www.csgi.com Asia-Pacific JULY
2013
riding the cloud Destination: Flexibility & Agility
Managed Services for CSPs Are you prepared to partner to prevail?
Virgin Mobile Talks Technology The technology behind the award-winning telco revealed by Graham Milne
Across the Desk
Asia-Pacific Issue I, July 2013
CSG International Corporate Headquarters 9555 Maroon Circle Englewood, CO 80112 USA T: +1 303 796 2850 F: +1 303 200 3333
Across the Desk
Asia-Pacific headquarters Level 4, 215 Adelaide Street Brisbane, QLD 4000 Australia T: +61 7 3218 8390 F: +61 7 3218 8899 www.csgi.com
Follow Us @csg_i Facebook: /csginternational LinkedIn: /csg-international YouTube: /csginsights
The Editor For all editorial, sales & marketing enquiries, please contact: Renée Harper Head of Marketing – Asia Pacific T: +61 7 3218 8390 E: renee.harper@csgi.com Follow Renée on Twitter: @ItsReneeHarper
Welcome It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the inaugural edition of SPECTRUM Magazine, CSG International’s exclusive publication for its Asia-Pacific customers. Over my seven year tenure with CSG I have led the Latin America, North America and Asia-Pacific regions. Whilst each has been nothing short of rewarding, I continue to be inspired and empowered by the dynamism and opportunities for growth in the Asia-Pacific region, even in these globally challenging times. The last 12 months has been a particularly exciting time at CSG, we acquired the leading wholesale vendor Ascade, launched our global Managed Services offering and entered the cable market in India. So it’s no surprise the hallways are full of excitement here at CSG – and I’m pleased to say there is plenty more to come in 2013! This is why SPECTRUM Magazine was born. You, our customers, have made it clear you want to know more. More about what we do, more on what we have done and more of what we plan to do.
PRODUCTION D-Strategy, www.dstrategy.com.au
Circulation For general enquiries, or if you wish to change your address, request a copy or be added to the circulation, please visit www.csgi.com/spectrum. If you wish to return any copies of the publication received in error, please send to: CSG International Level 4, 215 Adelaide Street Brisbane, QLD 4000 Australia
The purpose of SPECTRUM Magazine is therefore two-fold. We wish to provide you with valuable industry-relevant and thoughtprovoking content whilst also sharing important information in relation to our award-winning solutions. On a final note, I’d like to extend a big thank you to Virgin Mobile Australia for partaking in this issue and would welcome all of CSG’s customers to contact us if you’d like to participate in future editions of SPECTRUM Magazine. Enjoy!
Disclaimer
Copyright © 2013 CSG Systems International, Inc. and/or its affiliates (“CSG”). All rights reserved. The information contained within this document is the property of CSG, which is protected by international copyright laws and any unauthorized use of this document or its contents may violate copyright, trademark, and other laws. No part of this document may be photocopied, reproduced or translated in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted electronically or otherwise, without the prior written consent of CSG. Although every endeavor has been made to ensure that the information contained within this document is up to date and accurate, CSG cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracy or error in the information contained within this document. CSG makes no warranty of any kind with regard to the information and CSG shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages which may arise in connection with the publication, furnishing, reliance or use of the information contained within this document.
Kind Regards,
Ian Watterson Vice President & Managing Director – Asia Pacific CSG International apacinfo@csgi.com
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IN THIS ISSUE
16. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP FEATURE
9. SUCCESS STORY OF BHARTI AIRTEL
14. IN CONVERSATION WITH GRAHAM MILNE
In this Issue
july 2013
Features
9 14 16 19
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Success Story
6
In a Snapshot
8
What We’re Reading
Bharti Airtel reveal how they accelerated profitable growth through CSG’s trading and routing solution.
Need-to-Know Industry Statistics
In Conversation
CSG Employees Reveal All
Virgin Mobile Australia’s Graham Milne reveals the strategy and technology behind the telco’s award-winning success as the industry’s leader in customer service.
12
Analyst View
Thought Leadership Feature
18
LET’S TALK
Are you prepared to partner to prevail? CSG International’s Alam Gill discusses the importance of Managed Services to CSP business models today.
20
In the Know
21
Coffee With
23
In DEMAND
26
In the Spotlight
The Cable View in India
Future Business Models for CSPs
2013 Asia Telecommunications Market Survey
LET’S TALK For CSPs, enterprise definitely means big business. CSG International’s Monica Ricci talks about the opportunity to grow your revenue, profits and footprint with cloud service models.
Raghu Ramanadhan
Unlocking Agile Service Differentiation
We’ve Been Busy at CSG
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IN A SNAPSHOT
In a Snapshot ASIA CLOUD COMPUTING ASSOCIATION
Cloud computing sector growing at a compound annual rate of 28% According to estimates from the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA), the global cloud computing sector is growing at a compound annual rate of 28%, and is expected to create 14m new jobs. Continuing innovations are also predicted to create USD1.1tn per year in new business revenues. The ACCA states that much of this potential growth will take place in Asia, due to the region’s increasing adoption of internet-ready mobile devices and its lower proportion of existing IT installations and associated skills. Cultural and linguistic barriers are also predicted to stimulate growth as new consumers gravitate towards local service providers. Source: Asia Cloud Computing Association
FREEMIUM JOY
More Spotify doors open in APAC Mirroring the growing uptake of data-enabled mobile devices, freemium musicstreaming service Spotify is now available in Mexico, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Iceland. Having recently launched in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, the Sweden-based Spotify is reportedly eyeing Japan and South Korea for its next stage of expansion. Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
SMS LIVES ON
SMS: The most effective direct marketing channel ever created Despite declining SMS use in developed markets, growth in Applicationto-Person (A2P) traffic is driving renewed interest and opportunities in text messaging. As a low-cost complementary service to mobile apps, commerce and advertising, SMS will continue to be an attractive and highly effective direct marketing channel. Text messaging also remains the leading data service in emerging markets.
