Communications business models are changing rapidly. Communications service providers (CSPs) are rethinking their roles in the digital world and must adapt their processes, structures and cultures to compete. They must switch from supporting business models to providing information during, or even before the event takes place. Most, if not all CSPs understand and agree that real-time responsiveness is vital in order to remain competitive, writes Olaf Vieselmann.
The data deluge has brought with it both challenges and opportunities. With the access to almost anything came the problem of knowing how much data was being consumed. Customers used too much and bill shock became a common term. Regulators moved to limit this, and mandated that customers must be told when their limits were reached. This is when policy management came into play. Customers were throttled or their usage was curbed. Then the business saw the opportunity. Instead of throttling, now customers are told they are approaching their limit and offered some extra data for a small fee. Over the next few years we will see a range of innovations that will be as different from the services of a decade ago as is possible to imagine.
One of the enablers of these services is LTE. This is not only driving the huge increase in data usage, but providing some challenges. One such is voice. Providing high definition voice over LTE will require leading edge policy management and real-time charging functionality in order to deliver what customers will see as a basic service. But with LTE it is far from basic and having policy management embedded in the real-time charging system will be a key functionality.
There is now a genuine focus on enhancing the customer experience. Cross functional customer experience teams are supporting the real-time responsiveness that is now in place in most CSPs. This is being supported by other trends such as centralised product catalogues. A centralised product catalogue means that customer service representatives have everything they need to intuitively up-sell and cross-sell customers, while actually offering them services that they want. Further, realtime functionality, together with embedded policy management is offering customers more and more control. This true customer self service reduces churn, increases loyalty and customers feel their device is a remote control for their digital life.
Whatever the services that CSPs choose to support over the coming years, instant responsiveness will be critical to success. Technology systems have to be reshaped in order to enable more innovation, to achieve superior customer experience, and to increase loyalty. Transforming legacy infrastructures into a realtime driven agile BSS needs to pave the way to new revenue streams and extended business models. To be able to take advantage of new opportunities providers will need to implement both real-time charging and embedded policy management as the DNA of next generation billing.
