Comarch Technology Review 1 2012 Preview

www.comarch.com

The Magazine of Comarch

Telecommunications

Business Unit

no 1/2012[14]

In ThIs IssUe:

In foCUs: Customer experience from the core of the network to the customer

Infrastructure sharing – servCo vs. netCo – the competition shift

Beyond Bss/oss oss/Bss integration – the building block

of the era of “big data” Challenges and opportunities

of multi-market transformations enhancement of roaming

call back user experience

Hot toPIc: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience6

Comarch Technology review 01/2012

6 In focus: CustoMER ExPERiEnCE

From the core of the network to the customer

HOW OSS ENSURES A SEAMLESS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Arecent stratecast survey of more than 120 Com-

munication service provider (Csp) executives,

worldwide, reveals that 91% believe their “busi-

ness must be fundamentally or substantially transformed

to remain competitive in the future.”

The need for customer focus is resonating with CSPs as

they reinvent themselves as retailers, rather than capacity

plumbers. Customers want a one-stop shop; they want reli-

able products that are delivered quickly and easily. By defin-

ing processes as the customer sees them rather than what

is convenient for the business or what has been used in the

past, CSPs can retain their status as trusted providers and

take advantage of the brand recognition they have worked so

hard to establish. The transformation underway in the com-

munications industry means that CSPs will compete to de-

liver products and quality, not connectivity.

Networks have always been deployed based on customer de-

mand, and as the volume and variety of infrastructure increas-

es, the factors driving CSPs to invest have not changed. What

has changed is the need for CSPs to differentiate themselves

based on the quality of the multitude of products and servic-

es being delivered, while at the same time becoming compet-

itive retailers that are relentless about customer satisfaction.

The challenges are many and this report will focus on four

key OSS functions that, when focused on the customer, de-

liver CSP differentiation while controlling costs:

Fulfillment, from product definition to delivery

Assurance, from the customer to the core of the

network

End-to-end network upgrade

Dynamic capacity management using self-organizing

networks (SON)

While CSPs rotate their businesses to focus on customers,

they must also horizontally align OSS/BSS to work consis-

tently across the business and support multiple products,

services, customers and partners.

Goal #1: eXcellent custoMer eXPerIence

CSPs are trying hard to focus on the customer experience.

That requires a radical shift in thinking about the way that

products are defined, created, delivered, billed for and sup-

ported. The connections, the devices, the features and ap-

plications, as well as billing and customer support functions

must be simple, straightforward and of the highest possi-

ble quality. In order to monetize existing investments in in-

frastructure and OSS/BSS, operations must be responsive

and reliable, while access to OSS/BSS by partners and cus-

tomers must be seamless and automated.

nanCee rUzICka stratecast (a Division

of frost & sullivan)

Director OSS/BSS Strategy


7In focus: CustoMER ExPERiEnCE

Figure 1. Customer experience requirements. Source: StratecastHOW OSS ENSURES A SEAMLESS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Customers will buy based on device and application choice

rather than network loyalty, and they will be driven away by

inadequate offerings, inflexible product and pricing plans,

inaccurate activation, poor performance and incompetent

support. CSPs will differentiate themselves by understand-

ing customer needs and accurately translating those needs

into OSS and network infrastructure that can deliver.

Maintaining a positive customer experience requires that CSPs

deliver unique, high-quality products and implement custom-

er-focused processes and OSS/BSS as shown in Figure 1.

If the network is assumed and products are commoditized

then customer experience is the only differentiator relevant

to product development, sales, usability, operational quali-

ty and support when something goes wrong.

The 4 C’s ChaLLenGInG Csps

The Four-C’s: complexity, competition, cost, and customer de-

mand, are taxing every part of CSP operations. This pressure leads

CSPs to rely more heavily on OSS/BSS to simplify operations and

manage costs while rapidly delivering new, high quality services.

complexity

The size and complexity of telecom networks has increased

exponentially and so has the volume and variety of servic-

es being offered by CSPs for dozens of devices that are no

longer restricted to a common access network. CSPs also

have to manage traffic from third party bandwidth and con-

tent providers, as well as the intelligent devices in custom-

er’s hands and homes. And yet, regardless of the source of

a problem, the CSP will be blamed for a failure. As a result,

CSPs are obligated to operate and maintain a rapidly ex-

panding inventory of network elements, applications, serv-

ers, data bases and delivery environments.

competition

CSPs are still vulnerable to direct competition (other telecom

operators), but now computer vendors (Apple), software ven-

dors (Microsoft) and Internet vendors (Google) pose a threat

as well. Those companies are not competing with CSPs at

the network construction or operations level, they are com-

peting strictly at the product level. That very fundamental

difference between CSPs and over-the-top competitors em-

phasizes the need for CSPs that own network infrastructure

to make maximum use of the capabilities of that investment

to deliver products, quality and innovation to their custom-

ers that over-the-top providers cannot.