MATURITY & SOPHISTICATION
THE 4G TAKEOVER
The Indian mobile value-added services (VAS) market will almost double to USD9.5bn by 2015 according to IAMI and Wipro figures. This 25% compound annual growth rate is a result of growing mobile data service uptake, made possible by the increasing availability of low-cost 3G and 4G handsets and smartphones. This growth is expected to continue as the market develops and matures.
The increased adoption of 4G and smartphone technology throughout Asia-Pacific markets is predicted to continue eroding retail revenue from traditional offerings such as voice services. By 2017, fixed revenue will fall to USD214bn, down from 216bn in 2011.
India embraces complex VAS
leveraging on mobile data growth 10
India Mobile VAS Market Size e/f= estimate/forecast
9
80 70
8
60
7 50
6
Data revenue to offset declines in traditional services
However, revenue from national broadband networks and FTTx services will contribute over USD20bn in 2016, and with LTE services predicted to represent 63% of all Asia-Pacific mobile connections by 2017, overall revenue is expected to remain steady.
40
5 4
30
3 20 2 10
1 0
Market size (US$bn) Source: SAP Mobile Operator Guide 2013
6
2015f
Change Year-on-Year (%)
Source: Wipro, IAMAI, IMRB Analysis, 2013
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2014f
2013f
2012e
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
0
Source: Analysys Mason
IN A SNAPSHOT
INVESTMENT DRIVING CHANGE
DID YOU KNOW?
APAC to top cloud traffic by 2016 Following significant investment by both government and enterprise, the AsiaPacific region (excluding Japan) is predicted to lead the world in cloud usage by 2016, with 1.5 zettabytes of traffic versus an estimated 1.1 zettabytes in North America. According to Cisco’s 2012 Global Cloud Index white paper, North America led the world in 2011 with 261 exabytes of traffic, followed by the Asia-Pacific region (216 exabytes) and Western Europe (156 exabytes). Source: Business Monitor International
Cloud traffic growth by region (exabytes)
44% 34% 79%
48% 55% 66%
2011
2012e
2013f
2014f
2015f
2016f
Asia-Pacific
216
375
554
793
1,116
1,541
Central & Eastern Europe
21
36
57
87
131
190
Latin America
21
40
69
114
181
273
8
17
30
53
94
161
North America
Middle East & Africa
261
439
584
720
901
1,126
Western Europe
156
274
400
557
743
964
e/f= Cisco estimate/forecast. Source: Cisco Analysis
Telstra has walked away from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) spectrum auction with two thirds of the offered spectrum - the maximum allowed acquisition.
Having been burned by
Low bidding competition from Optus Mobile and TPG Internet allowed Telstra to secure frequencies in both the 700MHz and 2.5GHz bands for bids close to the reserve price. The 2.5GHz band will begin limited operation from October 1st, 2014, while the 700MHz band will become available from January 1st, 2015.
bad outsourcing experiences, service providers are placing greater emphasis on SLAs, KPIs and overall alignment of business goals.
Vendors realize they
Source: Business Monitor International
MOVEMENT
Source: Business Monitor International
reported as the drivers behind CSPs wanting to outsource their OSS/ BSS needs in the next two years.
outsourcing will be cost, expertise or both, depending on a service provider’s maturity, business goals and region.
Telstra acquires two thirds of spectrum offered
must step up to the plate and accommodate service providers’ business goals in a collaborative manner.
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES DOMINATE THE RATING Asia-Pacific Telecoms Risk/Reward Ratings - Q3 2013
Telecoms Ratings
Laos
Vietnam
Cambodia
Sri Lanka
India
Pakistan
0 Thailand
10
0 Philippines
20
10
Bangladesh
20
Malaysia
30
Indonesia
40
30
China
40
Taiwan
50
South Korea
60
50
Singapore
70
60
Hong Kong
80
70
Japan
80
Australia
Business Monitor International’s Q3 Risk/Reward Ratings Update recorded a drop in ranking for both China and India, which fell to seventh and 13th respectively. Less developed nations showed encouraging improvements, with Thailand and Bangladesh rising to 11th and 12th, and Sri Lanka and Pakistan moving up to 13th and 14th. Nearer the top of the scale, South Korea and Taiwan climbed to fifth and sixth respectively.
M2M, CEM & cloud are
The goal of OSS/BSS
AUSTRALIAN AUCTION
Risk/reward ratings update, Q3 2013
A Heavy Reading survey of Managed Services vendors and service providers revealed:
As service providers look
to transform their legacy systems, they will have to work with an outsourcer that will be able to help them with transformation.
