Comarch Technology Review 1/2014

no 1/2014 [18] The Magazine of Comarch Telecommunications Business Unit

telecoms.comarch.com

PROF. JANUSZ FILIPIAK COMARCH CEO, C-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE 40 COMPANIES IN 25 COUNTRIES AND NO INTENTION OF STOPPING THERE

NFV/SDN – CLOUD IN THE NETWORK OR NETWORK IN THE CLOUD

CLICK TO READ

IN FOCUS: INNOVATION IN PRACTICE Practical questions in the M2M reality How CSPs can turn the digital era into a big business opportunity

Market / Sales Product Management

Member of t industry association & standardiza bodies

Self Care

CRM

Corporate Self Care Commission & Incentive

Product Catalog Management

Strategy, Infrastructure & Product

Operations Support & Readiness

Fulfillment

Assurance

Billing Loyalty Management

Customer Management

Corporate Self Care Self Care CRM Convergent Billing

Service Order Management

Service Management

Service Catalog

Service Fulfillment

SLA Monitoring

Service Activation

Customer Experience Management

Resource Management

Service Inventory Management

Network Planning & Design

Policy & Charging Rules Function

Network Inventory Management Auto-Discovery & Reconciliation

Service Quality Management

Service Monitoring

Performance Management

Fault Management

Service Controller Module

Voucher & Top-Up Management

Configuration Management Field Service Management BSS Mediation

Supplier / Partner

OSS Mediation

B2B Gateway

InterPartner Billing Roaming Agreement Management

Application Integration Framework

OSS Process Management

APPLICATION INTEGRATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Customer Order Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS WHAT’S NEW

5 News in Brief

26 BYOD – work & remote access An increasing number of Polish employees, especially younger staff, who are more up to date with new technologies, prefer using in their daily work their own mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones.

This rising trend is known as BYOD, or “Bring Your Own Device” (to work).

C-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE

6 COMARCH'S CEO PROF. JANUSZ FILIPIAK 40 companies in 25 countries and no intention of stopping there.

27 BYOD – work securely BYOD represents another point of contention in the conflict between security and utility. Beginning with front line staff and going all the way up to executives, end users often wish to use their own devices at work, because, as they say, it is more efficient, flexible, and user-friendly than the company hardware.

IN FOCUS: INNOVATION IN PRACTICE

8 Practical questions in the M2M reality M2M technology has existed in a variety of forms for several years. Following several years of practical use by many telecommunication operators, we can get a better look at this market, including its specificities and especially on the sales process with regard to different verticals.

There is now significantly better understanding of M2M than was seen in the beginning. More standardization processes have been launched, more network-related solutions have come into being, and physical SIMs for the specific verticals have been developed.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES management of field service for 30Optimal Orange Polska To optimally manage the network infrastructure of a large operator it requires highly skilled specialists and perfect coordination of fieldwork. At the same time, maintaining the broad network and employing qualified staff generates significant costs. In the competitive and saturated telecommunications market, reducing these costs becomes a significant way of improving profitability.

yet simple: deployment of 10 Complex, automated field service management for MSO’s Three to five years ago, most Multi-Service Operators (MSO’s) decided that it was time to start organizing their field services with professional IT tools. Cablecos noticed that operations in this area were generating significant costs and that many issues needed to be resolved.

CSPs can turn the digital era into 14 How a big business opportunity Becoming a part of the digital service ecosystem is a natural step in the evolution of communication service providers (CSPs) looking for their place in the marketplace. This is a market that has evolved from a world of simple telecommunications towards a complex ecosystem of connected devices, applications, and services in the Cloud.

– cloud in the network 20 NFV/SDN or network in the cloud Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is currently a very “hot” topic (some may say that it is even overhyped) that appears to be a very promising, yet at the same time a very disruptive, technology. At its simplest, NFV is about decupling software from hardware and enabling the implementation to run on a farm of commodity hardware.

Banking. Twilight of the banking 22 Telecom that we know?

Mobile revolution and evolution of business models pushed a growing number of telecom operators to sign agreements with banks to create integrated services for mobile users. It is possible that in the near future telecoms will become individual banks or even completely replace banks in the long term.

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Multi-Market transformation improves time-to-market and the cost of service delivery in the business customer segment With the ultimate goal of improving the experience of its business customers, a European Tier 1 operator decided to undertake an ambitious multi-market transformation comprising three different markets.

Communication enters GSM market 35Plus in Albania Plus Communication (previously Mobile 4 Al / M4AL – operator of the PLUS network) challenged the Albanian mobile market in 2010 by acquiring a license to operate in the GSM900 and GSM1800 spectrums in Albania. Its goal was to become the leading mobile operator in Albania with a strategic focus on customer satisfaction, innovation & quality of service.

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40Field Service in Salsa rhythms The salsa is a well-known dance style. Although people all over the world try to dance it, it is the people from Latin American that have it in their blood. You see a couple on the floor and you know that they are not simply tourists but people from there. The same situation exists with the approach to field service organization. Field service exists all over the world but it can’t be copied verbatim from the United States or Europe to Latin America. It has to follow the Latin approach to business, Latin culture. It has to follow the Salsa.

customer journeys as an 42 Smooth important differentiator for telecoms in the digital world Customer satisfaction is no longer just a challenge for business and marketing teams in telecom companies, but also for departments that handle products and services. According to Gartner, in the digital age, memorable customer experiences must be designed, not left to chance. Customers have more choices, augmented by more information from more sources, than ever before. They can as easily express their opinions to millions, just as they can move their business elsewhere. Customer experience determines which organizations will be winners.1

ANALYST INSIGHT Data: value comes from linking data 46Big from different sources in real-time The interview with Kris Szaniawski, Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media

MANAGED SERVICES of Value-Driven OSS/BSS 50Benefits Managed Services The telecommunications industry is in many ways becoming increasingly ordinary. It’s “brand new trends” are just following in the steps of other established industries, such as the automotive industry. It is the same with sourcing models: Over the last 10 years, the telco industry – especially in Europe – has experienced all kinds of possible sourcing models.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE operators’ CEM strategies: 38Mobile The market reality Every operator in the industry will argue emphatically that the experience customers have of their service is crucial to their ongoing success. As operators’ offerings become increasingly homogenised, and price-based competition ever more difficult to sustain, operators are embracing Customer Experience Management (CEM) as a key differentiator. But just how much of what we hear reflects real commitment and activity—and how much, for the moment, is just talk?

Click the titles to read the articles

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EDITORIAL

It takes a lot of work

TO BE INNOVATIVE I

nnovation seems to be all the hype these days.

This is especially true in thriving, fast-paced environments such as the telecommunications industry. New technologies emerge every day, keeping a customer becomes a struggle, and new competitors seem to be leaner, more agile, and more adjusted to the requirements of today’s market conditions.

The fact is, innovation means so much more than embracing new technologies and constantly investing in network development. With over-the-top (OTT) companies expanding their market presence and their share in revenues from digital services that rely on connectivity, CSPs need to put innovation at the heart of their business strategy. This means being able to spot emerging markets and consumer trends. Product and service portfolios need to be adjusted fast enough to reach consumers with new offerings as trends spread. In order to do all this, IT architectures need to go hand-in-hand with business requirements.

This new kind of agility is an approach not easily implemented in big telecom organizations. This is especially true in a competitive environment, where OTT companies demonstrate a high degree of market responsiveness and do not have to worry about the underlying network infrastructure.

Many questions surround areas of innovation perceived as alternative sources of revenues for telecoms. Machineto-machine technology is a good example. After the initial hype, telecoms are reevaluating aspects of this part of their business in order to make it grow and to continue to deliver results. Innovation also calls for embracing business partnerships that will deliver additional capabilities enabling telecoms to succeed. Network Function Virtualization and Software-Defined Networks also present compelling opportunities, which will give a whole new meaning to the term “OSS in the cloud.”

In order to innovate in the area of digital services, with their complex value chains and a huge ecosystem of potential partners, telecoms need to adopt a strategy of collaboration with resellers, content providers and application manufacturers. The strategy of choice in the digital world will depend on the desired results a CSP wants to achieve, its market position, and its strategy. It will also be essential to fully understand digital customer’s needs in order to deliver the most relevant offers to each customer. This is why Big Data is being discussed as something telecoms can use in order to better respond to customer expectations. In this issue of our magazine, Kris Szaniawski of Informa shares his views on how operators can benefit from combining data from various sources.

It is the changing needs of customers that trigger innovation.

This is why Customer Experience Management is still one of the hottest topics in the industry. We share with you the findings of a Telecoms.com Intelligence study, in which more than 50 executives at mobile operators were surveyed for insights into their organizations’ CEM strategies. Yet as the focus of this issue is “innovation in practice”, we also present the stories of our telecom customers, who have been successful in implementing new approaches to improving customer experience by transforming service delivery and fulfillment, as well as enhancing the efficiency of their field service management.

MAŁGORZATA SIWIEC-POLIKOWSKA Marketing Manager

Comarch SA

Telecoms see the necessity of adopting an innovation-focused strategy over the next few years. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 17th annual CEO survey states that 58% of CEOs in the Technology, Media and Telecom industry said developing an innovative ecosystem that supports growth is among their corporate priorities over the next three years (Source: http://www.pwc.com/tmtinnovators). At the same time, only 10% of respondents claimed to see their companies as “innovation leaders.” I hope the articles in this issue of Comarch Technology Review will inspire you to pursue to goal of becoming an innovation leader.

Comarch Technology Review is a publication created by Comarch experts and specialists.

It is created to assist our customers and partners in obtaining in-depth information about market trends and developments, and the technological possibilities of addressing the most important issues.

Editor-in-Chief: Alina Wietrzny Circulation: 1 500 Alina.Wietrzny@comarch.com Technology Review is a free publication available Copy Editor: Małgorzata Siwiec-Polikowska by subscription. The articles published here can be Malgorzata.Siwiec@comarch.com copied and reproduced only with the knowledge and Layout & DTP: Adam Dąbrowski, consent of the editors. The names of products and Dominik Pietruszka companies mentioned are trade marks and trade Photos: www.fotolia.com names of their producers.

Publisher: Comarch SA Al. Jana Pawła II 39a, 31-864 Kraków To receive your subscription to the electronic Tel. +48 12 64 61 000, Fax: +48 12 64 61 100 version or see the previous issues, please visit: www.comarch.com tr.comarch.com Print: 101 Studio Sp. z o.o. DTP Tomasz Tęgi i Spółka Sp. z o.o. 93-426 Łódź, ul. Ekonomiczna 30/36

Comarch’s offices in Poland: Krakow (HQ), Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan, Katowice, Lodz, Lublin Worldwide Offices: Americas Chile | Santiago de Chile Panama | Panamá United States of America | Chicago Europe Albania | Tirana Austria | Vienna, Innsbruck, Kirchbichl Belgium | Brussels Chile | Santiago de Chile Finland | Espoo France | Montbonnot Saint-Martin, Lezennes Germany | Dresden, Frankfurt/Main, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Muenster, Duesseldorf, Bremen Lithuania | Vilnius Luxembourg | Strassen Russia | Moscow Slovakia | Bratislava Switzerland | Arbon, Buchs SG Ukraine | Kyiv, Lviv United Kingdom | London Middle East United Arab Emirates | Dubai Asia China | Shanghai Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City

NEWS IN BRIEF

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News in Brief Click the news titles for a full version of each story

Comarch optimizes field operations for Orange Polska

UPnP Forum Outstanding Contribution Award goes to Comarch

Comarch has finished the implementation of Field Intervention Management solution for Orange Polska, allowing the telecom operator to reduce the costs of network operations and improve the quality of tasks performed by technical staff. With tangible benefits, such as reduction of travel routes by 20% and automation of the work dispatching process, Orange Polska successfully completed a significant part of a Lean Management project in the area of network services.

UPnP Forum recognized Comarch with Outstanding Contribution Awards 2013.

Comarch received two awards: one for Grzegorz Kafel, Consulting Manager at Cloud, Connectivity and Mobility Business Unit and the other one for Comarch as a company. With the awards, the organization recognizes the most actively participating and contributing members that influence the strength and viability of UPnP Forum. The awards confirm Comarch’s expertise in the area of certification management and proactive approach in the innovative areas such as digital services introduction.

Comarch supports telecoms in introducing the Software Defined Networking technology Comarch enriches its OSS Suite with support for the introduction of Software Defined Networking (SDN) technology. SDN aims to provide intelligent network traffic control and, as a result, efficient delivery of new, innovative services for customers. The main principle of SDN is centralizing the network control function, resulting in the ability to program the network according to application and service requirements, without a need for costly physical upgrades.

Survey results: 43% of mobile operators have no integrated CEM programme in place Keen to move away from price-based competition and create unique identities in the market, mobile operators are embracing Customer Experience Management (CEM) as a key differentiator, however there still are major differences between where the organizations are today and where they would like to be in the future.

Digital Ecosystem Management platform for telecoms launched by Comarch

Telefónica appoints Comarch a partner in its multicountry OSS transformation

Comarch has announced the launch of its Digital Ecosystem Management platform. The platform offers communication service providers a comprehensive business solution that facilitates the management of the digital service value chain. The solution automates processes, from service inception, through its modeling, management and fulfillment, to customer service management and settlements with involved partners.

Comarch has been selected by Telefónica for a position of the European OSS Fulfillment and Planning systems vendor. Comarch will deliver Next Generation OSS licenses as well as comprehensive transformation services, and long-term support for Telefónica in the network planning and optimization domains. Having a strong reference earned from an implementation for Telefónica Deutschland, Comarch has signed its first multi-country contract with Telefónica, via its global operating business unit (Telefónica Global Resources), based in Madrid.

Comarch’s Mobile Application for lighting control presented by UPnP Forum in Brazil Comarch has developed a cloud-based mobile application for remote control of home lightning for UPnP Forum. UPnP Forum, a standardization organization developing connected home technologies presented the application to Brazilian industry participants during a meeting in Sao Paulo in January 2014. The application will be used for promoting the UPnP Cloud Architecture standard, and Comarch is the first vendor who has developed an application compliant with this standard.

TVCable in Ecuador chooses Comarch for Field Service Automation

Síminn, Iceland’s Primary Telecom Operator, Chooses Comarch’s Billing Comarch signed a contract to deploy a convergent billing solution for a wellestablished Icelandic communications service provider – Síminn. With Comarch Convergent Billing, the operator will be able to achieve process excellence and, as a result, improve the overall efficiency of billing processes as well as deploy a modern platform to support a digital services era transformation in the telecoms industry. The companies will partner for the first time in this BSS project which is due to commence in October 2013.

Comarch Field Service Management will automate processes at TVCable, reducing paperwork and improving the accuracy of scheduling customer visits.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

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C-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE

COMARCH’S CEO PROF. JANUSZ FILIPIAK 40 companies in 25 countries and no intention of stopping there hen you founded Comarch over 20 years ago, there were many large IT companies already present on the Polish market. Back then, they were quite well known, but now they are gone. What were the factors that allowed Comarch to not only survive, but also to become one of the key players on the European ICT market?

W

PROF. JANUSZ FILIPIAK Founder & CEO Comarch SA

Janusz Filipiak: I would say that one of the most important steps was the continuous building of the company’s long-term value. If a company disappears after five years, it means that either someone had just taken advantage of a good period in the economy, which then ended, or the company was just a flash in the pan. If a company has successfully operated for over 20 years, it means that its owner has systematically increased its value. This is done, first of all, by constantly investing in the products or services a company delivers and in by developing relevant competences and procedures within an organization. Secondly, proper company structures must be established and filled with people. This cannot be done quickly. You need to test people, hire them, fire them, all while continuously evaluating the functioning of the structure. … and then there were big decisions to be made - you started entering new markets, developing completely new lines of products. You started from telecommunications. What were the first directions for further expansion?

JF: In 1995, two years after the company was established, the telecommunications industry was still doing quite well, but I knew that I needed to open up to other industry verticals. Back then, we started developing IT systems for banks. Our first customer was the Capital Operations Center of Bank Handlowy (a Polish bank). In 1997 and 1998, we started operating in the segment of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with our ERP systems. We began by delivering our own systems, and then expanded the product portfolio for this market through acquisitions of smaller companies. After 2000, we entered the services sector with our loyalty management and EDI [Electronic Document Interchange – editor’s note] systems. Other than that, we also serve public administration and utilities. It was only recently, in 2008, that we decided to enter the telemedicine market.

Back in 1995, being an expert in telecommunications, why did you decide to enter the banking industry, when telecoms were generating significant revenues for Comarch?

JF: Now, this is about risk analysis, which is of fundamental importance to business management. Why is Comarch still around? Because I keep analyzing the potentially bad things that could happen. Back then, in 1995, the company employed 200 people. I had to be aware that if something had gone wrong, our years of hard work would have gone to waste. This is why we came up with this idea for a “second pillar”: the banking industry. This method turned out to be a good choice – it was the decision to enter the banking industry that enabled us to survive back then.

Many years later, in 2009, when the financial crisis hit and it started to reflect in our revenues from the banking industry, the telecommunications sector was doing well and we were able to maintain our growth. These events prove that constant shifting, reorganizing, and adapting to changing market conditions, as well as maintaining a diversified portfolio of customers, including industries, are keys to our success.

Sergey Brin, one of Google’s founders, invests millions of dollars in research analysis that uses mathematical methods to try to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease. Mr. Brin has a gene that may cause this disease to develop. Were there also any personal reasons for your interest in telemedicine?

JF: Our employees have a saying: Back when we were young, our CEO was building a swimming pool, and now that we are old he’s building a clinic [Comarch’s Krakow campus has both a swimming pool and a clinic – editor’s note]. I have lived in many countries and have noticed, and many physicians have confirmed it, that the degree of absorption of information technology in medicine is much lower than in banks, telecommunications companies, etc. I am not talking about automating patient registration, which is the starting point of many projects, but rather about the automated handling of complete medical information.

