Insights

The Next Era in Toll-Free

Dec 30, 2014

Toll-Free is set to enter its next era—one of transformative opportunity for all involved. 

Toll-Free Services are a central part of the way in which business is done today. And now Toll-Free is set to enter its next era—one of transformative opportunity for all involved. An opportunity to rethink what is possible for the Toll-Free community.

Opportunity

The value of Toll-Free no longer exists in the realm of cost savings. It is a powerful business tool; a centerpiece for helping businesses achieve very specific customer engagement and marketing objectives.

Beyond simply the value of connecting with customers on the phone, Toll-Free is at the center of business marketing, branding and tracking activities.

For the consumer, Toll-Free means a reputable and reliable way to engage with businesses. For businesses, it helps define their brand and offers a direct way to serve clients. In essence, Toll-Free is the primary link between business and customer.

Today voice services via Toll-Free are critical to doing business, and demand is on a continual upswing. With the most recent code opening, the amount of Toll-Free Numbers available in North America now eclipses 47 million. And businesses are finding new and innovative ways of using these numbers in order to enhance services for customers.

Toll-Free has become so inherent to the way business is done today that now companies are looking to do more with these numbers. Currently all Toll-Free Numbers have the ability to be enabled for text messaging and smart services—and will be with the forthcoming development of a central registry for using Toll-Free Numbers in this way. 

This sets the stage for businesses to use Toll-Free Numbers to connect with customers in a more interactive and engaging manner.

Transformation

Somos and the Toll-Free Industry are the midst of compelling transformation. As Toll-Free enters the next era, and use of Toll-Free Numbers continues to expand, Somos takes seriously its responsibility as a reputable and neutral source for Toll-Free Numbers and related services.

As a company, Somos has transformed from top to bottom, with a new management team and the expansion of our Board of Directors to include four new Directors, who represent our core customer segments of large and small responsible organizations (Toll-Free Service Providers) and service control points (SCP) owner operators.  Further, by the end of Q1 2015, we will continue to expand the Board to include an additional four new independent Directors with expertise in the areas of finance, business development, entrepreneurship and technology, among others. We are confident that our newly composed Board, coupled with our talented team, will advance the industry into the future.

As an industry, we are similarly transforming what Toll-Free means today and in the future – from a purely cost-saving mechanism to a business-critical, advanced tool for businesses to engage with its customers in dynamic ways.   

Engagement

We actively seek the involvement of our customers and key stakeholders as we embark down this path of opportunity and transformation. 

Our leading priority is to understand and work with our customers, so that the future growth of the Toll-Free Industry is built upon integrity and innovation. We will do this through active engagement, such as user groups and focused outreach, to better understand improvements that need to be made to current systems and advancements that need to be made to leverage future innovation. We will also work to elevate the voice of the Toll-Free Industry on a much larger stage by being the catalyst for conversations with the entire industry around new development and opportunity.

We encourage and invite you to collaborate with us on building a strong future for the Toll-Free Industry. We are here to listen, learn and advance together.

Action

And with the market poised to enter the next era, success will be dictated by these three factors. One, the ability to identify new opportunities and services; two the process of transforming the way these services are managed; and three, to facilitate industry engagement that elevates our collective voice as a market.

There has never been a more exciting time to be involved in the Toll-Free Industry. The market is strong and growing, and with new services being developed opportunity is limitless. The future is all in how we define it. And that’s perhaps the most exciting part of all. 

Gina M. Perini

Chair of the Board of Directors & Chief Executive Officer