Heavy Reading, Vol. 10, No. 14, November 2012
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WHAT WE’RE READING
What We’re Reading
Reader: Simon Pincus Vice President – Product Development
Reader: Monica Ricci Executive Director – Product Marketing
Reader: Kevin Gordon Vice President Finance
Reader: Frank Hesse Vice President – Consulting (Asia)
Title:
Title:
Title:
Title:
The Rational Optimist
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Courageous Living, Dare to Take a Stand
Life of Pi
Author: Matt Ridley
Author: Stephen Greenblatt
Author: Michael Catt
Author: Yann Martel
Review: The main theme of the book is that, based on history, we have every reason to expect that humanity can overcome the challenges facing us. Ridley looks at many crises through human history that were considered dire at the time and shows that human ingenuity and competitive pressures always led to a solution. I found the book to be very interesting and a good antidote to global negative sentiment. Well worth a read.
Review: In this book, Professor Greenblatt recounts a medieval papal secretary’s discovery of a long-lost copy of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura. I truly enjoyed following the author’s account of how subsequent translation and distribution of the ancient epicurean text of On The Nature of Things accelerated the burgeoning wave of humanism and arguably sparked the Renaissance.
Review: This book is a follow-on to the Sherwood Pictures film “Courageous” and “The Resolution for Men”, a book by the film’s screen writers, Stephen and Alex Kendrick. They have challenged me to be a better husband and father and provided practical guidance on achieving that goal.
Review: After seeing the film with my family I felt I needed to gain more insight into the story so I decided to read the original novel. I was certainly not disappointed. However, reading the novel not only gives you more details, but it also lets your own imagination run wild (no pun intended). I found the question around believing “God is all” a much bigger matter in the book than in the film, which I believe makes it all the more interesting.
Rating:
Rating:
Rating:
Rating:
8
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SUCESS STORY
Bharti Airtel Success Story: Accelerating Profitable Growth through Trading and Routing
BACKGROUND Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. The company offers 3G voice and data services, fixed line, highspeed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey solutions for enterprises, and national and international long-distance services to carriers. Local and national operations in each of Bharti Airtel’s operating regions are supported by an extensive pan-India and international high-speed network infrastructure, which supports not only their customers’ traffic but is also offered on a wholesale basis to other domestic and international carriers. Bharti Airtel’s international traffic has grown amidst intense competition from other national and global providers, dynamic
STREAMLINED OPERATIONS
wholesale prices and the need to increase investments to deliver bandwidth and capacity. Other challenges include wholesale customers’ demands for uninterrupted service, and the need to be able to negotiate rates quickly and flexibly. In the wholesale voice business, where even a 100th of a cent can make a huge impact on profitability, Bharti Airtel needed a complete trading and routing platform in order to make the best business decisions. With profitability a fundamental driver, operational efficiency was also a key factor in selecting a system for trading and routing. Bharti Airtel implemented CSG’s trading and routing solution to meet these business demands, resulting in benefits across their businesses, including enhanced customer experience, improved product offerings and streamlined operations.
CSG TRADING AND ROUTING IMPLEMENTATION
IMPROVED PRODUCT OFFERING
ENHANCED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
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SUCESS STORY
Key Metrics ENHANCED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE The international interconnect business has evolved in recent years from traditional bilateral agreements between incumbent carriers into an extremely competitive streamlined product trading market. Within this environment, it was critical for Bharti Airtel to collaborate more closely with its customers and suppliers alike. Bharti Airtel negotiates wholesale carrier terms and conditions by monitoring traffic flow and Quality of Service (QoS) metrics in near-real time, using CSG’s unique Live World Map view, thereby delivering an improved service to their customers while maximizing productivity and increasing accuracy.
“Routing changes are achieved faster and are performed much more frequently, with the time taken to implement a new routing reduced by more than 50%.”
IMPROVED PRODUCT OFFERINGS
STREAMLINED OPERATIONS
CSG’s trading and routing solution has enabled Bharti Airtel to expand its service offerings to a growing customer base.
With increased traffic comes increased costs. Bharti Airtel routes traffic to more than 1,000 destinations around the world, therefore maintaining a competitive cost base and high call quality is critical. CSG has helped streamline Bharti Airtel’s end-to-end business processes and build stronger and more profitable revenue streams by automating all aspects of its international carrier operations. The optimized routing solution has also helped Bharti Airtel save considerable time on tasks such as sending out rate sheets and amending routings. Beyond the benefits realized by Bharti Airtel’s business team, CSG’s trading and routing solution has delivered efficiencies and flexibility to its IT team. Previously, routing changes were implemented manually, a process which was cumbersome and error-prone. With CSG’s solution in place, routing changes are achieved faster and are performed much more frequently, with the time taken to implement a new routing reduced by more than 50%. Finally, customized reports generated by CSG enable business, network, customer service and revenue assurance teams to make informed decisions that help maintain a high-quality service to customers.
With its extensive international highspeed network, Bharti Airtel enables carriers to interconnect with each other through “hubbing”, serving as an exchange between players for connecting traffic and eliminating their need to negotiate bilateral agreements with each other. As the number of licensed operators in emerging markets grows and new network technologies are launched, the importance of a pre-established hub to connect players large and small increases. Bharti Airtel began with a single routing plan for their transit offerings, and found that it did not cater to the varied needs of the different carriers or retail operators of the world. With CSG, Bharti Airtel has expanded its service offerings to meet the requirements of carriers of all sizes, and now successfully provides hubbing services under Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze categories.