Here is my favorite scenario: I come to a doctor and tell him what my problem is, the doctor types this information into a browser. Dedicated software processes this information and

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C-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE

suggests what additional questions should be asked and what actions should be taken. Symptom analysis nowadays involves many analytical tools: ultrasound scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests, blood tests, etc. It may be hard, especially for inexperienced doctors, to interpret all this data and come up with a correct diagnosis. A certain script, based on expert methods, could assist the doctors. This is an industry that could even become the source of our company’s long-term growth .

So to answer your question, I do not want to save the world or cure myself. The decision to invest in the telemedicine sector was based on what a CEO of a publically traded IT company is required to identify: an opportunity for the company to generate profit. There aren’t enough physicians with vast knowledge, and those with less experience can be supported in diagnostics with modern IT tools. This is a global-scale niche. I have reached the conclusion that we can quickly prepare a comprehensive offer because it is quite similar to what we have done so far.

Apart from telemedicine, what are the most promising technologies and market segments for Comarch?

JF: We are one of the European leaders in IT for telecommunications. About 85% of revenues in this industry are generated by foreign sales, and this percentage increases each year.

Nowadays, solutions in this sector tend to focus on a number of key areas. The first involves reducing cost of network operations, automating network management, and maintaining high service quality. The second involves simplification of customer billing and payments, which have become very complex due to the number of services and customers that CSPs (communication service providers) have to handle. The third is built around digital services, which are the current hype in the industry. In this area, in addition to a new solution for managing the whole digital ecosystem of partners and services, we also offer machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions and systems for offering services and applications from the Cloud. We believe we are a strong partner for telecoms in each of these areas. This is reflected in a customer portfolio that includes such big names as Vodafone, T-Mobile, and Telefónica.

Our offer in the banking and financial sector is also very comprehensive. I see a certain area here where we can grow rapidly in the near term. Banks will develop in ways similar to telecom companies, which have begun to outsource complete functional areas of their business to third parties. This trend has only just started in banks. I believe that in the future we will be able to take advantage of this change.

We are the leader in the services sector when it comes to solutions for managing loyalty programs. We are winning spectacular contracts, such as those for the IT support of Heathrow Airport and the French PMU lottery. We will continue to explore this opportunity.

You like to talk about plans, strategies, and predictions, but in the case of an entrepreneur like yourself there is always the

factor of luck or coincidence. You wanted to be a physicist, but you went to study electrical engineering you became a scientist, then an owner of an IT company. What would you say determined that last decision?

JF: The biggest external factor that influenced it was the economic environment that I found myself in. In the early 1990s, with the knowledge I had and the professional contacts and experience I had gathered while working abroad [in the 1980s, Filipiak first worked abroad in the laboratories of France Telecom in Paris, then in Australia and the United States – editor’s note], I returned to Poland, where I made use of these assets.

At that time Poland had cheap and highly qualified human resources and an absorptive market. We did not make things complicated; we simply started a company and began to grow.

You wouldn’t be able to do the same thing today though; the business environment has changed too much.

Speaking of growth: What’s Comarch’s strategy for geographical expansion in the near future? Are you going to develop global operations?

JF: Comarch is an international group that has 40 offices in 25 countries, but we have no intention of stopping there.

We are currently creating organizational structures in South America, which is our new strategic focus geographically. We want to build and enhance our position in that region. South America’s market dynamics and economic potential, as well as the region’s growing interest in Comarch systems, were the main factors that stood behind the opening of a subsidiary of the Comarch Capital Group in Santiago de Chile. Comarch has already had a presence in the region for years, having cooperated with customers that include Brazilian Azul Airlines, Dominican Banco Popular, as well as the telecoms and cable operators Grupo TVCable in Ecuador, Belize Telemedia Limited, and Cable Onda in Panama. We are committed to strengthening our operations in this region of the world.

We have also decided to continue developing our structures in the Middle East. Since April 2004 our Comarch Office in Dubai has served clients in the telecommunications industry in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, and Iran. We are planning to open a Data Center and create the first line support for clients in the region. However, Europe is still where the majority of our operations takes place, and it will continue to be the primary location in our business strategy.

To wrap up, let me ask you about your personal plans for the future. What would you like to do 20 years from now?

JF: More or less the same things I am doing now. Comarch is a family business, so to speak. I have three kids, and two of them, Anna and Jerry, are already grown up and involved in the daily functioning of the company. Jerry is managing our operations in the United States and Anna in Switzerland. However, at the moment I have no plans to retire, if that’s what you’re asking.

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8

INNOVATION IN PRACTICE

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS

in the M2M reality 2M technology has existed in a variety of forms for several years. Following several years of practical use by many telecommunication operators, we can get a better look at this market, including its specificities and especially on the sales process with regard to different verticals. There is now significantly better understanding of M2M than was seen in the beginning. More standardization processes have been launched, more network-related solutions (virtual elements) have come into being, and physical SIMs for the specific verticals (industry cards) have been developed. In other words, a more focused approach has been introduced.

M

Has something changed, or is the M2M offering still an illusion?

WOJCIECH MARTYNIAK Comarch SA BSS Solution Manager, Telecommunications Business Unit

First of all, M2M customers buy hundreds – but not thousands – of SIM cards. The market is not as massive as it could be, yet it is still growing. What counts is that ARPU is surprisingly high, which no one had assumed before. In the beginning, profits were calculated in number of SIMs; now this is completely the opposite. I will come back to this thought further on. The sales process is long, as is testing, customization of products, and tariffs per customer. It takes time to present an offer to a customer, to explain all the details related to a SIM Lifecycle, and to sign an agreement that factors in a test period. Selling is not simply about the SIM, but also about quality, support, consultancy, and sales support. All of these are key parts in positioning the ARPU. We should add to this list APIs, which are impor-

tant for each entity of the M2M value chain. All platform functions should be exposed through APIs to external systems or parties.

There is still a lack of knowledge concerning the entire M2M value chain. Operators know only a part of the chain, instead of knowing it as an end-to-end process. This fact strongly influences the selling process. Without tight cooperation between key players, the sales process cannot be done efficiently. M2M services can only be sold profitably if the purpose of the purchase and how it will be used is known. Operators that have this information can successfully lead sales discussions.

Finally, Operators very often aim at massive customers without specific add-on services. Such Operators do not operate M2M by establishing a different division or a spin-off. Instead, they treat M2M like any another service of SIM cards. These customers are not the most profitable.

How to move from horizontal to vertical solution? How to aim verticals?

As previously mentioned, Operators presented an initial approach in which few differences were seen between verticals.

They very often cared only about connectivity; other services are treated as add-ons. In such cases, preliminary sales discussions were about traffic specificity instead of services or the platform. Demo access to the management platform was presented at the next level of the selling process. Verticals

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were differentiated not by sector but by the size of the enterprise and the approach to M2M business.

In analyzing profits, market behavior and use of services over time, Operators began to realize that there were specificities of different verticals that should be examined in greater depth.

For example, in the health care market, in which reliability and security are keys to success for customers, we can see that connectivity ranks second. In addition to delivering the technical link, it should provide high data security, online processing, and presentation of information with effectiveness and assurance. Customers demand QoS in the first place. The SIM itself is a step behind. Yet Operators very often sell the “pipe” without stressing value-added services, which is a crucial mistake. More than others, this business demands a strong emphasis on reliably supporting the end customers. Any loss of data, mistakes in presentations, or delays can lead to serious faults. Additionally, in those verticals voice is taking an important role for services such as emergency calls. In sum: Operators should work with a specialized partner, as they do not possess enough targeted knowledge to cover the whole set of health care demands.

On the other hand, looking at the transportation and automotive sector, which is called the easiest vertical, as we know most about it, complex requirements seen in other sectors don’t exist; however, the strong requirement for global connectivity is underlined. Enterprises send trucks and cars around the world and are not bothered if connectivity is delivered in a particular country or not, as there is no specific roaming agreement between operators. Alarming and monitoring services should concern all related countries. Multicurrency is a must. A customer’s structure has to reflect the departments, divisions, and entities located in different countries.

In the case of Smart metering, extensive work is needed to interact with the platform. Many APIs are required: there are usually numerous surrounding systems and many processes flow from one to another. The test process then has to be very careful. As we are facing rapidly developing customers with high volumes of traffic from devices, Operators enter into supporting customers with network planning tools and services, roll outs of processes and systems, but with day-to-day operations as well. Customers ask often how Operators can support their businesses in the end-to-end process, beginning with network coverage and infrastructure and ending with billing and invoices.

Platform vendors should emphasize billing for device use for end customers. This is an inevitable extension that customers will appreciate, as their own portfolio does not usually have that capability. Certifications and high SLA are also important, as this market is and will be strictly regulated and standardized.

Lastly, security, personal electronics, and smart home verticals have noticed small growth. A custom approach is needed here.

Customers demand their own prices, trial periods, and test devices. Operators try to provide offers that cover the entire chain:

platform access, services, consultancy, devices, and a custom agreement. In such cases, prepaid services can appear, but they are somewhat marginal. This vertical should be treated as a complement to the basic vertical offering. It won’t bring the highest revenue; however, it shows the Operator’s readiness for M2M business and a certain level of competences.

How to face the partnerships?

The main question that appears: Should Operators go into vertical details and problems – know the specificities – or instead only focus on the SIM management layer that is the main area of interest. The answer, however, is not that simple.

In fact, Operators should go deeper into the vertical layer in order to gain the competences. Knowing the final customer is key knowledge in the business. In this way, the proposition of appropriate services, reports, alarms, and tasks will be a key item in the selling process. On the other hand, Operators should definitely partner with externals focused on specific parts of the value chain: devices for narrow specialization, professional applications for end customers, consultancy enterprises on technical domains, and so on. Without a doubt, Operators should avoid going into concurrence with its own resellers and customers and profit from outsourcing. Analyzing the actual situation, many Operators still see M2M as a “pipe” service and are not developing any competences on top of it. This approach won’t bring high ARPU customers, as they are not looking for a SIM card but for Operators’ knowledge. This can be clearly observed in the health care area.

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The M2M service cannot be sold profitably without the knowledge of the purpose of the purchase and how it will be used. Only having this information, Operator can lead all sales discussions successfully.

MORE ABOUT COMARCH M2M PLATFORM

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Finally, the last question would be…

How the platform can help?

Taking into consideration the example of health care, platforms should support the salesperson in efficiently showing an Operator’s competences. The SIM is not as important, but its QoS, data security, rapid alarming, and real time data presentation take more than 50% of needed services from the Operator. Automatization, task-driven processes, flexible product catalog, open integration, and intuitive platforms focused on health care specificity will give the impression that the Operator is the right partner to sign the agreement. High ARPU is not in the SIM itself but in those additional services. Knowledge and competence is an advantage for which a customer will pay. This is where profit can be found.

Nowadays, platforms should also propose features for applications and devices to cover more of the M2M value chain. Operators can build on offer with their core competences, which customers will also appreciate. Verticals lack expertise in telco and billing, so if the platform can support them by charging end customers by device use, access to application, electricity use, it would be a significant add-on.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

High ARPU is not in the SIM itself but in those additional services. Knowledge and competence is an advantage for which a customer will pay.

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COMPLEX, YET SIMPLE: deployment of automated field service management for MSOs

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hree to five years ago, most Multi-Service Operators (MSOs) decided that it was time to start organizing their field services with professional IT tools. Cablecos noticed that operations in this area were generating significant costs and that many issues needed to be resolved when something went wrong, like in cases of network failure, complex customer issues, and peaks of field force demands in hot seasons.

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T

CEO

Director

• “It’s a simple tool, not rocket science. Let’s do a quick two-month project. We’ll optimize our operations by 30%.”

Field Service

Director

Network Maintenance

POWER

• “We’re almost the most complex service operator on the market. We’ve got many technologies, and they have to be treated uniquely.”

VP - Operations

Director Customer Service

Project Manager

Sales

Subcontractors

Logistic

In both above cases, it is simple to make significant mistakes that can result in not meeting project goals. Knowing what these mistakes are can help when beginning a project focused on changing MSO field operations.

IT

Dispatchers Processes Architects Technicians

Simple tool, rapid implementation, fast results

INTEREST

Experience in FSM projects involving cable operators shows that two major items are always at greatest risk for delay and other problems: implementation analysis and integration with third-party systems.

Implementation Analysis Prior to implementing projects, initial analysis is always conducted, at least to calculate the business case for the organization change. The best situation is when business analysis is done before a project starts. Why? Because when going into the details, field operations affect almost the whole organization when talking about cable operators. We can see this when examining a list of possible project stakeholders.

The list is long, and in fact it is hard to ignore the opinions of any of project stakeholder.

So what to do? There are two options: • Ignore some stakeholders – they will adapt to the new rules • Involve all stakeholders in analysis meetings with system vendor Which is better? The answer is, of course, neither one is better.

Figure 1. Stakeholders of Field Service Management project for MSO’s

so. For example, a strategic subcontractor will say at the end that they have already implemented an own tool and that they won’t use another one. In the second case, we can have 20 people involved in a discussion. No matter how hard one tries for this group, to find right the solution that represents a compromise for all of them is, in fact, impossible.

Experience has shown that the solution that finds the middle way is always the best. Before a project starts, the MSO should do internal analysis of all stakeholders, a needs analysis of the way they work. Then, in choosing the right level, the company (executive) should decide the organizational change(s) that can be accomplished during the project.

This decision should be conveyed to all stakeholders at the very beginning. One should remember that it is impossible to start the efficient deployment of FSM tools with only several stakeholder representatives involved.

Integration The diagram below shows an example of integration architecture in an FSM project.

The lesson learned is that, in the first case ignored stakeholders will be able to block the project in subsequent stages. These stakeholders will have strong arguments for doing

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

SZYMON UCZCIWEK Comarch SA FSM Product Manager, Telecommunications Business Unit

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INNOVATION IN PRACTICE

Car Tracking

CRM

Inventory

ERP

Trouble Ticket

ECM

Location

Work Orders, Appointments

Network Data

Resources

Work Orders

Documentation

COMARCH Field Service Management

Orders and tasks

Resources

Automatic dispatcher

DISPATCHER

Time management

Maps

TECHNICIAN

Mobile

Reporting

MANAGER

Figure 2. Sample logical architecture of FSM project

The integration of FSM tools is crucial. One of the reasons why a new tool is introduced is to automate processes; this cannot be done, for example, when integrating “swivel chair”* or “half automated” solutions.

When talking about cases concerning service activation or provisioning integration, for example, technicians need real time feedback from networks when they activate new CPEs on customers’ premises. How to do this? Sometimes a service provider’s IT decides that an FSM tool should be

integrated directly with network elements or activation interfaces. Building an OSS process management tool from WFM can’t go smoothly. Even with telco experience, WFM vendors are not the best parties to do this: they are not able to quickly analyze all MSO’s provisioning processes already in place. Thus, triggering activation should stay in WFM, but network related logic should be outside the tool.

Going too far in the other direction is also risky. It is not acceptable in a project to shift all integrations to an MSO’s IT (“It is system API. Do what you need to do.”). It is the vendor who knows the best processes in FSM, has experience from past projects, and should take responsibility for the entire integrated solution.

Work Order registration Tasks definition Resources assignment Notifying technician

Many, many processes to cover

Technician en-route The history of MSOs in most cases is very similar. They began with TV and grew by adding new technologies to extend service portfolios. They took over or merged with other cable

Task execution Completion report Audit & Analysis

*

Figure 3. Standard process of field service delivery

swivel chair - in System Integration the term swivel chair is frequently used to describe a manual interface, where a human user re-keys information from one computer system to another.

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companies to create one brand. This has resulted in a heterogeneous environment when considering technologies, processes, and organization. Deployment of FSM in almost all cases focused on automation, which must result in increased operational productivity. I was personally involved in a project when all field service process were discussed independently for all technologies and involved people from different regions (historically different companies). Automation of “as is” state would result in numerous different processes for the same services in the company. In this case, it is of course possible to see productivity changes when talking about technicians or the back office. But in the case of the system’s IT and business administration, it is not only difficult to make any change but also requires more resources. Furthermore, implementation is more demanding.

From the high-level perspective, the process of field service delivery looks the same for every technology and every region (see Figure 3).

Streamlining and unifying field service delivery processes should always be the goal for these kind of projects. It hastens the project and provides future benefits (fewer change requests, more agile company in case of new technologies and services).

FSM vendors are not only IT

I won’t ruin anybody’s good mood – from our experience this is true. However, there is always the “but”: but it might not meet the business case, but the productivity increase might be almost unnoticeable. Look at the sample schedule presented below.

A brief explanation: the long, thin green lines represent technician availability. The navy blue rectangles are tasks put on the timeline, the azure rectangles represent driving times, and the striped navy blue rectangles are tasks that have already been closed. One’s first impression upon seeing this is that technicians have a lot of idle time. Why it is like that?

The schedule is prepared automatically according to welldefined rules and configuration. By configuration: time slots presented for the customer are two hours starting every odd hour from 09:00 until 19:00. Task duration is set for precisely 90 minutes for this task type. Technician availability is from 08:00 to 20:00. The first and last driving time can be counted outside the availability. The configuration above is done in a way that automate is not able to do its work. Instead, it is done according to what was defined by field service specialists according to their best knowledge and experience. But it did not take the vendor’s comments into consideration. As a result, it must be changed. While it will be very simple in the tool, it won’t be as simple for the organization: changing time slots for customers, redefining time given for a work order, or changing employee work hours.

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IDEAS IN BRIEF: FSM implementation projects are organization changes Tool vendors may be used as important partners when building new field operations Software configuration may have significant impact on project business goals

Conclusion

Every FSM implementation project manager would love to have on board experienced field service managers accompanied by a dedicated team of specialists. The manager will be able to avoid the situations mentioned above. These managers know that simple is better, that a unified approach results in fewer problems down the road. In most cases they are pursuing organizational changes (lean management, dispatching centralization, quality projects, etc.). As we have said: projects should be fast, the tools user-friendly, and agile.

MSOs are service providers who may benefit from field force automation projects. The results can be spectacular (even leading to 100% productivity growth). Implementation of FSM tool will fail without any organizational changes. These changes require preparation and a well-established partnership between the MSO and the FSM vendor. If MSOs use vendor experience the right way, than implementation projects are neither simple nor complex. They are simply successful.

