The Technology Works, But… A Pioneer’s Tale (Cont'd)

Trial #2 - Establishing a new office “out of region”
One of the coolest things about IP Centrex is that it really is virtual. Breaking in a new platform provider however proved to be anything but cool, or virtual. Our service provider had many, many discussions to try and get our feature package extended to the new location. They had many more discussions about the high proportion of dropped calls, especially conference calls. This was of course further complicated by the daisy-chain communications involved. We complained to our service provider, who in turn had to complain to their platform provider. Each round took hours to complete because questions that we could have answered quickly in direct conversation had to be asked and answered through an intermediary.

This was particularly problematical when the platform vendor decided that our problems must be related to insufficient bandwidth. We had to provide results of our “ping” tests to prove that bandwidth was not the source of our performance problems. Mysteriously, we could not get tone signaling to work, so we couldn’t navigate any IVR systems or use our voicemail. That problem seems to have been solved by swapping out the handsets.

The dropped call syndrome still exists on conference calls when the mute feature in particular is used (if anyone out there has some ideas, please let me know). Billing, one of the biggest challenges for many providers, is not a problem for this provider though – we were billed promptly for services, even those that still don’t work today. We’re promised that credits will be forthcoming.

These are problems that should not have been problems. We’re not picking on our service provider just to be mean. We understand that it takes time in all new companies to evolve new processes, train staff, fix problems and generally get everyone focused on the company’s desired way of working. What we have observed, in the early days of CLECs, in consumer IP telephony companies, and now in the IP Centrex companies, is that the early intellectual effort goes into the network technology, not into making the people, processes, and systems work smoothly together. Until, that is, customers start complaining and canceling their service. This usually is the catalyst to grab management attention.

The multi-vendor nature of IP Centrex is one factor that undoubtedly complicates the delivery of a great customer experience. Even the incumbents rely on companies like Sylantro, BroadSoft and VocalData to provide the IP Centrex platform. As service providers seek to bundle more and more services into one package, this multi-partner relationship must take top priority to resolve. Cracks, gaps, and lack of inter-working processes must be overcome to create a seamless infrastructure that hides all of the moving pieces from the end customer.

We believe that IP Centrex services will eventually dominant the SMB market, worldwide – just as soon as the business models, processes and policies catch up with the technology.

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