A "biased" comparison of the build and buy options for UCAAS Customer-delagated management portals.

1. © Copyright 2014 Kurmi Software S.A.S.
UCAAS MANAGEMENT PORTAL: BUILD OR BUY?
Abdel Kander, CEO Kurmi Software

2. 2
• You may be right in thinking that this is a rhetorical
exercise coming from Kurmi Software since we
make a living out of selling UCAAS Management
Portals therefore we should be deemed ill-placed to
make the case for the « Buy » option but we hope
you’ll detect at least some traces of intellectual
honesty!
Warning

3. 3
• Attraction
• Retention
• Upselling
The portal is the face of UCAAS

4. 4
• The basics are available
– Interfaces
– Web frameworks
– Developers
• Only needs to look good to customers
– “We’ll do the back office manually to start with”
• You probably have the functional expertise
– You know your stuff better than anyone else!
“Build”, a tangible possibility

5. 5
• Available R&D staff providers
– Good mix of on/off-shore
– Market is competitive enough to force bidding war
• Or maybe internal developers
– With 0 incremental cost
– Plus you gotta keep the guys busy, right?!
• Part of the project setup
– Then no ongoing cost
• Built to own specifications
– No customization costs
“Build”, the economics look good!?

6. ARE YOU SURE?!

7. « I DID SOMETHING FOR THE WORST POSSIBLE
REASON -- JUST BECAUSE I COULD »
Bill Clinton on the Monica Lewinski affair,
June 20, 2004, CBS 60 Minutes

8. 8
• UCAAS, unlike PAAS is a user-centric service
– Not an ICT play
– No matter how sophisticated is the Data Center, if the
phones don’t ring it’s bad!
• A good portal is the difference between making and
loosing money
– Delegation reduces costs and increases customer
satisfaction and retention
Some Fundamental factors

9. 9
• It’s a moving target…
– Customer/user expectations evolve
– New usage habits spawn new needs
• On shifting grounds
– Ecosystem vendors upgrade versions potentially
triggering new unscheduled developments for you
– Competitive landscape impose fast reaction
– “Nice to have” features become “Must have”
Some Fundamental factors

10. 10
• Four layers
– Connectivity
– Persistence
– Business Logic
– Rendering
What makes a robust architecture?

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• Ability to interact with underlying systems
– Query and modify every object and attribute
– While maintaining a coherent state at all time
– With roll-back capabilities
– Manage concurrent data access
– Throttling to avoid overload
• Handle many systems
– Different API technologies
– With orchestration capabilities (order of execution,
error handling…)
On Connectivity

12. 12
• You can’t do without it!
– If you have more than one underlying system
– Some tried and failed miserably!
• Intelligent data model
– To handle future evolutions
– With a business rather than an technical representation
– Enable own workflows
• Suspend a user
• Move users across systems
• Avoid collisions with ecosystem
– Manage multiple master data sources
– Graciously manage data conflicts
On Persistence

13. 13
• Capture Marketing requirements
– Service Packaging
– Customer interaction
• Translate functional scenarios into technical multi-step
multi-system workflows
– I.e. Downgrading from multi-line, premium device to a basic
package:
• Which line do you keep?
• Should you bother changing the device?
On Business Logic

14. 14
• Ergonomic design
• Adaptive and customizable
• Multi-language
On Rendering

15. 15
• Security
– Continued compliance with industry standards
– Network and database isolation
• Robustness
– Redundant platforms
– No SPOF
• Interaction with customer’s IS
– Active Directories
– Authentication systems
• Interaction with provider’s IS
– Ordering
– Billing
Other important considerations

16. 16
End-users
Customers
Administrators
Internet
Load Balancer
Apache Cluster
Kurmi Cluster
SP SSO
DB Cluster
SP Information
System
Unified Com.
Platform For
Company 1
Unified Com.
Platform For
Company 2
Unified Com.
Platform For
Company N
ARCHITECTURE & IS INTEGRATION
SP Administrators
billing
API

17. 17
• Proven compatibility with UCAAS model
– 2+ years of market experience
– Tier 1 and Tier 2 providers
– In many geographies
– Pay as you grow
• Many of our customers tried “Build” before
– And If they paid us that money, I would be driving a
Roll’s Royce!
The Economics of « Buy »