Evolved Intelligence, the network Value Added Services company, has launched a service that restores the original called number when a call is redirected to a roaming subscriber’s voicemail.
The original called number is often stripped out by carriers en route to the roaming subscriber’s voicemail box, which means that the voicemail box does not know which subscriber the message is for. So it usually asks the caller to re-enter the number of the person that they are calling. This is not always easy, especially if the number has been called from a phone book. Evolved Intelligence’s OCN (Original Called Number) Manager solves the problem.
“Nine times out of 10, the caller does not leave a message,” says Evolved Intelligence head of marketing, Robin Burton. “This is frustrating for the caller, and also means that the roaming subscriber does not get the message. This in turn means that he will not return the call. The net result is customer frustration and lost international call revenue.” 
The problem became apparent to Evolved Intelligence during work that it was carrying out to remove the “trombone” when calls are directed to voicemail whilst roaming. Evolved Intelligence systems director Dave Edwards says that while operators are concerned about the direct cost of voicemail tromboning, the issue of stripping out the originally called number is seen as being more damaging to revenue and to customer satisfaction. “It has been raised with us by a number of operators recently and seems to be a problem that is increasing,” says Edwards. “This may be related to the increase in new international carriers and incompatibility between systems.”
OCN Manager runs on the Evolved Intelligence ENGINE platform. ENGINE can also host a variety of other services on a single system. As well as other roaming services such as Welcome SMS, steering, dialled number correction and SS7 analysis, the ENGINE platform can also run applications for messaging, pre-pay, VPN and virtual PBX. Evolved Intelligence also offers a custom development service to provide tailored solution for specific needs. OCN Manager is also available as a remote managed service.
