AMDOCS > CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SYSTEMS INNOVATION
The Future of Prepaid Wireless A Research Report
January, 2011 1
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Agenda > Prepaid market snapshot > The future of prepaid wireless – Research report highlights and key findings > Amdocs Prepaid offering
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Prepaid is Growing Worldwide (in millions) APAC 7.4%, Africa/ME 7.1%, Na 5.7% CAGR
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Source: Yankee Group for Amdocs October 2010
AMDOCS > CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SYSTEMS INNOVATION
Prepaid Grows Faster Than Postpaid at 5.61% CAGR vs. 3.39% CAGR
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Source: Yankee Group for Amdocs October 2010
AMDOCS > CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SYSTEMS INNOVATION
What Has Changed In Prepaid? Handsets are changing
Access to Rich Service Mix Flexible Business models Offers become personalized
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• Advanced devices for prepaid subscriber
• Data is becoming a major part of the service mix • Smart phones are contributing to a surge in mobile data traffic
• Pay as you go and unlimited daily plans • Hybrid payment models
• Focus on increasing customer loyalty • A mix of advanced communication services • Personalized rating and promotion schemes
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Research Objectives and Methodology >
Research conducted for Amdocs by analyst firm Ovum
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Ovum interviewed 19 mobile operators around the globe to understand their strategy with regards to prepaid wireless service offerings >
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a diverse mix of operators from three regions: Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific
Questions focused on > > >
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how operators are expanding prepaid services to incorporate hybrid models How operators are responding to customer demands in their respective regions how operators’ current OSS/BSS systems are meeting the demands and challenges of evolving prepaid strategies and customer offerings
Operator interviews held August through November 2010 6
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Key Findings – Fundamental Shift in Service Provider Strategies for Prepaid Wireless 73% will move to offer prepaid customers services traditionally available only to postpaid customers, or have already begun doing so
• Main services added mobile data and content services, such as application downloads, mobile broadband and messaging. • 47 percent of respondents already offer highdemand consumer devices to prepaid customers.
63% already offer hybrid payment models
• Providing more choice to consumers and increasing their loyalty. • Enhancing consumers’ ability to control their spend and improving service providers’ ability to assure their revenues.
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Key Findings - Existing B/OSS Systems Can’t Support the Shift in Strategies Significant changes in B/OSS systems are required
• 47% said their prepaid strategy would require changes to their BSS to address technical challenges. • Inability of B/OSS systems to support fast time to market of new offerings was the technical challenge cited most frequently by respondents. • Additional challenges charging performance and CRM/Legacy integration.
Service providers are already making changes to B/OSS systems
• 67 percent are in the process of implementing changes to accommodate new prepaid service capabilities • An additional 33 percent plan to implement these changes within twelve to twenty-four months. • 61 percent of service providers have deployed convergent charging systems or are planning to do so.
