What does Web 2.0 mean for Telephony Service Providers?

In a 2007 Study by IBM (“Web 2.0 Meets Telecom”), they found that, in the telecom industry, changes in basic business models were the number one key indicator of future success. In other words, industry leaders in the telecom industry are planning to change their business models to be more collaborative and more robust so that they can be competitive in the future.

In long term business planning, leading telecom companies are looking toward collaborating with external partners to provide a more robust offering. They are realizing that they have the ability to provide a more diverse product offering. Historically, they had offered traditional services like call waiting and voicemail, but it was becoming increasingly clear that enterprise customers were looking for more from their telecommunications providers. They were looking for more overall business management and monitoring tools, which were not historically offered at the provider level.

This new, more collaborative approach to providing telecommunications service is sometimes referred to as part of the Web 2.0 revolution. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design[1] and collaboration on the World Wide Web (www.wikipedia.com). So, it makes sense in the telecommunications arena that Web 2.0 would refer to partnering and sharing as well, especially when we talk about the VoIP telecommunications arena. Since VoIP telephony runs entirely over the internet, it only stands to reason that it, too, would be somehow involved in the Web 2.0 revolution.

With major players in the telecommunications arena looking for partnering opportunities to stay competitive in the new Web 2.0 environment, applications providers are finding themselves in pretty high demand. Service providers, hardware manufacturers, and resellers alike are all looking for an easy way to integrate management and monitoring tools into their portfolios to fulfill the growing needs of their enterprise customers.

The variety of offerings by applications providers is endless. From high quality, highly integrated management software to plug-in trunks added to existing systems. Originally, many telecommunications leaders were turning to the plug-in trunk applications. They saw these applications as the easiest and most cost effective way to provide their enterprise customers with the applications they needed.

However, they eventually found that these applications lacked feature functionality, consistency, and security. Some of the higher quality and highly integrated management software packages provide point and click online interfaces, geographic redundancy (available anywhere in the world), and scalability; features that many of their enterprise customers found that they needed to effectively utilize management software.

Some of the most popular management software packages being utilized in the new Web 2.0 revolution are IP call recording, ACD reporting, and Call Management Software packages. Those that are integrated at the switch level seem to provide the highest level of security and scalability, while also being more reliable overall.

The Web 2.0 revolution has motivated telecommunications industry leaders to rethink their business philosophy and expand their portfolios to include external partner integrated software that can provide the solutions that enterprise customers need. This new integrated software provides management tools that allow these enterprise customers to take a more hands on roll in managing their telecommunications usage and expenses.