The media is full of ‘clouds’, ‘saas’ and ‘opex’ lately. You can thank the GFC and the resultant slashing of capex budgets and cost constraint focus for the rush to opex, or operational expense, based models. 

But while an opex model is extremely attractive in an economic downturn, is it really as simple to move from capex to opex as everyone makes out? 

The answer really depends on your organisation’s on-demand readiness but can be fast and quite painless if a formalised process is used for the deployment.  

With the correct communication links in place the transition can occur within weeks or even days but there are definite planning and preparation steps, even if they are just checking the reality of your network, broadband connections and internal readiness.

Getting your opex-Ferrari

Implementing an opex system incorporates challenges but unlike most technology projects, business really does drive the process with IT providing expert advice along the way. That doesn’t mean don’t get IT involved; in our experience an IT representative that is a willing participant in the installation and ongoing first level support of the solution will be beneficial. Maybe think of the opex solution as a rental Ferrari (red, of course!) that business drives with IT in the passenger seat. It’s going to be a much more pleasant 320kmh drive if the IT person isn’t screaming ‘stop, stop, let me out!’.

So if you’re about to take delivery of the opex-Ferrari, consider that:

• Procurement and installation of any dedicated links will be required for non-contended access to the opex system.  Telcos are renowned for slipping on installation dates and requirements so build in delay contingencies.
• The transition from a typically inflexible older solution to a state-of-the-art on-demand solution can come with some learning curves for IT and business.
• Moving to something that increases users’ productivity and provides tools they can use, but affords no ‘hiding holes’, can be met with some hostility as the user’s world changes. Clear communication and user involvement in the process will help. 

Expectations of an opex call centre

The most obvious implication of an opex model is the considerations about loss of connectivity to an on-demand service – people still dig up cables and disturb phone and fibre access, not often but it does happen.  You need to be very careful that there is a redundant path set up for connectivity to the opex solution. Clever pay-if-you-use disaster recovery services are available so call centres can switch across and continue working within minutes of a connection disruption. The usage payment model means you only pay for the time on the disaster recovery service, in a way it’s on-demand DR. 

For call centres, the main advantage of the opex model is the flexibility of location. So long as the bandwidth is available, agents and management can access the system from any location. There is no upfront purchase of hardware so the system itself is always maintained by the vendor with no maintenance fees or version upgrade hassles - simplifying management. 

From an agent’s point of view, the only difference is the entire interface is web based and can be accessed from anywhere. To a phone agent, it’s a web application that is presented to them the same way any web site is presented to them. This makes the system easier to learn as the users are already familiar with using their web browser.

To better understand what an opex call centre can do for your organisation in terms of financial health, call centre productivity and marketing effectiveness, read the ‘No capex?, try no hassle opex’ feature article in this issue.

By The IPscape Tech Team

The technical boys at IPscape are Darren Younger and David O'Leary. The boys run the IPscape technical group including managing the development, operations and telecommunication teams.