Realizing the Potential of Telecom:
Reality or Pipe Dream?

Pam Hakim, VP of Marketing, Operations Solutions, Telcordia

Even working right in the heart of the telecom industry, it’s still hard not to be amazed by the innovation and speed of change once in awhile. But to what extent is that driving the initiatives that the vast majority of us spend most of our time actually working on? For most of us, just keeping networks and services up and running is more than enough, without having to consider what happens when universal mobile broadband hits gigabit speeds. To find out, Telcordia recently commissioned a survey from independent research firm Analysys-Mason, exploring how operators view the potential of telecom, and how they view their own chances of realizing that potential.

So is it true that most everyone is really just fire fighting? Or are wireless, broadband and enterprise service providers systematically addressing the obstacles to progress? We pick out some of the key findings and offer our own perspectives below.

The Convergence Imperative
 
In terms of realizing potential, wireless operators still see that they have a long way to go – but it’s not so much about growing revenues as it is about growing margins. Through more intelligent use of their network capacity, they believe there is a way to live with “all-you-can-eat” plans, while still providing partners with an effective way to deliver value-added content. In particular, those with access to fixed networks as well as mobile see huge potential for offloading data from the mobile part of their network to the fixed part.

More and more operators are finally converging their fixed and mobile organizations. They are recognizing that these can’t be treated as separate lines of business. Network capacity, and related areas such as performance, inventory and service assurance, must be able to be managed across technologies and services. That’s no longer just a technical “nice-to-have”, but a critical requirement for the future of wireless operators.

The Customer Relationship: Lost in Translation?

For a while now, telcos have talked about becoming more “customer-centric”. Unfortunately, that has often been translated into “CRM-centric”, with millions of dollars/euros funnelled into CRM solution development programs. With services (and service portfolios) becoming increasingly complex, the consequences of this mis-translation are now becoming a significant obstacle to progress, as CRM systems fail to provide the degree of intelligence or flexibility now required.

In the survey, service providers identified the potential to provide much better service delivery (and reducing cost!) by fixing more of customers’ problems first time; ideally without an inbound call at all. However, to do this will take a much more unified understanding of each customer’s services and their use of the network. And typically, that is the knowledge created within the fulfillment process, and stored within the OSS environment. So a key component of improving service delivery is about retrieving that data, and making it available in real time, in a meaningful way -- which may not even require “CRM” at all.

What’s happening is a recognition that the customer experience is not only about customer contact points centered around a bill (outbound) and a detected fault (inbound). The new frontier of customer experience is actually deep in the network. Telcordia believes that there is significant potential to deliver a much better customer experience, specifically by tapping into the information located in traditionally “back-office” functions such as engineering and network management. With our Plan-to-Provision and Trouble-to-Resolution solutions, we look to transform network data into service and customer perspectives that can significantly improve customer loyalty and reduce costs. The Telcordia Home Network Assurance solution is an example of a non-CRM (in traditional terms) solution that can play a key part in ensuring customer contact is both automated and effective in resolving potentially complex problems.

Who’s afraid of the big dumb pipe?

Not broadband providers, apparently. Actually, that’s not quite true. There are some who see the potential to be the best commodity bandwidth provider around, offering a “no frills”, yet rock solid network and operations systems and processes to support it, with small but very reliable margins. But it’s not where most see the future. What’s critical is opening the network in a way that allows different levels of commercial value to be presented to customers and partners. Data centers and computing platforms at the heart of the network need to become available to all. This turns the traditional model of telecom operations inside out. OSS becomes the interface to the business. That’s a subject we’ll be returning to later this year.

Ambition + Creativity = Realizing the Potential of Telecom

So – are service providers mostly just fire fighting? The survey suggests the answer is “no”. There is a clear understanding of numerous avenues to untapped growth, and operational improvement. But equally, there is acknowledgement of the gap between seeing that potential – and being able to realize it.

We think this points to a realization of the need for serious creativity, not simply inventiveness. The nature of the problem in telecom has really changed. Customers can’t be “locked in” – they must have their expectations continuously met, and then exceeded. Networks can’t be “closed” – they must be opened up to partners in a way that allows differing levels of value to be realized for the operator. And network optimization must be an active, ongoing and intelligent process, responsive to the dynamics of how the network is being used and the options available.

And what will customers, corporations and economies gain? Beyond the increasing use of telecom to carry entertainment content and give suppliers access to access global markets lies the smart grid: with the potential to improve energy efficiency and sustain living standards. Beyond that, even greater machine-to-machine communication, with complex status, diagnostic and performance-optimizing information being exchanged continuously to secure, optimize, and extend the lifespan of our devices.
 
The only way to realize the potential of telecom is through ambitious and creative thinking; courage and commitment. Those qualities, and the situations that have demonstrated them, is where Telcordia is most valued. You can read the full results here.

For more information about this study and realizing the potential of telecom, please contact Pam Hakim, VP of Marketing, Operations Solutions, Telcordia at phakim@telcordia.com or visit our website.

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