Figure 4. Comarch FSM: field service daily schedule

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

LEARN MORE ABOUT COMARCH FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT CLICK HERE

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How CSPs can turn the digital era into a big business opportunity

ecoming a part of the digital service ecosystem is a natural step in the evolution of communication service providers (CSPs) looking for their place in the marketplace. This is a market that has evolved from a world of simple telecommunications towards a complex ecosystem of connected devices, applications, and services in the Cloud.

B

While over-the-top players (OTTs – i.e., companies such as Skype, WhatsApp, and Facebook) seem to be the greatest beneficiaries of the digital revolution, there are many ways in which CSPs can get their fair share of the revenue pie. They can do so by differentiating themselves through using their existing assets, such as the strength of their brand, their own networks, or taking the opportunity to guarantee a high quality of service.

KRZYSZTOF KWIATKOWSKI Comarch SA Head of BSS Product Management, Telecommunications Business Unit

Many interesting discussions revolve around how CSPs should position themselves in these new business conditions and whether or not they should switch from delivering traditional telecom services to being digital service providers. However, no single recipe is yet available. Thus far, telecoms around the world have tried and failed at succeeding as digital service providers. That part of the business is still very small when compared to the core telecom services CSPs provide.

There are three recommended strategies that telecom operators can adopt in the digital era: • Connectivity provider – use the network to offer core connectivity, the “safest” strategy, less risky but also potentially less profitable • Digital service enabler – offer existing capabilities as a service (billing, service quality management, etc.)

• Digital service provider – offer digital services directly to consumers and businesses (unlikely to be successful on the mass market; however, can be considered for enterprise customers) When following any of these strategies, telecoms should learn from their experience the digital service space in the areas of M2M and Cloud. This experience not only provides knowledge that can be used in creating and offering new digital services to various customer segments, but also points to issues that operators know they have to address and deal with. These include growing service complexity and the need to have a flexible “umbrella” solution to manage both digital services and the ecosystem of partners with which the given CSP cooperate.

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IDEAS IN BRIEF:

TRADITIONAL SERVICES

DIGITAL SERVICES

Focus on voice, data and messaging

Blend content and information; each service is different

Network-centric

IT-centric

Vertically integrated silos

Network-independent

Delivered by CSPs

Elements delivered by multiple parties

Payments go to CSPs

Many possible flows of money and settlement scenarios

What are the main differences between traditional telecom and digital services?

Three strategies that telecoms can pursue in the digital era

Figure 1. Characteristics of traditional telecom vs. digital services

How are digital services different from traditional telecom services Digital services blend content and information. Their volume is much bigger than in the case of traditional telecom services. Furthermore, each digital service is different. They may use connectivity delivered by CSPs, but more likely they won’t depend on a given network (e.g., in the case of many Internet services available globally through any operator network).

They may be related to rich media (e.g., television, games, music, video), commerce and finance (banking, advertising, payments), IP communications (e.g., Skype), cloud (e.g., MS Office 360, Dropbox), context (e.g., Facebook), M2M (connected cars, connected home, smart grids), e-health (monitoring, diagnostic), etc.

In contrast, traditional telecom services are created within network-centric, vertically integrated silos and are built around traditional telecommunications (voice, data, or messaging). The range of these services is also much smaller, and the flows of monies they generate are simpler – with every financial stream leading to a telecom operator (as opposed to digital services, where settlements are complicated and encompass many scenarios).

Are OTTs the only beneficiaries of the digital revolution?

pear next year, but think of MySpace or Classmate: portals that were hugely popular in their time, yet then were quickly – almost completely – forgotten.

What are the implications for the BSS/OSS environments?

The dynamics of the digital market can be seen in all the changes we observe. We have already gone from Web 1.0 with players such as Google or eBay, through Web 2.0 with all the related social media including Facebook, up to today’s mobile or multi-screen era, still in its early phase but already strongly influencing all the big players. This means that the business landscape for OTTs is very dynamic and unstable; thus, it requires them to make a lot of effort to stay on top.

Rich media • TV • Games • Music • Video

Health

Commerce and finance

• Medical • Paramedical • Wellness and fit

M2M

It’s a common belief that the digital era leaves OTT players as the only winners. They have eaten up a lot of the CSPs’ revenues and market share, and established a strong presence on the market, while telecom revenues have done nothing but declined. But that assumption is only partially true.

Nowadays, the lifecycles of many digital services have become shorter, people get used to new services rapidly, and they often forget just as fast about the ones they used before (even the ones they liked). Combined with the fact that entry barriers to the digital ecosystem are low, this means that any developer from anywhere in the world can become rich and then poor in a few months. The same may even happen to large OTT players. Facebook will most likely not disap-

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• Connected Car • Connected Home • Smart Grid • Security • ...

• Banking • Advertising • Payments

Digital Services

IP communication • VoIP • Instant Messaging • Unified Communication

Contextual • Social networks • Big data • Location-based services

Cloud • Personal services • Enterprise services

Figure 2. Various kinds of digital services

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The business landscape for OTTs is very dynamic and unstable; thus, it requires them to make a lot of effort to stay on top.

LEARN MORE ABOUT COMARCH DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

CLICK HERE

Many CSPs believe that they should participate in OTTs’ revenues because of the huge network traffic generated by digital services and the costs related to maintaining and upgrading the network that carries it (eg. recent Netflix vs. Comcast battle). OTTs, on the other hand, demand network neutrality.

This is based on the fact that the services they provide indirectly generate additional business for CSPs and that customers are already paying for this traffic in their internet subscription fees anyway, so they should not get charged for the same thing twice. These CSP-OTT disputes may evolve once users shift to thinking about their services in a new way. Users will then begin associating service quality with the service provider, without considering the complex relationships between partners. A plausible scenario in the mobile era goes like this: a mobile Internet user experiences a slow connection at an airport – and will think that YouTube is slow at the airport, instead of complaining that the network of the local operator is not stable at the airport. The same may happen with the way consumers see all other digital services. If this becomes reality, it will definitely create new quality in the cooperation between CSPs and OTTs – entailing a shift towards delivering comprehensive high-quality digital services instead of applications over connectivity. Netflix - Comcast agreement was exactly driven by the customer experience.

What have CSPs learned from their digital service experiences so far (M2M & Cloud)?

Telecoms have already gone past their initial experiences on the digital services market, and they are currently redefining their strategies. A couple of years ago most of them entered the M2M and Cloud services market. This has provided them with much experience in the digital world, on both the business and technical sides. This knowledge is valuable and may allow telecoms to make the right choices when it comes both to extending their presence on the digital services market and to developing strategies of cooperating with OTTs.

Cloud

The complexity in managing partners, settlements, and technical integrations with all the parties involved that CSPs have faced when building and delivering Cloud services remains a valid challenge for all digital services offered to SMBs and enterprises.

CSPs’ have been offering Cloud services for a while now (with offerings built around IaaS, PaaS and SaaS products), which are aimed predominantly at the small & medium enterprises (SMEs). These enterprise Cloud services are delivered in cooperation with various partners. The latter deliver hosting services or sets of SaaS applications, which then get re-packed under the CSP’s brand. This way SMEs can benefit from receiving multiple services (telecom, storage, backup, ERP applications, etc.) from one single supplier, get a single invoice, and have a single contact point for any possible issues.

CSPs’ revenues from Cloud services are still, however, relatively small (although they are slowly increasing). The future success of telecoms as Cloud service providers depends on various factors: the crucial ones are the range and qual-

ity of the applications offered in SaaS, as well as PaaS and Iaas models.

Delivering these applications in the Cloud has taught CSPs to leverage existing capabilities, such as billing in various options (per account, per usage, flat, etc.). But capabilities such as billing do not necessarily have to be delivered by the telecom operator – experience in the Cloud area has shown that a different scenario may exist for each service. Depending on the existing capabilities and the nature of the Cloud service, usage rating and billing of the application can be delivered by the partner (provider of the SaaS application such as ERP), a CSP’s legacy billing system, or by the Cloud platform (understood as the software stack dedicated to managing a CSP’s Cloud business). The decision related to who is delivering a given capability can be determined by the limitations of some systems – e.g., difficulties with handling Cloud products with a CSP’s legacy billing system, as well as by the range of capabilities each of the partners is able to provide. The same goes for other capabilities, such as identity management or hosting.

The Cloud services market has also shown CSPs that the SME segment is quite hard to operate in because of its local dependencies and requirements, which is why it often requires a different set of applications such as ERP for each geographical market. This means that in order to build solid multi-national Cloud offerings, CSPs have to cooperate with a different group of partners in each country. Additionally, each partnership established for a given service and a particular market may be of a different nature. If the Cloud service is delivered to a company that operates in multiple regional markets, some affiliates will most likely be engaged in delivering the service. This means that the flow of money between the involved parties may be different for each Cloud service.

Even these three elements alone – the delivery options for the billing capability, the selection and number of local partners, and the cooperation with affiliates – bring about a lot of complexity in managing partners, settlements, and technical integrations with all the parties involved. These challenges remain valid for all scenarios of CSPs delivering various kinds of new digital services to SMEs and enterprises. They will have to be addressed with appropriate IT solutions that will facilitate the managing of this complex ecosystem.

There could potentially be some business opportunity in bundling the existing Cloud offerings with new digital offerings. But this will also be challenging, as telecoms have created separate silos for managing Cloud services.

M2M M2M connectivity services have been providing constant, growing business for telecoms in recent years. The recent development of M2M business in Europe shows that real business potential does not lie in selling SIM cards to industries such as utilities or other market segments that purchase large num-

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bers of SIM cards: regardless of sales volume, the margins on these customers are small.

Instead, in order to make M2M business profitable, telecoms are now focusing on the careful selection of target verticals and partners for cooperation, as well as the creation of endto-end offers for the selected industries, provided in addition to connectivity. These services may be vertical-specific or consist of a set of horizontal enablers such as billing for applications, device management, and various APIs delivered by CSPs. Today, operators already realize that this approach can secure revenues greater than those generated by selling large amounts of SIM cards.

This is a lesson from M2M that CSPs can use when constructing other digital offerings for businesses – building them in a way that takes into account the specifics of various verticals can lead to higher profits from these services.

Another issue that CSPs have discovered when offering M2M services is related to handling SLA (service level agreements) requirements of business customers. For those telecoms that choose to enable or deliver digital services for the B2B segment, the success of these strategies will strongly depend on how this issue is addressed. So far, including SLA clauses in contracts for M2M services and complying with them upon service delivery has been impossible for most CSPs. Both M2M and Cloud services, already being offered by most CSPs, have similarities. They all provide valuable lessons to be used by CSPs when building new digital offerings. The experiences from these areas show that maintaining an increasing number of partners, possible combinations of their roles, ranges of their capabilities, and the kinds of settlement flows all make up for a complex ecosystem that requires CSPs to break the existing silos. A cross-silo approach supported with advanced “umbrella” IT tools is therefore necessary if CSPs want to capitalize on the possibilities of the digital era.

Three strategies that CSPs can choose in the digital world The lessons from the M2M and Cloud business sector provide strong fundamentals for CSPs to succeed in the digital services world. The challenges have already been identified, strength and weaknesses verified. It is already clear that telecoms will have to cooperate with OTTs in some ways in order to protect their revenues. But what is the best strategy for CSPs to follow in the digital era?

A couple of years ago it seemed to be the best choice for telecoms to participate in as many elements of the value chain as possible (this is especially visible in M2M). But as the market has become more mature, telecoms are trying to redefine that strategy and find the optimal place among other players and partners.

When it comes to digital services, there are currently three identified strategies that CSPs can follow. The decision regarding which one to choose should depend on each CSP’s vision of its future as a next-generation digital service provider and its existing market position.

Connectivity provider – using the network to offer core connectivity for digital services This is the “safest” strategy of the three and one that will be pursued by most if not all CSPs – but often in combination with one of the other two. As significant investments have gone into modernizing and upgrading network infrastructures, many CSPs will choose to provide connectivity as a service to other digital service providers to monetize those expenses.

This strategy doesn’t create many opportunities for generating additional revenues, but it also doesn’t require additional investment in new technologies. It is also the least risky – the only risk is that the telecom operator may be degraded to the role of a “bit pipe.” But in fact this expression’s purely negative connotation is not completely justified. If this strategy is aligned with the goal of providing advanced connectivity offerings for different types of digital services (e.g., rich media, IP communication, cloud, M2M, e-health), it may be a good choice for some CSPs, especially the smaller ones.

Digital service enabler – offering existing capabilities as a service Many telecom operators will decide to go beyond offering core connectivity in order to maximize the opportunities that the digital era offers and to benefit from additional revenues.

Networks and connectivity are not the only advantages that CSPs offer. There are a number of additional assets they can use as their strength in the context of digital services. These include data security, billing capabilities, location data, a trusted brand, the potential of an existing customer base, etc. CSPs also have extensive experience in assuring good quality of service, which may become one of their crucial differentiators in the digital world. Being able to match a faulty network element with a specific service failure and the estimated decline of customer experience on the subscribers’ end is something OTTs are not able to offer. This capability will enable CSPs to offer digital service assurance – e.g., if an API (delivered by a partner) used to deliver a common service offering (a bundle of OTT’s and CSP’s capabilities) stops responding, it is the telecom operator who will be able to calculate the impact that this has on a particular digital service on the end-user’s end.

The key element of this strategy is in the ability to repack the existing assets as sets of capabilities that can be used by suppliers and partners to build digital services for end customers. This way a CSP can become a digital service enabler for other parties.

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When it comes to digital services, there are currently three identified strategies that CSPs can follow. The decision regarding which one to choose should depend on each CSP’s vision of its future as a nextgeneration digital service provider and its existing market position.

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INNOVATION IN PRACTICE

Most telecom operators are currently faced with a growing complexity and amount of digital services, as well as the vast number of partners involved in their creation and delivery. This is why the best approach is to operate in a multisilo IT environment, with a comprehensive “umbrella” digital ecosystem management solution placed over these silos.

The digital service enabler strategy can be seen as an extension of the connectivity provider strategy, but in addition to the network-centric capabilities it also provides a set of IT-centric capabilities. More details on how these capabilities can be packed, managed, and provided to service providers have been described in recent TMForum Frameworx documents: Introduction to the Digital Services Reference Architecture and Multi-Cloud Management Packs1.

The experiences from M2M and Cloud areas show that in lean CSP organizations it is possible to profit from value-added services provided on top of connectivity in cooperation with various partners. The strategy of becoming a digital service enabler should reuse this experience on a much larger scale and must be more generic.

The strategy that separates the access (connectivity) and service layers, followed by some CSPs, should also be mentioned here. The assumption of this strategy is that the access layer is separated from the services layer in a way that enables CSPs to offer their access to other CSPs (and digital service providers alike), but to also offer their own services based on the access of other CSPs.

Digital service provider – offering digital services directly to consumers and businesses This strategy can be seen as direct competition with OTTs. So far, when it comes to the mass market, telecom operators have been unable to succeed in this approach. One of the reasons is related to the necessity of building and maintaining customer engagement, which is an area in which communication service providers do not have sufficient experience.

However, certain opportunities exist in the enterprise customer (B2B) market. Telecom operators with extensive experience gathered from traditional telecom services offered to enterprises should also be able to succeed in offering digital services to that segment, as they will be able to address its requirements regarding product customization, managed services, and SLAs. The enterprise market also requires a closer relationship between the service provider and the customer, including consultative selling or managed services covering the provider’s full responsibility for ICT across the whole enterprise (Managed Communication and Collaboration). OTTs with their experience in the mass market and a global approach are not yet able to compete with CSPs in these areas.

Enterprise-class digital services may require building new capabilities such as secure connectivity, end-to-end SLA management, or enterprise marketplace features – all depending on the targeted group of customers and the range of services offered. Digital services for larger enterprise customers will very often involve the Cloud (especially IaaS and PaaS), while the SaaS model (bundled with a basic set of telecommunication services) will be the most appropriate one for the SME market.

Other examples of digital services that CSPs could offer for enterprises include Unified Communications for all sizes of companies (including Cloud-based services such as virtual contact centers, videoconferencing, file sharing, BYOD management, or other collaboration solutions), end-to-end M2M solutions (which, from the perspective of enterprises, are just another Cloud-based service and may include, e.g., comprehensive fleet management or asset tracking).

How will the digital evolution influence BSS/OSS environments?

Both M2M and enterprise Cloud offerings have shown that an area of a telecom business that has many unique and new features often requires building a dedicated BSS/OSS stack.

At the same time, the growing number of IT silos in telecom organizations is causing issues related to bundling various services into packaged offers and increases the complexity of service and partner management. The fundamental question, therefore, is how the digital revolution and the resulting new strategies of telecom operators will influence BSS/ OSS environments, and what kind of IT platform is best suited for managing the digital ecosystem, with its vast number of services, customers, and partners.

When a telecom operator has a relatively small number of partners and digital services in its portfolio, a separate, comprehensive digital ecosystem management platform may not be necessary. This is especially true when the digital services in question are part of a fully separated silo and are targeted to markets in an early development phase.

But most telecom operators are currently faced with a growing complexity and amount of digital services, as well as a large number of partners involved in their creation and delivery. Additionally, the biggest target market for digital services, i.e., enterprise customers, requires high-quality comprehensive services and SLA clauses in contracts. This is why the best approach is to operate in a multi-silo IT environment, with a comprehensive “umbrella” digital ecosystem management solution placed over these silos, which would make it easy to manage the whole partner ecosystem and the capabilities delivered by various existing silos. The concept of such a platform is presented below.