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Key Report Messages >
Operator strategy for prepaid wireless is shifting ďƒ from excluding many postpaid features and services from prepaid customers to migrating these customers onto postpaid plans, to opening up all postpaid-like features to their prepaid customer base
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Many operators are adopting hybrid service plans to satisfy growing and expanding needs of prepaid customers, who are increasingly smartphone and data users
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Prepaid customer segmentation is getting more sophisticated for many operators, while others take a one-size-fits-all approach to prepaid
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OSS/BSS systems for prepaid must accommodate the intense demands of launching new services at a much quicker rate than postpaid billing systems allow, while at the same time, providing agility and flexibility in how systems provision, charge and bill for prepaid services
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Not all operators are looking to move to convergent billing. Significant circumstantial factors such as running multiple networks, operating in multiple countries or managing legacy services or customers are all reasons operators cited for holding back plans to move to convergent billing
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Notable Interview Quotes from Operators
"We go out of our way to ensure prepaid customers don't feel as if they are viewed as second class customers. We attempt to make the same features and services available to both prepaid and postpaid." - a European operator
"In prepaid, the biggest risk of losing customers is when they run out of funds on their account‌Inactivity costs a lot in terms of churn and unbilled days that no revenue is generated.“
-a North American operator
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"Some prepaid customers will never move to postpaid. We're considering extending some exclusive services to prepaid customers in the next one to two years" - a European operator
"The [prepaid] focus is on how the revenue can be enhanced by offering a subscription-based product" - an Asia-Pac operator
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Operators Plan to Expand Prepaid Services When it comes to expanding prepaid services, operators fall into two main categories: those looking to retain a distinction between prepaid and postpaid, and those looking to equalize services across both segments
73% of operators interviewed would like to expand postpaid services to their prepaid base or have already begun doing so. The remaining 26% are purposely retaining some services exclusively for postpaid customers, or haven’t yet considered expanding the services offered to prepaid customers
In North America where monthly no contract prepaid plans are prevalent, operators are incorporating more targeted session-based offerings (eg, per week, per day, or per session offerings), particularly with data services. Providing prepaid customers with more flexible payment options is a critical component of these operators’ prepaid strategy
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Most operators in Europe are looking to equalize services across prepaid and postpaid customer segments. A minority prefer to retain some services exclusively for postpaid customers
Topping operators’ lists of services they plan—or would like to make available to prepaid customers are mobile data and content services (application downloads, mobile broadband and messaging)
Almost half of the operators interviewed said they are already offering high-demand consumer devices to their prepaid customer base and will consider adding more
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Operators Weigh-in on Prepaid Plans Prepaid wireless services, already well established in many markets, are becoming even more prevalent around the world. Operator strategy is shifting from migrating prepaid customers onto postpaid plans to making more postpaidlike features available to prepaid customers. This has led to a myriad of hybrid service models, offering elements of prepaid and postpaid services to customers.
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Key drivers for moving to hybrid models among the operators interviewed included providing more consumer choice and cost control among prepaid customers and increasing customer loyalty. Revenue assurance is another strong motivator for adopting hybrid service models among global operators 47% of operators interviewed said moving prepaid customers to more postpaid behavior was a factor in offering hybrid models to customers
63% of operators interviewed said they were already offering some form of hybrid services to prepaid customers. Operators taking this position were primarily located in North America and Europe
The 26% of total respondents who have no current plans to adopt hybrid models were concentrated in Asia-Pac where more than half of operators took this position
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Characteristics of Hybrid Wireless Plans Postpaid hybrid plans with prepaid characteristics
Prepaid hybrid plans with postpaid characteristics
• Postpaid monthly w/ prepaid add-on features (bundled mssg, session-based data, int’l calling)
• Prepaid monthly no-contract
• SIM-only (‘bring your own device’)
• Prepaid weekly or daily unlimited
• Prepaid monthly unlimited
• Corporate flat-rate postpaid with add-on prepaid personal liable
• Prepaid with online customer portal
• Family postpaid w/ prepaid addon lines or service features
• SIM-only or (‘bring your own device’)
• Postpaid plans w/ no-term/no early termination fee contract
• Prepaid with add-on flat-rate bundled services
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Expanding Prepaid Services Will Require Significant Changes to Many Operator OSS/BSS systems Expanding prepaid services means a significant change to existing OSS/BSS systems for operators, many of whom are moving to convergent charging systems to support changing and expanding prepaid service strategies. But for operators managing services in multiple countries, on multiple networks, or accommodating legacy systems or service plans, current BSS/OSS upgrade plans are often more influenced by circumstance than by strategy.
