is in years, it wasn’t brainier to identify operators for different services, such as fixed wire voice, fixed wire data, cable, and mobile services. But then, technology evolutions have, for a long time now, had scant respect for numbers on the Gregorian Calendar and hence, once upon a time (about 5-8 years ago) you could pin-point your operator and clearly associate him with the (only) service he provided. Today, the ‘lines have blurred’ due to mergers, acquisitions and partnerships and new business models like MVNOs, and more than ever, because of technology. If someone posed a challenge – ‘what technology?’ – most of us would jump up and vote for IP.
Since it’s everywhere, sometimes service over IP does go unperceived. You have people surfing the web on their laptops in the Tube; some others are busy participating or presenting a web-based demo over business lunches in restaurants or at offices; yet others are using advanced PDA devices to transfer pictures, plans and even medical reports that are seamlessly received at the other end; airports and other public places are buzzing with travelers using their iphones, BlackBerries and mobile phones for sending photos, checking emails and for chatting... Employers are encouraging people to work from home offices, seamlessly participating in live video conferences with the company’s headquarters in another continent.
IP is no longer a luxury of the top tiers; it is now a need for any operator. The technology has become almost inevitable in the communications industry. Technology advancements, evolution of cost-effective network solutions, the converging market place and increasing competitive pressures are paving the way for IP-based services. The industry has matured beyond a point, where it is no longer important to know what service is being offered over IP – because, having an IP network in place means more or less that the operator is en route to become the one-stop-shop for all communication services. Now, it is the age of XoIP – ‘Anything over IP’.
IP has changed the game and many growth markets are maturing rapidly by its virtue. However, as you know, opportunity brings several challenges along. While offering world-class experience and value to their customers, IP-based operators face challenges unheard of hitherto – challenges that check their very survival by hindering revenue inflow.
The prominent pain-point is the operator’s existing legacy stove-piped infrastructure. Mostly, operators have specific OSS/BSS systems that cater to a single service, for which they were deployed. Over the time, operators have been deploying a multitude of systems to enable them roll out new services to the market, without giving much thought on whether the systems can be used in the future too. Focusing too much on the ‘cost vs. capabilities’ table, they tend to overlook the opportunities just around the corner.
IP network brings in swarms of packet data, which unlike traditional CDRs, need to be correlated and consolidated to be deciphered into an event, which in turn, need to be priced as per its content and eventually billed and settled appropriately. Most of the systems are originally made for ‘a service’, and very rarely are they made to cater to ‘any transaction’!
In order to truly leverage the possession of multiple services, a triple/quadruple-play operator needs to be able to effectively package products as per their usage levels, create cross-product bundles for each targeted customer segment and attach attractive price tags appropriately. However, the existing systems are silo-based, mainly due to their product/service – specific framework. Expecting these silo-based legacy systems to be flexible enough to make this possible would be akin to ramming a square peg into a round hole.
In this converging market place, the customers are caught in a mighty tug-of-war. Now, the market seldom gives a chance to delineate between customers – which means, no ‘cable only’, no ‘telephone only’ and no ‘internet only’ customers. There is only one big set of customers, for whom all operators hunt. The best bait for them is the operator’s service differentiation. In order to achieve this end, the operator needs to couple customer hierarchy with the hierarchies for their product and service bundles. Needless to mention, in most operators’ cases, the existing infrastructure impedes this arrangement.
Today, more than ever, the operators need to proactively acknowledge the loyalty of their high-value customers. This requires a 360° view of the customers to enable segmentation based on their tenure with the provider, profitability generated in terms of revenue vs. cost, and also based on other factors like privileged customer/account status, etc. Highly disjoint databases restrict the operator from having an integrated view of their customers.
With an IP network in place, operators in their yearning to tap revenue from the new services, mostly end up rolling out product and service bundles to match competitor’s prices, without much deliberations on the margins to be achieved. Highly flexible systems will allow operators to assess the product and service bundles, and enable them to pre-test the packages before they are launched for multiple target segments.
The current economic scenario also demands systems that can be deployed in multiple models – including SaaS, hosted, bureau and managed services models.
It goes without saying that, to go the IP way, and to have multiple services atop, operators require systems with high scalability, flexibility and configurability. In the race for market share, the communications industry requires systems that can stand up to the ‘X’ number of challenges the operators face today, and also the ‘X+Y’ number of challenges they could face tomorrow!