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The landscape continues to evolve for service providers who have long relied on BroadSoft to power their voice and UCaaS infrastructure. Cisco’s emphasis on Webex as the go-forward calling solution and their continued reduction in personnel responsible for supporting the BroadSoft platform raises concerns about their long-term commitment to supporting non-Webex focused service providers.
BroadSoft customers of certain sizes have already been informed they will have to find an alternative solution or migrate to Webex. And now, even larger BroadSoft customers are being “nudged” towards Webex. As a result, many service providers are questioning the stability and futureproofing of their BroadSoft investments.
So, What Are Your Options?
At this point, you have three options.
- Continue to utilize your BroadSoft platform.
- Invest in another softswitch platform and move customers to this new platform.
- Utilize a true cloud platform and move customers to this platform.
Let’s examine these three options.
1. Stay the course
Continuing to use hardware and/or software after its provider has stopped supporting it can have several significant repercussions:
- The lack of updates means you will miss out on new features and improvements, putting you at a competitive disadvantage over time.
- Diminishing technical support. When technical issues are encountered, you may receive little to no assistance, resulting in degraded system performance, potentially prolonged downtimes, and an overall lack of reliability.
- Unsupported systems are vulnerable to security threats and exploits because no patches or fixes are released to address newly discovered vulnerabilities.
- Continued use of outdated hardware or software leads to compatibility problems as your other systems and applications evolve and receive updates.
In conclusion, the decision to stay the course with BroadSoft is at best a questionable option if you intend to continue offering UCaaS to your customers.
2. Purchase a New Platform
The decision to invest in a completely new platform brings a different set of challenges and opportunities:
- The financial investment and the allocation of time and resources required to plan and deploy the new platform can be taxing as you attempt to balance the resources required to maintain your current BroadSoft platform.
- The move to a new platform, even if it’s hosted in the cloud, can be complex and time-consuming, requiring extensive planning and coordination. Data must be transferred securely and accurately, systems must be configured, and integration with existing operations and applications must be ensured.
- During the transition period, there is a significant risk of operational disruptions and downtime, which can affect service delivery and customer satisfaction.
- The learning curve associated with a new platform is another critical factor. This period of adjustment can temporarily reduce productivity as your staff becomes familiar with new processes and tools. Resistance to change among employees is also a common issue, which can affect morale and slow down the transition.
However, despite these challenges, migrating to a new platform can offer many benefits including enhanced features, improved performance, and better security measures. These advancements can increase efficiency, reduce operational risks, and improve the quality of service.
In conclusion, while the decision to purchase and migrate to a new platform involves a significant investment in time and resources and a steep learning curve, it can position you for success in the long term. The benefits of enhanced functionality, security, and scalability can outweigh the initial costs and challenges, providing a solid foundation for sustainable growth and competitiveness.
3. Move To a True Cloud Platform
Moving to a true cloud solution can provide many of the benefits of owning your own platform, while minimizing the potential downside risks of investing in a new platform. The term “cloud” varies in meaning based on context, so let’s be precise. A true cloud solution is not simply placing an instance of your platform, and any related equipment, in AWS, Azure, or “other” co-location facilities dedicated to you, and is not limited to your instance of the platform. On the contrary, a vast and expansive multi-tenant cloud infrastructure already exists for you to take advantage of, have unfettered access to, and operate as your own. The difference is often referred to as multi-instance Vs multi-tenant.
Moving to a Cloud Solution as Defined in This Way Offers Several Advantages.
- Operational savings can be realized, and responsibilities can be shared. A true cloud solution should allow you to maintain or delegate technical and infrastructure responsibilities. In this way, you can maintain control of those responsibilities you believe are core to your business and delegate those you believe are not. This can be an important consideration given the challenges many organizations face when hiring and keeping technical staff.
- The opportunity to take advantage of the workflow management tools integrated with the platform. For example, quoting tools, billing/invoicing, tax engine, and customer & reseller portals, are a few of the value-added capabilities a mature cloud-based platform should include.
- Extensive experience managing migrations between platforms, ensuring a smoother transition with minimal disruption.
- Comprehensive support services, including 24/7 monitoring, maintenance, and security updates. This expertise can significantly reduce the burden on your IT staff, allowing them to focus on more strategic parts of your business rather than routine tasks, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
- Seamless expansion and scalability as your business grows. This scalability ensures that resources are provided dynamically to match demand.
- Built-in redundancy and disaster recovery options, reducing the need for costly backup infrastructure and providing enhanced business continuity.
In conclusion, the decision to migrate to a true cloud platform allows you to reduce operational expenses, the option to delegate or maintain responsibilities, take advantage of integrated workflow management tools, and reduce planning and integration, while always maintaining complete control of your UCaaS business.
Why White Label Communications?
If you are considering moving to a true cloud application White Label Communications is a leader in this space, with significant technological and service differentiators that outpace many of our competitors.
1. Reliability and Expertise
White Label Communications has been providing a cloud-based multi-tenant UCaaS platform since 2010. Since our inception, we have been single-mindedly focused on services providers, i.e., Channel Partners, and we have a great deal of experience migrating customers to our mature, technically advanced, exceptionally reliable, and geo-redundant cloud platform. Leveraging our platform ensures that the inevitable server, router, SBC (Session Border Controllers), etc., failure does not result in service interruptions. Moreover, even if one site or region experiences an outage due to natural disasters, power failures, or other unforeseen circumstances, our true cloud platform continues to provide uninterrupted service. This redundancy enhances fault tolerance, minimizes downtime, and safeguards against data loss, providing users with consistent access to applications and resources.
Our US-based customer support is in Pennsylvania. We provide Level 2+ expertise, ensuring you can quickly reach someone without delay or confusion. When you call White Label Communications, you are not lost in a maze of automated prompts. Instead, in an impressive average wait time of just 15 seconds, you are connected directly to a tier-two engineer equipped to assist you.
2. Independence and Control
Unlike proprietary UCaaS platforms, e.g., BroadSoft, Metawsitch, Bicom, NetSapiens, Alianza, etc., White Label provides a true cloud solution, built with open-source technologies, i.e., non-proprietary. It includes APIs, which further ensure customization, independence, and control. White Label can provide and manage all technology and infrastructure elements required to offer UCaaS, or we can provide components. One simple example – our partners can provide their own carrier services and/or broadband connectivity.
White Label’s decision to not embrace proprietary platforms like those mentioned earlier has been fortuitous. As recent developments have shown, being beholden to a proprietary third-party softswitch provider who decides, or is forced, to change direction can be risky. We have embraced open-source technologies, ensuring that our destiny, and our service providers’, remains in our hands and our services remain tailored to the needs of our Partners.
3. Complete Solution
Unlike all proprietary platforms, White Label’s cloud platform is not limited to simply providing call control capabilities and UCaaS features. We have integrated workflow management tools, including quoting, invoicing, tax integration, private branded portals for self-serve implementations, and ongoing moves, adds, and changes (MAC) for customers and resellers. This means our solution is a complete “business in a box.”
Our approach is personal because we believe every partner deserves not just a solution, but the BEST solution.
Please contact our team today to learn more about how White Label Communications can be your trusted partner in the post-Broadsoft era. Let us build a future-forward solution that reflects your vision and values.