Cloud Telephony for Carriers and Service Providers

Why Hosted Telephony Solutions Complete your Product and Service Portfolio

In these economically challenging times, many businesses are reacting by hunkering down and looking to reduce expenses. There now exists a great opportunity for innovative carriers and service providers to leverage contemporary information technology to the advantage of a market anxious for cost-effective telecommunications solutions. Cloud Telephony is a powerful new Web- based voice telephony option for the SMB market. In these economically challenging times, many businesses are reacting by hunkering down and looking to reduce expenses. Others are more proactive, taking the initiative and actively seeking out and employing every available tool that can serve to increase sales or reduce costs and, thereby, en- 1 hance profitability. There now exists a great opportunity for innovative carriers and service providers to leverage con- Executive Overview temporary information technology to the advantage of a market anxious for cost-effective telecommunications solutions. Utilize Cloud Telephony to Add SMB Cloud Telephony from Ifbyphone is a powerful new Web- based voice telephony option for the SMB market. Available Features to your for resale, co-branded or white labeled, the predefined fea- Platform tures are highly attractive, easily customized and require no special programming skills. The applications are accessible any time from anywhere and any phone. Unlike a PBX or key system, Cloud Telephony is pay-as-you-go, with no capital outlay required and no costly maintenance agreements. The responsibilities and risks of ownership associated with a premises-based system simply do not exist. SMBs find the case for Cloud Telephony to be compelling, as evidenced by its rapid success and growing subscriber base.

Telecommunications carriers and services providers are able to leverage the technology to their advantage and the benefit of their subscribers. Unlike Centrex, this solution has no upfront capital requirements and may be implemented system wide.

Ifbyphone assumes all the burdens and responsibilities of platform ownership, allowing the LEC to focus on dial tone,

Cloud Telephony for Carriers and Service Providers Ifbyphone, Inc. (C) Copyright (April 2009) All Rights Reserved facilities provisioning, customer service and other matters more central to the business.

Cloud Telephony from Ifbyphone deserves a place in the service portfolio of ILECs and CLECs, alike.

We clearly are in the midst of a significant business down- turn. Fundamentally, we know that this will pass. We also understand that most companies will survive, but that some will not. Still others will thrive on the adversity and emerge both leaner and stronger than before. Every company wants 2 to be part of this last group. In order to do so, businesses must not only be reactive by adapting to the changing envi- Creative Solutions for ronment, but also be proactive, taking the initiative and in- novating. They must seek out and employ every available Challenging Times tool that can serve to increase sales or reduce costs and, thereby, enhance profitability. However, many of those tools are technology-based and capital-intensive, which poses a real dilemma. Capital is hard to come by, especially in these uncertain times.

How can a company in need of technology-based, capital- intensive solutions acquire and leverage them without the incurring the burden of the associated capital expenditure (CapEx) for equipment? What about the long term operating expenditure (OpEx) required to support it? How can a solutions provider satisfy those needs while relieving the client company of those burdens? The two questions are the same, but from opposite perspectives. The solution for many businesses is not in acquiring hardware and software, but in acquiring a service. The solution is not on the premises, but in the cloud.

The concept of the cloud originated in the telecommunications domain of the 1960s as a metaphor for the core of packet-switched data networks such as ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency NETwork), which subsequently evolved into the Internet. In network 3 diagrams, a cloud graphic was often used as an abstraction for the network core, to mask its complex, dynamic The Cloud, Cloud infrastructure and inner workings from view so as not to confuse conversation about network access and user Computing and applications. Software-as-a-Service The impetus behind the original ARPANET, by the way, was to support the sharing of expensive computing resources in

Cloud Telephony for Carriers and Service Providers Ifbyphone, Inc. (C) Copyright (April 2009) All Rights Reserved the form of mainframe computers and the software residing on them; in other words, time-share applications. Time-sharing, for example, continues to be used to process payroll for millions of employees.

