Amdocs has announced the results of a global survey that explores the growing demand for bring your own device (BYOD) support from business customers and the system implications this has for service providers. The survey, conducted by analyst firm Heavy Reading, highlights the need for converged business and operational support systems (B/OSS) to provide an end-to-end view of the customer, linking personal and business personae for a unified customer experience.
“BYOD has been gaining momentum as consumers want to bring their favourite smartphones and tablets to work and, with enterprises anticipating benefits such as increased productivity and employee satisfaction, we surely expect this trend continue to grow,” said Ari Banerjee, senior analyst at Heavy Reading. “But BYOD creates new complexities for both the enterprise and the service provider who must support features such as device care, bill split, security, shared loyalty and data plans and differentiated quality of service. If service providers can overcome the technological challenges of providing these features, the enhanced customer experience will lead to huge gains in customer satisfaction and loyalty.”
The research found that the majority (73%) of service providers expect to see a 10-25% increase in BYOD device requests from business customers in the coming year due to the recognized benefits for businesses. Cost savings, employee satisfaction and increased productivity are cited as the primary benefits of BYOD for service providers’ business customers, with almost half of service provider respondents believing that BYOD will decrease costs and increase productivity by 10-25% for these customers.
“The business segment represents huge revenue potential for service providers, and to capitalise on this market they will need to offer tailored and competitive offerings, including BYOD,” said Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing for Amdocs. “By converging BSS and OSS, service providers gain a unified customer view required to support BYOD requests, such as creating hybrid plans and offering device support, ultimately simplifying the customer experience.”
