Emerging Markets On Their Own Journey

Francis Haysom, Executive Director, CSO Office, Telcordia

Any discussion of “emerging” or “developing” nations always runs the risk of suggesting the same sense of inevitable convergence on a model of operation already proven in the developed world. That risk is present in discussions of telecom generally, as well as within B/OSS. But by acknowledging the radically different circumstances that exist in so-called emerging markets, we will properly appreciate the need for completely different destinations and journeys to get there.

In some cases, that will divert the B/OSS community along a quite different path than that which the developed teleconomies have taken. That will require additional investment from vendors, but there are good reasons why this will make sound business sense for B/OSS strategies.

Emerging teleconomies will give rise to fascinating new requirements in B/OSS, and ones that may well provide lessons for B/OSS in more developed regions.

Traveling Without Baggage

The B/OSS in developed teleconomies have been fundamentally shaped by two factors: first, the existence of an incumbent operator, typically with decades of state-funded investment in infrastructure buildout. Second, a process of deregulation that encourages entrepreneurship and drives new entrants to seek to improve on the incumbent’s offer to customers – typically first on price, and then later on technology or experience. An end state of open and continuous competition between a market-determined number of players is envisioned.

But some developing economies simply won’t go through this transition. In some cases, their national operator’s existing infrastructure does not cover enough of the population for their B/OSS to be considered in the same class as that of a developed economy’s incumbent. Evolution or transformation programs that require years of work in the developed world may simply be irrelevant. In others, the deregulation process may not happen at all, yet the same drive to widen access, introduce new technologies and services, and attract new customers can be no less strong.

Given the options now open to emerging-economy service providers to bypass whole chapters in the story of developed teleconomies (or at the very least to get by with a speed-read), we should certainly expect a completely different set of priorities for B/OSS.

For example, the rise of wireless as the primary access to telecom (rather than as an increment for a fixed line service) is well appreciated. But when most of that is based on pre-paid rather than post paid subscriptions, there’s a shift of emphasis within BSS (and to an extent OSS). Real-time rating and charging become the primary applications, requiring extremely resilient platforms at the core of the business.

Lack of Facilities? No Problem!

Strategies for OSS, in the developed world, have been strongly shaped by the requirement to support facilities-based services. This has led to, for example, a strong inventory-driven approach to fulfillment, support for complex order management, and an increasing role for product catalogs. But in a market where most customers are wireless, and the network is seen as essentially “service ready”, greater emphasis will be on BSS, and the ability of OSS to support real-time revenue-generating transactions. That’s a change in emphasis compared to the facilities-based telco, where OSS has an  intrinsic role in managing continuous change to a large, diverse, distributed, multi-technology network.

One example of this might be dynamic pricing, a mechanism whereby customers are financially motivated, in real-time, to take advantage of spare network capacity (as determined by the OSS) by extremely attractive pricing. While the take-up of this in a saturated developed market is likely to be low, in an emerging market, the offer is more likely to effect a vital change in behavior: from spending nothing to spending something.

Incidentally, one possible “reverse application” of dynamic pricing back into the developed world may be around non-time-sensitive, machine-to-machine communications for archiving, backup and so on. We should not assume that innovations can travel only in one direction.

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

There are other examples of how emerging markets will have a fundamentally different approach to B/OSS.

By definition, developing economies are not as likely to have foundational infrastructure that supports even a base level of telecom operations. For example, in building-out infrastructure, a government-sponsored landbase survey may be incomplete or non-existent. Perhaps closer to home (literally), the available definitions of dwelling boundaries, street names and locations references (zip codes, postal codes) may also be completely inadequate as a basis for locating customers, let alone market segmentation, credit checks or issuing bills.

Nowadays, emerging SPs are more likely to look to Google Maps as the basis for landbase information, since the available government surveys don’t contain the same level of coverage or detail. Google as an OSS vendor?

Cultural attitudes toward credit also varies widely, and some communities in emerging areas have a strong preference to settle bills in cash. Yet others want to provide access to telecom services through community-based franchises or co-operatives or even  tie in telecom provision with power provision, offering up the potential for completely new kinds of community-enhancing packages. 

Demographics in the Driver’s Seat

Emerging economies tend to have younger average populations, more mobile, more demanding of constant innovation in technology and services, yet also more likely to churn. What’s the impact on BSS? More lifestyle-oriented offerings, co-branded services, and technology innovation. Is there an impact on OSS? Absolutely: a higher priority on the need to be able to detect, predict and resolve even minor service-impacting problems to start. This is especially true when responding to the substantial differences in the meaning of “customer experience” for a pre-paid versus post-paid customer.

Conclusion

The story of B/OSS in emerging markets is still being written. The circumstances of each market – cultural, economic, political -- must be acknowledged with creativity rather than blind prescription. Those with the willingness to see the differences, and invest to develop the right fit solutions, will contribute to a new and distinct chapter in the story of telecom.

For more information, please contact Francis Haysom, Executive Director, CSO Office, Telcordia, at fhaysom@telcordia.com or visit our website.