Page 20 - Telecom Reseller March April 2014

March/April 2014
20 Telecom Reseller

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Compressing and accelerating the customer interaction experience
African SMS
bridge operator Part 2
Enabling Mobile Portals for Omni- of tablets and smartphones already include
unifies splintered SMS
Channel Success
video and voice, so the developer need only
leverage those tools from within the app.
By Sajeel Hussain, Vice President, Marketing & Partner
The omni-channel contact center should Consider the possibilities of a full ser- networks with cloud Development, CaféX
I
deliver a consistent user experience across vice omni-channel environment— or, bet- networks
n the previous installment, we looked at
all mediums while maintaining contextual information. An omni-channel environment ter said, the new realities. Imagine home- the impact that mobile users are having
provides agents with the tools they need to buyers out touring a neighborhood with BA
y Patrick Kerpan, CEO of CohesiveFT : www.cohesiveft.com
on contact center operations, and how
engage efficiently with customers and to their realtor, reviewing market offerings. frica has over 700 million mobile the demand for omni-channel real-time
expedite a resolution. From the customer’s The couple is on their mobile device con- phone users. According to Jamal interaction is forcing businesses to quickly
point of view, the mobile app is often the nected to their bank’s mobile app, which, Saghir, the World Bank Director
re-evaluate the viability of their infrastruc-
preferred portal to the contact center, and thanks to the now embedded omni-channel ture in order to support evolving consumer for Sustainable Development in the Africa
the seamless incorporation of new channels communication modes like voice, video, preferences. The easy access of voice, web, Region, “the Internet and mobile phones
such as in-app video and voice are needed screen sharing, and text allows them to chat, email and other data communications are transforming the development land-
to ensure the single-stream experience. simultaneously speak to an agent, review means that end users want instant access to scape in Africa, injecting new dynamism
Fortunately, adding these capabilities does mortgage options, send photos or videos of information, and demand that their provid- in key sectors.” In 2010, Aa small pan-
not necessarily require a total overhaul of the home, secure quotes on interest rates,
ers accommodate their preferences, not African SMS bridge operator saw an oppor-
existing systems. The powerful capabilities
See HUSSAIN, page 21
vice versa.
tunity to help brands use SMS advertising
more effectively with an SMS network
infrastructure made up of multiple national IntelliSIPTM
carriers throughout Africa. The firm also
recognized that, in Africa, it is expensive and challenging to join up SMS traffic
across countries and providers with a tradi-
tional telco approach. End users and mobile
retailers have significant network issues to
overcome just to connect. People cope by
buying additional phones and SIM cards, The
or calling and quickly hanging up to signal
the other end to switch SIM cards, called
“flashing” in some regions.
The SMS bridge operator chose a new Intelligent
and different approach: they began using
cloud networks on top of public cloud.
Effectively, cloud networks free telcos
from the underlying hardware and geog- raphy. Central to the African SMS bridge Way to Grow
operator’s solution is how cloud networks
use network function virtualization (NFV)
to connect clouds to existing physical
environments to create a common, secure Your Telecom
connection for customer and partner end
points. This allows the firm to create a
joined cloud-based overlay network over
top of public clouds.
Business
The SMS bridge operator’s cloud net-
work can deploy practically any hybrid
cloud resource across hardware vendors or
geographic locations via encrypted IPsec
tunnels. Using a web-based UI, the team manages their network with the knowledge
that it is secure and reliable.
Make Industry Leading Commissions
The firm began their cloud networking
project with cloud IaaS resources based in the Add a New Recurring Revenue Stream
British Isles. They connected their resources
with partner and customer end points in an Cut Every Customers Phone Bill by up to 70%
overlay virtual private network (VPN), mak-
ing a global network from one logical group It’s a Win-Win Proposition
of compute and networking resource.
The SMS bridge operator network also They Get New Features and a Lower Phone Bill
enables traditional network features not
often found in cloud networks, such as You Get a New Recurring Revenue Stream
IPsec security, BGP peering, and a dedi-
cated block of public IPv4 addresses. The resources created a “virtual LAN” infra-
structure, much like a traditional local area Up to 40 Million Lines will Convert to VoIP by 2015
network (LAN). By patching the national
and trans-national carrier networks togeth- Don’t Miss the Boat!
er, the firm avoided the large capital outlay
required to buy physical networking and
data center equipment.
Dealers Contact Us:
The cloud infrastructure and the overlay
network instantly made the SMS integra-
tor “look like a telco” by operating a large 888.324.2334
network at production scale.
Now the SMS bridge operator’s telecom
customers can easily and reliably connect Certified Interoperability with:
without the costs of dedicated physical infrastructure. The firm brought a remark-
ably cost effective solution to market that
allows customers to easily and reliably BUSINESS PHONE SERVICE & SYSTEMS
Avaya, Toshiba, Panasonic,
connect. Their overlay network, based on
a cloud provider’s infrastructure, allowed Microsoft Lync Express by Sangoma
them to bridge the splintered telco market
in sub-Saharan Africa. Now, their innova-
tive solution lets mobile end users to con-
nect with ease and discover new worlds of
mobile commerce. %
www.voicecarrier.com
For more visit www.cohesiveft.com