Managed Voice: Reinventing Voice Services

Managed service is the buzzword in telecom industry now. In network
infrastructure, managed services have really taken off. In data services too
enterprises have opened up and are subscribing to managed services from the
services providers. However, in voice services the market is still in its
nascent stages. Not only is there a lack of awareness and excitement about
managed voice services among the enterprises, but the service providers have
also been mainly cashing in on the data services and have not paid much
attention to the voice services.

Though
BSNL has a slew of managed voice offerings, the revenue percentage is very less.
According to the officials the lack of government sector support and the SMB
segment still not opening to these services has restrained the growth in this
area. The operators who have good base of enterprise customers have been able to
take a lead in these services.

"The awareness on managed voice services is low and service provider
also have not been proactive in offering these services till now. Things are
changing slowly. It is not that demand is not there. Reliance has taken few
steps towards these services and others are following," said Heramb Ranade,
product head, enterprise broadband, Reliance Infocomm.

Till now, for voice services enterprises had to depend on three types of
players. One, a service provider who provides the connectivity. Two, the
equipment vendor who provides hardware like the phone instruments, EPBXs etc.
And third, the in-house enterprise team that looks after all these. Services
providers manage the link, vendors manage (or services) the hardware, and the
enterprise teams manage the vendors and the service provider.

With managed voice services, the number of players can be cut down from three
to just one-the service provider taking care of everything. All that the
enterprise has to do is state its requirements, signs an SLA with the service
provider, and forgets everything else. Another advantage of these changed
business dynamics is that the service offerings can be tweaked to suit the
enterprise's requirements.

The biggest advantage of the managed voice service is that the enterprises
are relieved of the additional infrastructural investments. The headache of
maintaining a team to manage the infrastructure is also done away with. Though
control over the hardware is lost (to some extent) but gains come from quality
of service. The enterprise can still dictate the terms of service and maintain
the provisions for scaling up as and when required, without worrying about the
investments.

Also, technology changes very fast and for a CIO it is difficult to convince
the management to adopt the latest as there is always a cost factor involved.
However, in a managed service scenario the onus is on the service provider to
incorporate new changes and better the service offerings. "Managed services
is, in a way, a guarantee against things getting obsolete in a network-be it
voice, data, or video centric," says Alok Sinha, general manager,
enterprise solutions, Tata Teleservices.

Centrex Drives Managed Services

Centrex (central exchange) integrates all the multi-located telephone lines
into a single, highly functional communications group. People can access other
members of their group by dialing just three or four digits. It allows the
caller to be directly routed to the person, or the extension, without going
through a PBX. It also serves as an intercom, with extension numbers being used
for internal calls. It is a software-based service installed at the service
provider's wireline exchange, and offers functionalities similar to an EPBX-while
retaining the benefits of a direct line.

The difference between a centrex and EPBX is that in a centrex customers don't
need to have any additional equipment at their premises-straightaway cutting
down on costs. Freedom from the device takes off the burden of its maintenance,
and bothers like its power supply and floor space it occupies also get
eliminated automatically.

Further, service providers combine features like free intercom calls,
conditional call forward, and CLIP services to make centrex attractive to the
enterprise customers.

With IP now gaining lot of traction, vendors like Cisco, Avaya, and Juniper
have come out with IP-based centrex. Experts say, IP-centrex would be the first
managed voice service to be delivered on next generation networks (NGN). NGNs
are designed to carry voice and other delay-sensitive traffic. This makes them
an ideal platform for delivering a feature-rich, efficient, company-wide
telephone system across all offices-managed from a central point.

Centrex Not the Only Offering

Apart from centrex, voice over MPLS-VPNs is another area that can be brought
under the ambit of managed voice services. However, there are regulatory issues
preventing this from happening in India. The decision to go on MPLS-based WAN is
more of an efficiency-driven, cost-saving decision, but it is available only for
data services as of now. "MPLS-VPNs are not allowed to connect to PSTN and
different PBX is requires to terminate voice calls. This defeats the purpose of
reducing devices through managed services," said Ranade.

Then there are services like leased lines for voice, voice conferencing,
voice VPNs, and direct inward dialing (DID), which are being offered as managed
voice services. Services on closed user group (CUG) are also considered to be an
enterprise managed service. But some differ on this. "CUGs cannot be taken
as managed services, especially for mobile networks. Mobile is an individual
service. Even if it is an office connection, it is used more as a personal
device. And, if a group is talking among itself it cannot be called a managed
service. There is nothing about managing the service, it is more of a feature of
the mobile networks," said an official of a leading service provider.

However, industry experts also added that more than the telecom services, it
is the associated professional services and applications management that would
drive the managed voice services. These would be the next level of services, as
are already being witnessed in the advanced nations. In this level, things like
helpdesk services and customization of the instruments and services would be
provided by the service provider; in addition to the connectivity.

The intelligent networks of the service providers have taken managed voice
services beyond the centrex. The 1600 toll free number from BSNL-MTNL have been
taken by enterprises for 24x7 customer care. Similarly, the tele-voting in Kaun
Banega Crorepati revealed another aspect of managed voice service to the
enterprise users.

Short-code dialing, universal access numbers, premium IVR-based voice
services, and even calling cards managed voice services. And VPN is another
avenue for it.

These services can be offered over wireline or wireless. The enterprises have
to spell out their requirement and service providers are there with the
offerings.

Success Knocking on the Doors

Going by what has happened in the data services, success of managed voice
services is a certainty. With NGNs waiting around the corner to make an entry,
convergence of voice and data on a single network would also happen. "With
IP more entrenched in the networks, managed voice services would take off.
Especially in the multimedia kind of an environment voice services would be a
part of the managed services and would also give services providers to be more
innovative and flexible in their offerings," said a BSNL official. Surely
if there is single network on which managed data services are already there, it
would be difficult to keep out voice services from the ambit of managed services-the
mobile office requires voice and data services. While for the in-house IT team
it is difficult to manage the multiple devices remotely, the service providers
have the expertise in this domain.

The model evolving in managed services is-pay for usage per month per
subscriber. A strict adherence to SLAs is the main component. The management is
getting sensitive baout capex and opex of any infrastructure. Unlike in the past
when decision to outsource anything was taken by the CIO, it has now moved to
the CEO level. This is an indication of the importance being attached to these
services. Any move showing a reduction in the costs with increased efficiency is
welcome and this trend would drive these services.

Apart from the costs, enterprises do not want technology to be an impediment
to their business plans. This is only possible when if they are not bogged by
technological issues. It is better for them to concentrate on their core
business and leave the management of communications to the experts. Though
managed services are widely regarded to be the future, the migration to them
would not happen overnight. It would be a slow transition, with a mix of
self-managed infrastructure and some of the voice services being managed by the
service providers. The enterprises would like to wait and watch before the
handing over or buying these services. The market no doubt is in its infancy and
would take time to mature.

Anurag Prasad