NB. Approved for public release September 2011
Ascade is now CSG International CSG’s acquisition of Swedish firm Ascade in 2012 brought together CSG’s Wholesale Business Management Solution (WBMS) and Ascade7 - the market-leading unified platform for international carrier routing and billing.
INTRODUCING CSG Route Buying and selling international traffic is a critical component of the wholesale telecom business. It requires precision, marketresponsiveness and the coordination of many parts of the organization. CSG Route, the most widely deployed routing and trading system in the world, with over 50 active customers, helps to minimize the cost of interconnect and more effectively manage revenue-critical inter-carrier business. CSG Route combines optimized routing, dynamically selecting preferred routes based on an array of customer-configurable algorithms; automated provisioning of routing logic against all of the world’s leading switch types, and a routing desk providing
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hands-on control, visibility and insight into the inter-carrier side of the business.
Why CSG Route? • • • • • • •
Reduce interconnect costs without sacrificing quality through automated routing decisions Improve margins with streamlined, automated provisioning of routing decisions Leverage commercial insights with all routing and trading data viewable in a single window and populated dynamically Exploit opportunities by creating multiple routing algorithms with unique parameters Maximize ease of use with an adaptable user interface Minimize implementation effort through quick‐ start program Enjoy a smooth and painless migration to NGN through seamless support of TDM and VoIP technologies
To find out more, visit info.csgi.com/route
CSG Exchange now launched
A partner agreement automation service, CSG Exchange is tipped to lead the way in process automation for the Wholesale Business market in the Asia-Pacific region. At CSG International, we know that saturated markets, slowing growth and digital competition add up to tough times. Now, more than ever, making business processes more efficient is a vital contributor to sustained or even improved margins. The CSG Exchange service brings new efficiency to the transfer and sharing of contractual information, providing rigorous control, reducing disputes and eliminating much of the cost and delay of formerly manual and ad-hoc processes – without additional hardware, software or skilled resources.
Agreements and other documents are closely validated on receipt. Data is uploaded to operational systems and relevant parties are kept in the processing loop. Original documentation is maintained in an independent repository – a vital point of historical reference particularly in dispute management. CSG is a proud GBET Associate Member.
Fierce competition has created a telecoms industry where automation and efficiency are vital to survival. To find out how the CSG Exchange service can take friction, delay and cost out of document exchange, dispute management and other revenue-critical processes, contact CSG International on +61 7 3218 8390 or apacinfo@csgi.com
info.csgi.com/exchange
ANALYST view
Analyst View The Cable View: India’s Regulatory Body Stresses Importance of Subscriber Technology
tonse telecom research :: analysis :: consulting
Regulatory mandates in emerging markets often turn up very interesting outcomes. For an industry observer these markets never fail to entertain and puzzle, and always leave you thinking how market forces can vary dramatically from country to country. For one of the world’s largest payTV markets, India has always been of immense potential to the global entertainment, content and broadcast companies. The government’s decision to mandate cable TV digitization, starting with India’s top four metros and progressively until nationwide digitization by December 2014, was perceived by most as an indication of good things to come - and rightfully so! The cable digitization mandate was initiated to fix fundamental market aberrations typical of an analog market. Digitization would bring greater subscription transparency, fill revenue gaps, enhance service tax collections, present better content rights protection, harmonize business models across the value chain from broadcaster to Multi System Operator (MSO) to Local Cable Operator (LCO), introduce sophisticated technology such as Set Top Boxes (STBs), and most importantly, enhance the customer’s viewing experience. This would in turn attract Foreign Direct Investment to an industry which, for the most part, has been too haphazard to bring attention from wealthy global corporations. 12
Sridhar T. Pai, CEO and Founder of Tonse Telecom Tonse Telecom is an India-based research, analysis and consulting organization. Sridhar is a contributing analyst to Heavy Reading (US) and a regular contributor to Light Reading India. Sridhar regularly speaks at international telecom conferences, presents webinars and has been voted to the International Operator awards panel for Telecom Asia. Sridhar has also authored several India market reports. Sridhar holds a BSEE from the University of Mysore and Masters in Business from the University of Oklahoma, USA.
Despite some delays, much of phase 1 is now completed, and phase 2 of digitization has also been labelled as successful although not all metros met the 31 March 2013 deadline as defined in the mandate.
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Adding further (albeit justifiable) complexity to the regulation, the Telecom Regulatory Association of India (TRAI) recently announced that MSOs that do not install and integrate a functional Subscriber Management
ANALYST view
System (SMS) within their network would be held liable for violation of the digitization mandate and potentially fined. Essentially, the regulator maintains that by not incorporating SMS technology into STBs, a MSO would be considered not digitally compliant and this would attract penalties. As per the Quality of Service (QoS) Regulations of the TRAI, applicable for Digitally Addressable System (DAS) areas, MSOs are required to establish a SMS wherein all the details of the subscribers along with their choice of services (i.e. channels, packages) are required to be maintained. This would bring addressability and consequently complete transparency to the whole system – one of the primary objectives of digitization in the first place! A SMS gives a true view into the operator’s inventory, billing and collection scenario at any given time. This system enables the subscribers to exercise their choice of services and budget accordingly. A model incorporating SMS technology also supports the MSOs to effectively manage their accounting and billing of the services rendered – an important component when also considering licensing.