cost

The ability of a CSP to monetize its network lies in thecapa-

bilities of its OSS. Network infrastructure is a large capital in-

idEAs in bRiEf:

4 OSS functions that will influence change in CSPs customer experience

The most critical business priorities in CSPs assurance strategy

The benefits of including customer data in the network planning, engineering and design processes

In focus: bss/oss tRAnsfoRMAtion10


the role of oss in customer experience improve-

ment has been the subject of many articles pub-

lished in the Technology review magazine. Most

articles tackle the problem from the customer service qual-

ity perspective, emphasizing the role of oss assuring that

customer services work anywhere and anytime significant-

ly contributing to customer satisfaction. But can oss sys-

tems also improve customer experience in the most tradi-

tional aspect of customer - provider relations and in particular

in interaction?

The answer seems obvious, better customer QoS means

more customers are satisfied and so CSP is perceived bet-

ter. This contributes to more intangible flavours of CE which

is about human aspects and thus beyond just measurable

QoS. But can OSS systems improve these „human aspects”

which are traditionally tackled at the BSS domain by Cus-

tomer Relation Management (CRM) systems?

The answer is yes, and it is not about OSS intruding the BSS

layer but rather about seamless BSS/OSS integration. The

idea is to provide, at the CRM level, a complete insight into

all the issues that impact customer services and thus the

customer itself, and originate from network problems. Hav-

ing this insight is supposed to improve the „human aspect”.

A scenario which demonstrates this is when a customer

contacts the operator issuing a complaint about its servic-

es. When a CRM system has insight into customer service

issues, the customer can be informed that the referred to is-

sues have been detected, the root cause is known, and the

resolution process has begun. If the customer can be provid-

ed with an estimated time of problem resolution then that’s

even better. This means the ability to alleviate initial customer

dissatisfaction caused by the experienced service problem.

sceptics may say, that nowadays customers do not com-

plain, they just churn. This is why pro-activeness capabilities

are so important. Pro-activeness has two aspects.

The first aspect is the ability to prevent the customer from

experiencing problems with services. In a nutshell , this re-

quires OSS systems to be able to monitor the network, detect

network problems and translate them into customer services

impact. When customer services detect a network problem,

the problem resolution process may begin, prior to the cus-

tomer issuing the complaint. What is important is that cus-

tomer impact serves as the priority gauge for the network/

resource resolution process.

The second aspect of pro-activeness is that the lack of cus-

tomer complaints does not necessary mean that the cus-

tomer is happy.

The OSS system provides insight into customer service is-

sues to CRM and enables to pro-actively contact the cus-

CRM - the role of OSS for improving customer experience

ŁUkasz MenDyk Comarch sa

OSS Product Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

Sceptics may say, that nowadays customers do not complain, they just churn. This is why pro-activeness capabilities are so important.


11


tomer. The idea is that instead of waiting for customer com-

plaints, it is better to contact the customer and inform him

about a detected problem and provide him with detailed

information about the action being undertaken. Someone

may argue that this may be a risky strategy to contact the

customer without been 100% sure that he really is experi-

encing problems. Leaving aside the discussion whether it

is better to unnecessarily contact 10 customers than risk

losing one unhappy customer, the role of OSS is to provide

precise information about customer service issues while

avoiding unnecessary alarms. Moreover, OSS can provide

detailed information about what the technical issue is. Al-

though customers may not understand technical details,

providing precise information when contacting a custom-

er can be appreciated by the customer as proof that con-

tact is not purely a marketing spam. This in return proves

that CSP really makes an effort to provide the customer with

the possible service.

The presented capabilities can be a source of significant

competitive advantage over other communication service

providers. Customer experience surveys show that many

customers are still disappointed with service providers

who are very passive, and wait for customers to complain.

And even when registering a customer complaint, it is not

rare that customers are asked very difficult detailed ques-

tions that are hard to answer. Yet another role of the OSS

system is to provide all necessary data to CRM in order to

avoid asking the customer technical questions. These de-

tailed questions are sometimes perceived by the custom-

er as a method to discourage him from issuing a complaint

and thus avoid the cost of compensation for the poor QoS.

This may seriously damage CSP’s image and cause sig-

nificant churn.

Details on how to achieve necessary CRM-OSS integration

can be found in the Comarch whitepaper entitled „Moving

from network assurance to customer service assurance”.

