Metaswitch platform consolidates Alaska Communications voice mail systems

Alaska Communications Systems expects to reduce the operating costs of providing voicemail service, offer a higher level of service and position the company for future central office upgrades with its recent deployment of a softswitch platform from Metaswitch.

Previously the carrier had three different systems underlying its voicemail services as a result of acquiring other companies. After consolidating onto a single billing platform and a single provisioning system, the voicemail migration was the final step in merging back office applications, said Ruth Willard, director of revenue management for ACS, in an interview.

ACS opted to use a Metaswitch platform, in part, because the same platform also could support an expected future migration from aging Class 5 switches. Decision-makers also liked the Metaswitch product’s ability to support new voicemail features—although Willard declined to reveal those features.

“Product management will evaluate those features and functions and roll them out in a logical organized manner,” said Willard.

A well planned deployment
ACS’ conversion to the Metaswitch platform went smoothly because the carrier went to great lengths to prepare for it, Willard said.

Among other things, the carrier provided advance notification through various means and also added staff in its customer service department to handle calls for customers who ignored the advance notices. To ease the transition for business customers, ACS personnel went so far as to re-record customers’ voicemail trees prior to the conversion. Rather than having to make those recordings themselves, all that business customers had to do was review what ACS personnel had done and make any changes.

25% operational savings
Willard estimated that ACS should save about 25% in operational costs as a result of the voicemail consolidation. These savings should result, in part, from customers’ ability to make more voicemail changes on their own.

“Before they had to contact us any time they wanted to change a voicemail box or update their voicemail tree,” explained Willard. “Now they can manage [those functions] independently of us and only contact us to add or disconnect a line.”

The carrier had to install new communications links to support connectivity to the softswitch—but the estimated 25% savings were calculated after first subtracting the additional communications costs.

Customer service finds it easier to handle voicemail-related calls now because representatives no longer need to determine which system a customer is using before they can provide assistance.

ACS has not yet done much promotion for its new voicemail services, as marketing programs are still under development. Nevertheless, the carrier is seeing substantial interest in the offering, particularly from business customers with 10 to 30 lines. Those customers like the voicemail tree capabilities of the Metaswitch offering, which provide much of the functionality of an interactive voice response system without the expense.