Frost & Sullivan estimates that by 2011 the market for hosted IP telephony and VoIP access services for enterprises will grow to 7.9 billion Euros in EMEA. IP Centrex, a software-based solution that places all call control and communication applications in the service provider’s network, removing the need for an on-site PBX, is expected to constitute around 40% of this market with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) being the fastest adopters.
Very small enterprises (VSEs) of up to 10 employees (also known as SOHO’s or micro enterprises) represent 15 million companies across Europe. Despite the market opportunity that they represent, VSEs have specific communication needs that, for the most part say Netcentrex, have not been properly addressed by VoIP service offers.
VSEs generally have limited in-house technical know-how, restricted budgets and little time to compare and manage communication services. Their communication needs are generally limited to one or two telephone lines, a fax, a payment terminal and broadband Internet access. They don’t have the resources for an on-site PBX, so they either subscribe to incumbent telephony services, or, increasingly often, to residential ADSL service bundles that combine Internet access and VoIP telephony but do not support fax or payment terminals.
To enable service providers to benefit from the untapped potential of the VSE VoIP market, Netcentrex has created IPCentrex One, a turnkey solution for the creation of hosted telephony services for very small enterprises of up to 10 employees.
IPCentrex One includes a package of Integrated Access Device (IAD) and IP phones, combined with a single provisioning screen per enterprise. A pre-integrated rating system enables quick time to market for alternative operators who are not familiar with communication rating. The provisioning system is adapted to a reseller go-to-market model, enabling service sales through external agents.
Another unique feature of IPCentrex One is the simplicity of installation which means that services can be activated in just 1 hour by the enterprise. Existing phones and/or IP phones, the fax and the payment terminal are connected to the IAD which is plugged into the existing telephone jack, giving access to the service provider network via a standard ADSL line. These terminals are all detected by the automated discovery and configuration features of the solution.
The solution can be used with fixed line or wireless equipment and provides a web-based self administration portal. On the service provider side, a web-based system for account configuration and management simplifies and optimizes service delivery. The high capacity of the Netcentrex platform enables service providers to increase profitability by reselling white label capacity to virtual service providers and/or through the deployment of additional consumer VoIP services.
“Our long experience in the IP Centrex market has allowed us to build a solution enabling fast time to market and incremental revenues,” states Erik Larsson, VP of Marketing at Netcentrex. “The single page provisioning is key to service provider profitability, since it enables efficient volume order processing. The solution is also future proof, with features for fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and interactive video services. IPCentrex One supports fixed and wireless phones, softphones, and dual-mode Wi-FI/GSM phones.”