In a nutshell, the idea is to employ the Product-Custom-

er Facing Service (CFS) – Resource Facing Service – Re-

source model with CFS as the „uniting element” between

BSS and OSS systems. All issues detected by OSS systems,

which have impact on the customer, are reported on Cus-

tomer Facing Service (CFS) which the CRM system should

have insight to.

Concluding, the role of OSS in improving Customer Expe-

rience is not only limited to assuring good customer ser-

vice quality but also to help traditional CRM systems be

pro-active in customer interactions. By providing insight

into customer issues which originate from a network prob-

lem, the OSS system enables via CRM systems to create

an image of the provider who really makes an effort to im-

prove customer satisfaction. OSS can help make commu-

nication with the customer be perceived not just as a mar-

keting spam.

idEAs in bRiEf:

CRM needs insight into all customer service issues originating from the network

Pro-activeness - ability to contact the customer before he churns

CRM-OSS integration is a must




12 In focus: CustoMER ExPERiEnCE12 In focus: CustoMER ExPERiEnCE

Planning and deploying a mobile network is one of

the key cost generators for operators. When an

operator chooses a multi-vendor strategy, the

number of platforms and systems used to transfer the need of

a site into a running network element is particularly

significant. In this article I will discuss the way to integrate

and rearrange the IT landscape, together with corresponding

business process reengineering.

Introduction

A typical IT landscape of multi-vendor mobile operators con-

sists of a number of different tools:

Network inventories with site lifecycle milestones

Radio planning tools

Configuration management tools.

Such an architecture also requires a number of various in-

ternal interfaces, which can either be automatic or based on

manual export/import features. Any of the business process-

es introduced to manage the planning and rollout of the net-

work contain a number of steps, needed to ensure that cer-

tain data is properly recorded in a given system.

Additionally, in most cases a lot of these systems (especial-

ly related to inventories and lifecycle management) are leg-

acy, homemade tools. This is caused by the fact that many

operators perceive their network management processes as

unique and ones that require dedicated tools (or in the case of

commercially available products, require huge customization).

Configuration management systems, on the other hand, must

cope with very closed and complex Network Management

Systems (NMS) delivered by network vendors. Special fea-

tures in the network caused these systems to be custom-

ized and, in many cases, hard to upgrade. Additionally, many

of the older systems do not have an up-to-date picture of

the network in their databases.

All of these problems turned network planning and rollout into

a very complex process, with hundreds of workarounds for

simple operations, not supported by tools already in use. On

the one hand, using these landscapes lowers the efficien-

cy of network delivery departments, on the other hand, even

when they produce configuration, it very often contains a

number of errors and is not optimal.

Optimization of network planning processes as a key solution for increasing efficiency

JakUB zaŁUskI-kapUsTa

Comarch sa

Telco Consulting Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit




Figure 1. Example of a business view of a process

process redesign

In order to start thinking about lean, smooth and efficient

processes, mobile operators have to stop thinking about

applications. The most crucial step is to start the OSS trans-

formation program with identifying the most important pro-

cesses in a radio network, like a new site, a system swap

or an integration process. At the beginning, a decent tool for

process documentation should be selected. Still, it is quite

common to use MS Visio diagrams, or MS Excel files to doc-

ument work. Proper tools should allow to draw processes on

different levels of detail, mapping them onto applications, in-

terfaces and data models.

The next step is to document the radio process, as it should

be, without any applications working in the background.

Such an approach allows to focus on important steps, with-

out all the legacy steps, introduced to overcome the lack of

functionalities.

Fig. 1 presents a business view of a process without any ap-

plication background. In order to get all the necessary op-

erations, only the most crucial processes need to be mod-

eled. Many other processes will just use the same business

activities as crucial ones. When remodeling those process-

es, it is also important to remember about changes in the

organization. User roles should be defined within the pro-

cesses, without looking back at the existing organization-

al structure. Necessary mapping or changes can be carried

out later, when implementing new processes in the mobile

operator’s organization.

Reassigning users to new roles is not an easy task. Of course,

existing engineers will be strongly inclined to follow the ex-

isting processes. It is therefore required to introduce a real

mind change regarding process reengineering, with the use

of external experts if necessary.

example of process reengineering – the network integration process

One of the most crucial processes for a mobile operator is

the network integration process. Efficiency of an operator

and network quality result from this process.

a typical process

Most operators still use the so called ‘Turn On Cycle’ (TOC) pro-

cess to orchestrate changes. This process defines a number

idEAs in bRiEf:

Reengineering your planning and configuration processes

Work and network under control - process-driven planning and execution

ElaborateConfigurationProposal for

Radio NE

ExecuteFrequencyApproval

Radio

ComercialOrder

ElaborateTechnicalProposal

Execute LOSTesting

Negotiate Lease Contract

ModifyInfrastructure

Build NetworkElement/Antenna

EstablishConnection to

NE

Send NoticeBeginning of

Operation

Radio PlanParameters

Plan BSSParameters

Plan TransportConnection

Plan TransportConnection

Acceptance

SIP

Radio

Transport

Core

Rollout

Operations


Customer experience (Ce) has become the main

battleground for communication service provid-

ers (Csps) and a concept that defines today’s

Bss/oss systems. and, as quality of service (Qos) is one of

the essential factors for achieving customer satisfaction,

assurance systems gain importance. This all may sound like

an obvious thing to say, but what is not so obvious is how

(network) assurance can be turned into a measure of Ce.