Cloud Computing, like its predecessor time sharing, relieves the user organization of the capital investment and other burdens and risks of ownership associated with a premises-based solution. Rather, those burdens and risks are assumed by a solutions provider that typically acquires high speed, highly redundant, fault tolerant computing platforms which provide multiple instances of appropriate applications software and which connect to a highly redundant Storage Area Network (SAN). All of these resources are physically concentrated at one or more central locations in order to achieve economies of scale.

The resident applications then become hosted solutions or what is commonly known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Examples include Salesforce.com for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Google Apps, a hosted office suite or productivity suite similar to Microsoft Office.

Cloud Computing solutions need not be limited to general computing functions and business software applications. In fact, the very same model can be applied to telecommunications.

Telephony began as a cloud technology and largely remained so for many years. The original telephone networks (1877) comprised very dumb terminals and very dumb network circuit switches controlled by very intelligent logic embedded in the brains of human operators. The 4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) (1879) truly was only a branch of the central office exchange (CO or COE), located Cloud Telephony: on the customer’s private premises. Hence, PBXs were an integral part of the cloud until the Carterfone Decision Origins and Evolution (1968) deregulated Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) in the U.S. and pushed back the edge of the cloud to a demarcation point (demarc), typically on one side or another of an exterior premises wall or property boundary.

In the meantime (early 1960s), Local Exchange Carriers (LECs, i.e., telcos) in the U.S. and Canada introduced Centrex, which was essentially a reversion to true core

Cloud Telephony for Carriers and Service Providers Ifbyphone, Inc. (C) Copyright (April 2009) All Rights Reserved Cloud Telephony. Initially a pre-emptive strike against non-regulated CPE competition, Centrex was a regulated CO-based telco solution offering a number of the most popular PBX features on a CO platform, which inherently is part of the cloud. As the LEC owns the Centrex CO, this alternative offers the subscriber a number of unique advantages, including the avoidance of the capital expense (CapEx) associated with the acquisition of a premises-based system. The subscriber also avoids the operating expense (OpEx) and responsibilities associated with system maintenance and management, upgrades, insurance, physical space, physical and network security, power and backup power systems. All of those costs and responsibilities shift to the LEC. As the CO is a very robust and highly redundant platform that the LEC diligently maintains and monitors, CO failures are rare.

As the pace of innovation accelerated, however, it became clear that traditional Centrex just could not compete with contemporary PBXs and Key Telephone Systems (KTSs) in terms of feature content and flexibility. Centrex feature content is limited, as many features are memory-intensive and as legacy COs generally are intentionally designed and provisioned to be somewhat memory-limited. Subscribers commonly are less than enthusiastic about the slow pace of the telcos when it comes to Move, Add and Change (MAC) activity. In large part, Centrex fell out of favor as deregulation provided carriers with the ability to sell PBX and KTS systems directly to businesses.

In the mid-1990s the PBX manufacturers finally yielded to pressure from end users and grudgingly released Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for what became known as Computer Telephony Integration (CTI). Some telcos even allowed end users to perform certain Centrex 5 MAC activity. The PBXs and COs remained TDM-based and telephone sets remained telephone sets, so the basics Computer Telephony remained much the same. and Voice over IP Soon thereafter, work began to commercialize Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which essentially involves forming digitized voice samples into the same packet data format

Cloud Telephony for Carriers and Service Providers Ifbyphone, Inc. (C) Copyright (April 2009) All Rights Reserved developed for the Internet. Those data packets are then transmitted, switched, transported and delivered through a packet-switched wide area network (WAN) rather than the traditional circuit-switched Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Initially, VoIP was something of a hobbyist consumer-level technology confined to the public Internet, but it wasn’t long before voice-optimized packet-switched WANs appeared. In parallel, PBXs capable of supporting IP were developed and VoIP appeared on the premises.

