VanillaPlus

CSPs must deliver data experiences

David Sharpley is vice president of business and products for Amdocs’ newly created Data Experience business unit. The unit was launched following Amdocs’ acquisition of policy management specialist, Bridgewater Systems in August 2011. Here, he tells George Malim, editor of VanillaPlus, why the new unit has been developed, what it offers and how it provides communications services  providers (CSPs) with new  opportunities to bring innovative propositions to market rapidly.

Proximity Marketing: Are you ready to monetize location-based data?

The data that is being collected about where people are in the world and what they are doing there is exploding. According to a recent McKinsey survey, more than 1 petabyte of personal location data is being generated annually. Approximately 400 terabytes are being  generated from smart phone opt-in tracking alone

Great Billing Expectations What’s the opposite of Bill Shock? It’s Bill Expectation

Imagine, if you will, a world where Bill Shock is a thing of the past. In fact, imagine a world where the whole concept of billing has been replaced by intuitive, high-touch, real-time financial interactions between subscribers and mobile operators. It’s a world where  subscribers have the latest information about their mobile account at their fingertips and can make instant decisions. And operators can fully monetise their networks through personalised, value-based products and services.

Ericsson and Microsoft partner for a better customer experience and leaner operations:

Ericsson and Microsoft are working together on business application architecture.Here VanillaPlus talks to Ralf Guckert, Ericsson’s Head of Product Management, Business Support Systems, and Mike Ehrenberg who is a Technical Fellow in the Dynamics team within Microsoft’s Business Division.

NetCracker preparesfor the Gigabit Society through aggressive expansion and innovation

Andrew Feinberg, CEO of NetCracker talks to VanillaPlus's editor, George Malim about acquisitions, services for CSPs, the benefits of scale, and future-watching.

Automation puts the process in place for getting LTE testing right first time

As CSPs across the world start to roll out LTE and other 4G technologies, the test and measurement opex burden has increased radically. Here, Walter Moretto explains how efficient test and measurement processes and automation can reduce that opex and simultaneously accelerate CSPs’ time to revenue on their new networks.

Overcoming the barriers to rate-plan innovation

Operators are being challenged by constrictive economic conditions and the entrance of new, market-savvy competitors. Over The Top (OTT) players have changed the game and forced operators to look to innovation in order to fight back. OpenCloud’s Mark Windle discusses how an operator’s charging architecture effects the time-to-market and cost of service innovation, and uncovers a common service-layer barrier that needs addressing.

Analytics is about monetising insights

Anandan Jayaraman (AJ) is chief product and marketing officer of Connectiva Systems, a key provider of analytics systems for CSPs. AJ has worldwide responsibility for Connectiva’s corporate and product strategy, product management, marketing and sales consulting. He has extensive management experience in leading change, managing global business development and driving revenue growth at enterprise software companies including SAP, Epiphany and Siebel Systems. Here, he explains the importance of analytics in providing actionable insights that enable CSPs to monetise their subscriber data.

Linking charging to policy to win customers hearts, minds and pocketbooks in an LTE world

Price is the regulating mechanism of any market. The more complex the forces of supply and demand, the more sophisticated and fluid the pricing mechanism, and corresponding policy control in the network, needs to be. Miguel Carrero, director of actionable customer intelligence at HP, explains that in the age of LTE, pricing’s response needs to be more SNAPpy

Real customer experience for all users requires real-time and delivers real revenue

Real-time charging enables the real-time customer experiences the market demands. It also enables elimination of bill shock, allows for two-sided business models and improves the customer experience, writes Jaco Fourie.