Annual MSF membership for companies with revenues of less than $50 million costs $7,500.
Then there's the challenge of wider uptake, says the analyst. "The success of the certification program will be determined, ultimately, by the degree that it is embraced by the overall vendor and, more importantly, carrier community."
MSF president Roger Ward, whose day job is in the CTO's office at BT, said he hopes the process will help boost the MSF's membership ranks, but stressed that's not the aim of the scheme. He also noted that the MSF's carriers are the ones most likely to benefit, as they can get involved in deciding what is included in the certification process. He said it "should be useful to all carriers," but added, "the carriers that put things in will get something out. The ones that stand by the side and just watch may not get as much out of it."
So will BT get something out of this? Ward notes that "it's no accident" that the pilot tests are focused on RTCP -- "BT wishes there was less variability" -- but didn't go as far as to say that BT will demand to see an MSF certificate before purchase orders are signed in the future. He added, though, that "if the pilot scheme is successful, I'm sure it's something that will be looked at in future BT procurement processes."
Fujitsu's Gallon, meanwhile, is confident that MSF certification will turn up as a preference or requirement in carrier RFPs.
And Ward isn't concerned that having just one test firm involved in the certification will be a problem. Asked whether the MSF plans to appoint another test house to help speed up the process and add an element of competition in the process (Iometrix will have a monopoly, after all), Ward replied: "No -- it's not a question of speeding up or doing it cheaper, but rather partnering with a trusted lab to develop and implement a program that is of real benefit to the industry. This takes time and effort, and for the time being at least the MSF is very happy with the relationship with Iometrix as chosen partner."