Furthermore, the TRAI said that it had been brought to their attention that several LCOs had attempted to bypass the mandate by not providing completed Subscriber Application Forms (SAFs), from which data needs to be populated into the SMS. It is safe to say that many of the top MSOs in the country have already invested in best-in-class networks (and some even ahead of the digitization mandate), however those that have not incorporated the SMS technology into their business models or who have implemented minimalistic SMS functionality may pay a heavy price once more subscribers are brought on board, as they will most certainly find it difficult to bill and provision customers on demand. Whilst implementing this technology demands investment, the bottom-line benefits in the long term certainly support stronger strategies when revenue management – and to some degree, customer experience – is considered. What customer doesn’t want freedom of choice and to feel in control of what they spend? And what organization doesn’t want to accurately manage their revenue?
Thankfully, MSOs are not alone. There are unique solutions that already exist in the market and cost-effective billing technology to support SMSs can be adapted to a MSO’s respective requirements. Cloud-based options are also an exciting alternative as they combine highly customizable services with IT infrastructure and business process outsourcing to address day-to-day business functions with minimal capital investment. This is exciting for operators as it removes large upfront payments and allows the organization to focus on engaging their customers and growing their business. Whilst the regulator is being proactive in addressing and enforcing the matter (if unaddressed, it would of course make a mockery of the digitization drive and render this massive exercise futile), it is imperative to educate and support the MSOs/LCOs as they look to incorporate new technology, rather than punish them. The remainder of 2013 will certainly produce more interesting changes for India’s cable industry – for the Indian cable industry’s operators, vendors, system integrators, broadcasters and hardware providers.
Interested in knowing more? CSG International recognized there was limited data available on the impact of the mandated digitalization of the Indian cable market and engaged independent local analysts, Tonse Telecom, to undertake an industry-wide study. Download the Key Findings Report from the 2012 Research Study: Digitalization of the Indian Cable Market. Visit info.csgi.com/indiacable
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In Conversation…
In Conversation... Graham Milne Director of Technology & Delivery, Virgin Mobile Australia Renée Harper: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us here at SPECTRUM Magazine, Graham. We’re really pleased to have you as the first customer interviewed in our launch issue! To get things moving, could you please start with telling us a little bit about what you do at Virgin Mobile? Graham Milne: Essentially anything “techy” goes through me – well that’s the short of it anyway! I’ve been with Virgin since 2002, during which time I had various roles across the technology and delivery area. I’m a developer by trade but I found my love for working in telcos when I was employed as a software developer on some major telecommunications projects in the UK many years ago. Now, I lead a great team of over 35 staff at Virgin Mobile Australia that is made up of project managers, business analysts, architects and development and business intelligence teams. Renée: Having been with Virgin Mobile Australia for over 11 years, you must have seen some fundamental shifts in all facets of the business, particularly in technological terms. What would you say are the key changes in the telco space today that affect your day-to-day decision making? Graham: There are fundamental changes happening in the telecommunications market right now. Based on what we’re seeing as an organization, we know we need to swing from a sales-focused business model to one that is driven by customer retention. There is high saturation in the Australian market in that most people over 16 have a phone already; the way in which telcos make their money also has to change as customer behavior is changing. There was a time that customers saw their phone as a means to make calls and send texts but the way we all use our phones has changed. As an organization, we need to be dynamic and change too. We have changed from a sales, sales, sales mind-set to one that is all about how we retain our customers and give them such an experience that they never want to leave. We’re in times of great change and technology needs to be there to help deliver on the changes to our organization’s strategy. Technology is at the heart of change. Renée: It certainly is. I imagine that embarking on changes of this scale in a company with over a million customers would be challenging to say the least. How does one begin to tackle this level of change and what changes have you recently made within your current technology ecosystem to better support your customer experience strategies?
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Graham: It’s essential to have partners who understand your business, your strategies and your customers. 18 months ago we embarked on a major upgrade of our core billing engine, which is of course CSG’s Singleview solution. This was a massive project to say the least, but having such a strong relationship with CSG, we were able to work together and successfully implement the changes. We very quickly saw the positive impact the stability of the system had on our customer experience - something we take very seriously. We continually work on initiatives with CSG that improve capability and the performance of our system.
“It’s essential to have partners who understand your business, your strategies and your customers.” Graham Milne Reveals… First Job:
Farm-hand
Favorite Author:
Ian Banks
Favorite Movie
The Star Wars Trilogy
Favorite Place to Travel:
Back home, to Scotland
Favorite App:
Omnifocus
Technology he can’t live without:
Definitely iPad
Renée: From CSG’s perspective, it’s always great to hear that our customers are able to better serve theirs because of our solutions and, of course, our people. How would you describe the benefits of working closely with a partner like CSG? Graham: At Virgin Mobile Australia the way we work with our partners is as an extension of our internal teams. I need vendors to supplement my development team and to come on board and act as an extension, if you will. CSG really gives me the flexibility in that I can swing from having 4 or 5 people available to having up to 20-30 people when I need them. That’s what I look for and CSG are able to assist me in being able to do that. This is why we’ve had a relationship with CSG since we came into the market in 2001. Something that was really important to us at Virgin Mobile Australia was launching LTE at the same time as two of the other large Australian carriers.