There are many issues on the way to achieving this goal.

Many service providers have not yet implemented auto-

matic diagnosing of customer complaints. Often, when

such a complaint is issued, their network operation depart-

ments claim that the network is operating correctly and

all technical metrics are in green. In these circumstances,

more advanced service assurance that includes pro-ac-

tive customer complaint management (the ability to pre-

vent degradation of customer service quality) becomes

“mission impossible”.

These obstacles may result from the fact that network op-

eration departments have been traditionally more focused

on the network infrastructure than on the customer. But it’s

also an outcome of the increasing complexity of services,

and the fact that various services may have different require-

ments towards the same technical parameters.

This, in turn, changes the expectations towards OSS sys-

tems. The traditional network / resource perspective, typi-

cal for fault and performance management systems, needs

to be shifted. Service providers need to start looking at the

network from the viewpoint of the quality of services, that

are delivered to the end customer. This article will describe

such a transformation from network assurance to custom-

er service assurance.

Towards customer service assurance – where to start?

Traditional network assurance comprises of two complemen-

tary systems: Performance Management (PM) and Fault Man-

agement (FM). The first one deals with network performance

metrics (KPI), and the second one – with network outages.

Performance metrics can have a defined threshold, which

should generate an alarm feed to the FM system, once ex-

Moving from network assurance to customer service assurance



Telecommunications

Business Unit




Mobile and fixed operators face constant challenge

to optimize cost structures. one of the approaches

to realize this goal is to outsource network manage-

ment. This trend already began a few years ago and seems to

be growing constantly. on one hand, outsourcing may dimin-

ish network control, which is still considered by many opera-

tors as a core part of their business. on the other hand, it gives

a chance to transform current relations with the network. This

would give opportunity to adapt to new business design and

concentrate on services delivered to a customer.

The growing interest in outsourcing is caused by many fac-

tors. Mainly, financial improvement, but this is not the only

reason. Next Generation Network evolution, competitive busi-

ness models and new applications have forced operators to

concentrate on an efficient way to use of their network re-

sources. Another advantage of outsourcing is the possibili-

ty to increase network flexibility and adopt new technology

at a lower cost. It also simplifies the ever changing nature

of internal support by transferring it to the outsourcing ser-

vice supplier. In other words, it relieves network topics from

management agendas.

Why outsourcing?

Every operator has its specific rationale to introduce network

outsourcing. However, the general reason depends on the

size and structure of a telecom. Mature operators, especial-

ly in the EMEA region, are driven by decreasing average rev-

enue per user (ARPU). Operators in growing markets look for

a possibility to manage growth and obtain necessary assis-

tance and knowledge. Mid-size companies will benefit from

continuous network and operation optimization, as this area

is usually marginalized on an everyday bases because of

lack of dedicated staff serving that purpose.

Independently of size or structure, outsourcing gives a pos-

sibility to improve the current network operation process. The

very first step, which is a must for every operator willing to

outsource a part of their network operations, is the organiza-

tional aspect. Outsourcing must follow internal improvement

initiatives, especially network management process redesign.

The structure of the area that is to be outsourced must be

clear and transparent. This may be performed by assessing

all areas that are impacted by the outsourcing scheme, so

Outsourcing network management – directions and strategies

szyMon BUCzak Comarch sa

OSS Consultant,

Telecommunications

Business Unit




Very interesting changes on the telecommunica-

tion market can be currently observed. Telecom-

munication operators (telcos), who have been

very bitter competitors in the field of the infrastructure, are

starting to cooperate with each other, going even as to cre-

ating a joint venture to realize the idea of infrastructure

sharing. This idea is driven by the need to reduce huge ex-

penses on infrastructure, that result from the fact, that ca-

pacity data services demand more and more capacity. This

is also boosted by market regulators who perceive this as

a natural path from local loop unbounding (known in the

fixed network market) to „network unbounding” and net-

work neutrality ideas. Infrastructure sharing can be de-

scribed as dividing traditional telco into so called servco

and netco. To get an even more complete view of the idea,

it can be said that the complete model consists of sales-

co, servCo and netCo, where salesco is probably only a new

name for the role of e.g. MVno. Infrastructure sharing means

that for example two collaborating telcos decide to create

one netco which is to serve two servCos on an equal

basis.

