• Feature-rich platform set to cause market schism
• Highly flexible: Sell inbound as a self-service or managed solution
• Presents strong opportunities for revenue and market standout

Opal, the dedicated provider of NGN technology for the channel is launching a new market-leading inbound platform ICC/ICE (Intelligent Call Control/Intelligent Call Engine). With its comprehensive feature set, simplicity and flexibility, the ‘next generation’ platform is Opal’s most sophisticated yet and is set to shake up the channel.

Developed with simplicity and flexibility in mind, the platform allows partners to sell inbound through a managed portal (ICC), or build their own inbound portfolio by interfacing into our intelligent network (ICE). Both routes not only offer partners choice, but present powerful new ways to increase revenue and achieve market standout.

The ICC portal can be provided to end-users as a user friendly self-serve solution or sold as a managed service. It allows end-users to fully manage their estate of inbound numbers and to deploy and manage services such as single translations, call divert plans, ratio plans, fax-to-email, scalable call queuing, data capture, time-of-day routing and configurable call attendant. In addition it can be completely white-labelled to allow Partners to offer their own branded portal.

Meanwhile, ICE allows partners to API interface directly into Opal’s intelligent Next Generation network – a unique service that no other carrier in the market offers – giving them the opportunity to create their own totally bespoke inbound portals and therefore achieve differentiation in a crowded market.  Importantly, partners own the intellectual property rights over their bespoke solutions.

The inbound platform is integrated into Opal’s next generation network (NGN), the largest and most penetrating in the UK, meaning it is highly resilient and reliable; while also making it SIP compatible and future-proofed.

Andy Hollingworth, Opal’s director of wholesale, said: “ICC/ICE represents the next generation of inbound call technology. Advancements in inbound have meant that the marketplace has shifted and today there is more margin to be made through inbound minutes than outbound. However, the inbound market is hugely competitive, and forward-thinking partners need to look beyond selling generic ‘off the shelf’ inbound products, and making money exclusively from minutes, in order to maximise the return from this margin rich platform.

“ICC/ICE offers partners the opportunity for added-value services, rather than competing in a diminishing minutes market. Feature-rich, easy to use and extremely powerful, it gives our partners real market choice, while also presenting the opportunity to achieve real standout by creating their own portfolio in inbound products – something that is hugely expensive to establish independently.”