When budgets are tight, it can be difficult for businesses to decide when to invest in order to improve processes and maximise profits.
But communications are a vital element for any business and the recent revolution over the past decade has placed a bigger emphasis on the importance of quality, and reliable connectivity.
The point about prioritisation is also one that operators recognise as they are not immune to themselves to these issues. However, they may also struggle with making decisions about whether or not to replace their voice switching platforms, especially when volumes are down.
Cataleya understands the challenges that operators face when making these decisions and want to help them make the best choices for their business, as their experience in the communications industry will be invaluable in the process.
Voice Switching Platform Replacement
One of the big issues that operators face is the cost of hardware and software licenses previously purchased were high but voice volumes are down, to the point where there could even be a substantial surplus of capacity in place on the existing systems.
With these incurred costs, there is little incentive to invest in newer technology. However, as Cataleya Founder, Andreas Hipp outlines below, there are also some good reasons to consider a fresh approach.
Support – “Typically support costs are a percentage of the original purchase price and need to be paid every year to ensure software updates are current and have 24/7 technical support in place for emergencies. Operators don’t always realize that, if a new platform is substantially cheaper, so would be the new support cost, and they can start to recoup their investment quickly over a relative short period of time.
Operations – “Cost of operation is another factor where large deployments, due to their complexity, also need a larger team to support them and this is expensive. But newer platforms need a smaller footprint and are typically easier to operate and can integrate throughout API’s to OSS or BSS systems allowing more automation and fast provisioning. New platforms on newer hardware might also need less space and be less power hungry, and therefore more sustainable and cost effective to operate.
Payment Model – “The cost of buying perpetual licenses might be the best way for core network deployments, but what about new service rollouts and business cases that are difficult to predict? OPEX and subscription models also exist for on premise deployments and not just for Cloud or SaaS offerings. This can be a better way to support new service rollouts or business cases. Subscription costs only go up when usage or revenues go up and can scale down as well if needed.”