A comprehensive digital ecosystem management platform for CSPs is essential for easier management of the digital service value chain. It will be suited for both the digital service enabler and digital service provider strategy, as each one of them means that the CSP will be functioning within multi-sided business models, which involve both customers and partners. Such a platform would also allow for adding value to the existing digital service offerings such as M2M and Cloud, by enabling the creation of bundled services from all silos. It should also help in monetizing digital strategies, thanks to using telecom operators’ existing IT assets (ex-

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CUSTOMERS INDIVIDUAL SME ENTERPRISE

APPLICATIONS LAYER

ROLES

DIGITAL PARTNER MANAGEMENT

SELLER PARTNER

DIGITAL SERVICE CAPABILITIES

PRODUCT MODE

SERVICE MODEL

BILLING

SETTLEMENT HANDLING

PAYMENT COLLECTION

IDENTITY MGM

ODER CAPTURE

TROUBLE MGM

PROVIDER

ASSETS

MARKETPLACE

CUSTOMER BASE SECURITY

DIGITAL SLA MANAGEMENT

DIGITAL SERVICE FULFILLMENT

DIGITAL SETTLEMENT MANAGEMENT

API HUB

NETWORK QUALITY OF SERVICE CUSTOMER SERVICE

...

... ... ...

... ... ...

... ...

CORE BSS/OSS

...

BRAND

...

B2B PLATFORM

...

...

...

MPAYMENTS PLATFORM

CRM PRODUCT CATALOG

...

...

CLOUD SERVICE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

BILLING

ACCESS LAYER

SETTLEMENT MODEL

M2M CONNECTIVITY MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

SERVICE LAYER

OTT PLAYERS

DIGITAL SERVICE MANAGEMENT

CSP LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

...

NETWORK / INFRASTRUCTURE

Figure 3. A comprehensive digital ecosystem management platform for CSPs

posed as capabilities on the diagram), thus enabling easy offering of enterprise digital services and creating complex business models, required when cooperating with OTT players.

This kind of an “umbrella” solution aims to enable CSPs operating in many different business models (provider, retailer, reseller, hosting provider, etc.) for various services, as well as to automate the management of contractual, financial, and operational models and manage APIs (functional and management) used for the integration and creation of service mash-ups.

The crucial elements of the platform should address all areas related to core digital service management (e.g., creation of service mash-ups), partner management, settlement management (all kinds of settlements and money flows between partners), multi-cloud SLA management (providing SLAs for end customers in multi-partner environments), and service fulfillment. Yet the most important aspect of this kind of tool is to allow CSPs to package their existing assets as well-defined capabilities that can be exposed as a service (e.g., packaging existing capabilities and exposing them as a “direct operator billing capability” with all the surrounding processes and interfaces).

In general, this kind of IT platform should respond to a common architectural approach of separating the access (connectivity) and services layers. This should be treated as essential for CSPs in becoming next-generation service providers or enablers.

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Summary The digital era should no longer only be seen as a threat to telecom operators’ business. Instead, it is now clear that it can also be a huge opportunity when approached in the right way. Each CSP needs to find its own way to success in this new environment – regardless of whether the choice will be to pursue the connectivity provider strategy or to reap the benefit of potential additional revenues by becoming a digital service enabler or provider. Either way, potential exists to get a fair share of the digital revenue pie.

The experiences in creating and delivering Cloud and M2M services have shown that there is still a long way to go for CSPs before they can start counting their money. Certain changes in the way the digital service market is approached and in the IT environment should enable them to reach the goal faster. An essential element in any of the strategies will be to break down current IT and organizational silos and overcome the limitations that hinder CSPs’ abilities to succeed in the digital era. An “umbrella” digital ecosystem management solution is a crucial step towards that success, as it enables the CSP to gain increased control over the complex service and partner portfolio. CSPs’ successes will also be determined by the selected strategy for the digital world and the reorganization of business and IT environments necessary to support it.

http://www.tmforum.org/MultiCloudManagement/13928/home.html http://www.tmforum.org/IntroductoryGuides/Introductiontothe/52079/article.html

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

A comprehensive digital ecosystem management platform for CSPs is essential for easier management of the digital service value chain, and it will be suited for both the digital service enabler and the digital service provider strategy.

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NFV/SDN – cloud in the network or network in the cloud etwork Function Virtualization (NFV) is currently a very “hot” topic (some may say that it is even overhyped) that appears to be a very promising, yet at the same time a very disruptive, technology.

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ŁUKASZ MENDYK

At its simplest, NFV is about decupling software from hardware and enabling the implementation to run on a farm of commodity hardware. In other words, it means placing network functions (NF) in the cloud. At first, this may sound funny, as one may find the definition of “placing something in the cloud” as placing it somewhere in the network. So Network Function in the cloud sounds like cloud implemented in the cloud.

Comarch SA OSS Product Manager, Telecommunications Business Unit

But when NFV is combined with its “sister”/complementary technology, Software Defined Networking (SDN), it means that cloud can really become a cloud. This is unlike many of today’s implementations where “in the cloud” means running in a central data center with limited geographical distribution.

The “real” cloud should probably mean a distributed cloud where applications can be migrated as closed to the customer. It makes sense to provide good customer experience at a reasonable cost. To make this happen, the network itself (its topology) should be able to migrate across the “network.” If Network Functions can run on the same hardware that end-

customer applications run, it enables the colocation of applications and network function in the same nodes.

An interesting case in point would be placing a Video on demand (VoD) server at the eNodeB node, which means placing the video source as close to the mobile user as possible. From the point of view of “traditional” network topology as defined by 3GPP, the network should at least include eNodeB, SGW, and P-GW. “Traditional” network architecture assumes that between eNodeB and SGW there is a link implemented on top of mobile backhaul, meaning many potential IP hops. The colocation of these functions in one physical node means that no mobile backhaul is needed (almost none). For customers, it means reduced latency, thus much better quality. For operators, it means reduced burden on the mobile backhaul.

But is it so easy? First, one may argue, one of the reasons why (according to the 3GPP model) SGW is not colocated with eNodeB is that SGW is meant to serve many eNodeBs. But thanks to virtualization, and from the logical point of view, SGW can be perceived as a higher-level node in the topology. At the same time, it can be physically implemented on many hardware nodes.

These physical implementations may be colocated with many eNodeBs. In this way, one can still preserve logical topology as

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defined in 3GPP, yet physical implementing can be dynamically adjusted to the traffic load needs.

tomer experience. An application provider best understands application requirements.

But is this for free? Nothing is for free. Physical distribution is a concept well known in the IT world. For example, a distributed database means replications and problems with assuring consistency between physically distributed nodes.. In practice, this means that the decision of whether a Network Function should have greater distribution (have more physical nodes in different allocated locations) should be based on cost vs. benefit.

A network operator who at the same time plays the role of cloud provider may take this application policy as high level policy and use its own policy that takes into account in addition the network structure. For example, when many different applications are being deployed with different defined required maximum latencies, the operator policy may decide which application is going to be moved closer to the customer and be colocated with appropriate virtual network functions and run on hardware located at the eNodeB access node. In addition, this policy may take into account the number of customers accessing the applications from the given eNodeB (traffic statistics) to decide which of the applications competing for resources should be moved closer to the customers.

The same is true for VoD services: for movies that are often watched by different users from the same area, it makes sense to replicate the movie from the central server to local ones (at eNodeBs). Copying the movie to the network thus eliminates the burden on the mobile backhaul. But for movies that are not that popular, it may mean in practice that the movie is transferred to the customer from the central (many hops away) video server.

The benefit for the customer of the presented concept is that an application can be much closer to the customer. This means, for example, lower latency and higher speed. Simply speaking, this results in better customer experience.

When network function (NF) is a software component (Virtual Network Function – VNF), from the perspective of computing hardware VNF becomes software, much like a customer application. This means that a network itself may become a distributed data center that may host both VNF and cloud customer applications. From the perspective of a traditional data center, this means that the access network may become a part of distributed data center, so applications can be run on access nodes. From the perspective of a network operator, it means that operators may become a cloud provider, not simply provide an access network to a third-party data center.

This simple example leads to the important conclusion that from an application provider’s perspective, a network can be treated as a cloud (black box) and that the role of policy is to define application expectations. Moreover, there is no need to directly define how network should be operated. From the network operator’s perspective, these application requirements are a service request from the application provider. In other words, an operator may sell application-hosting services differentiating the price based on QoS. In this example, “maximum latency.” Thanks to this, an operator managing its infrastructure is assured that resource allocation is driven by business criteria.

Policy management is a broad subject. The main idea, however, is to use the service catalog for managing the hierarchy of service polices and to assure that the network is driven by business criteria. This means employing BSS/OSS catalog-driven fulfillment/orchestration for managing an NFV/SDN-based network.

OSS in the cloud: The new meaning

Control via Policies This sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Yet if network functions can migrate across network nodes, the network – being a virtual SDN network – can reshape itself. (By the way, SDN may be a practical way to implement a Self-Organizing Network). How can we control this?

The answer is control via policies, though this is probably easier said than done. When taking into account that control via polices must mean a hierarchy of polices, policy management may also sound complicated. In fact, hierarchy of policies is all about simplification. The best way to explain it is to provide examples.

A provider of customer applications should probably not directly state whether its application should be run at any specific network edge node. Instead, the provider may define requirements, such as maximum latency, which provide good cus-

Apart from a catalog-driven fulfillment solution, other OSS systems can be useful for managing an NFV/SDN-based network.

For example, a network inventory system may provide views of the physical infrastructure, VNF nodes locations, and logical network topology. Service Assurance solutions can be used to monitor the infrastructure and assist the SDN controller when making the re-routing decisions to optimize QoS. Because this means that the OSS system must become more real-time capable, performance scalability is of the essence. The answer to it could be OSS virtualization. In other words, put it in the cloud.

The term “OSS in the cloud” may not be new. But here it is more than than just locating the OSS system in a Data Center and having it managed by the OSS provider. Instead, it means that OSS as software may also be reallocated within the network nodes and be, for example, colocated with the VNF with the SDN Controller to assure the correct level of responsiveness.

NFV/SDN is an exciting technology. Stay tuned for more on this subject.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

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The decision of whether a Network Function should have greater distribution (have more physical nodes in different allocated locations) should be based on cost vs. benefit

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TELECOM BANKING

Twilight of the banking that we know?

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obile revolution and evolution of business models pushed a growing number of telecom operators to sign agreements with banks to create integrated services for mobile users. It is possible that in the near future telecoms will become individual banks or even completely replace banks in the long term.

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Strategic alliances between telecoms and banks are said to play a key role in building a new order on the telecommunications market. They can change the traditional world, in which telecom operators and banks had nothing in common. How did these two apparently different worlds come to meet each other and cooperate?

Everyone wins This cooperation has strategic underpinnings. Telecoms and banks have been merging in order to create integrated services involving mobile banking and mobile payments and use the synergies of common services. For telecoms, it is an obvious way to find new sources of income. In recent years, we have observed telecoms trying to sell IT services and cloud services. They continue to look for diversification of income in different markets and new methods for strengthening client loyalty. Now is the time for financial services and telecom operators to cooperate. As telecoms do not have banking licenses, they need the agreements with banks to sell their products within the new logo. Even if in the beginning operators do not make big money from selling financial services, they can connect with clients for many years through loans.

The cooperation of telecoms and banks is also a part of the struggle for dominating the market of mobile payments.

Mobile payments are presently a small part of the market.

However, numerous companies in the banking, telecommunications, and retail sectors are fighting for the main position with a solution. In Poland, one in four people have smartphones. Telecoms know this is a great opportunity for the development of mobile payments. They have millions of clients and access to their mobile devices, so for them it is a natural field of interest. They have numerous sales points, technological competences, and access to digitally unbanked people. This gives telecoms huge opportunities in the financial market.

Banks deciding to merge with telecoms also win. The banking market is not easy: there is intense competition, and the struggle for clients has become very difficult. That is why banks are determined to expand the distribution of their services, to increase sales, and to gain new clients. For banks, cooperation with telecoms is a new way to achieve these goals. Telecoms and banks together offer a wide range of services and promotions. These can be services connected with mobile payments, loyalty programs using geolo-

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cation, and shared offers like “the more you talk, the better your loan conditions will be” or “ get a loan and receive 1GB Internet connectivity for free”.

Marriages between telecoms and banks in Poland Last year we observed three spectacular deals on the Polish market between telecom operators and banks. Thus far, telecom operators who have been cooperating with banks have offered a so-called wallet, that is, a series of applications for mobile banking and payments using a smartphone instead of a plastic payment card. Now the model for cooperating is different.

The first marriage on this field has one father: Zygmunt Solorz. He owns Plus, one of the biggest telecoms in Poland.

He also owns Invest Bank. He renamed his bank and created a new brand – Plus Bank – to offer Plus’ clients financial services such as bank accounts, loans, and investment services. Solorz said that his decision was connected with his strong belief in the future of mobile payments.

He initially considered the cooperation of Plus with other banks. Instead, he decided to take advantage of having in his hand both a telecom with 14 million clients and a banking license. To build the mobile bank – Plus Bank – he neither has to cooperate with other companies nor has to share the profits.

Other Polish telecoms are not in such a good position. They need to find good partners on the financial market. Orange Poland signed an agreement with mBank. Telecom, which has more than 15 million clients and is one of the biggest banks in Poland, created a mobile retail bank for mobile device users. They are going to sell financial services using the Orange logo. The offer will include accounts, credit cards, and mobile payments. The partners’ responsibilities are clear: the telecom will take care of marketing and sales, while the bank will cover all activities that need a banking license. mBank ensures that the main advantage of the Orange Bank offer will be mobile banking, which will be similar to the new mBank mobile application.

At the end of 2013, the last of the three biggest telecoms in Poland announced a cooperation with a bank. Deutsche Telekom, the owner of the T-Mobile brand, signed an agreement with Alior Bank to create the new brand: T-Mobile Usługi Bankowe (T-Mobile Financial Services). As with Orange Bank, T-Mobile Usługi Bankowe wants to offer smartphone users banking services including bank accounts, deposits, loans, and payments cards. The details of the offer will be made known in mid-2014. Partners announced that the offer would be directed to individuals and SME’s. Alior Bank is aiming for 2 million new clients by 2018 thanks to its cooperation with T-Mobile.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

ŁUKASZ LUZAR Comarch SA Mobile Banking Solution Manager Banking Business Unit Co-author: Monika Tomkiewicz Comarch SA

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IDEAS IN BRIEF: Banks deciding to merge with telecoms also win We are living in times of redefining financial services and payments The global war for dominance of the mobile wallet has already started In 2013 the three biggest telecoms in Poland announced a cooperation with banks Alliances between telecoms and banks are not only a hot topic on the Polish market Telecom takes care of marketing and sales, while the bank will cover all activities that need a banking license

From China to Latin America

Telco with banking license

Alliances between telecoms and banks are not only a hot topic on the Polish market, but there are also many examples of this type of cooperation in very different regions. The struggle both for dominating the mobile payments market and for finding new sources of income is similar around the world. To give some interesting examples, we should mention that in Turkey in 2010 Garanti Bank and Avea signed an agreement to launch commercial NFC services in Turkey. The bank and the mobile operator planned to issue 100,000 customers an NFC SIM+antenna solution that will allow them to make payments with their mobile phones at more than 15,000 retailers in Turkey. One year later, the State Bank of India, India’s largest commercial bank, and bharti airtel, India’s largest telecommunications company, signed a joint venture agreement to make banking services available to India’s unbanked millions. The newly formed entity was created to harness the power of the state bank's strengths and airtel’s mobile telephony to add value to the banking and financial services market. It would also empower millions of the country’s financially excluded to enhance their livelihood and quality of life. The partners announced that they would offer banking products and services to the citizens in unbanked areas at affordable prices. In Latin America there were such cooperations. In October 2011 Citigroup and América Móvil have teamed up for a $50 million mobile banking joint venture, named Transfer, for services across Latin America. In other parts of the world, Alfa-Bank, a major private bank in Russia, Beeline (VimpelCom Ltd.), a communications service provider, and MasterCard International Payment System announced in June 2013 the launch of a payment service based on NFC technology using Beeline SIM cards with innovative technology for mobile payment through Mobile MasterCard PayPass.

2013 ended with one of the most interesting movements in worldwide telecom banking. Rogers Communications, Canada's largest telco, received a banking license and announced its plans to issue credit cards, both a plastic version and a mobile version that will be stored on Rogers smartphones. The OSFI, Canada's banking regulator, granted a banking license to Rogers in May, following an application process that took nearly two years. Rogers plans to launch the plastic credit card in 2014 following a pilot with a number of its customers. It is expected to follow with a mobile version. Holders of Rogers credit cards will be able to accumulate Rogers First Rewards loyalty points. The program will let them earn points earned from spending on eligible Rogers services. The points can then be redeemed for other Rogers services such as video-on-demand and wireless long-distance calling packs.

In May 2013 CaixaBank, Santander, and Telefonica signed an agreement to create a joint venture and to develop a new digital business based on the latest mobile and communication technologies. The new company planned to start its activities with the development of an online community to manage offers, discounts, and promotions between business and customers. They also said that the joint venture would develop a Digital Wallet in which customers can keep all their cards. It will serve as identification in stores and for making purchases within the digital community, as well as being a person-to-person mobile payment service.

Three months later, China Everbright Bank signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the telecom giant China Unicom to develop business in mobile finance. The partners said that they would first focus on a mobile payment service to facilitate near field and online payments. Their cooperation will also target financial smart card research and development in order to enable cross-sector services such as paying social insurance, utility bills and buying tickets for bullet trains.

Rogers was the first telco to enter the Canadian credit card.

Financial specialists have noted that Rogers' move is ambitious and that it will be difficult for a new entrant to launch credit cards in Canada. Although Rogers has the advantage of being able to target its extensive customer database, it is worth remembering that Rogers Communications began to gain experience in banking years earlier. In May 2012, Rogers joined forces with CIBC, one of Canada's largest banks. An agreement enabled CIBC credit cardholders to make NFC payments with Rogers smartphones. This new way allowed CIBC credit card clients using a Rogers smartphone to pay for coffee, groceries, and other everyday purchases simply by holding their smartphone up to one of the tens of thousands of contactless payment terminals found in merchants across Canada.

