If you’ve ever heard the term “cherry-picking,” most likely it’s come across in a news item about basketball in which a player strategically creates an easy scoring opportunity when the defensive team obtains the ball via a rebound, steal or other turnover. “Cherry picking” may also be referred to in the event of suppressed evidence in a legal dispute, or the occurrence of a business scheme in which the most profitable customers are “cherry picked,” such as when a health insurance company insures only healthy individuals and refuses to insure the unhealthy.

While the term does derive from the act of selecting the ripest and healthiest fruits, such as cherries, the concept indeed applies to telecommunications and least cost routing, or the process of selecting the path of outbound communications traffic based on cost. In the case of least cost routing, cherry picking involves two carriers that work together to establish competitive routing and delivery so that terminating the call at its destination results in the least amount of money.

A business that allows its customers to cherry pick, rather than depending on a least cost routing company to do so, can certainly be problematic as they may tend to pick the most expensive routes from your blended rate plan. One least cost routing provider in particular, TransNexus (News - Alert) takes a more innovative approach through its NexOSS solution in order to support businesses in immediately achieving increased profits.

TransNexus’ NexOSS solution features simplified copy and paste rate provisioning from carrier rate plans, support for up to 100 million different VoIP routes, least cost routing based on inter-state and intra-state rates and customized local calling areas, as well as conversion of rate plans. NexOSS is designed to continually optimize routing for VoIP peering based on interconnect rates, quality of service, customer credit status and end-point capabilities. The least cost routing function comes into play as it imports origination and terminate rate plans for each interconnect carrier in order to build least cost routing routes based on a profit margin threshold configured by the operator. NexOSS’ least cost routing functionality guarantees businesses won’t come across a route with a profit margin less than the minimum profit margin that’s been configured, eliminating the chance of customers cherry picking routes.

Much like harvesters pick the cherries that will produce the best taste and the most juice, your customers may be out to do the same with your call rates. In the case of least cost routing, it’s the shriveled cherries – or the most affordable call path – that will produce profits for your business.

Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Stefanie Mosca