In Conversation…
We needed to be offering our customers 4G before the iPhone launched. I’m pleased to say that we were able to achieve this and it was considered to be a huge success all round. CSG’s Singleview was our central hub for activating our customers with the right settings in terms of the handset and how it would be used. We needed to mobilize people quickly and enable our Customer Service Representatives to make the necessary changes so that day one when the iPhone launched our customers were able to be signed up with 4G plans – which was of course very important to us. Renée: It was unquestionably a great achievement Graham! As you’ve mentioned, customer experience is a crucial component to your overall retention strategies. Something many companies, even outside of telco, are focusing on is social media as customers take to their keyboards or keypads to vocalize their experiences with suppliers, service providers and retailers alike. This can be invaluable to a brand, or incredibly detrimental. What are your thoughts on social media? Graham: Social media is such an important medium to get right as it is an area where customers are, and need to be, free to voice opinions good or bad. This is part of the power of it. And to the benefit of the customer, it puts more emphasis on the companies to make sure they are looking after them! As a company you need to make sure you are striving to give the best experience to all of your customers. You want them to be your promoters – this is something that Virgin Mobile Australia strives for. We use Net Promoter Scores (NPS) to determine if our customers could be advocates. A lower score may indicate the person is a detractor, who can be very vocal on social media, and a higher score is someone that is a potential promoter. Being armed with this information drives us to focus on and prioritize customer satisfaction. This approach has helped us win the Roy Morgan award for customer satisfaction for the last three years running. Technology is of course vital to supporting positive customer experience and therefore positive messages across the internet. We focus on all aspects of the customer experience, from how our systems perform to making sure customer service reps have the right information to solve customers’ problems, or even giving customers the tools to solve problems themselves. Customer behavior is shifting from an environment of talking through issues with a person to one that allows the customer to fix the problems via the web or from their phone.
An introduction to Graham Milne… as told by Virgin Mobile Australia: If there’s one man who understands the technology our business relies on every day, it’s Graham. As our chief officer in charge of machines that go bing (unofficial title), he is responsible for leading the teams that ensures our systems are capable of supporting our strategy and are always operating at their peak performance. With in-depth knowledge gained by experience in industry-leading software development, solution design, project management and enterprise architecture, he’s also a formidable strategic thinker and business leader with a knack for transforming team culture. Maybe it’s his brogue accent, but when Graham talks, people listen. As a Virgin Mobile team member since 2002 (with a stint abroad in-between), he’s an essential part of our business. Oh, and if you remember back in the 90s seeing that busker playing flute in a folk band with a bandaged knee due to football injuries – yep, that was Graham.
Technology needs to enable them to do this. If it doesn’t, you can rest assured your customers will vocalize it via social media! Renée: It seems that a large percentage of discontent expressed online and, in fact, through all media between a customer and their phone provider tends to be in relation to their bill. I imagine Virgin Mobile Australia sees this as one of the most important touch points you have with your customers? Graham: Yes, absolutely. Probably one of the most frequent and important interactions we have with customers is the bill. If you don’t get that right you can expect that you are going to be putting people into detractor mode. The bill has to be consistent, clear to them and done well. It’s essential and so is the technology that sits behind it. Renée: To wrap it up, what are your thoughts on the direction of the industry into 2014? Do you foresee any fundamental changes? Graham: I genuinely see a continuation of the existing trends we’ve seen this year leading into 2014. Companies do however need to be ready to react and move forward in order to shift with their customers and the industry as a whole. Something I will be keeping a close eye on though will be the LTE spectrum acquisition.
Interested in attending a webinar about the CSG solutions deployed at Virgin Mobile Australia? Register your interest at info.csgi.com/apacwebinars
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Thought Leadership Feature As seen in Vanilla Plus Magazine February/March 2013. For a copy, visit www.vanillaplus.com
Transforming Managed Services...
One Cloud at a Time
As their business models evolve, CSPs are evaluating whether any of their numerous business applications, processes, infrastructure and operations can be better managed by a partner. Now more than ever, technology is the consumer’s best friend. The ubiquity of always-connected digital devices has effected significant behavioral changes in the way individuals and businesses interact and engage with each other. Take the retail market for example: much to the dismay of long-established retail brands, in-store shoppers are increasingly using mobile devices to compare prices and reviews among multiple near, far and virtual vendors before making purchasing decisions. Retail is not the only affected industry; there are examples in nearly every market, and in each there are three common enabling factors – all of which are communications services: 1. Increased network bandwidth delivering unparalleled capacity for high-definition, high-quality digital interactions 2. IP networks accelerating the development and adoption of new services from previously separate features that can now be unified as they are digitized 3. Mobility for the masses – not only for people, in all geographies and in all socio-economic classes, but for ‘things’ (devices) and Communications Service Providers (CSPs). Mobile is now ubiquitous, reliable and of high quality
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This is good news for CSPs, as these factors have been primary attributes of the network business for decades; arguably no other market entrant is as well-positioned to compete in these areas. CSPs should therefore focus on these factors as their business models transform and evolve to better serve customer experience expectations while retaining profitability and revenue growth.
Applying the three factors CSPs are acknowledging that outsourcing to achieve these technological tasks will free up their time, energies, and capital for evolving business models, launching new services, and bettering their customers’ experiences. While CSP staff traditionally manage most applications and operations while only outsourcing the occasional simple component or task, this approach can often fall short when rolling out next-generation services enabled by high-capacity LTE networks, like m-commerce or high-quality video streaming. Where carriers need assistance with rapid roll-outs or ongoing service improvement, managed services are proving their value by delivering to both the top and bottom line, while also representing an effective investment in their customers.