The features of IPBXs are many and their benefits in comparison to TDM-based systems are considerable. In addition to the integration of packet-based voice, data and video over a shared LAN infrastructure (e.g., cabling, switches, routers and servers), IPBXs offer seamless interconnection to the Internet and other IP-based WANs. There also are issues and concerns with respect to IPBXs as compared to legacy TDM-based systems. Those issues of greatest significance include platform stability, technical support, voice Quality of Service (QoS) and security.

The development of CTI and VoIP were very significant improvements over TDM technology, but the basic nature of PBXs remains fundamentally the same in that they are premises-based systems with all the associated burdens and risks of ownership.

Ifbyphone has developed a highly evolved solution that builds on the best of each of the predecessor technologies, blending and enhancing them to form a solution that is unique and compelling. Ifbyphone Cloud Telephony is a highly flexible platform that provides a hosted Interactive 6 Voice Response (IVR) environment optimized to cost effectively enable telephony solutions for small and Cloud Telephony medium-size businesses (SMBs). The predefined features, Recast: Ifbyphone sufficiently broad in range to satisfy the needs of most such enterprises, are packaged into three solutions suites that are regularly enhanced and broadened in scope. Those businesses wishing to integrate VoIP technology into existing business processes have access to a Developer API Toolkit that requires no special programming skills. Dial tone is not an option, meaning that the end user can select any carrier and change carriers on a whim. The Ifbyphone model provides the end user organization the flexibility to use any

Cloud Telephony for Carriers and Service Providers Ifbyphone, Inc. (C) Copyright (April 2009) All Rights Reserved existing carrier or service, including analog and digital land lines, mobile phones and VoIP solutions.

The solutions range from basic call routing and virtual receptionist to a toll-free number store locator, call queuing, Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) and full feature Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solutions utilizing Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), text-to-speech, recorded audio and Dual Tone Multifrequency (DTMF) decoding. All applications are accessible via a click on a Web site, an inbound, outbound scheduled or on-demand call.

These solution suites are organized as follows:

Cloud Telephony for Carriers and Service Providers Ifbyphone, Inc. (C) Copyright (April 2009) All Rights Reserved Ifbyphone APIs support access to basic call functions such as call initiation, monitoring, interaction and reporting, as well as advanced support for the pre-configured applications. Ifbyphone APIs allow the user organization to combine prebuilt modules such as Voice Mail, Virtual 7 Receptionist, Company Directory, Call Recording, Call Distributor, Store Locator, Outbound Call Scheduling, Enhance and Reminder Calls and Customer IVR Dialogs into together into sophisticated applications. The APIs are accessible from any Integrate with API programming environment, including dot net, PHP, Java, and C#, empowering any Web developer to become a telephone application developer. In addition, call detail records are available in real time via the post-call-action API.

Ifbyphone Cloud Telephony offers powerful telephony applications that can both increase revenue and decrease expenses and, thereby, improve profitability. Cloud Telephony is available virtually on demand, with no associated capital outlay and little or no startup cost of any 8 sort. There is no need to upgrade or replace terminal equipment. There are no burdens or risks of platform Benefits of Cloud ownership—no insurance premiums, no dedicated electrical Telephony circuits, no backup power supplies, no maintenance charges, no security concerns and no risk of obsolescence. There is virtually no risk of outgrowing the system as the SIP accessible applications Cloud Telephony resides on a high capacity carrier-class are easily integrated into computing platform. The full range of features is available at any time, from anywhere and from any phone. Cloud your existing carrier Telephony works just as well from an analog hardphone in infrastructure the hands of a remote worker at home in Hackensack as from a digital IP softphone at the fingertips of an agent in a call center in Cleveland or an iPhone in the palm of a commuter in Kalamazoo. Although the staff may be separated by thousands of miles and tens of time zones, they all sit behind the same telephone system and have access to the same feature set. Cloud Telephony is on a pay-as-you-go basis with no long term contractual requirements and the monthly charges are quite reasonable.

As an example of the significant cost savings available via Cloud Telephony, consider a typical call center scenario.

