This article originally appeared in the Nov. 2011 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY.

Global Convergence Solutions (News - Alert) (GCS) has launched a carrier-to-carrier portal as part of its OSS and BSS solution for communications service providers. The GCS Dynamic Carrier Portal is delivered through the GCS (News - Alert) cloud computing platform under a software-as-a-service-based pricing model.

“The GCS Dynamic Solutions Suite expressly addresses the needs of carriers operating in today's complex operating environment by focusing on their specific business and infrastructure challenges and needs,” GCS’s Chief Marketing Officer Mark Delaney tells INTERNET TELEPHONY. “Our Dynamic Carrier Portal is just the next step in what we believe to be the evolutionary path that the telecommunications marketplace is following.

“The reason we have introduced this capability is that it continues to solve the challenges carriers face as it relates to intelligently and optimally managing the way they operate their networks … from a business infrastructure perspective,” Delaney added. 

The carrier marketplace has seen technological advancements over the past 15 years that have changed how carriers conduct business. These advances have resulted in cost reductions for all carriers.  

The GCS Dynamic Solutions Suite continues to move that forward by automating the majority of the activities involved in managing one of the most complex areas of carrier operations – inter-carrier management.  

“Carrier networks are an amalgamation of their networks and third-party networks,” notes Delaney. “Our solutions give carriers the critical piece of technology they need to manage these realities in a way that optimizes their network efficiency, margin and quality of service.”

The GCS Dynamic Carrier Portal improves the exchange and sharing of information among carriers. That’s important given the large number and broad array of carriers today.

The global marketplace consists of between 3,000 and 5,000 CSPs, and due to the technology advancements of the last 10 years, there is no technological reason why each carrier cannot be interconnected with one other. Unfortunately, most carriers interconnect with just a fraction of their peers, maybe three to five percent, because of the complex operational burden involved in supporting these relationships, says Delaney.

“Most of this burden is in the form of sharing and exchanging of information,” he says. “This is what our Dynamic Carrier Portal addresses. Via a secure, web-based solution, GCS will make managing these relationships much, much easier, thus eliminating a critical impediment to growth for all carriers.”

According to the company, the GCS Dynamic Carrier Portal is a web-based carrier-to-carrier information and data exchange portal that provides “unprecedented visibility and clarity” into the performance of the CSPs’ networks. The solution boasts access to network analytics, call detail record reporting, buy/sell rate administration, quality analysis, and other critical capabilities. And it is fully integrated with the GCS Dynamic Route & Rate Management Solution, a next-generation OSS and BSS solution adopted by CSPs all over the world.

“The goal of the GCS Dynamic Carrier Portal is to automate and significantly improve how carriers exchange and share the critical and necessary information to effectively operate on a daily, weekly and monthly basis,” Delaney says. “Our customers have repeatedly told us they need to reduce the amount of human intervention and associated latency involved in the exchanging and sharing of this information. In fact, many carrier customers believe that having their staff involved in this process is costing them significant lost opportunity. When carriers deploy and utilize our Dynamic Portal we estimate that they will eliminate about 90 percent of the tasks that their staff performs as it relates to the cumbersome and tedious process of exchanging information. That's new time that can be dedicated to revenue generation.”

Delaney says the solution has been extremely well received.

“The reaction has exceeded even our expectations as our customers continue to tell us that this solution is exactly what they needed,” he adds. “This is the most significant release we have brought to market in the last 18 months. This has the potential to change the trajectory of GCS, which will create even more benefit for our customers.

“We take great pride in our ability to understand the marketplace because of our experience working in the CSP (News - Alert) marketplace,” he continues. “With the release of our Dynamic Carrier Portal, we know we are doing that, but the enthusiasm expressed by our customers for this has even surprised us. It demonstrates that the key to delivering any solution is being able to intimately know the challenges our customers face. The majority of the team at GCS has been involved in the intercarrier marketplace for the last decade. We know all too well the challenges that carriers face and our solutions reflect this knowledge. Our Dynamic Carrier Portal is another indication of the thought leadership that GCS possesses and continues to leverage.”