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Eliminating Network Boundaries
A major difference between a CSP and an NGO is how it looks at its network assets. A CSP sees boundaries between wireless, TDM, IP, satellite, WiFi, WiMAX, SONET, Metro-Ethernet, and so forth. All an NGO sees is access. To an NGO, the differences between these types of networks are less important than how any of them can be leveraged to deliver an application or content service to a customer in a way that best combines cost, reliability, performance, and accessibility. In the CSPs’ silo-oriented model, re-using common service definitions across existing and new networks, and on-net and resold resources, isn’t possible. Another way to look at it is that service portability across multiple consumer domains — whether cable, satellite, wireless, or telco — isn’t possible either. The NGO’s service environment, however, demands just this kind of re-use and portability and allows commonly defined service bundles to be delivered across any combination of available networks.
To enable this kind of flexibility, service fulfillment operations must be service oriented and, therefore, separated from network technologies. Services need to be in a service catalog that defines common services but can accommodate fulfillment processes that account for their delivery across any available network. To the customer, cable vs. DSL vs. wireless matters not, as long the broadband connection is lightning fast. Consumers are disinterested in how the HD signal gets to their homes, as long as it gives them the picture and functionality they expected on their expensive plasma TV. Conversely, consumers want the best bundled services deal available and have no interest in how the bundle is actually delivered.
Addressing Scale and Commonality
In too many cases, a CSP is still a collection of disparate organizations that operate under a common brand, but aren’t necessarily one well-coordinated organization. An NGO, on the other hand, needs to be streamlined and efficient. Too many existing back-office systems are struggling to scale effectively in order to support the increasing number of service offerings and related orders, and the increasing subscriber penetration rates in growth markets.
Fragmented CSPs are also running too many different operations platforms. This lack of commonality is extremely costly in terms of maintenance, hardware, training, upgrades and integration. It is redundant and inefficient, often resulting in a lack of uniformity across units as it relates to service offerings, new service launches, and customer support. Even if a great new offering is conceived and defined, it takes too long and
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The Next-generation Operator can’t tolerate doing things the same old way. |
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costs too much to roll out in a way that accommodates each disparate organization’s processes and operations systems.
An NGO requires a highly scalable, cost-effective, and common operations model. The common architecture needs to span all deployment sites. The upside of this approach, in addition to the cost efficiencies derived from common hardware and software platforms, is that it enables the end-to-end visibility and commonality of service offerings across all units. If this common OSS platform incorporates the service-oriented, network-agnostic approach to fulfillment that’s needed, it allows rollouts of re-usable services to be orchestrated in an integrated and efficient manner, eliminating the slow and expensive silo-by-silo or organization-by-organization approach of the traditional CSP.
Enabling Personalization, Intelligence, and Real-Time Delivery
CSPs are notorious for offering promotions to people who aren’t eligible for them, and trying to sell services to customers who already have them. An NGO is much smarter than this. An NGO uses its ability to collect or mediate data regarding customers and usage to refine and drive its service creation and fulfillment operations. In a real-time environment, service fulfillment depends on the accurate and elegant orchestration of subscriber policies, entitlements, and authorization procedures to get the right application in the correct format to the customer’s device immediately, without exposing the customer or the NGO to fraud and loss.
In the long-tail model, with more services available than can possibly be presented on one menu, intelligent personalization is paramount. Companies like Amazon.com and Apple with its iTunes and App stores have shown us the power of contextual sales and up-sale recommendations in a long tail system. NGOs can take this contextual capability to another level because of the amount and depth of customer usage and behavior information that’s available to them. A mediation architecture that drives granular customer analytics and feeds back into service creation, fulfillment, and marketing processes is what will enable an NGO to bring its customer intelligence to bear for the delivery of a highly personalized user experience. It will also help the NGO to know which customers are worth spending the time and money to cater to in a highly personalized way.
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