One of the strongest themes to emerge from the SDP Global Summit, which took place in London recently, was that of money and risk. This should hardly be surprising. One after another, operators talked about the risk involved in offering consumer based services via online portals and the diminishing returns they offer in the face of competition from free sources of content available over the internet. A few came to a bold conclusion: partner with content providers for consumers, but focus your own energies and efforts on the enterprise.

This is the message we have been promoting for a number of years. Enterprise customers offer more predictable, less volatile revenue streams. They pay for high-quality services that meet their needs. There are proven ROI models for delivering enterprise services in the form of IP and Mobile Centrex. They want to shift to OPEX driven models, in which subscription services replace CAPEX intensive solutions from the legacy era. They want new communication models and features, which can be delivered seamlessly across any network and to any device. IP and Mobile Centrex are applications that help meet these goals.

So why is it that content-driven solutions continue to attract so much attention? The conference was uncertain. Certainly, consumer needs have to be catered for, but there is a never-ending cycle of new products and increasing uncertainty in the face of non-traditional competitors. What’s more, revenues have been threatened for some time. Hence the cry “show me the money” – used as a clarion call to vendors promising riches from their solutions. If ROI is uncertain, investment decisions will be complex and long delayed.

That’s why the enterprise looks a more promising area for investment. Further, as we have discussed before, there are opportunities to take enterprise solutions to the whole of the business community. Instead of just thinking about large corporate or multi-national organisations, service providers need to consider the needs of the SME and smaller enterprise market. There is potential for significant growth as SMEs and smaller enterprises seek to adopt tools and solutions that have previously been prohibitively expensive and focused almost exclusively on larger companies. There is great appetite for new services in companies with fewer than 250 employees and particularly so in emerging SMEs which are the backbone of the economy in many regions. An enterprise focus must give consideration to such companies, as they represent a new opportunity to develop recurring revenue and to expand market attention.

Of course, consumer applications are essential, but the revenue generators are not necessarily those that are content-driven. They may be simple services, such as location or call distribution, but the long-term profitability of such services cannot be assumed. In this context, the enterprise looks more and more appealing and service providers need to identify services and opportunities that help meet revenue and margin goals.

IP and Mobile Centrex applications offer this potential. It’s a win-win for both service providers and customers: proven ROI for service providers, lowering the risk of service deployment for service providers, while enterprise customers benefit from predictable costs and huge CAPEX savings, as well as enjoying a suite of advanced communications services, driving efficiency and productivity gains.

As the world of communications becomes ever-more competitive, advanced enterprise voice services offer proven models that can be enhanced for future growth. Isn’t it time to give this some consideration? If you are looking for the money, you could do worse than start here.

Tore Saeter, September 2010

Service deployment and User Acceptance Testing completed

Gintel AS has secured a major new contract for the deployment of its flagship Easy Virtual PaBX solution to a leading mobile network operator. Deployment and integration of the service is now complete and user acceptance testing has been successfully achieved. Commercial launch of the service will commence within the coming months.

As the foundation of a mobile enterprise offer to be deployed to both fixed and fixed/mobile convergent customers, Easy Virtual PaBX was subject to a rigorous selection and evaluation procedure. Comprehensive user acceptance tests were undertaken to prove the required services and demonstrate the stability and scalability of the solution.

“Easy Virtual PaBX has been proven many times. This latest series of user acceptance tests demonstrates that it meets the most demanding criteria set by our customers”, commented Tore Saeter, VP Sales and Marketing for Gintel. “We are excited to be moving to another full commercial deployment and look forward to supporting our customer as their services grow and develop”.

Easy Virtual PaBX also includes a graphical service composition tool, the Easy Designer. This has allowed the operator to rapidly and cost-effectively tune the service portfolio to meet the needs of its customers. “Customisation will be supported from day one” added Mr Saeter, “ensuring that the service offer is exactly tailored to the needs of the customers. This is vital, as the region is approaching 100% penetration and differentiation is essential for increasing market share”.

Easy Virtual PaBX and Easy Designer allow almost unlimited customisation, enabling operators to build differentiated services from its core service strategies, which is essential for operators in highly competitive markets. Importantly, this customisation can be achieved by the operator’s own staff, ensuring costs are managed effectively.

Gintel’s flagship product, EasyVPaBX, is a comprehensive framework allowing operators to host and offer advanced virtual PaBX solutions for enterprises and SMEs. The innovative service lets each company control the behavior of internal, outgoing and incoming calls to all employees, central switchboard and common numbers, adding functionality for both the caller and the end user in a creative way, without sacrificing each employee’s existing personal preferences.

Gintel dramatically changes the way in which operators compose and deliver services to enterprise customers. Offering a range of feature rich applications, including the Easy Virtual PBX solution, Gintel is uniquely equipped to leverage both its rich heritage of legacy telco experience and cutting-edge IT technologies.

Gintel will once again be sponsoring and exhibiting at the IMS Global Congress, to be held this year at the Sheraton Hotel in Brussels. VP Sales and Marketing Tore Saeter will be presenting Gintel’s Easy Virtual PaBX during the Application Developer Showcase on Day 1 and will also participate in the open discussion session on the same day:

“Understanding How To Attract Application Developers And Develop An Ecosystem That Will Allow You To Differentiate Your Service Offering”.

Tore Saeter will show how rapid service creation can enable operators and MNOs to differentiate their own enterprise service applications and allow virtual service providers to develop differentiated products in a multi-tenancy environment. For more information, visit the IMS Global Congress website.

ROI for mobile or IP Centrex projects is often based on the direct revenue that a service provider can achieve. That is, the number of direct customer subscriptions to the mobile or IP Centrex product. While that will certainly generate rapid ROI and excellent long term profit potential, there is a wider opportunity: to host other service providers on the same platform.

White labelling and multi-tenancy are not new ideas. In principle, the “host” service provider needs simply to partition the service platform and allow other virtual service providers to create branded offers which they can then sell into their own niche markets. This has numerous benefits: the virtual service provider deploys its sales resources to sell the solution, but at no risk to the host service provider, extending the addressable market or taking the solution into areas that can be hard to reach.

To be successful, it’s important for the virtual provider to be able to differentiate their services. Gintel’s Easy Virtual PaBX offers this capability: from a single platform, multiple, differentiated services can be launched, offered by different service providers, while the host develops its core business.

Easy Virtual PaBX comes with a comprehensive, intuitive Service Creation Environment, delivered as a simple GUI which enables service providers to produce customised services in hours, not weeks, for deployment at the click of a button. Multiple service providers can offer their portfolio from the same platform with clear differentiation, allowing the host service provider to address the broadest possible market opportunity as well as building their own customer base. There is now a comprehensive off-line demo of Easy Designer which illustrates its powerful capabilities, available on request. A short-version is available on our website, but dedicated demonstration sessions can be arranged on request. Contact us to learn more about Easy Designer and the Easy Virtual PaBX solution for IP and Mobile Centrex applications.