As softswitch is an important component in any VoIP business, it is important that you bear in mind the following checklist when buying it.
- Make sure that the SIP softswitch supports routing, billing, monitoring and reporting features on a single platform only. Some softswitches don’t support integrated billing thereby jacking up your costs and leading to unnecessary compatibility issues. Hence, go for an all-in-one SIP softswitch platform.
- Check for the centralized browser based UI using which you can administer all the business functions remotely. This can save your operational costs to a greater extent.
- Check if your SIP softswitch supports advanced routing types such as LCR (Least Cost Routing), Percentage Routing, Longest Prefix Match Routing and Dial Plan Routing as they offer you the flexibility to decide on your profit margins beforehand. In addition, these routing types are known for successful termination of VoIP traffic.
- Check if your SIP softswitch supports robust billing so that the customer usage is billed accurately even when it is subjected to large volumes of VoIP traffic. Any unbilled minutes or inaccurate billing can seriously dent your profit margins and adversely affect the customer loyalty.
- Check if your SIP softswitch supports comprehensive reporting for generating various kinds of reports such as time based reports, revenue based reports, region based reports, user base reports, etc., that help to analyze the business flow and identify the flaws for implementing the corrective measures.
- Check if your SIP softswitch supports live call monitoring so that you can easily identify the number of active online SIP users at any given instant of time and browse for more details.
- In addition, check if your SIP softswitch has provision for calling cards and call shops configuration so that you can generate additional business and make good revenue.
- Finally, check whether the SIP softswitch solution vendor supports both on-premise and hosted softswitch model so that you can make the right choice as per your business requirements.