Rogers is among many telecoms that are not simply trying to cooperate with banks but also to be a bank. At the beginning of 2014, T-Mobile attacked the financial market in the United States with the service Mobile Money. First, the operator offered the services to the unbanked and underbanked. T-Mobile’s offer includes a basic account with a pre-paid card and a mobile application. Experts compared this movement to the neobanks, with a simple and cheap package of banking products, which are often now found in the United States. As we can see, banks have a lot of interesting ideas on how to eat a piece of the financial market cake.

Partners or competitors?

The future of the alliance between banks and telecoms is not obvious. We wrote about it as a win-win cooperation, but now we cannot predict how this merger will unfold. Even the aforementioned examples from Poland and other countries do not provide a clear picture of the possible scenari-

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os. For now, most operators choose conservative model of cooperation with banks, they use banks' experience and know-how and share with them the risk of failure of new projects. Most partnerships look like this: telecoms give the brand, the client base, the distribution network, and the infrastructure to create shared services. They also have the opportunity to take part in making decisions on how new products and services will work and look like. Banks offer the banking license, know-how, and experience in financial markets. And sometimes even the IT infrastructure. How will this cooperation change and evolve in the future? Telecom operators can apply for banking licenses and become individual banks, as Rogers did in Canada. This scenario will be the beginning of the real war between partners. A second possible scenario is that operators and banks stay in alliance. Telecoms will be efficient brokers of financial services, and can sell financial services faster and better than banks.

Smart telecom banking What else do telecoms need when they start functioning as their own bank other than the formal prerequisites?

According to observed trends that are mentioned in Brett King’s book Bank 3.0, modern banking is user-centric, is integrated with social media, and takes advantages of the mobile revolution.

Comarch Smart Finance is a Mobile & Internet Banking solution that covers the integrated Personal Finance Management functionalities. It provides general banking operations, guides customers to financial fitness, and helps customers make sound financial decisions – anytime and anywhere.

Comarch Smart Finance includes a number of innovative extensions comprising Personal Assistant functionalities: alarms, reminders, messages, recommendations based on account conditions, geolocation, cash-flow, etc. It is integrated with click-to-action forms and cloud-based notifi-

cations. The system module has a built-in PFM functionality that provides a graphical overview of expenses, provides assistance with budget planning, has automated savings plans (various scenarios possible), and can analyze past expenses. Future planning is available based on a ‘Free to Spend’ indicator or P2P payments. With Comarch Smart Finance telecoms can also implement voice-banking with speech recognition and video interaction with agents and advisors, advertising and User Education, and Cross-selling Add-ons. Comarch’s solution can be adjusted to a customer’s specific needs. A fully customized graphical design according to customer's Corporate Identity is also available.

In addition, Comarch Smart Finance includes numerous standard functionalities such as accounts, payments and bills, cards, investments, profile, and administration. This solution gives unlimited access to the bank thanks to the tablet version and the smartphone version or other new channels to come, e.g., Smart TV and Smart Watch. Customers can view all their financial information in one place.

It has a smart interface design and intuitive navigation. Because it offers simple and user-friendly banking – far from the traditional accounting approach to finance – Comarch Smart Finance provides the necessary information in a simple and comprehensive way. It gives maximum effect with minimum effort, as it takes little time and energy to monitor personal finances with convenient tools and automated tasks.

Conclusions As Brett King says, the Bank is no longer a place where you go, but something we do. We are living in times of redefining financial services and payments. The global war for dominance of the mobile wallet has already started. Telecom operators have many advantages on their side. But they still need a bank as a partner and innovative technology to win.

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For now, most operators choose conservative model of cooperation with banks, they use banks’ experience and know-how and share with them the risk of failure of new projects.

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An increasing number of Polish employees, especially younger staff, who are more up to date with new technologies, prefer using in their daily work their own mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones. This rising trend is known as BYOD, or “Bring Your Own Device” (to work).

JADWIGA HANDZEL iComarch24 SA Product Manager iKsięgowość24

BY

work & remote access sing privately owned devices for work purposes carries with it a number of benefits as well as certain risks. Above all, applying the BYOD model introduces significant changes to the way employees approach their work. The classic 9-to-5 style of work gradually becomes a thing of the past. Work hours become more flexible, thus leading to increased effectiveness. According to a study carried out by Aruba Networks, roughly 45% of employees claimed they feel they are the most productive before 9 am and after 6 pm. Additionally, 64% of the respondents claimed to own at least three devices connected to the Internet. Judging by these numbers, providing the opportunity to work remotely would most likely have a positive effect on the company’s development. Another important factor is that most employees consider BYOD simply more convenient and more satisfying.

ties via remote work. The desire for flexibility and mobility seems to creep into every aspect of our work. On the one hand, it seems to be pulling us away from our assigned desk; on the other hand, it increases our commitment to work.

Having employees use their own devices for work-related tasks naturally allows the employer to cut down on expenses. After all, it is the employee who has to purchase and maintain his or her own tools and devices. According to a survey conducted by IPSOS Mori, 73% of SME’s take worker mobility into account when selecting preferred IT solutions. Plainly put: Companies that utilize the BYOD model in organizing the workplace are commonly perceived as the most attractive and progressive. An additional benefit associated with this model is that employees using their own smartphones or tablets at work can use software they are already familiar with. Last but not least, the BYOD model is known to increase employee satisfaction when it comes to achieving a good work-life balance.

The BYOD model can be safely employed in virtually every aspect of business, provided that it is skillfully implemented, follows a strong action plan to prevent data from being corrupted or lost, and limits the possibility of unauthorized access. Since every company works with data of varying levels of importance, it is recommended that a clear division be set up between data that can be accessed remotely versus critical data that can only be processed from within the company’s network. The next important step would be to establish what sort of data would be suitable for cloud storage as well as to form a strict procedure for transmitting the data. Subsequently, it is equally important to adjust the company’s IT infrastructure, its operations, and its security procedures in order to accommodate the system for remote access.

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BYOD by the numbers The BYOD model continues to gain supporters all over the world. According to a study conducted by Cisco Systems, about 60% of respondents indicated they use mobile devices in their daily work, while 35% declared that they would like to perform non-work-related activities during work hours and perform work duties beyond work hours. Additionally, 41% of clerical workers declared that they perform remote work at least once a week.

Poland is part of the trend of the increasing popularity of the BYOD model. A considerable number of managerial and executive staff already performs du-

Most companies have already embraced the BYOD model to some degree.

Research shows that approximately 89% of companies allow their employees to use privately owned devices in some aspects of their work, such as connecting to the company network. On top of that, 71% of companies provide IT support for employees who use their own devices for work purposes. Conversely, only about 11% of the surveyed entrepreneurs expressly prohibit the use of privately owned devices in performing work-related tasks.

BYOD – where to start?

The major benefits of remote access are convenience and flexibility of application in the work environment. The ability to carry out daily tasks using remote access creates new opportunities for development and growth. The rich and constantly improving offer found on the market for mobile systems integrated with ERP-class systems would certainly cater to the most demanding of clients.

In short: BYOD is a trend that will inevitably revolutionize the current way of working.

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OD

BYOD represents another point of contention in the conflict between security and utility. Beginning with front line staff and going all the way up to executives, end users often wish to use their own devices at work, because, as they say, it is more efficient, flexible, and user-friendly than the company hardware. Some organizations strive to exploit this trend by trying to transfer some of the operational cost onto their employees.

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ROBERT DĄBROWSKI Fortinet Senior Systems Engineer

work securely

he possibility of having constant remote access to a company network is known to increase a worker’s productivity and satisfaction.

However, one important caveat to this discussion has to be the potential problem of security threats. The BYOD model introduces many new challenges when it comes to network protection, data protection, and security tools due to the inevitable conflict between privacy and accessibility.

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Current market trends suggest that tablets will eventually replace laptop computers, which have thus far completely dominated the market of personal computers.

BYOD and its challenges The open network environment required for effective application of the BYOD model is impossible to control using traditional network security technologies and policies. Some of the more common difficulties associated with the BYOD model include: 1. Excessive network flooding: employees are bound to discover that it’s far more difficult to comply with their company’s safety protocols if they use the same mobile devices for work as well as playing video games, video streaming, and browsing Internet resources.

2. Loss of processing devices and/or data: Mobile devices can easily be infected with malware that passes sensitive data on to a remote computer. In addition, privately owned devices are much more likely to be lost or stolen than stationary hardware owned by the company.

When it comes to stationary hardware, it is fairly easy to isolate and shut down a security-compromised device, while a compromised personal device requires enforcing a strict policy for maintaining network security. Online hackers have long since discovered that valuable data stored on mobile devices is often poorly protected and can be easily harvested with the use of external applications.

3. Technologies and policies for BYOD safety: Some organizations plainly refuse to accept BYOD, while other companies offer limited access to specific subnetworks or applications. In certain cases, companies will

only allow users to use specific types of devices, while prohibiting other devices deemed less secure. It is easy to imagine that enforcing levels of such restrictions will not be an easy task.

From a technical standpoint, a company could achieve a fair level of device control within the network by creating a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

This solution allows connections to virtual instances to be controllable by a central server according to security and business purposes. The users remain isolated from each other, as they are only connecting to a virtual context. A similar effect can be achieved with the use of SSL VPN concentrators, which allow remote users to connect to a central server within the network and gain limited access to resources based on pre-defined authorizations. However, this solution requires a strong two-factor authentication. The software tokens currently used often come from mobile applications operating on a device used for initiating the VPN connection.

The traditional Mobile Device Management (MDM) model is not based on a consistent security policy; instead, the model focuses on software distribution, cataloging, and management. These operations ought to be naturally extended to initiate safety protocols on a mobile station and to validate that these protocols remain active during remote access to network resources. In this way, the system would install and manage anti-malware policies, protect against external attacks, and monitor web pages through a client required to pass a certification process every time it attempts to establish connection with the company network.

The mobile version of Endpoint Security Client-type software shares most of the characteristics of its desktop equivalent. However, managing the software is considerably more challenging when it comes to maintaining security standards (VPN, anti-malware). The primary concern going forward should be to integrate network security and management functions for tablets, laptops, and smartphones.

Another recommended solution is the so-called Network-Based Enforcement.

This is where company resources are protected against the consequences of unauthorized remote access and/or malware, but the access itself is not re-

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stricted. This approach emphasizes the essential role of data-controlling and forwarding infrastructure that would be efficient and intelligent enough to recognize various types of client devices. Its security and access protocols would ideally be able to identify and withstand malware, hacking attempts, as well as control data forwarding processes characteristic of specific applications. In order to limit the risk of compromising the security of company resources, Network-Based Enforcement models would also have to establish a level of control over the type of content users are available to display.

DID YOU KNOW? According to Gartner analysts, by 2016, 20% of enterprise BYOD programs will fail due to deployment of mobile device management measures that are too restrictive.

In Network-Based Enforcement, the individual security layers are built into a system based on a point-scale. The system allows out users and/or devices that constitute a potential threat to be singled out, then removed from the network.

The system would assign “penalty points” to users who violate the established security policy, e.g., 10 points for visiting a website unrelated to the user’s work responsibilities, 30 points for displaying a site with potentially harmful content, and 50 points for attempting to download a computer virus or opening a gateway for a client-side attack. It is important to note that client-side attacks are frequently underestimated, and many network operators are willing to disable security measures that protect against this type of attack to improve the network performance speed. As a result, devices attempting to connect to Internet servers by means of the company network run the risk of accessing infected websites which, in turn, would execute malicious code remotely without having to install any software on the now infected device.

The growing popularity of mobile devices and the constant desire to reduce expenses lead more and more companies to turn to wireless network solutions. One of the most convincing arguments behind the transition was the development of the 802.11n wireless networking transmission standard, which is known to be five times more efficient than the previous Wi-Fi standards, and offers a greater net data rate. As usual, however, the increased speed and responsiveness of this new technology comes at the price of increased security risks.

The question remains: How to efficiently combine management and security in wireless network structures? First, networks should be constantly monitored by security tools and devices.

Users accessing the network would have to fulfill certification and secure data transport requirements prior to authorization, which would enforce the use of permissible software. Simultaneously, it would protect the network and its users against malware, hacking attempts, and potentially harmful online content. At the same time, wireless radio technology would have to improve protective measures against hostile access points.

BYOD – a mobile-friendly environment Devices brought to work by employees usually connect to the Internet via a company Wi-Fi network. Users typically access

the network using their own unique ID’s and passwords. This does not mean that their laptops, tablets, and smartphones are part of the company’s policy of network security, as this would require adding all of the devices to the company’s intranet. However, it would be literally impossible to install domain agents on all of the mobile devices due to the variety of types and versions of operating systems. Enabling access for these unmanaged devices undeniably increases risk of malware infection and data leakage, not to mention the fact that it may also heavily increase network load through the use of external streaming applications, such as Internet radio or video streaming services. Another important point to consider is that any network security policy is almost impossible to enforce outside of the company network. The employee’s devices cease to be protected by the central security platform when they are not connected to the intranet. This makes it especially difficult considering that employees frequently use the same devices for work and private purposes. Additionally, privately owned devices are at risk of being stolen and, in the absence of suitable safety measures, may be the cause of a critical data leak.

Would it be better to simply prohibit the use of privately owned devices during work and, conversely, use company hardware for purposes not related to work?

Though it might be possible to enforce such a strict policy, it would inevitably carry a negative impact on the productivity and motivation of the staff. Besides, it would mean waging a futile war on a trend that continues to gain in popularity throughout the world, including Poland.

A study initiated by Fortinet only confirms that the BYOD trend is rapidly spreading all over the world. According to their research, 74% of respondents – 69% in Poland – indicated using their private mobile devices for work purposes. Employees are able to receive and answer emails, or even download files from the corporate network, while on a train, at home, or while on vacation. This solution is convenient for the employees and it benefits the company by enabling workers to continue being productive outside of work.

Generation Y carries the strong conviction that using personal mobile devices in a work-related context is a right, and not a privilege. According to the study, this opinion is shared by at least 55% respondents worldwide. In Poland, the results turned out to vary slightly from the average: only 46% of workers see it as their due; 54% view it as a privilege.

The study explains why younger workers prefer to bring their own laptops, tablets, and smart phones to work. Most of them simply enjoy using their own devices and having constant access to familiar software. About 33% respondents in Poland and across the world share this opinion. Some 26% of international respondents (only around 14% in Poland) claimed that using

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

INNOVATION IN PRACTICE

their own mobile devices makes them more effective at work.

However, it is also important to observe that as many as 26% of Polish respondents declared they do not wish to use their own devices for work. This number is almost twice as high as the average number in the rest of the world (about 15%).

2. Access control: after identifying the type of device and its operating system, the network security system automatically assigns it to its respective group.

In addition to pre-defined categories, the system administrator may create new groups when needed.

How do network security solutions work to protect BYOD environment?

3. Network resource protection: the system assigns security profiles with various levels of permissions for each device. The profiles can be assigned either to each individual device or groups of devices.

Companies specializing in network security solutions have already developed new versions of operating systems capable of identifying devices and users within an intranet. Creating a new security policy no longer relies solely on recognizing IP addresses, but also relies on recognizing specific devices and their users.

AWARENESS Device identification

wit out using intermediary agents

Access control

etwork resource protection

Policies based on types o devices

UTM profiles

agent-based device detection

Figure 1. Establishing security policy of network resources based on device detection.

1. Device identification: usually carried out without using intermediary agents. The network security system can identify every device used to access the intranet and does not require additional authentication software to be installed on that device. This is accomplished through a number of ways, such as identifying the communication traffic patterns characteristic of various types of devices.

By comparison, the agent-based device detection identifies devices by means of a pre-installed software agent, which is generally considered more reliable, even in the case of remote access.

A current solution involves creating a client reputation database, which would effectively prevent potentially malicious activities within the network and accurately pinpoint their perpetrators. The concept of client reputation database involves assigning “penalty points” to users who violate the established security policy, i.e., attempt to gain illegitimate access, generate excessive or fake traffic, use prohibited applications such as P2P, visit websites hosted in certain countries without justifiable business purposes, or display certain sites which might contain malware, such as sites with adult content.

Establishing a client reputation database with a system of penalty points may convince users to communicate to the administrators any instances of questionable user behavior they encounter. The graph below shows a preview of a sample reputation database.

The leading providers of security solutions strive to keep pace with the ever-changing landscape of the Internet and company networks. Entire dedicated teams of risk assessment specialists collaborate with software and hardware developers to create effective and reliable security systems that would be accessible and easy to manage.

In short: BYOD is a trend gaining increased popularity among employees, yet at the same time, it creates new challenges for employers and manufacturers of network security systems.

Figure 2. Monitoring the user reputation database .

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

29

Glossary BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) – a recent trend based on allowing employers to use their own data-processing devices (i.e., smartphones, tablets, and laptops) for jobrelated purposes.

SSL VPN Concentrator – an advanced type of solution allowing for remote access to company resources via a secure, encoded communication channel.

Software tokens – type of software used to generate single-use passwords allowing for multi-staged security certification.

Anti-malware – type of software that protects against malicious attacks.

Client-side attacks – exploiting loopholes in the client station security protocol in order to gain control over them, e.g., while displaying infected websites.

30

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

OPTIMAL MANAGEMENT of field service for Orange Polska Field Intervention Management Comarch’s solution enabled us to introduce major improvements and streamlining in the organization. As a result, we could reduce operational costs. The system not only automated dispatching tasks but also, thanks to the integration, became a basic tool for completing the department’s everyday work.

Krzysztof Zielosko, Director of Network Support Tools, Orange Polska

To optimally manage the network infrastructure of a large operator it requires highly skilled specialists and perfect coordination of fieldwork. At the same time, maintaining the broad network and employing qualified staff generates significant costs. In the competitive and saturated telecommunications market, reducing these costs becomes a significant way of improving profitability.

Orange Polska, part of France Telecom Group, decided to simultaneously attain two critical goals: reduce the costs of network service and improve the quality of performed tasks. Comarch’s implementation of dedicated solution was part of the Lean Management project in the department responsible for network service. The network under discussion comprises over 300,000 square kilometers and more than 20 million subscribers.

structure service and include all activities performed by employees. The orders for certain tasks had to match numerous locations and various specialists in a given time. In addition, the scope of the project defined several thousand of unique field activities performed by technicians requiring different skills.

