Insights

Advancing the Toll-Free Number Platform

Jan 22, 2016

Supporting Future Growth with a Technology Vision  

The use of Toll-Free Numbers continues to grow across the U.S. and Canada. Today, there are more than 40 million Toll-Free Numbers in service. Persistent demand has generated an annual growth rate of 7.6% since 2010, as organizations invest in Toll-Free Numbers as a valuable marketing tool and a primary link with their customers.

At Somos, we’re focused on supporting this growth – providing our customers not only with a single, credible and secure source for Toll-Free Numbers, but also with the best possible user experience, leveraging the best available technology.

That’s why I am thrilled to share an update on our next-generation Intelligent Platform.

This represents a complete redesign of our SMS/800 Toll-Free Number reservation and management system. It will be IP-compatible and have a Web-based interface, rich analytics, leveraging cloud computing and other leading-edge technologies.

The Intelligent Platform will completely transform the user experience and improve productivity by:

• Enabling our customers to access information more quickly and automate business processes
• Providing greater intelligence through expanded data analytics
• Allowing our customers to be more innovative, and build new products and new services they can deploy
• Increasing the ability to develop new functionality quickly and easily to keep pace with feature demands.

Two unique paths managed simultaneously

Building the Intelligent Platform is an ambitious multi-year plan. And in projects of this size, you must often wait for the full build out to experience enhancements.

So here is the other good news. We will immediately address some of our customers’ most critical needs while pursuing our larger effort. As we develop the Intelligent Platform, we will also introduce premium features on our current system. These new features will be based on our current SMS/800 Toll-Free Number (TFN) Registry and will showcase a new interface.

We have a comprehensive rollout plan for 2016. Beginning January 21, we will begin a beta rollout for three enhancements:

• Single sign-on  
• Bulk processing for number search and reserve
• Automated, self-service password management

Next week, we will share more details in a blog article on the beta program and how these new enhancements will make a difference for our customers.

Built for you and with you

We’ve invested considerable time in assessing our current Toll-Free registry’s functions and features – working closely with our customers to understand their current challenges, their long-term needs and where we can deliver the biggest impact on their business.     

And throughout the development process, we will continue to engage and gather feedback with customers via user groups, road shows, and surveys. We invite our customers to provide feedback or request a roadshow meeting by sending an email to info@somos.com.

Our overriding goal is to help our customers gain the most value from our registry. We want it be to a powerful measure of our interest to serve the industry as demand for Toll-Free Numbers continues to expand.  

Please refer to the Somos blog for additional information specific on this important initiative, or you can email info@somos.com.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

The Intelligent Platform will completely transform the user experience and improve productivity.

William Carter

Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer