Software-as-a-service (SaaS) has been a topic of conversation in the IT market for some time, with many companies adopting the business model of hosting their applications at a third party and renting their functionality as a service. By eliminating the need to install and run applications themselves, companies avoid the burden of paying for and maintaining the required software and hardware infrastructure, as well as the cost of retaining the required skills and ongoing licensing.
Following on from this example of renting a service instead of purchasing, implementing and maintaining one's own infrastructure, some service providers are now offering communications-as-a-service (CaaS). As with SaaS, CaaS is an outsourced enterprise communications solution in which a third-party service provider hosts, maintains and delivers communications services such as voice features over an IP network, including the Internet.
Just as with SaaS, CaaS eliminates the need to install, run and maintain voice applications on a company's own servers and networks. Even better, it alleviates the burden of software maintenance, upgrades and support.
Typical CaaS applications that are already available to companies in South Africa include:
* IP Centrex business solutions - the ability to provide PBX services off-site, rather than on-site,
* Session initiation protocol trunking - the ability to connect a PBX to the Internet, rather than through the standard telephony network.
* Voice value-added services,
* Hosted IP contact centre service,
* Hosted interactive voice response (IVR), and
* Networked IVR systems
A recent Gartner report, "Emerging Communications Services", estimates the total revenue for CaaS services to have reached $252 million in 2007. However, as the CaaS momentum grows, it will not only be large corporations that take advantage of it, but the small and medium business sector too.
"Large businesses are selective in their SaaS approach for fear of losing control of their entire infrastructure, but we certainly are seeing select SaaS and CaaS deals in the enterprise market where it makes sense," says Carlos Goncalves, CTO of Intelleca, one of South Africa's leading contact centre solution providers. "Small and medium companies, in particular business process outsourcers, are embracing CaaS or giving it serious consideration on a more strategic basis given the substantial cost savings CaaS offers."
Goncalves says that setting up and maintaining even a 20-agent in-house contact centre could cost a company millions of rand. Renting the infrastructure on a pay-as-you-go pricing model would cost a fraction and the only infrastructure the user needs is an IP connection, such as a leased line or ISDN connection.
While ADSL lines do offer the needed bandwidth, this type of technology is a best-effort service, meaning there is no guarantee of quality. And quality is a requirement when dealing with voice calls.
"CaaS is also perfect for start-ups, big and small, where they want to mitigate risk particularly in the start-up phase," says Goncalves. "Renting a communications infrastructure is cheaper as it does not require a large capital investment and more convenient as it can be implemented almost immediately and grown or reduced as required."
The ability of CaaS providers to deliver services to many clients on the same infrastructure allows the outsourcer to reduce the costs substantially, making it affordable to the SME market. Additionally, by charging per user per month, the provider is assured of an annuity income and the client is assured of a standard set of services at a predictable cost.
For the client, the real benefit is that this per-user fee includes all upgrades and patches, as well as performance and availability monitoring. Importantly, these are all handled remotely by the service provider without impacting the user.
Communications applications, whether a basic IVR system or fully functional contact centre, are becoming critical components of successful business, even for smaller companies. Customers are not interested in calling a supplier only to be met with an answering machine that may or may not be attended to. CaaS solves the problem and makes previously expensive and intricate business communications easier, simpler, faster and more affordable than ever before.
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