From the outset it was clear that apart from the project scale, the tasks of implementing new technologies and establishing new attitudes in an organization that had strongly defined and stable structures would be major challenge. Introducing mobile devices, geographical information systems, and automated task scheduling were all bound to generate anxiety among users of the new system.

The business objectives: Centralize field work management Utilize the new system to manage sophisticated orders related to network management

The Challenge The main challenge was to provide an automated system to regional and independent field units performing tasks in certain network areas. The system therefore had to correspond with a broad and decentralized organization of network infra-

Increase efficiency of work assignments and allocation of transport resources Automate tasks dispatching

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

Comarch FSM architecture

Network inventory

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

Trouble ticketing

Network objects

Orders

Appointments

Field Work Orders Orders and Tasks

Resources

31

Time Management

Automatic Dispatcher

Dispatchers

Maps

Field Technicians

Mobile

Reporting

Management

Figure 1. Comarch FSM architecture

Introduce tools enabling real-time task management with special focus on fixing network failures Centralize monitoring and field situation analysis allowing for constant improvements to organization and technology

The Solution To implement a new solution in such a big organization, the work had to be completed in stages. The new system had to take into account the time necessary for the adaptation of the solution. It also had to allow for the introduction of changes that would facilitate better results in the area of optimizing work.

The solution consisted of a set of modules. The primary modules – supporting field and back office employees – included: Dispatcher Dashboard ensuring easy to use graphical tools, including Gantt charts, for manipulating the assignment of work orders Automated Scheduling for accepting and dispatching orders for execution in the field.

The module performs its tasks with no human involvement. Additionally, it is fully configurable, which enables the automation to be customized to fit Orange business goals. Moreover, the solution initially could function in the confirmation mode, which facilitated safely introducing automated scheduling into production processes Resource and Skill Management – the system stores technicians’ detailed schedules together

with the skills assigned to each employee. This allows for the automation of task dispatching. The system also contains several thousand of different skills matched with type of work and technology Digital Map ensures optimal route planning and real-time monitoring of tasks locations, technicians, and network objects Mobile Access – a mobile application for real-time information on the list of tasks and feedback on task execution Reporting – comprehensive reporting system for report scheduling and for advanced analysis based on data available in the system The system is integrated with the operator’s environment, including network inventory systems and trouble ticketing tools.

Results

Orange Polska S.A. is the leading supplier of telecommunications services in Poland. Orange Polska provides, amongst other, fixed voice, fixed broadband access, TV and Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) services.

It provides mobile services, including LTE-based services, third generation UMTS services and services based on the CDMA technology.

In addition, the Orange Polska Capital Group provides leased lines, radiocommunications and other telecommunications value added services, sells te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s equipment, electronic phone cards and provides data transmission, multimedia services and various Internet services.

The Orange brand is highly appreciated by Polish consumers for the choice and quality of the services offered. Currently, mobile and fixed voice, mobile and fixed broadband, data transmission as well as multimedia services: mobile television, mobile portal and music content are provided under the Orange brand. www.orange.pl

The solution allowed Orange Polska to reach established business objectives including: Successful implementation of Lean Management methodology for field service units responsible for maintaining the operator’s network Increased efficiency of field staff and dispatchers Complete analysis of resource allocation and usage

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

32

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

MULTI-MARKET TRANSFORMATION IMPROVES TIME TO MARKET AND THE COST OF SERVICE DELIVERY IN THE BUSINESS CUSTOMER SEGMENT European Tier 1 Operator The Challenge With the ultimate goal of improving the experience of its business customers, a European Tier 1 operator decided to undertake an ambitious multi-market transformation comprising three different markets.

The challenge was to deliver new services to business customers on all of these markets faster and cheaper, while providing a market specific and individualized offering approach and thus delivering real added

value for enterprises. Additionally, as digital services delivered to enterprises are composed of elements provided both by the operator and third parties, the solution needed to ensure that partners’ capabilities can easily be added to the operator’s own product catalog.

To face these challenges, the operator needed to introduce a solution that would best fit the requirements of the project, one that would provide the flexibility required to manage everything from one place:

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

Three mature markets – 3 languages, 3 currencies, 3 tax regimes

To be able to cooperate with local and crosscountry partners

Three mature organizations with own processes and IT architectures – operations in sophisticated, heterogeneous IT environments resulted in fragmented information

To unify the product/service portfolio across three countries, while being able to cater to marketspecific needs and to deliver customization capabilities as an option

Three different networks and local partners supporting the business

To perform the transformation smoothly and ensure undisrupted work of the existing systems and processes To have all IT systems driven by business requirements and to eliminate systems which constrain business operations

To shorten time to market of new services for business customers

• Next Generation Service Fulfillment (NGSF): • Service Order Management • Service Fulfillment • Service Inventory • Service Activation • Convergent Billing

To address the unique requirements of each business customer, thus providing more value for this segment To pave the way for digital services – as the services are based on complex value chains, the operator needed to be able to smoothly incorporate partners’ products into its own product catalog

To increase the precision of order capturing and delivery processes, while significantly reducing their cost To eliminate the gap between the design of the commercial solution and the technical processes required to implement it

FRONT OFFICE, DEALERS, CUSTOMERS CRM for Telecoms

BPM

Order Capture

CRM & PCM area Order Manager

Order Configurator

Convergent Billing System

Product Catalog Management

Product Inventory

Service Catalog

Service Inventory

Service Fulfillment Billing Mediation

ESB / Integration Layer

Billing System area Fufillment / Provisioning area

COMARCH’S PRODUCTS & SERVICES:

• Service Catalog

The Business Need

Functional Areas

33

OSS PM

Service Activation

NETWORKS & MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS Order Establishment

Catalog Data Access & Sharing

Order Management & Fulfillment

Instance Data Access & Sharing

Service Component Activation

Service Usage Information Flow

Figure 1. Solution architecture built around centralized product and service catalogs

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

• CRM • Product Catalog Management

34

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

The Result Efficiency gains in the overall order-to-delivery process (B2B market) Automation gains in B2B broadband service orders Common IT operations thanks to a single multi-country solution instance

The Approach In order to improve offering management processes and time to market, and enable marketing and product managers to build new services quickly and easily, Comarch assumed an approach that would lead to increased service reusability and automation of product management processes.

To support this approach, Comarch proposed an IT architecture built around a centralized and pre-integrated product and service catalogs, placed at the heart of the BSS/ OSS ecosystem. The expectation was to enable to smoothly align the business and technical aspects of the offerings and lead to the entire IT ecosystem being driven by the defined business needs. It will enable a fast reaction to the changing market conditions – by making any modifications in the existing offerings more efficient (easier, faster and cheaper).

The Solution The operator was looking to introduce an umbrella BSS/OSS Solution serving three different markets (countries) with their own product offerings for business customers.

To support the operator’s goals the implemented system included the following functionalities: Product Catalog Management with flexible product/offer creation and lifecycle orchestration/ shortening – enabling shorter time to market for new products/product bundles targeted towards business customers Consistent order management & service fulfillment across the entire organization Dedicated CRM with a single, 360° customer view – one system for all three countries – ensuring complete information concerning business customers gathered in one place

a critical success factor for aligning business and technical aspects of product design. Furthermore, the ability to utilize selected capabilities of the existing legacy systems, while bypassing others, allowed the transformation to be executed in a phased approach, avoiding high upfront costs and the risks that go hand in hand with a revolutionary approach.

The solution architecture is centered on two elements, which drive all processes: Comarch Product Catalog Management (PCM – product catalog) is a central source of product and offering information.

It ensures the rapid deployment of new products and offerings and their publication through sales channels, without the need for any extra configuration to support the new offers in the IT systems. PCM drives the operations of the entire core BSS, including Order Capture, Order Management, Product Inventory and Billing.

Comarch Next Generation Service Fulfillment increases service delivery automation, thanks to decomposing the services in its service catalog and dynamically constructs the required delivery flows from service factories defined at the service component level.

The Result Efficiency gains in the overall order-to-delivery process (B2B market) 87% to 91% overall reduction of human time required for order-to-delivery processes Figures measured in the new production deployment against the legacy stack Automation gains in B2B broadband service orders Full (100%) automation in service order handling (order fulfillment) Removal of manual work in service order handling

Flexible business customer billing covers negotiable offer pricing, as well as custom and split billing and is flexible enough to enable tailoring the offers to the specific needs of customers. The catalog-driven approach of the project encompassed a range of highly reusable service components that are used to automate fulfillment processes. It is forecasted that additional time-to-market savings and operational benefits will be attained thanks to this.

The introduction of catalog-driven fulfillment (with an integrated product and service catalog) turned out to be

Entire catalog-driven order decomposition and orchestration Common IT operations thanks to a single multi-country solution instance Single consolidated BSS/OSS solution (from CRM to fulfillment) Supporting the delivery of the same products through different networks

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

PLUS COMMUNICATION

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

35

ENTERS THE GSM MARKET in Albania with Comarch BSS Suite

Challenges

P

lus Communication (previously Mobile 4 Al / M4AL – operator of the PLUS network) challenged the Albanian mobile market in 2010 by acquiring a license to operate in the GSM900 and GSM1800

spectrums in Albania. Its goal was to become the leading mobile operator in Albania with a strategic focus on customer satisfaction, innovation & quality of service.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

•

Comarch Billing Mediation – a complete set of functions for flexible and powerful interfacing aimed to extract usage data from both network and business entities (e.g. data from roaming clearing houses in different formats and protocols, and delivery of electronic

36

data records (EDRs) in a file format expected by the billing system. Upon processing the gathered data, the mediation module also

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

performs tasks such as data decoding, filtering, record de-duplication and enrichment.

Back Office

Billing Admin

Front Office

CM Admin

WWW Layer

GUI

Comarch Customer Management

Billing System Front-End

Comarch Business Process Management PLUS Business Systems & Interfaces

Comarch Convergent Billing System Customers

Product Catalogue

Resource Inventory

Accounts

Rating, billing, discounting

Reporting

Service subscriptions

Invoicing

Payment Collection

Contracting Requests

Distributed Data Processing Server (Rating Engine)

Payments (Transfer files)

Data Loading (Mass Processes)

Business Intelligence (Data Warehouse)

Comarch Billing Mediation Provisioning File

Print House

CDR Processing CDR

PLUS Network

General Ledger

GGSN

CDR

SMSC

CDR

CDR CLEARING HOUSE

MSC

Roaming Exchange

Figure 1. Four integrated COTS products from Comarch’s BSS portfolio

COMARCH’S PRODUCTS & SERVICES: Comarch Convergent Billing

In order to be granted the license, PLUS had to meet strict requirements of the local regulator regarding the provisioning of mobility services and having a fully operational mobile network in a very short timeframe. PLUS needed a fully-fledged BSS solution that would be ready to serve first customers within a few months from the project start.

Comarch proposed a phased implementation model, which divided the project into three phases. Such an approach was chosen as an optimal solution for PLUS in terms of scope, schedule and costs, based on Comarch’s experience with previous mobile startup projects.

The project phases included: Comarch Customer Management Comarch Business Process Management

Requirements for the project included: Maximally short time between the project start and the first customer visit in a shop Flexible and agile approach to the project

Comarch Billing Mediation

Non-movable “go-live” date A solution that would cover the whole BSS area and that would be composed of off-the-shelf products (i.e. mediation, postpaid rating, billing / reporting / invoicing, payments module, order management, customer module)

The Approach The project approach was focused on the ultimate goal of a short time frame for the service launch, which was forced by the local regulatory body, as well as on PLUS’ strategic objectives, including strong customer cooperation and an ability to use as many out-of-the-box functionalities as possible.

Phase 1 – functionalities required to start selling the services to customers Phase 2A – functionalities related to rating, invoicing and payments Phase 2B – functionalities such as reporting, automatic payments, trouble ticketing and general ledger (GL) export Phase 1 lasted 1,5 months – so this means PLUS was able to start registering first customers 6 weeks after the project had started. The whole project was finished within 4,5 months from the starting date, which provided PLUS with a significant competitive advantage and enabled it to meet the regulatory requirements.

Once the implementation finished, Comarch’s cooperation with PLUS was continued and extended e.g. with migration to a new hardware platform, required due to the growth of the operator’s customer base.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

The Solution

37

decoding, filtering, record de-duplication and enrichment

The implemented solution consisted of four integrated COTS products from Comarch’s BSS portfolio: Comarch Convergent Billing provides a complete billing functionality for postpaid and prepaid convergence – in the project for PLUS, because of the project requirements, it was installed with its postpaid modules only. It’s architecture is based on two main modules - a central database and a highly efficient, scalable Data Processing Server.

The database stores all data of PLUS customers, including reference, financial and usage data.

An embedded product catalog module handles the definition of tariffs and products. The Data Processing Server was deployed on a costeffective hardware platform, ready for the future growth of PLUS customer base Comarch Customer Management – a web- based frontend for customer management includes customer registration, service contracting, account data management and more. A user friendly and intuitive user interface can be used in call centers, by customer service representatives, as well as in multiple shop locations, since it can be accessed from any PC via a web browser Comarch Business Process Management – a flexible and powerful business process integration component with a workflow management functionality, allowing for fast and reliable definition of business workflow processes for customer management Comarch Billing Mediation – a complete set of functions for flexible and powerful interfacing aimed to extract usage data from both network and business entities (e.g. data from roaming clearing houses in different formats and protocols, and delivery of electronic data records (EDRs) in a file format expected by the billing system. Upon processing the gathered data, the mediation module also performs tasks such as data

Being both a software vendor and an integrator, Comarch was able to provide not only strong products, but also customization services, necessary to adopt the solution to the requirements specified in the RFP, as well as integration with external systems.

The Results Implementation of a fully-fledged billing & customer management solution finished in a very short time (4,5 months) enabled PLUS to meet the regulatory requirements Shorter time-to-market for launching new tariffs and services, thanks to a modern, open product catalog Possibility to offer great customer experience, thanks to a user-friendly web-based portal for call centers, customer service representatives and retail outlets Very good efficiency of CDR (call detail records) collection and their delivery to the billing system, thanks to integration of the BSS solution with corresponding network elements A phased approach enabled PLUS to expand the solution scope according to business strategy and requirements A future-proof solution thanks to easy integration with external systems coupled with great performance and scalability Multiple configuration options with regards to customer management processes, thanks to a flexible business process management (BPM) engine

Why Comarch PLUS recognized Comarch as a well-known BSS solution provider, with global and regional experience. Comarch’s BSS solution

met all PLUS’ requirements and was offered as a set of out-ofthe-box features, with only a slight amount of customizations.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

Plus Communication (PLUS) / Mobile 4 AL Plus Communication SH.A. (Albanian: PLUS) is a telecommunication company headquartered in Tirana, Albania. It is the first Albanian mobile telecommunication company and 4th mobile operator in Albania. It is also the sponsor of the Albanian football team.

Headquarters: Albania Number of subscribers: 100,000 Business type: Mobile operator Technology: GSM 900/1800 launched June 2009

38

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

MobileMobile operators’ Mobile operators’CEM CEM strategies: strategies: operators’ CEM strategies:

The market reality The market reality The market reality

Every operator in the industry will argue emphatically that the experience customers have of their service is crucial to their ongoing success.

As industry operators’ offerings become increasingly homogenised, and price-based competition more Every operator in the will argue emphatically that the experience customers have of their service isever crucial todiffi their cult to sustain, operators are embracing Experience Management (CEM) a key differentiator.

Butever just more how much ongoing success.

As operators’ offeringsCustomer become increasingly homogenised, and as price-based competition diffivery operator in will argue emphatically that the experience customers have of their is crucial theirjust ongoing sucofthe what we hear reflects realembracing commitment and activity—and how much, for(CEM) the moment, just talk? to But cult toindustry sustain, operators are Customer Experience Management asservice a keyisdifferentiator. how much cess. As operators’ offerings become increasingly homogenised, and price-based competition ever more difficult to sustain, operators are of what we hear reflects real commitment and activity—and how much, for the moment, is just talk? embracing Customer Experience Management (CEM) as a key differentiator.

But just how much of what we hear reflects real commitment One of the difficulties the industry faces with CEM is that, as we will see, it can still mean different things to different peoand activity—and how much, thedifficulties moment, is just talk? faces ple. But there is growing acceptance that,with if it CEM is to is mean atsee, all, CEM must end-to-end. musttotake a customOne offorthe the industry that,anything as we will it can still be mean different Itthings different peoer-centric view all of an operator’sthat, processes, and customer touch points.

This is the Itgoal that many operaple.

But there is of growing acceptance if it is toservices mean anything at all, CEM must be end-to-end. must take a customOne of the difficulties theer-centric industry that, as strategies—but weprocesses, will see, it can different things topoints. different people. ismany growing actors have faces established their CEM forstill themean purposes of this survey we are interested inthere the situation today. view with of allCEM offoranis operator’s services and customer touch This is the But goal that operaceptance that, if it is to mean anything at all, CEM must be end-to-end.

It must take a customer-centric view of all of an operator’s processes, sertors have established for their CEM strategies—but for the purposes of this survey we are interested in the situation today. vices and customer touch points. This isIntelligence the goal that established for their CEMand strategies—but for thewith purposes of the thismarsurTelecoms.com set many out tooperators chart the have gap between the aspirations ideals associated CEM and vey we are interested in Telecoms.com the situation today.

Intelligence set out to chart the gap between the aspirations and ideals associated with CEM and the marWe wanted to find out what operators believe they can achieve with CEM and how and when they intend to make progress.

Telecoms.com Intelligence out to thewhat gap between aspirations idealswith associated the market reality.

We progress. surveyed We set wanted tochart find out operatorsthe believe they canand achieve CEM andwith howCEM and and when they intend to make more than 50 executivesThate mobile operators for insights into CEM strategy at their organisation.