The best way to explain the roles of SalesCo, ServCo and Net-

Co is to employ a TMF SID model. Starting from the bottom:

NetCo is to manage resources and provide fine grained

Resource Facing Services (RFS) to ServCo

ServCo’s role is to manage services, which means using

fine-grained RFS to create a Customer Facing Service

(CFS) and fine-grained products that are to be provided

to SalesCo

SalesCo is to create final end customer products,

product bundling and products offerings based on

CFSes and fine grained products delivered by ServCo

Infrastructure sharing relates to a very interesting busi-

ness model and redefining competition between collab-

orating telcos. In this model telcos collaborate at the Net-

Co level, becoming in fact one company which is to serve

the still competing servcos at an equal basis. So what is

the domain of competition between ServCos? It is definite-

ly not infrastructure (network resource management). If we

leave competition on the customer targeting and the pric-

ing level to SalesCos, then the competition between Serv-

Cos is all about how to create and manage customer ser-

vices CFS „better” while using the same network resources.

In other words, this means a competition shift from the net-

work (resource) level to service competition. The word „bet-

ter” can be understood as better usage of the same network

resources to create cheaper and more interesting Custom-

er Facing Services of higher quality and thus providing bet-

ter Customer Experience.



Telecommunications

Business Unit

Infrastructure sharing – ServCo vs. NetCo – the competition shift



idEAs in bRiEf:

Splitting Telco into ServCo and NetCo (and SalesCo)

Infrastructure sharing = common Netco + competition at ServCo (and SalesCo)

Competition: who creates better customer services based on the same network resources (Lego blocks)

OSS for ServCo – managing the service layer (CFS and RFS) in assurance and fulfilment areas

ServCos will compete by creating better CFSs, using the

same building blocks - fine grained RFSs provided by the

same NetCo. The key tool needed by ServCos is the service

catalog which enables to define CFS, built from fine-grained

RFSs, and to drive both fulfilment and assurance process-

es. This means employing next generation OSS which sup-

ports the service domain.

The service fulfilment solution role is to be able to orches-

trate NetCo by ordering low level RFSes and then „assemble”

the customer facing service according to the service cata-

log’s definition of CFS.

Service assurance along with the SQM system is responsible

for translating network related alarms and resource centric

KPIs provided by telco into CFS alarms and CFS Key Quality

Indicators (KQI). Translation is to be done along the same

service model as fulfilment defined in the service catalog.

Concluding: competition between ServCos resembles cre-

ating the best possible structure using the same Lego

blocks. Details concerning the Service Fulfilment solution

can be found in Comarch’s whitepaper entitled „ Fulfilling

the Promise of Component-Based Service Creation”, and

details about Service Assurance in the whitepaper „ Mov-

ing from network assurance to customer service assur-

ance”. Specifics on service management as a whole can

be found in Comarch’s whitepaper entitled „ Comarch Next

Generation Service Management”.

But what about netCo?

In the description provided above, the role of NetCo was

network resource management and providing fine-grained

RFS services for ServCos. But as NetCo is to be a separate

company which needs to earn money. And what is better

is, it does not clash with the previous description based on

TMF SID. The previous description was based on a global

perspective, and on the value chain model. When looking

from the “local perspective”, the NetCo apart of network re-

sources needs to manage CFS and products which are of-

fered to ServCos. This might sound confusing when bear-

ing in mind the previous description, but it simply means

that NetCo’s CFSs and products are just RFSs from the per-

spective of ServCo. It proves that the TMF SID model is use-

ful in describing all kinds of business and what is extreme-

ly important enables to provide both a „local” and „global”

perspective.

As NetCo does sell products, this means that the NetCo

apart of OSS systems, which manages network resources,

also needs a service layer and even a BSS system. The lat-

ter part is a natural consequence of separating NetCo from

ServCo and establishing it as a separate business entity.

What is important is that the role of a BSS system at NetCo

has a significant part to play and is to be used as a control

point that checks whether NetCo serves all ServCos at an

equal basis.

The competition winner among ServCos will be one who can create a better CFS model. Better means choosing the right RFS type provided by telco for the right type of CFS.

The right type of RFS can refer to: less fault prone, delivered faster.



Figure 1. Correlation between technicians engagement and selected KPIs

After the service Management expo 2011 conference,

held in Birmingham, I realized that currently there

are 3 most important aspects in field service man-

agement (mobile workforce management): field forces mo-

bilization, scheduling optimization and human resources.