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The outsourcing partner can bring a fresh eye, better utilization of staff, and a future-focused perspective based upon industry best practices. Rather than simple back-office optimization to support legacy processes and infrastructure, outsourcers offer business expertise and a focus on process optimization, automation and interoperability. To accommodate the speed of change and increasing globalization of both service providers and services, enabling flexibility is critical – and this is what outsourcers provide. The traditional ten-year “lock-in” contract now puts carriers at risk, as customers expect next-generation CSPs to demonstrate flexibility and responsiveness to change. Predicting future cost bases might be more difficult when contracts only last for two or three years, but the upside is higher-quality service and technological agility at lower cost.
The outsourcing partner can bring a fresh eye, better utilization of staff, and a future-focused perspective based upon industry best practices.
Thought Leadership Feature
The role of BSS Outsourcing or Managed Services for reasons other than cost management is becoming more prevalent. As business models evolve, a wide range of business processes from the traditional Business Support System (BSS) domain are proving to be prime candidates for Managed Services. These processes include customer care, billing and receivables management, revenue recognition, disputes and adjustments, partner management, settlement, and analytics. Owning and operating these outsourced processes is only the beginning. The Managed Services partner of these processes, through a combination of consolidation, expertise and embedded tools, delivers a range of overlay services that enable these processes to add value to the CSP’s business, including:
•
Administration across all layers, from the facilities in which the applications reside through to servers, storage, operating systems, applications, operations and staff
•
Monitoring across multiple application and process dimensions, including user activity, security, application performance, process accuracy, and customerfacing metrics like usage patterns and quality KPIs
•
Audit logging across those same functions for compliance purposes
•
Error correction and troubleshooting across all processes and functions
•
Reporting at the application level, process performance level and business metrics level
We are also moving towards an environment where Managed Services follow business-outcomebased contracts, where the partner and CSP collaborate to work towards success through BLAs (Business Level Agreements). By leveraging Managed Services, CSPs will be free to keep pace with network evolution, industry expansion and changing consumer demands that are filling those networks with new and developing services. Outsourcing back-office management is a major step for many, but by finding the right outsourcing partner, a deeper, more collaborative approach is the best course of action for service providers who want to transform themselves and represent the next generation of CSPs. To find out more about CSG’s Managed Services offering, visit info.csgi.com/ managedservices
Alam Gill, Senior Vice President - Managed Services, CSG International With over 20 years’ experience in leading IT, consulting and managed services businesses worldwide, Alam Gill is today responsible for leading CSG International’s Global Managed Services arm. A board-level influencer and thought leader in the industry, Alam has held Executive roles at companies such as Wipro, Amdocs and British Telecom over the last 10 years, with a focus on establishing and growing their respective application and managed services areas. Alam has previously been responsible for leading a number of business functions in the business development and corporate sectors for companies including Skyphone, MCI and KPMG. Alam is a respected speaker and advisor with a particular focus on those companies seeking innovation and technology to support their cloud-based initiatives.
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Let’s Talk
Let’s Talk... Market
Let’s talk...future business models for CSPs With Robert Machin, Director – Product Marketing, CSG International Plenty of ideas are starting to emerge about future services and business models for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) many loosely characterised as ‘M2M’, but what kind of business support will they need? Are traditional ideas about revenue management and revenue assurance outdated? If so, what will replace them?
About Robert Machin: Robert Machin has been part of the telecoms industry for over 20 years, working with software vendors, systems integrators and communication service providers in a variety of technical and business-focused roles. He is a regular contributor to business conferences and industry journals, most commonly on subjects related to the impact and management of next-generation technologies. Robert spent four years as Head of Billing Solutions at Logica before heading up product marketing at mediation vendor Openet Telecom in Ireland, then moving into strategic marketing with Finnish OSS specialists Comptel Corporation. Interested in attending a webinar run by Robert Machin? Register your interest at info.csgi.com/apacwebinars
“Operators are seeing their business models being pulled apart in the search for new value and new markets.”
Operators are seeing their business models being pulled apart in the search for new value and new markets. Profits that came primarily from selling communications directly to consumers and enterprises are drying up as these markets become saturated, and regular billable revenues are being driven down by digital competition from insurgent internet providers. Now, operators are looking for new ways to exercise and monetize their core capabilities. Perhaps more importantly, other businesses are also identifying ways to do this - primarily by embedding communications in ICT solutions such as automated logistics and telematics, remote health and education, and so on. What does this mean to CSPs and their systems? If we believe that the future will unroll in broadly this way, then CSPs will need to support a ‘partnering’ relationship, where the CSP sells its services to become part of another vendor’s value chain, or perhaps provides them as part of a joint value proposition to an enterprise, market vertical or government agency. The end proposition will vary greatly depending on the partner, the end customer, the embedded device type and many other factors. From this point of view, the jumping-off point for a solutions platform is more likely to be the wholesale side of the business than the retail, as we’re likely to be looking at scenarios with a number of similarities to the traditional carrier-to-carrier setup – specifically, a limited number of partners (or wholesale customers), a potentially high number of transactions, high-value settlements rather than lowvalue billing, and so on. There will however be significant differences – service transactions are likely to come from a wide range of non-standardized, non-regulated service delivery platforms, requiring flexibility in the processing platform. Few of the emerging potential partners or wholesale customers will be as stable as longstanding operators. Some may even be fraudulent. Revenue assurance tools will therefore be vitally important, and settlement cycles will need to be much shorter than in conventional inter-carrier charging – perhaps going as far as immediate charging or prepaid charging of some partners or wholesale customers. Robust credit management and dispute management will be vital to ensure that cash flow isn’t disrupted – intentionally or otherwise – by disputed charges. But this can’t all be defensive – it’s a competitive space and operators will need to offer extra value to putative partners too, offering service analytics for example, or billing services or notifications and alarms to partner customers. It’s an exciting time which offers great opportunities to agile CSPs.
