A Unified Comms (UC) story
Let me tell you about real-life experience from a storyteller who has been partnered with a number of TEM companies ever since 2008 and who has worked for almost 10 years for mobile and fixed line operators. These 19+ years, experience and excellence now include Telecom Operator building strategy in the UC & TEM markets. Consider this as insight to a veritable roadmap to Digital Transformation, but one that still requires the "wisdom of the elders" to execute.
The PLOT
This is the story is about "MOBILE CLOUD COMPUTING" (MCC) or the combination of Cloud, 5G & Mobility together...
Mobile computing, wireless networks, and cloud computing are three technologies converging into a field called Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC).
Within this networked, MCC society, people’s work patterns and life styles are changing dramatically.
The sheer bandwidth and capacity of the emerging 5th generation (5G) mobile networks means rapid changes in multiple industries (Telecom Operators/MVNO's, "Everything as a Service (EaaS)", TEM Providers, Enterprises, etc.)
The Principal Actor
The key actor is the PBX (Private Branch Exchange) who (as the name suggests) serves as an exchange or switchboard and connect communicating parties.
The PBX's outstanding qualities for this story are IDENTITY & ADDRESSABILITY as they are the guarantors of connecting the correct Person (VoIP) or Thing (IoT). These qualities are heavily relied upon throughout this story to ensure the unique addressability of Mobile(& IoT) Voice (& Chat). Thanks to these qualities, PBX can offer addressability, identification, interaction, collaboration and transactions in a Cloud World Jungle.
PBX can act as a solo performer providing IDENTITY & ADDRESSABILITY listings of the extensions / connections contained within it's switchboard. This is useful when PBX ventures out to Small Medium Enterprise (SME) jungles.
Being extremely versatile, PBX can NOW also venture out into the large MultiNational Corporate (MNC) Jungle as well. Rather than extensions / connections listed within it's switchboard, PBX can reference external listing (LDAP, Exchange, HR listings, etc.) through it's standard API's. PBX's versatility is further extended through it's use of TCP/IP (VoIP) and softphones meaning that "virtual extensions" can be mapped to mobile phones.
The Story
Ever since the "90's" PBX has been leading a fairly dull and uneventful life as a STAND-ALONE VIRTUAL-PBX serving principally SME's and smaller offices (15-to-1000 mobile employees) as seen above. Even for this time, PBX had some interesting features:
Call routing & “Follow Me Calling” (albeit switched)
Closed-User-Group (CUG) DID Conferencing
DID call center setup and management
reduced tariff calling (when coupled with SIP infras)
The plot thickens with the evolution of Cloud, 5G & Mobility together and the above-mentioned MCC. Our Hero's (PBX) life really picks up. It no longer functions as stand-alone and needs to evolve into a "distributed, Digital switchboard”. Requiring Unlimited, Upwards Scalability, PBX now needs to multiply in the cloud jungle, while at the same time, collaborate and rely on other, external listings (LDAP, Exchange, HR listings, etc.) through standard API's.
We now see PBX evolving from "a switchboard WITH it's own Single-Source-of-Truth" into "a switchboard SEEKING/INTERFACING with other Single-Sources-of-Truth". Zooming in on PBX's new life in the cloud jungle, we can see this visually and understand PBX's new super-powers in upwards scalability and federating "Cloud-PBX's" together.
PBX is not simply born with these new super-powers. While it still functions as the ideal switchboard or exchange, PBX still needs to be tuned to understand the SOURCE and DESTINATION entities that it connects: to find and feed off of the "Single-Source-of-Truth" of Identities (whether they are human, Application, or IoT). Federating PBX's together is the easy part. The challenge is integrating PBX harmoniously into the rest of the cloud jungle in such a way that it optimizes it's contribution contribution to "The Cloud".
Conclusion
PBX's new super-powers are not a foregone conclusion. Like certain flowers, PBX's blooming into "a switchboard INTERFACING with the Single-Source-of-Truth" will require certain tweaking and modifying of it's DNA. There are no "one-size-fits-all" type of solutions. Even the biggest players in this market need to understand the full spectrum of corporate pathologies.
In the same way that ERP, CRM, BPO, etc. systems vary from company-to-company, PBX will need to be "teased and tweaked" by Consulting Experts, Integrators and Product-owners in order to bear the desired result.
This is where TEMteam's combination of Cloud-PBX product set and MNC integration experience and talent shine.