Nearly half of operators interviewed said implementing strategies and plans to expand prepaid offerings would require a moderate to large change to their current BSS system
5 of 13 respondents have no near term plans to move to a convergent billing system; most cited a need—versus a desire—to maintain separate systems as a reason for this choice
67% of operators interviewed are already implementing OSS/BSS changes to accommodate new prepaid service capabilities and features
More than a third of operators interviewed claim they have already moved—or are in an RFP to move to a convergent billing system
Half of the operators interviewed said they were getting adequate support from their OSS/BSS provider to implement their prepaid strategy; the remaining half were unsure whether their OSS/BSS vendors were providing adequate support
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OSS/BSS Challenges to Implementing Prepaid Strategies Operators face a variety of OSS/BSS challenges in implementing prepaid strategy. Migration and integration are common problem points for operators. But speeding time to market for rolling out new prepaid services, and inflexibility with current prepaid charging systems are the two biggest challenges operators must overcome to execute prepaid service strategies
Migration and integration are major problem points with implementing prepaid strategy using current BSS systems according to 71% of the operators interviewed
Speeding time to market for new prepaid services was the most frequently cited challenge operators face with current OSS/BSS systems
Training and using new systems, BSS system performance, and changing business processes are additional problem points operators have with current BSS implementations
Other technical challenges operators cited in implementing prepaid strategies within the OSS/BSS system include latency, inflexibility of current systems, integration of billing, CRM and legacy systems, and testing and quality assurance
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The Evolution of Prepaid
Prepaid in No America
Prepaid in Europe
Prepaid in Asia-Pac
Traditional • per unit pricing (by minute, message, MB) • no bundles • limited handset selection (feature phones only) • voice or voice and text messaging only • cash top ups for individual services only • no int’l roaming
Current/new • monthly plans • messaging and voice bundles
• session-based, unlimited plans • SIM-only plans • availability of select QMDs, smartphone handsets and touch screen handsets • flex spending and online customer accounts • online and automatic payments Prepaid services continuum
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Future • Apps & personalized content • mobile broadband (big screen and small screen) • fixed/mobile bundles • service packages/ pricing based on (data) usage type • broad selection of consumer devices (smartphones, ‘super phones’, MBB devices)
AMDOCS > CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SYSTEMS INNOVATION
Recommendations for Operators Operators must implement billing and charging system capabilities that are agile, flexible and speed the time to market for launching new services to address the growing number, complexity and demands of new service capabilities
Many operators are moving to convergent charging systems to support expanded prepaid service strategies and overcome limitations imposed by existing legacy billing and charging systems
Managing services in multiple countries, on multiple networks, or accommodating legacy systems or services should be reasons to embrace, rather than avoid or delay a move to convergent charging.
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Amdocs Prepaid Track Record 200M+ active prepaid subscribers in NA, Europe and APAC APAC Tier 1 operator deploying 120M+ subscribers by the end of the year IBM Benchmark for 150M subscribers – 276M BHCA, 5ms response time Turbo Charging – Blistering performance and HW cost savings for prepaid charging
APAC Tier 1 operator launching 80 new offerings and pricing plans every week Official supplier for 2008 Olympic Games prepaid service (operated by Beijing Mobile)
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Amdocs Prepaid in a Nutshell End-to-End Prepaid: From Network to Customer Management
> Fully 3GPP compliant Online Charging Server
> A robust, field-proven SCP with full support for any network type or profile > Integrating a Service Delivery Platform for a richer Prepaid service portfolio > A highly available, carriergrade solution, with unified management for smooth integration into CSP OSS
> Superior performance for complex event processing 19
> The Wealth of Postpaid rating & account management available for Prepaid > Large range of Account structures, including multibalance, shared balance, account hierarchies, and hybrid prepaid/postpaid accounts > Hundreds Promotions & Discounts Plans ready-to-use > Quick Time-to-Market for creating new Offers & Promotions with a Service Creation Toolbox
> Extensive Financial Audit & Reporting
> Replenishment Management > Voucher Management > Elecronic Payment Management
> Dealer Management > B2B & Partner Settlement Management > Consulting Services
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Amdocs Prepaid Drives your Business Forward
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Revenue Generation
Customer Experience
Carrier Gradeness
Cost Reduction
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Thank you
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