Scheduling optimization and technicians mobilization (under-

stood as mobile access to information in the field) are cru-

cial for the optimal utilization of resources and increase of

customer satisfaction. The human aspect is also substan-

tial but very often not noticed by operations or field service

management and is not considered in operations transfor-

mation projects. I have the opportunity to be involved in field

force transformation projects in which at the beginning the

program manager tried to hide all information from the tech-

nicians and assumed that they would simply start working

Win customer experience and transform techs from regular employees to customer advisors

szyMon UCzCIWek Comarch sa

FSM Product Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

Measured engagement of techs in daily work

influenced KPiAverage value of KPis

in context of engagement metric

< 0,7 Customer retention 72 %

> 0,7 Customer retention 87 %

< 0,7 Workforce utilization 56 %

> 0,7 Workforce utilization 69 %

< 0,7 Revenue increase 7%

> 0,7 Revenue increase 8%

24 In focus: CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE


Building Customer Loyalty in the Telecom Market

28 cHIcaGo VoIce

inthe wireless industry, a new phone with a 2 year

contract has been the definitive incentive program

for years. The telecom industry, like others is plagued

by churn; in fact the majority of new customers are churn cus-

tomers. It is difficult to understand why most companies have

not moved beyond this weak approach. The consumer has to

choose between a huge amount of competitive products and

services all offering similar incentive packages. Brands need

to move beyond this antiquated method. Through the proper

use of a pervasive loyalty solution, telecoms can begin to pro-

vide a memorable experience in order differentiate their prod-

uct and attract and retain loyal consumers.

The path of the past

In the past, telecom providers have dedicated tremendous

energy and resources to customer and company acquisi-

tion to develop and grow their businesses; this was a suc-

cessful business model at the time. Currently the developed

telecom market must face low GDP growth, stagnating pop-

ulation and high service-saturation levels. Years of pursuing

the same strategy by growing in numbers and acquiring new

companies is no longer a sustainable business model. The

necessity to focus on understanding the customer experi-

ence has proved daunting as most telecoms’ strategy and

information is siloed in unique lines of business; fragment-

ing one customer into many different views.

Data, data and more data

As telecoms began pursuing growth through mergers and

acquisitions, the consequences of such cannibalistic pe-

rusal led them down a path to multiple disparate tech-

nologies. This has caused customer data to be scattered

across multiple customer databases, where data is often

duplicated and inconsistent. Typically, customer informa-

tion is divided in data silos across lines of business with

little integration or transparency amongst them; result-

ing in a single facet of the overall customer profile. For ex-

ample, the wireless division collects informa tion but of-

ten doesn’t share it with the TV cable division. There is no

complete view of a cus tomer across different channels—

stores, websites, call centers. This means that a customer

calling in to speak with a representative may have a com-

pletely different experience depend ing on the department

they speak with. They may receive different information,

offers, or advice. As a result, telecoms at any given mo-

ment have had a fragmented and inconsistent view of an

individual customer.

a unified view

Building an integrated customer data set is the first step to-

ward developing a more detailed and nuanced understand-

ing of customers. The technology and concepts to create a

single, integrated view of the customer have been available

for many years, but very few telecoms have adopted these

methods effectively. Most telecoms have a CRM system with

a “360 degree” view of the customer; however due to data

silos across lines of business and inconsistent sales and

marketing strategies and actions and the customer view is

not truly integrated. Airlines, retailers, hotels, and many oth-

er industries have already recognized the importance of in-

tegrating data from every customer interaction and are con-

tinuously working to improve in the area.

aLIna pyzoWskI Comarch Inc.

Solutions Manager

Enterprise Marketing

Management

Loyalty Business Unit


fundamental Challenges faced by Csps

30 beyonD bss/oss

OSS/BSS Integration – The Building Block of the Era of “Big Data”


31beyonD bss/oss

Figure 1: Key CSP Challenges, 2010. Source: Frost & Sullivan, 2010

f rost & sullivan has witnessed the telecommuni-

cations world change significantly over the last

ten years. The evolution of customer demand, sup-

ported by the broadband development, has led to the emer-

gence of new services such as internet television, video on

demand and voice over Ip. Customers require more com-

plex, tailored packages with high service quality. as a re-

sult, communication service providers (Csps) need to place

greater focus on the overall customer experience and - giv-

en intensifying competition - the speed of bringing new ser-

vices to market. at the end of 2010, frost & sullivan conduct-

ed a survey of global Tier 1 Csps. Based on the results of this

research, figure 1 illustrates the most significant challeng-

es currently faced by leading service providers.

In order to keep pace with market evolution, CSPs have been

prompted to redefine their strategies.

