Automating and efficiently managing the complete number and SIM inventory is, for many telecom operators, often a time-consuming and risky challenge, in part due to the exposure to human error. This is particularly the case when there are no systems or processes in place to help automate the lifecycle management of numbers and their associated resources. The reasons will be familiar:

• Manual tracking of resources – involving updating spreadsheets – is labor intensive and exposes the task to easily made mistakes.
• Customer complaints and activation failures – due to poor MSISDN and resource management.
• Number resource wastage – which may cost telecom operators substantial sums of money for additional number fees paid to regulators.
• Inability to reclaim numbers – that have already expired.
• Mistaken allocation of resources – following on from the potential pitfalls above – are resources that have already been allocated.
• Regulator reporting – ensuring number utilization is reported accurately and on time.
• Numerous sources of truth – with various databases containing and reporting on number resources across the company.

A simple approach to bypassing these problems is by investing in a solution that can automate and manage the resource lifecycles accurately and seamlessly. This can help save costs when compared with various point solutions and erroneous manual processes. Doing so can also deliver immediate scalability and facilitate the generation of real-time reports that put you in greater control of your business on numbering and associated resource management issues. These include SIM and number resource lifecycle management.

Noting that the benefits of moving number and SIM Management to the cloud appear to be potentially significant, a discussion of the cloud itself is merited. There seems little doubt that businesses – telecom operators foremost among them – have in recent years shifted to virtualized computing, with public cloud replacing private cloud as operators quickly get used to thinking in terms of resources rather than servers. Analyst firms report that over 60% of enterprises are using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. Over 80% of cloud buyers report meeting their flexible infrastructure objectives, and around 88% expect to achieve greater benefits from cloud solutions in the near-term future.

The established reality is that the cloud can be used to deliver a wide variety of services, applications, and consumption behaviors. All this can be achieved simply by leveraging existing software and hardware, as well as relationships already established with suppliers. In many ways, the cloud is simply a different software delivery mechanism (and with it, a different way of buying solutions).  As such, the cloud also becomes a natural step towards leveraging new paradigms, such as IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS—each of which can offer benefits at different phases of a company’s IT evolution.

In the telco environment, the reality is that SaaS solutions save telecom operators time and money by removing an immediate requirement for dedicated software and hardware to run a solution on. The traditional problem of ‘buying more servers’ is removed, increasing efficiency and mitigating risk in the process. 

With the obvious benefits of cloud deployment in mind, here at Evolving Systems we are pleased to announce the coming availability of a cloud-native version of our Total Number Management (TNM™) solution, hosted by us in the cloud. More information will be available in the coming weeks.

If you face challenges in any of the following areas:

• IMEI, CPE, IMSI, ICCID, IP, and MSISDN management
• Number resource allocation
• Forecasting, utilization, and regulatory reporting
• Centralized number management
• Telephone numbering pool, inventory, and block management
• SIM ordering and inventory management

…why not click HERE to register your interest today and let us show you how we can help you overcome some of your business challenges with SIM and Number resource management in the cloud!