Step 9 Software Corp. (Booth 724) is offering a VoIP customer-management solution the company says enables carriers to manage their customers migration from existing services to owned or hosted VoIP when the time is right for transition.

The company has extended its customer-centered service-delivery management solution into next-generation technologies, bringing discipline, rigorous methodology and support of multiple service-delivery transports within a single customer-management platform: iCustomer SDX.

SDX allows customers to implement and improve existing business processes. The immediate benefits are limited retraining, quicker turn up and thus faster ROI and more satisfied customers, the company says.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about VoIP opportunities and requirements in the marketplace, says Clayton Dean, director of professional services for Step 9. However, successful carriers will be able to offer their customers a broad range of products across multiple transport options and not be constrained by their legacy systems. Furthermore, elite carriers will be able to blend transports, of which VoIP is but one factor, while improving their operating margins.

In other news this month from Step 9, the company has released iCustomer SDX v4.4 – Customer Acquisition Manager, which extends workflow into quoting.

The tool, which can be deployed in less than 30 days, can help customers better manage quotes, discounts and individual-case-basis events. Sales staff can generate quotations from internal product catalogs and add third-party access costs. It allows product managers to set discount floors by product or by bundle.

It also enables customers to route approvals to appropriate job functions based on those discounts. If, for example, a vice presidents approval is needed on any discount that is more than 20 percent below list, a quote can be routed and approved or rejected within a matter of minutes, the company explains.