The majority have transformed themselves from basic net-

work access providers to service aggregators, providing net-

work access as a medium for delivering content and other

value-added services.

The implementation of new strategies is a lengthy process,

requiring the engagement of a broad range of a service pro-

vider’s resources as well as a change of mindset and tech-

nical improvements: CSPs need to ensure comprehensive

integration of their operational support systems (OSS) and

their business support systems (BSS).

oss/Bss Convergence as an answer to operator Challenges

Historically, CSPs tend to purchase best-of-breed applica-

tions for specific functional areas and they have a long tra-

dition for in-house software development. In consequence,

many proprietary or highly customized OSS/BSS systems re-

main in operation. This strategy was justified when their port-

folios only contained a few services. However, with multiple

new services and growing complexity of the CSP architec-

ture, this approach has become untenable. Mergers and ac-

quisitions have further complicated the back office of many

CSPs. Many providers have added new systems to their IT

architecture from companies that they had acquired, with

Dealing with regulatory issues

Network congestion

Sustaining profitable growth

Keeping pace with new technology trends

Reducing complexity of the company’s structure

Reduced time-to-market

Growing customer expectations

Efficiency improvement

Dealing with regulatory issues

Network congestion

Sustaining profitable growth

Keeping pace with new technology trends

Reducing complexity of the company’s structure

Reduced time-to-market

Growing customer expectations

Efficiency improvement

Intesifing competition

Figure 1: Key CSP Challenges, 2010. Source: Frost & Sullivan, 2010

7%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

13%

20%

20%

30%

30%

37%

40%

57%

End-to-EndSolutions

CommonProcesses

Point Solutions

Best-of-Breed

Best-of-PlatformCustomizedSolutions forSingle Provider

No Integration After-Market Integration Pre-Integration

GeneralSolutions forMultiple Providers

CustomizedProcesses

In-houseDevelopment

CustomizedProcesses

intesifing competition

7%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

13%

20%

20%

30%

30%

37%

40%

57%

frost & sullivan

is actively engaged in

identifying, researching,

and developing

opportunities, growth

models, and strategies

that enable clients to

accelerate growth.

For more info please visit:

www.frost.com

beyonD bss/oss42


the User Interface (UI) of a technical device of any

kind, including computer applications, is the only

way a human can tell a device what to do, pro-

vide data and get feedback from the device. In a nutshell,

it is the only way to speak to soulless machinery. There is,

however, a huge difference between an interface allow-

ing a person just to communicate with a device and one

which makes communication convenient and effective.

so how to achieve the latter?

One thing that comes to mind is data bandwidth. A good user

interface must enable parties to transfer a number of mes-

sages big enough not to introduce any unnecessary delays

in the performed operation. Thus, the faster the messages

pass through the interface, the better it is usually consid-

ered to be. Another feature which contributes to the quality

of a user interface is the time an inexperienced user must

spend to learn how to get the machine to do what he wants

it to do. Unsurprising is the fact that the shortest possible

time for learning a new interface is the one most optimally

desired in this case. Ideally, a user interface should be so

intuitive that anyone can make the device work right away

without the necessity to read a manual or learn beforehand.

Before we begin discussing mobile applications let us brief-

ly consider PC (Personal Computer) applications, which first

brought user interfaces, and have shaped our thinking about

them. A typical computer cannot understand what people

think, recognize gestures nor read human moods. The first

computers could not be communicated to through the same

senses people communicate, so new methods had to be in-

vented. This is why today we have the keyboard, the mouse

and the monitor. But let’s not go too deep into history, this

is not the point here. These means enabled people to co-

operate with a computer application but in terms of our UI

quality criteria, would not be highly graded. For a newbie,

a keyboard and a mouse were not very natural means of

thought expression, which led to a very limited amount of

data people could send to an application in a unit of time.

There can also be no doubt that a PC interface was not in-

tuitive for someone who didn’t use computers before and

it required a lot of learning in order to be used efficiently.

In terms of today’s criteria the UI of an ordinary PC was far

from being convenient and effective. There were not too

many alternatives in those times so people had to accept

the fact that they have to spend a significant amount of

time in order to efficiently use computers. As a result, more

and more people got used to PC interface tools and in result

they became quite popular over time, and currently most

people can use them efficiently. However, this was not the

case with mobile devices because, nowadays, people do

not want to take on the burden of interface limitations and

spend time to learn how to use it. In comparison to PC be-

ginnings, expectations regarding the intuitiveness and eas-

iness of the device interfaces are much higher now espe-

cially that mobile solutions are entering virtually all areas

of our private and business lives.