We wanted to find out what operators results, as you might expect, highlighted some key differences between where these organisations are todabelieve y a nd they can achieve with CEM and they to make in Twhere he resthey uhow lts, would aand s yowhen ulike migto htbe exintend pethe ct, hfuture. igh lighThey teprogress. d salso ome revealed key differsome encesofbthe etwechallenges en where tthat heseoperators organisatface ionsas arethey todawork y andto make CEM business—ranging from issues of project to backthat end operators complexities—as some where theycentral would to liketheir to be in the future. They also revealed some ownership of the challenges face aswell theyaswork to The results, as you mightmake highlighted somebusiness—ranging key differences between whereofthese organisations today where they would likesome to be ofexpect, theCEM benefits they to derive. central to expect their from issues project ownership toare back endand complexities—as well as in the future. They also revealed some ofthey theexpect challenges that operators face as they work to make CEM central to their business—ranging from isof the benefits to derive. sues of project ownership to back end complexities—as well asbecome some of athe benefits they expect to derive.

It became clear that, if CEM really is to central point of differentiation for mobile operators, there is a great deal work to clear be done.

Itofbecame that, if CEM really is to become a central point of differentiation for mobile operators, there is a great deal It became clear that, if CEM reallytoisbetodone. become a central point of differentiation for mobile operators, there is a great deal of work to be done. of work

E

58.8% 58.8%

13.7%

21.6% 21.6%

29.4% 29.4%

Does your company have a Does yourincompany have strategy place that putsa CEM strategy in place that puts CEM at the heart of end-to-end at the heartfor of end-to-end operations all departments? operations for all departments?

13.7%

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

1 CEM is limited only to CRM

3 CEM is limited to quality of service

to CRM to understanding 21 CEM is limited only

to quality concept of service an overreaching 3 CEM is limited 4

the behaviour of customers 2 CEM is limited to understanding the behaviour of customers

How would you describe your How would you describe your company’s approach to CEM? company’s approach to CEM?

involving all departments 4 CEM is an overreaching concept involving all departments

76.5 % 76.5 % Yes Yes

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014 01/2014 Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

9.8% 9.8%

13 .7 % 13 .7 %

I don ’t know I don ’t know

No No

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

39

Does your company have a strategy Does your company have a strategy to develop a fully integrated view of its customers? to develop a fully integrated view of its customers?

62 .7 % 62 .7 %

2 7. 5% 2 7. 5%

9. 8% 9. 8%

Yes - for all customers

Yes - for all customers

Yes - for all customers

Yes - for all customers

Yes - for all customers

Yes - for all customers

50

What are your What are your company’s main company’s challenges main challenges to implementing to animplementing integrated an integrated CEM programme?

CEM programme?

50 40 40

47.1% 44%

47.1%

49%

Lack of data analytics tools to automate CEM related activities Lack of data analytics tools to automate CEM Poor inter-departmental conmunication related activities

49%

44%

25.5%

Poor inter-departmental conmunication Obtaining a consistant view of the customer due to many sources of information Obtaining a consistant view of the customer Inability to align technical view of the network due to many sources of information with the influence on the customer experience Inability to align technical view of the network No budget in placeon the customer experience with the influence

25.5%

No budget in place Lack of senior management buy-in

30 30

23.5%

20

23.5%

20

15.7%

Lack of senior management buy-in

15.7%

10 10 0 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

1

2

3

4

5

6

KNOWN UNKNOWNS KNOWN UNKNOWNS KNOWN UNKNOWNS

One of the revelations of this survey was how frequently the ‘I don’t know’ response was selected. The survey uncovered some fundamental gaps in awareness: Oneper of the of this survey howhow frequently 7.1 centrevelations of respondents did notwas know to categorise their company’s involvement in CEM. the ‘I don’t know’ response was selected. The survey uncovered some fundamental gaps in awareness: One of the revelations of this survey wasknow how frequently 10.3 per cent of respondents did not which C-level executive has ultimate responsibility for CEM in their the ‘I don’t know’ response was selected. The survey uncovered some fundamental gaps in awareness: organisation • 7.1 per cent of respondents did not know how to categorise their company’s involvement in CEM. • 10.3per percent cent of respondents respondents did not know which C-leveltheir executive has ultimate responsibility for CEM in their 10.9 know company wasinvolvement working toindevelop • 7.1 per cent ofofrespondents diddid notnot know how whether to categorise their company’s CEM. a fully integrated viewof its organisation customers.

• 10.3 per cent of respondents did not know which C-level executive has ultimate responsibility for CEM in their • 10.9 per cent of respondents did not know whether their company was working to develop a fully integrated organisation 11.1 per its cent of respondents did knot know whether their company had an end-to-end CEM strategy in place viewof customers.

• 10.9per percent cent of of respondents respondents did not know whether company working to owns develop a fully 13.4 not know whichtheir team in theirwas organisation the CEMintegrated programme and reports its • 11.1 per cent of respondents diddid knot know whether their company had an end-to-end CEM strategy in place viewof its customers.

• 13.4 per cent of respondents did not know which team in their organisation owns the CEM programme and reports results.

• 11.1 per cent of respondents did knot know whether their company had an end-to-end CEM strategy in place its results.

14.3 didnot not know which tools andorganisation systems their company uses in its and CEMreports programme.

• 13.4per percent cent of of respondents respondents did know which team in their owns the CEM programme

• 14.3 per cent of respondents did not know which tools and systems their company uses in its CEM programme. its results.

• 14.3 per of respondents did needs not know which tools andtosystems their company uses in its CEM programme.

If, as seems to cent beto widely agreed, CEM to be be effective, it is surprising If, as seems be widely agreed, CEM needs to end-to-end be end-to-end to be effective, it is surprisingthat thatsosomany manyfundamentals are unkown fundamentals are unkown by operator employees.

It suggests that operators have much to do in terms of by operator employees.

It suggests that operators have much to do in terms of internal communication tointernal ensure that all teams are If, as seems to be widely agreed, CEM needs to be end-to-end to be effective, it is surprising that so many communication to ensure that allimplementation teams are up to of speed on the importance and implementation of successful CEM. up to fundamentals speed on theare importance and successful CEM. unkown by operator employees. It suggests that operators have much to do in terms of internal communication to ensure that all teams are up to speed on the importance and implementation of successful CEM.

For more information on this research, please download the entire document available at: http://www.comarch.com/telecommunications/resources/white-papers/mobile-operators-cem-strategies-survey/

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014 01/2014 Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

FIELD SERVICE in Salsa rhythms

he salsa is a well-known dance style. Although people all over the world try to dance it, it is the people from Latin American that have it in their blood. You see a couple on the floor and you know that they are not simply tourists but people from there. The same situation exists with the approach to field service organization. Field service exists all over the world but it can’t be copied verbatim from the United States or Europe to Latin America. It has to follow the Latin approach to business, Latin culture. It has to follow the Salsa.

T

SZYMON UCZCIWEK Comarch SA FSM Product Manager, Telecommunications Business Unit

While delivering field service management (FSM) in Latin America, I took note of how field service tools can meet these tricky differences in field workforce management. Below are several of these features and functions of tools. These processes are, in my experience, quite significant from the perspective of LatAm FSM projects.

Manage technicians the right way Let’s start from how field service is organized. Technicians, or in general, all employees or service provider subcontractors in Latin America, are highly identified with their company. In most cases, they have uniforms with their company’s logo, they have a company van, and so on. When technician means company, field service managers are almost forced to monitor them and check the exact quality of their work. From the perspective of a software tool, for example, this means that a system is able to help technicians be on a customer’s site on time. The software can show only the next work to do, activate services needed for being on the customer’s site (system must check validation rules for work order closure), and audit their work afterwards to be sure that required quality of service and customer satisfaction.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

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firmed meetings are cancelled or go into unscheduled status instead. This tool can help to improve meeting planned schedule by 80%.

Confirm right location of installation and service call We now have technicians and customers at the right time to start field task execution. What is a must is to be sure that the technician knows the customer’s exact physical location.

Address structures are built in many ways according to the rules of a country or city. Addresses do not always include a street name, house number, flat number, or floor number.

Providing the nearest cross street or the nearest well recognized point (such as a square or shopping center) is not enough. The system must help to give technicians the coordinates for the correct location. During work order registration, the call center may check work order coordinates on the map, then send them to technician with work order details. Technicians already on-site may automatically correct the given coordinates. Thus, the location in the customer database is 100% correct.

Prioritize and prioritize In my experience, no other region prioritizes customers like Latin America. VIP customers, special products, uniquely defined quality rules (like third-service call in a given time), payment methods, and payment timing result in different priorities and different service levels being assigned to work orders.

This, of course, makes sense, as it results in targeting profitable customers with better service. From field service tools, this means that tasks are scheduled according to SLA (in 6 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours or 2 weeks ;)). The higher priority allows other tasks to be unscheduled when something important must be done with emergency priority.

Ensure customer is on-site in accordance with the appointment

Be sure customer knows the status

FSM, which must ensure that technicians are on-site at the right time, also faces the challenge of customers. In fact, the customer must be also there for a successful appointment.

There is a high probability that a visit set with the customer precisely three days previously no longer exists in the customer’s memory or calendar as the appointment approaches. According to our research, this is the main reason for unsuccessful visits with many LatAm service providers. Fortunately, the right tools can also help to resolve this issue.

First, the customer can receive an SMS just prior to the visit. The customer can confirm or reschedule the visit by SMS or by a self-care option. Secondly, (when priority is high), the process may be built in: all installations or service calls are confirmed one hour before the meeting, while uncon-

When resolving work orders, it can happen that the problem is somewhere other than in customers’ CPEs. It can be somewhere in the network, and problem resolution can take time. When it takes time, customers quickly lose their patience. It is important that they are given status updates as often as possible.

This can be simply resolved with automated e-mails or SMS after a dedicated flag is set. Customers then find the company to be professional while at the same time call center time is saved when CSRs no longer have to respond to angry callers.

The aforementioned issues and solutions are not all the differences one can have in the FSM approach in LatAm. You notice that these differences are not big but may quite significantly affect the result of implementing management tools.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

FSM, which must ensure that technicians are on-site at the right time, also faces the challenge of customers. In fact, the customer must be also there for a successful appointment.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Smooth customer journeys as an important differentiator for telecoms in the digital world

What do business departments, product and service managers need in their IT tool belts to ensure great customer experience.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

ustomer satisfaction is no longer just a challenge for business and marketing teams in telecom companies, but also for departments that handle products and services. According to Gartner, in the digital age, memorable customer experiences must be designed, not left to chance. Customers have more choices, augmented by more information from more sources, than ever before.

They can as easily express their opinions to millions, just as they can move their business elsewhere. Customer experience determines which organizations will be winners.1

C

entrepreneur therefore requests an upgrade of his Internet to 100 MB via a self-service portal, but at the same time he checks other available offers. Soon thereafter, Winner’s customer service agent contacts John. He receives information about a promotional package with additional options for business customers. He can choose from among free storage and backup, an e-mail box, and access to further cloud-based applications for SMEs: human resources, accounting, and Microsoft license tools. Ultimately, John chooses the promotional Internet package with the free storage and backup option.

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AGNIESZKA CZULAK Comarch SA

A Digital Customer’s journey John DIGITAL, a young self-employed entrepreneur, has recently moved to a new city. He is willing to start his business activity in a new environment, and that this environment is productive is a must for him. In addition to comfortable office space, he needs to be efficiently connected with his current customers and prospects. First, he needs a good but inexpensive Internet connection in his office. John compares offers available on the websites of local communication service providers (CSPs) and decides to subscribe to INTERNET 50 MB via the website of the WINNER Operator.

The next month, the number of tasks to be done in John’s office grows, yet the Internet speed seems to be too slow. Our

John DIGITAL is interested in the Fixed Internet offer

WINNER Operator proposes a business package with promotional price

John DIGITAL & Tom GEEK get interested in Mobile Voice 200

WINNER operator proposes All-in-One offer with Fixed Internet and Mobile Voice

50 MB or 100 MB

Additional options

Pool of minutes

100 MB & 200 minutes

The start-up is growing fast, which is why Mr. Digital takes on a new staff member. In order to stay connected during their business trips, and to share common documents over the cloud, they need an advanced mobile package. The new employee, Tom GEEK, scans the telecommunications forums and chats and discusses the best promotions with other users.

The MOBILE VOICE 200 package, with two high-quality smartphones, a pool of 200 minutes, and two tablets with unlimited mobile Internet, seems the most appropriate.

BSS Solution Manager, Telecommunications Business Unit

John DIGITAL contacts WINNER’S call center in order to negotiate the best offer. After a detailed discussion, the customer service representative proposes the ALL-IN-ONE package, with fixed Internet, mobile voice, and mobile Internet. John DIGITAL is satisfied with the proposed package and accepts the new terms.

He will test the package with Tom GEEK and immediately report

John DIGITAL chooses Fixed Internet with 50 MB

Fixed Internet with options back-up & storage, e-mail box, apps in the cloud

MOBILE VOICE package is chosen: 2 smartphones, 2 tablets, and unlimited mobile Internet

All-in-One package is contracted with Fixed Internet 100 MB and Mobile Voice 200 min

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

Faster Internet

Option to be chosen

Comparison of offers

Interactions

John DIGITAL is upgraded to Fixed Internet 100 MB and gets a new modem

John DIGITAL gets Fixed Internet with promotional price and Back-up option

John DIGITAL & Tom GEEK wish to get an advanced mobile voice package

WINNER operator provides the highest QoS to Mr. DIGITAL and Mr. GEEK

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The digital ecosystem requires CSPs to be proactive in proposing competitive offers to the demanding residential and business customers.

all issues, delays in device delivery, and/or poor quality of communication to the Operator. He knows that there are many other CSPs willing to convince his company to order their services .

Understanding your Digital Customer The questions CSPs need to be able to answer in the digital era

LEARN MORE ABOUT COMARCH ORDER-TO-CASH AUTOMATION SOLUTION

CLICK HERE

The digital ecosystem requires CSPs to be proactive in proposing competitive offers to the demanding residential and business customers. The number of offers available on the market continues to grow, while at the same time customer expectations expand proportionally. Preventing customers from leaving and signing with the competition is also becoming very challenging.

Services currently required by customers are far more than the standard telecommunications services. For example, business customers are eager to take advantage of tailored solutions, including backup and storage, as well as cloudbased applications for SMEs. Residential customers want to stay connected via multiple devices (smartphones, tablets, and laptops) and benefit from the latest technologies. The new era of services has started. Only the strongest players – those that can get ahead of their competitors – will succeed.

CSPs need to find answers to the following questions: How has social technology changed our customers? How to satisfy the digital customer? What is the best communication channel? Are our tools ready to support the required flexibility to modify subscriptions? How to make customer journeys convenient for customers and easily manageable for our teams? How to increase ARPU? The digital customer, in addition to requiring subscriber services to be of the highest quality and quickly activated, needs flexibility of change when dealing with contracted products and services.

The ease of upgrades, the use of cross-sale options, and the exchange of devices are crucial to these customers.

The requirements of business and product departments – time-to-market is key The solutions used by telecoms for managing product offerings and services need to enable their effortless modifications, as offers from CSPs change fast and in a kaleidoscopic manner.

Let’s take as an example the FIXED INTERNET package. First, a standard bundle offering can be created with all the necessary options: modem, installation, and additional services, such as bonus content, a Wi-Fi option, secure Internet, e-mail, hosting, storage and backup, access to cloud-based applications, etc.

These options allow the offer to be adapted to customer needs

(e.g., assigning the correct number of modems, applying a bonus chosen in the subscription process). After the creation of the Fixed Internet package, the business departments at telecom organizations are interested in being able to re-use this bundle offering to create other Internet offerings quickly and efficiently. The product offering’s inheritance assures short time-to-market for offers such as INTERNET 50 MB, INTERNET 100 MB, FIXED INTERNET with promotional price, and FIXED INTERNET with free options for business customers. CSP teams do not want to create new processes, to be obliged to change a dedicated product or service specifications. Instead, they want to easily define new offerings for John DIGITAL and other customers by only having to use a few clicks.

It is also essential for business departments and product managers to easily define the business and technical logic of a product or service. This means that in the case of an upgrade requested by John DIGITAL, his monthly charge should be overridden, e.g., from €14.9 for INTERNET 50 MB to €29.9 for INTERNET 100 MB. It is also important to register a relation between the Internet download speed and an appropriate modem type. Product managers can edit, e.g., that in case of INTERNET 50 MB, the Home Box 1 modem is mandatory and Home Box 3 optional, but that for INTERNET 100 MB, the Home Box 2 is mandatory due to different technology.

Another important factor is easy online configuration of characteristics for digital customers and customer service personnel, especially in the area of voice package modifications. John DIGITAL and Tom GEEK chose VOICE 200 minutes with high-tech mobile handsets and two tablets. In the coming months they may be interested in increasing the number of minutes in their pool (e.g., upgrading to VOICE 400) and benefit from promotional packages (e.g., VOICE 400 with discounted price). Mr. Digital may also request a friends & family option in order to lower the price of calls that he makes to his family in other cities, and to be able to call his co-worker Tom at no charge. These options should be configurable during the subscription process, but later on as well. In the post-purchase phase, the customer should be able to easily modify his products, also via a self-service portal.

In order to retain the digital customer, CSPs also need to have the possibility to effortlessly define packages created via bundling various offers. In the case of our start-up owner, the attractive All-in-One Package with Fixed Internet 100 MB, mobile voice 200, and unlimited mobile Internet package convinced John DIGITAL to stay with the WINNER Operator instead of switching to the competition.

The requirements of service managers – easy adaptation to customer needs and technology upgrades While business departments and product managers require easy creation and edition of entities, service managers have needs regarding product and service management solutions as well.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

These include the possibility to easily translate customer facing services (CFSs) specifications into resource facing services (RFSs), as well as to quickly activate new services and adapt to changes in technology (e.g., from VDSL to VDSL2 or FTTH) with the appropriate service templates and configurable relations.

If John DIGITAL decides to move his office to another location, the CFS-RFS-R configuration needs to support this change. The “INTERNET over Fiber” CFS should be constructed with an appropriate fiber channel infrastructure, including field-engineer intervention and on-site cabling service. In case of a change of installation address, the WINNER’s field-engineer intervention can be set as mandatory in order to assure the best customer experience.