Cloud Telephony for Carriers and Service Providers Ifbyphone, Inc. (C) Copyright (April 2009) All Rights Reserved Instant IVR applications for Assume that a business currently uses an in-house or outsourced call center for the majority of inbound telephone any business calls, many of which are routine inquiries such as “Where is the closest store?”, “What hours are you open?”, “When will my sofa be shipped?”, or even “Do you have item number 12345 in stock?” The cost of handling those calls is easily in the range of $25.00 to $30.00 per hour, plus telephone transport costs. Cloud Telephony services are available for as little as $2.50 to $3.00 per hour, including telephone transport costs.

Integrate your IVR with A small business that runs frequent marketing campaigns can route calls by time of day, day of week, geography, existing systems via a caller ID and responses to IVR menus. A simple REST style API forms-based API allows the marketing administrator to build an IVR menu in minutes that will prompt callers for relevant information that will route inbound calls dynamically to the best sales agent or perhaps just the right person in the customer service department. Assigning unique telephone numbers to specific marketing campaigns by product, service, promotional offer or geographic region enables even more sophisticated call routing scenarios. Whether the agents or customer service reps are in one of a dozen company offices or working from home makes no difference. The administrator can generate, download and analyze call analytics reports in real-time.

Instant voice broadcast An appliance repair, electrical, plumbing or HVAC service solutions using your company, utility company or delivery service can employ the Voice Broadcasting application to build an automated transport or ours outbound calling application to do the dialing and verify scheduled appointments. Through tonepad input or voice recognition the customer can confirm the appointment or exercise an option to speak to an agent to reschedule. The application can easily be customized to best suit the requirements of the customer service scenario, thereby improving customer satisfaction.

Add click to call to any The financial services industry stands to benefit greatly, as web site well. As elements of various economic stimulus packages are codified and implemented, as refinancing alternatives expand and as tax credits for first-time home buyers emerge, mortgage brokers must react quickly to satisfy the demand for financing of purchases of existing homes.

The predefined Cloud Telephony applications can be implemented virtually on demand and customized in very short order in reaction to changing economic conditions and the highly dynamic markets they influence.

Cloud Telephony for Carriers and Service Providers Ifbyphone, Inc. (C) Copyright (April 2009) All Rights Reserved The power of the Ifbyphone solution is not limited to just direct business subscribers. The same solution is available to telephone service providers via a white label program. An ILEC (Incumbent LEC) with aging infrastructure, eroding customer base and limited capital can gain access to Cloud 9 Telephony with no investment in infrastructure other than the few SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunks necessary to Cloud Telephony for access the cloud. A CLEC (Competitive LEC) looking to enhance its SMB offerings can similarly take advantage of Telco Services Cloud Telephony. Cloud Telephony is also available to a Companies facilities-based cellular or other wireless operator or an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator).

As the Ifbyphone solutions require no capital investment and involve limited up-front cost, services providers can cost effectively offer them to niche market segments that would not be economically viable for in-house solutions. There is no need to increase your staff as Ifbyphone is responsible for all operational support. Start small with as few as 10 ports and experiment. As a LEC, you provide the subscriber with all transport services and simply resell Cloud Telephony application services.

Ifbyphone provides private label and co-brand services along with optional end user support, all of which, by the way, is U.S.-based. LEC pricing models include per port pricing, revenue sharing and/or per minute pricing. Custom enhancements to the existing application suite are available upon request.

Cloud Telephony is a powerful voice telecommunications option for the SMB market. The predefined features are highly attractive and the Developer Toolkit supports considerable customization with no special programming skills required. Cloud Telephony is pay-as-you-go, with 10 absolutely no capital outlay required and no long-term contractual commitment. Conclusion: Telecommunications services providers now can leverage Cloud Telephony the technology to their advantage and the benefit of their Belongs in Your subscribers. Cloud Telephony belongs in your services portfolio. Services Portfolio More information is available on the Web at www.ifbphone.com or by calling 877.295.5100.