GrzeGorz WĄChoCkI Comarch sa

R&D Department Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

beyonD bss/oss42

What makes a good user interface for a mobile application

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Cloud Computing – In its broadest usage, the

term refers to the delivery of scalable IT servic-

es over the Internet. Those resources include

application services and the infrastructure on which they

operate. an organization can purchase these resources

on an as-needed basis and avoid capital costs of soft-

ware and hardware.

The Comarch Data Center experience in hosting servic-

es shows that the most important element for clients is

a service which fulfills business requirements (KPI pa-

rameters, i.e. number of users, transactions, etc.) with

needed availability (defined in SLA, i.e. 99.9% at 24/7/365

mode), security and scalability (warranty of fast upgrades

in case of business growth). The service provider is ful-

ly responsible for ensuring and maintaining proper hard-

ware configuration. These client demands are fulfilled by

CDC Private Cloud dedicated to Comarch’s and third par-

ty applications. A shared environment in the PaaS mod-

el decreases installation costs and shortens service de-

livery time (eliminating problems with hardware delivery).

Why Cloud Computing?

It’s about economics:

faster – applications are ready to use a lot faster than

in the standard way of implementation

simpler – applications can be accessed from anywhere,

anytime and are maintained by the outsourcing

company

Cheaper – to use cloud apps, it’s easier for application

vendors to reach new customers and reduce the cost

of delivery and of the supporting applications. Ability

to drive down data center operational costs. There is

no upfront capital required for servers and storage

because applications are installed on the shared

hardware (storage and server). There are no ongoing

operational expenses for running a data center

Cloud computing models

software as a service (saas) – organizations do not

buy software, they simply use their browser to access

the software as it is provided over the Internet (software

provided as a service). More and more organizations

are consciously going for selected applications to be

operated on Software as a Service. Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) was one of the first areas where

SaaS became a common solution due to software

utilization without extended implementation time frames,

software modification without IT bottlenecks, world class

infrastructure without capital expenditures and 24 by 7

uptime without round-the-clock staffing

Platform as a service (Paas) – is a software

development environment that allows developers to

create software applications they can offer as a service

to their customers or users. The PaaS provider takes

care of hosting the created services, for an agreed

price. Because PaaS providers can share data center

expenses between their clients and offer a better price

for the same standalone solution

pIoTr pIĄTkoWskI Comarch sa

Business Solution Manager,

Data Center Business Unit

paWeŁ DyL Comarch sa

Business Solution Manager,

Data Center Business Unit

beyonD bss/oss46

Comarch Private Cloud

Computing


being that the mobile VoIp services market has

advanced, fring designed an innovative product

that allows making phone calls from their

application to mobile and landline phone networks. The

Comarch Billing Cloud solution was selected in order to

provide rating, charging and billing of services of this

revolutionary business idea in real-time.

Business needs

fring already provides a smartphone application that

enables users to make voice/video calls and text chat for

free in the fring network. As the next step it was decided

to allow to make calls to mobile and landline phone users

– the new service was called fringOut. fring planned to

enable its subscribers to make phone calls from 1¢/minute

to any country. To launch this service, fring needed a

billing software for support. fringOut was to be built from

scratch, with no guaranteed success, yet with a solid

potential customer base of 10’s of millions of fringsters. The

supporting software was expected to be flexible – start

small and then grow with business while maintaining telco-

grade robustness. After reviewing several vendors, Comarch

Billing Cloud was chosen as the solution that best fits fring

needs.

The solution

Comarch Billing Cloud is a modern solution, perfectly suited

for start-ups because of its flexibility and short deployment

time. It comes in a variety of business and licensing models

including “pay-as-you-grow”. The final solution can be

developed in an agile way, allowing required customizations

to be delivered dynamically.

The service provides real-time charging, balance control and

replenishment functionalities. The customer care module

supports system operations, such as product catalog, user

management or report generation. Every user can review

their account history, credit and settings, using Web or a

mobile self-care interface. The highly available Comarch

Billing Cloud ensures expected performance and scalability.

Real-time session control, necessary in the prepaid

business model, is supported by a RADIUS server.

User registration is carried out online. The solution also

provides integration with external business partners such

as PayPal and G2S (gate2shop). Comarch Billing Cloud is

hosted in the Comarch Data Center and is made available to

fring via a Virtual Private Network (VPN), connecting over 20

fring data centers around the world.

beyonD bss/oss50 beyonD bss/oss50

Comarch’s flexibility, both technical and commercial was exactly what we werelooking for in our billing provider. The Comarch Billing Cloud enabled fringOut to grow from zero to millions of users, without compromising the quality of service. Thanks to Comarch we were able to launch the service very fast and can easily adjust it as the business evolves.

Alex Nerst – CTO, fring

The Comarch Billing Cloud enabled fringOut to grow from zero to millions of users

thoughtleadership

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