The modifications of services are not only the result of customer requests, but they are also often required due to evolution of technology (e.g., xDSL into FTTH) and device lifecycles (modems, handsets to be replaced). It is important to use mechanisms that allow CSPs to be proactive on the market while not impacting quality of service. An IT tool belt that contains graphical wizards, a repository of templates, as well as direct access to data facilitates efficient management of service and device retirement.

1 2

A winning approach Today, various factors influence choices made by digital customers: the need to have multiple connected devices, regular changes in the subscribed products and services, the eagerness to differentiate from friends and colleagues, and the need to have a virtual office and cloud-based applications.

An efficient digital offer and quality service management are crucial elements in satisfying highly demanding customers, such as our entrepreneur John DIGITAL and his colleague Tom GEEK.

Successful CSPs should not only focus on following the complete customer journey from the first interactions to the post-purchase stage, but also on delivering seamless services with the highest quality throughout the customer lifecycle.

Successful CSPs should not only focus on following the complete customer journey from the first interactions to the postpurchase stage, but also on delivering seamless services with the highest quality throughout the customer lifecycle.

According to Gartner, customer experience (CX) is one of the few differentiators that is still hard to imitate. Increasing numbers of executives see it as a critical competitive battleground. Customers have more choice than ever before, and so they punish poor customer experience and reward great customer experience quicker.2

Gartner Customer 360 Summit 2014, http://www.gartner.com/imagesrv/summits/docs/na/customer-360/customer360-tracks.pdf Gartner Customer 360 Summit, http://www.gartner.com/technology/summits/na/customer-360/agenda/track-1-delivering.jsp

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ANALYST INSIGHT

BIG DATA: value comes from linking data from different sources in real-time

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

ANALYST INSIGHT

Agnieszka Dynos: I noticed you add value to the usual 3Vs included in the definition of big data. How do you see its influence on the understanding of Big Data?

Kris Szaniawski: I think the 3 Vs (volume, variety, and velocity) are key to understanding the nature of Big Data and value is at the center, it overlaps with all 3Vs. Value is what differentiates Big Data from the existing usage of other types of data. However, what’s taking data to the next level is the volume, the sheer volume of data that’s out there, and it is growing. Looking at it from the telecom operators’ point of view, it is velocity, timeliness, the real-time nature that is key.

Generating the value is simply what you do next.

AD: How is the real-time aspect key in the world of telecommunications?

KS: The real-time nature of data simply adds another dimension. It means responding in real time in terms of network optimization, better functioning networks, and tailoring offers to ensure resources supporting that functioning are well targeted. You can still put a lot of data into your enterprise data warehouse, crunch the numbers, and get results that can be used a week later. This will still probably be useful, but it doesn’t deliver the additional value. To effectively personalize the data, you have to do it now. If you know the network is failing, you have to react to it now. Real-time data analysis supports micro-segmentation, real-time marketing analytics, faster decision making, and increasingly proactive problem solving on the operational side. That’s what is exciting about Big Data, I think.

AD: So what in fact does mastering Big Data mean for the telcos?

KS: You can’t really perceive mastering Big Data as the ultimate goal. It cannot be isolated from the overall issue of telecom operators becoming more customer-centric. If you are going to do that, you simply have to master all your resources to create a joined-up view of the customer. Value comes from linking all the sources of data together; in that sense, that’s what mastering Big Data is. Individually all the network and customer data have much less value than when you connect them.

AD: In looking at the initial use cases, where do you think biggest opportunities await? Is it in network optimization, tailoring offers, or maybe selling data to third parties?

KS: Quantifying opportunities in different areas is still very difficult in terms of return on investment. What is the value of offering a better service to a customer who you then retain? This has to be balanced against new marketing and sales opportunities.

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Selling data to third parties is in fact one of the initial business cases for Telco Big Data. Some telcos, such as AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, are already doing that. They are selling insight to a retailer, amusement park, or a gambling establishment. It brings potential for revenue gain. But I think that in the future, a lot more is to be gained from better targeting, better quality, and therefore increasing customer satisfaction.

Selling data to third parties requires less organizational effort then other optimization and targeting activities. The return on this investment is relatively quick and visible. Actually, though, the value of serving key customers better because you identify and address particular problems with the quality of service they experience is worth a lot more money than just selling the data to, let’s say, Disneyland. While it’s worth more, it’s far more difficult to quantify, isn’t it? That’s why it is a difficult business case. As a result, the fact that 64% of the respondents cited the lack of a clear business case is a main barrier to launching services using Big Data (Informa Telecoms & Media’s Telco Big Data Survey, 2013).

AD: Speaking of data selling, security must be a very topical subject in that context.

KS: Yes, it becomes an issue when third parties are involved.

People are very forgiving as long as the company is using the information internally. It is the moment when they start sharing it with third parties that it becomes an issue. But we mustn’t push this too far, either. Look what the OTT players know about everyone, and they are already using it for their purposes. It is extraordinary. People seem to accept the processing of their data when they gain value from it. When they feel that their experience is extended, they will go a surprisingly long way in terms of what they accept. Of course, underpinning all this is regulation, but it differs from market to market. So I don’t think that the privacy and security issues will sink the whole ship.

AD: What might sink it, then?

KS: Organizational difficulties that impede linking data from different sources.

The better you interconnect different data points across different divisions and organizational silos, the more value you create for something that could potentially be used externally and internally as well. It brings the organization one step closer to the goal of having this single view of the customer, which is key for mastering Big Data.

However, within a big organization such as a telco, where the legacy is extensive, this is challenging. Information within such organizations is very fragmented. However, from the research we are doing around the topic of organiza-

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

KRIS SZANIAWSKI Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media

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ANALYST INSIGHT

Creating a more customer-centric organization instead of running individual silos can help to utilize Big Data. On the other hand, the organizational challenges are the most significant challenges.

Marketing analytics

Customer care and CEM

Operational efficiency

Data monetization

- Tighter targeting of marketing campaigns and promotions, inlcuding real-time offers - User packages, device offers and pricing plans more closely linked to customer needs - Advanced segmentation and personalization, including improved subscriber profiling with social-media and customer-usage profiles - Demand forecasting and impact analysis

- Process optimization stemming from centralizing customer information and creating a 360-degree view of the customer - Improved loyalty and up-sell opportunities, including customer churn detection - Targeted customer care as result of improved customer segmentation and microsegmentation - Proactive troubleshooting and automatic resolution of network, service or customer issues - Call-center optimization

- Network performance and capacity analytics provide context for network management and SQM decisions - Supporting faster decision-making and proactive problem-solving around network management - Improved network capacity and QoS planning - Linking device and application usage to traffic patterns - Maintenance and filed workforce optimization

- Profile brokering and selling data to third parties - Acting as an enabler in OTT markets - Supporting personalization and customer profiling in other sectors - M2M and location analytics to support public sector activities

Figure 1. The initial use cases for Telco Big Data

tional transformation, we are seeing ever-greater numbers of operators willing to do bigger transformations, simplifying and automating their systems, creating more clarity and interconnection.

AD: And is that a main challenge telcos have to face to see some real advantages of Big Data?

KS: Most likely, yes. It is not a simple process, yet mastering Big Data depends on it. Creating a more customer-centric organization instead of running individual silos can help to utilize Big Data. On the other hand, the organizational challenges are the most significant challenges.

I feel that at the end of the day mastering Big Data is less an issue of technology and more a matter of organization. A lack of specialists is sometimes mentioned as an issue, but I don’t think this is really a problem in the long run. The lack of tools or qualified specialists can be solved in a relatively short amount of time; major transformations in organizations, however, can be far more challenging.

AD: So significant investment has to be realized, yet the revenue numbers might not be significant, at least not at the beginning?

KS: Yes, growth will come from other business areas, better machine-to-machine services, more targeted offers to key customers. It will come from better revenues from enterprise customers. But it is difficult to pin down a specific Big Data number. If the money were on the table, everybody would throw lots of money into Big Data.

The only way you can do this rollout is incrementally; it has to be structured. Otherwise, if it is going to be done in different silos there is going to be a mess. You have to have a single platform that extends bit by bit to these different areas. As a result, it helps to find important answers, such as in one of the use cases of the U.S.-based operator Cricket.

Big Data helped to find the problem with high revenue generating customers that the operator actually wanted to make sure were retained. The operator analyzed where dropped calls were happening and associated it with time, attempted activities, billing address, etc.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

ANALYST INSIGHT

In this example, think of how many different data points the operator had to rapidly connect just to understand that there was a particular set of important customers that were being impacted by a network outage. The operator had to ascertain what new offering should be provided in order to retain the clients and how to prioritize the network to avoid the issues in the future. Hundreds of different data points had to be connected to arrive at this knowledge.

AD: Do you think Big Data will live up to the hype?

KS: I think it is similar to every trend we see in telecommunications: it never quite fulfills its full promise, yet it still happens. The respondents of the Informa Big Data Survey believe operators will be ready to generate new business opportu-

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nities using Big Data either in the next one to three years or three to four years, but I am afraid these predictions are a bit too optimistic. Expectations have been built up as we already have a generation raised on OTT players. But yes Big Data is happening.

What I find full of opportunity and personally interesting is the network data that operators thus far haven’t been that good at making best use of and monetizing. I think the ultimate challenge for the operator is how they connect the internal structured data, e.g., billing or network and location data, with the unstructured data coming from social media, phone calls, customer e-mails, and other external sources.

In order for Big Data in telcos to live-up to the expectations, it is the linkage between these two elements that is key.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

The interview was led by Agnieszka Dynos, PR & Marketing Specialist, Telecommunications Business Unit, Comarch

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MANAGED SERVICES

BENEFITS

of Value-Driven OSS/BSS Managed Services Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

MANAGED SERVICES

SLAs and KPIs contractually agreed KPIs measured and reported by Comarch

KPI SLA

Network Operator

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Comarch Demand & Change Mngt.

Incident & User Mngt.

Application Operation

Data Center Operation

Engineering done by Comarch Integration done by Comarch

1st / 2nd level done by Comarch 3rd level support by CA or third party supplier

Licenses provided by Comarch Operation done by Comarch

Data center services by Comarch Connectivity provided by Comarch

Figure 1. end-to-end responsibility in OSS/BSS managed service model

The sourcing experience The telecommunications industry is in many ways becoming increasingly ordinary. It’s “brand new trends” are just following in the steps of other established industries, such as the automotive industry. It is the same with sourcing models: Over the last 10 years, the telco industry – especially in Europe – has experienced all kinds of possible sourcing models.

These range from low-risk out-tasking of commodity tasks like field force or data center to full sourcing of network operations and rollout or call center service. Many communication service providers (CSPs) are in their second or third round of sourcing; each time, they adapt and optimize the scope of sourcing. Indeed some operators are on their way back to insourcing business crucial tasks. So what has the experience been? What is the future for sourcing in the telco industry? What are the pros and cons of the different models and how can OSS/BSS contribute to that?

The setup of OSS/BSS managed services Software development has been seen as a core competence of a CSP for a decade. Even the engineering of OSS or BSS functionality is not a point to differentiate in the telco market due to the high degree of standardization. So why not do the next step and outsource the end-to-end OSS/BSS responsibility to a specialized partner? That would mean the OSS/BSS partner would be in charge of delivering OSS/BSS services with defined KPIs including hosting, application operation/administration, support services, and responsi-

bility for extensions and adaptations to new network technologies/tariffs, etc. Finally, being in charge of OSS/BSS engineering means being in charge of supporting a network operator’s business processes, which should be reflected in measured KPIs. The following examples are taken from the OSS domain, but the same applies for BSS. For example, simply take rollout engineer as a synonym for call center agent.

In such a model, the OSS environment is connected southbound via (more or less) standardized OMC interfaces to the network and northbound via APIs or WEB-services to BSS. The OSS services are fully integrated; users have access, for example, via Citrix independent from device or location. The CSP owns the data, but not the environment.

Enable flexible partner co-operation What are the key benefits of such a model? What comes to everyone’s mind is cost saving via outsourcing, but that’s just a side effect! Cost savings in OSS/BSS are a direct result of sourcing and changing to a managed service model, but in most cases other business objectives drive that transition.

The majority of network-related costs reside in the operation of the network. The majority of network-related investments exist in the form of system technology and network rollout services. These are the focus areas to be optimized for the cost efficient service provider. The most common option to do this is to outsource these domains (or parts of

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

BERND KREILING Comarch Head of Professional Services, Telecommunications Business Unit

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MANAGED SERVICES

BSS ERP, CRM, DWH, Billing WEB Services, APIs

Planning (RAN/Core/Transport), Configuration Management, Network & Services Inventory, Service Assurance, Performance Management, SQM & Customer Experience, Network Optimization

Operator OSS Managed Services LEARN MORE ABOUT COMARCH BSS/OSS MANAGED SERVICES

Northbound IF (CM, PM, FM) Element Manager/OMC Access/Core/Transmission NE

Network

CLICK HERE

Figure 2. Setup of an OSS managed serfvice model

them). The challenge for CSPs is to maintain control and to remain competitive in outsourced network services. So how can OSS contribute to this?

It keeps the CSP independent and flexible in network operation and rollout model in both system technology decisions and adaptations of network sourcing scope and partner.

One of the major benefits of having OSS managed by a domain-specific independent supplier is that this model enables flexibility in sourcing models and partner cooperation in the whole network area, from the equipment vendor to rollout services and network operation. It enables a multi-vendor and multi-service partner environment and ensures that the CSP stays in control and is able to manage this environment.

Additionally, the time needed to adapt the OSS landscape to new technologies or just new network releases can be reduced significant by having one end-to-end responsibility for OSS adaptations. Comarch, as an independent OSS/ BSS supplier, cooperates with all major equipment vendors in the market to get interface documentation and access to

One of the major benefits of having OSS managed by a domain-specific independent supplier is that this model enables flexibility in sourcing models and partner cooperation in the whole network area, from the equipment vendor to rollout services and network operation.

OSS Managed Services

Vendor A

Network Operator

Sourcing Partner B

Sourcing Partner D

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Sourcing Partner C

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Figure 3. Sourcing Strategy: efficiently manage a multi-partner environment

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

MANAGED SERVICES

Typically, processes at CPUs use many workarounds and are defined based on limitations of legacy tools (many boxes, many interfaces). A transition project forces the need for process reengineering. The OSS supplier can drive the change with a disruptive approach to streamlining processes. A prerequisite for this is, of course, an adequate OSS architecture and platform capable to support end-to-end processes without again ending up with hundreds of boxes and interfaces. Comarch provides an integrated OSS platform to enable cross-border processes and optimizations.

OSS Managed Services

Figure 4. Value by Transition: Architecture & Processes

testlabs in the early stages, even before the CSP has decided about integrating this technology.

Optimize your business processes The next key benefit of having end-to-end domain responsibility for OSS is that to integrate such a model it needs a TRANSITION! At first glance, that might seem to be a barrier, but in fact the need for transition gives the CPU the chance to redefine and streamline its processes. It’s a chance to use the OSS supplier, with all its experience from other projects, to challenge the internal CSP organization.

Success and risk sharing business models

Mature OSS/BSS services that support the full transparency of processes are the decisive success factor for flexible sourcing models.

The OSS-managed service partner is a key element and becomes a strategic partner of the CSP.

Mature OSS/BSS services that support the full transparency of processes are the decisive success factor for flexible sourcing models. The OSS-managed service partner is a key element and becomes a strategic partner of the CSP. How to ensure the OSS partner in a fully managed service model is motivated? How to find the balance between the carrot and the stick?

First, part of the answer is already implied in the question: There needs to be a carrot! Of course the standard ITIL-related KPIs and SLAs, such as availability, resolution times, etc., have to be defined and measured. To motivate the partner for the extra mile, however, a bonus model should reflect the

Integration Finalization

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Figure 5. Efficiency: OSS partner takes end-to-end ownership of processes

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014

Create and Deliver Initializing Files

Estimate LiveNet, Evaluate Results

Realize Measures and Implement Finalizing Files

Realize Measures and Implement Initializing files

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MANAGED SERVICES

Increase Efficency

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Figure 6. Metrics: balance between the carrot and the stick

All the bonus-relevant KPIs have to be value-driven from the CSP perspective and not cost-driven from OSS supplier perspective.

joint business success. The important point is that the success and risk sharing bonus model should be purely value driven from the CSPs point of view. The bonus model should reflect the CSPs business success.

The easiest way is, of course, to just combine the bonus model with the financial targets of CSPs, but to be fair there should be a more direct relation between quality of OSS/ BSS services and the bonus model. There are many ways to define business-related KPIs including number of executed network activities supported by service fulfillment OSS services, number of network-related customer complaints reflecting service assurance OSS services, etc. The key is that all these bonus-relevant KPIs have to be value driven from the CSP perspective and not cost driven from OSS supplier perspective.

The future of sourcing in the telco industry To come back to the initial question: What is the experience, what is the future way of sourcing in telco industry?

In general, there are two options: holistic or heterogeneous models. From our observation, holistic models are mainly financial driven; often, the expectations on service quality are later not met. There is always the risk of losing control of business-crucial tasks. Thus, many CSPs step back from that to a more heterogeneous sourcing approach. This does not mean a completely distributed sourcing approach of bits and pieces, but being flexible and having a dedicated specialized sourcing partner for reasonably coherent areas. One of these areas is OSS, another is BSS. To keep these domains independent from other sourcing areas ultimately enables a much bigger advantage: Network operators can use their OSS/BSS environment to manage their whole sourcing landscape. It enables them to stay in control of sourcing partners, and, even more, to ensure competition in high cost areas like network operations and call center services. Finally, with heterogeneous sourcing scenarios both can be gained: quality improvement and cost reduction. And, as added to the efficiency of processes, they can be increased due to the need of a transition project towards the managed service OSS/BSS model. Prerequisite: An experienced, reliable, and independent OSS/BSS partner.

Comarch Technology Review 01/2014