We have all been told by our parents at one time or another in our childhood that if we are not going to do something right then simply don't bother doing it at all.  Excellent parental advice and something that is frequently forgotten in the world of high tech.  All too often, technology companies treat their customers as beta testers, letting them discover issues with the solution long after the check has cleared.  

In the past, many VoIP providers have taken the same approach.  Just throw some IP phones out there, make them register and sit back and cash the checks.  It's easy. No need to worry with a site survey, assess the LAN, nor ensure the WAN connection is sufficient.  Well, while this approach may have sufficed in the past, BroadSoft has clearly signaled that quality matters with its acquisition of Packet Island and GoS Networks could not agree more.  

The inability to ensure a quality experience over IP is what has held VoIP back.  Customers like VoIP because it is typically less expensive, easier to manage, and they get a number of innovative features.  But, when they speak of VoIP they often also add that when going VoIP you have to deal with some occasional static, jumbled conversations, and resort to calling someone back from their mobile.  The fact is, VoIP when delivered properly should be infinitely better than the old PSTN on every level and most importantly quality.  It should be that when a call is IP that the two parties on the call are in awe of the crystal clear quality.  

By acquiring Packet Island, BroadSoft has shown that it sees the world in this same light.  If voice as a cloud delivered application is going to reach its full potential, quality is paramount.  Packet Island does an excellent job of diagnosing any issue that may impair quality - a rogue PC, bad switch, bogus cabling,,,, And of course in most cases, it's a problem with the last mile - it's inconsistent, insufficient, or experiences delay. Often a service provider spends more time selling bandwidth (read: very low margin commodity pipes) when they could be focused on selling seats (read: high margin, differentiated solutions, the path to early retirement).

Before a service provider spends all this time making money for the guy that owns the last mile (read: the incumbent, typically your biggest competitor), it is time to consider GoS Networks.  Our approach to QoS can allow you to step away from the dumb game of moving dumb pipes into the cloud. This challenge is only becoming more complex as the voice over IP providers are quickly learning that they must also deliver video, unified communications, FMC, and other web-based applications like collaboration, CRM, and God only knows what will come next.  

It's time to do IP right, it's time to get GoS.