How To VoIP

ISPs entering the VoIP services arena face numerous choices in bringing a service offering to market. Among these, one of the most key decisions is in choosing a platform for offering the services. Some carriers have built their service offerings upon in-house systems utilizing various open source and internally developed components. Many ISPs choose to simply resell the services of another provider and merely take a commission of those sales. Other ISPs invest in commercial platforms which are installed on the ISP’s own premises. This session will use real world data to compare the cost vs. benefit and present an ROI for these options. The key question is not just which platform -- but more importantly what to sell.

We Automate Phone Calls Lots of Phone Calls 100% SIP origination and termination. This presentation covers how we do it and why.

The Evolution of Telco

Centralized (Utility), Distributed, Cloud Now cloud 00’s web 90’s client server 70’s & 80’s mini computer 60’s mainframe Now cloud 00’s hosted PBX 90’s key systems and small PBX 60’s & 70’s CENTREX 50’s basic POTs Computing TELCO

Cloud Computing Models Infrastructure –Amazon EC2, Grid –Raw computing resources Platform –S3, Azure –API based infrastructure SAAS (Application) –Salesforce.com –WebEX

The Evolution of Telco First there were FACTELs Then there were VIRTELs The future is APPTELs

FACTEL Facilities based carrier (any distributed facility) Provides dial-tone Significant investment in CAPX Relatively low margins, high volume Must keep applications (features) simple due to high customer volume Highly regulated

VIRTEL Data center based TELCO Utilizes existing data infrastructure to transport calls Provides dial-tone Relatively low margins, high volume Must keep applications (features) simple due to high customer volume Limited current regulation

APPTEL Does not provide dial-tone Data center based and leverages FACTEL and VIRTEL call origination and termination facilities (often SIP trunked) Good margins due to value pricing Able to provide rich applications Limited regulation

OK, lets get started selling VoIP into the 20 million business SMB marketplace.

Selling Hosted PBX (VIRTEL) Sounds simple to sell Good recurring revenue Will help sell more data circuits We can sell over the phone since the customer will use their existing data circuits Just ship a preconfigured phone and go

All I Need Is Asterisk Yes but … what about … –Customer portal –Billing –Transport –Ticketing/customer support –Equipment inventory –Fault tolerance/high availability –Asterisk configuration expert

What About Premise Based VIRTEL Digium Switchvox example: –AA350 redundant HW $6,000 with 75 call capacity, up to 400 subscribers –$55 per subscriber (1 st year) –$11-$28 per subscriber recurring –Need billing software and customer portal Brekeke Multi Tentant PBX –Generic HW –~$28 per subscriber Pro Edition –$3,600 RadiusCAT Billing Solutions –Integration, configuration, startup costs

Wow This Sounds Great Under $30 per year per customer Vonage charges $24.99/month ($300/yr) But wait ….

Transport Costs.4 cents per minute to 2 cents or more depending on your commit level (let’s assume 1.2) Toll free is even higher Plus DID and Toll Free carrying costs Simple example: –2 hours/day talk time, 20 days/month –2,400 minutes/month at a 1.2 cents/minute –$28.80 per month vs $24.99 in revenue

Problems w/Selling Dial Tone If your usage assumptions are wrong, transport costs will eat your lunch Very low margins until you reach very high minutes High support costs because you are the customer’s only telephone

There Is An Alternative Sell applications instead of dial tone

What Does An IVR Platform Cost? High CAPX costs – enterprise IVR solutions are $600 to $4,000 per port High maintenance costs – 20% of CAPX per year Translates into high customer cost per minute.

Money Is In The Clouds Partner with an APPTEL that uses a combination of proprietary and open source components to drive down costs

Where’s The Beef (Or Bucks) Customers want applications not infrastructure – just compare Salesforce.com margins to infrastructure players Combine –APPTEL framework –With your vertical applications –Very rapid time to market

Customer Example Go Configure –Home assembly business –Needed to place thousands of calls to confirm appointments for both staff and customers –Automated using APPTEL infrastructure that included Web Based IVR configuration –Saving $70,000 per year –You can do this for your customers

What Does An APPTEL Look Like? CALL SIGNALING DIALOG CONTROLLER BASIC CALL PROCESSING SMART CALL PROCESSING PHONE CALLAPI CALL

What Else Does An APPTEL Need? Application Layer Telephony Related Services API’s Ifbyphone Platform Integrated Telephony / Communications Proprietary and Patent Pending Technologies Click to Call Call Routing / VR Virtual Phone #s ACD/Queuing Simultaneous Find Me Store Locator Voice Broadcast Call Tracking Google Analytics IVR w/ASR & TTS Post Call Processing Integration API Real Time Reporting Call Recording Web Portal ApplicationsDeveloper Tools

Next Steps Find an APPTEL you can partner with: –Robust selection of off-the-shelf applications –Multiple customer billing options –Ability to use your own transport or APPTEL provided transport Consulting Firm Model vs. Carrier Model –Select one or more vertical markets so you can demonstrate clear marketplace expertise –Obtain a free developer account –Begin building value prices VOIP applications

Questions