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Let’s Talk
INSIGHT
Let’s talk...the business case for enterprise business services
With monica ricci, Executive Director - Product Marketing, CSG International As revenue growth and margins for traditional voice and text services continue to stagnate, CSPs are looking to enterprise services as their predominant growth prospect. Both CSPs and their enterprise clients are increasingly basing their strategies around flexible, scalable, real-time processes and next-generation business services. These advanced services are proving to be big business for CSPs; by some estimates, cloud and M2M revenue will grow at 25% CAGR for the next five years.
Cloud: Not Just a Pie in the Sky To remain competitive, enterprises big and small have been forced to adapt to the “anywhere, anytime” nature of customer interaction. More and more CSPs are capitalizing on opportunities to service this market, expanding on their traditional role as connectivity providers and bringing businesses the ability to interact in real time with their customers, prospects, employees, and value chain. Cloud revenue is expected to reach US$150 billion globally this year, as C-Suite stakeholders recognize the competitive need to be agile, flexible and innovative. CEOs, CIOs and CFOs are increasingly prioritizing resources away from costly capital expenditure on noncore IT tasks, instead investing in profit opportunities, delivering functionality and capability without the burden of recruiting, training and retaining entire IT teams. In developing markets such as Latin America, CSPs will use cloud services and nextgen networks to extend their offerings. Public cloud services will grow at up to 70% CAGR in the region through 2016, driven largely by the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market, which represents 95% of regional enterprises. To service these clients, CSPs will need to bundle affordable, portable cloud services including IaaS, SaaS and support.
Core Capabilities To generate profit from these new services, CSPs need to evolve from capacity-based billing models towards the higher potential profits of value-based offerings. Although 60% of CSPs believe they lack the core capabilities to grow out of the connectivityprovider model1 they recognize that new enterprise services are dependent upon operations enabled by: • • • •
Real-time processing Scalability Complexity (partners, hierarchies and charging parameters) Flexibility to innovate
Real-time charging is essential to the success of these new enterprise services. Unlike consumer pre-paid services, enterprise services require highly complex capabilities, such as real-time service authorization, support for multiple simultaneous SaaS users and network types, pre-transaction ‘advice of charge’ functionality, and Quality of Service (QoS) charging models. As transaction volumes sky rocket and individual transaction costs plummet, businesses are realizing the importance of being able to cost-effectively support millions – even billions – of devices and transactions. 1
About Monica Ricci: Monica Ricci is the Executive Director of Product Marketing at CSG International, where her focus is on synergies and value propositions across all elements of CSG’s BSS portfolio. Monica has 20 years of experience in the communications industry, 15 of which have been working with BSS vendors delivering billing solutions and consulting with service provider customers to evolve their billing-related processes for wireline, wireless and next-generation services. With a BS in Physics and a MBA from the University of Chicago, Monica’s current focus is understanding the drivers for new telecommunications business models, incorporating both customers and the growing assortment of partners in the operator value chain. Interested in attending a webinar run by Monica Ricci? Register your interest at info.csgi.com/apacwebinars
BMW estimates that their ‘Connected Drive’ cars will generate a petabyte (106 gigabytes) of data per day by 2017; Ericsson predicts 50 billion internetconnected devices by 2020. CSPs are already at the centre of the connected business world - if they are able to meet the ever-growing needs of enterprises worldwide, they are primed to massively increase their revenue, profits, and footprint. Now more than ever, enterprise means big business for CSPs.
M2M Communications: Turn Potential into Profit’, Informa Telecoms and Media, 2012
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112 Senior Telecommunications Professionals Business Function
46% C-Level 34% Technology Function
20% *Figures represent percentage of total responses.
63%
BIG DATA IS TOP OF MIND
55%
WANT GREATER MOBILE FREEDOM
36%
FRAUD IS AN ISSUE
Are investing in BI Analytics in next 12 months.
Believe ASEAN mobile roaming fees should be eliminated.
Say Carrier Bypass losses exceed 10% of voice revenue.
45% believe mobile wallet initiatives should be regulated. 76% say SAAS-based OSS/BSS is important to their business. 67% believe that OTT providers should have access to direct operator billing.
Key Findings Report Now Available VISIT info.csgi.com/asiasurvey
COFFEE WITH
Coffee With…... Raghu Ramanadhan Head of Business Development Asia Pacific, CSG International Raghu Ramanadhan’s relationship with CSG began in 1999 which was many years and in fact a number of acquisitions ago. However, during this tenure Raghu’s love for CSG’s Singleview solution has never wavered, and he was pivotal to the company’s entrance into the Philippines and India markets.
“This is my passion…I find it difficult to think of what I do as a ‘job’.”
As Head of Business Development - Asia Pacific, Raghu’s responsibilities include introducing CSG’s reputed customer management and billing applications into the telecommunications and growing cable markets across Asia-Pacific. He is an experienced IT business leader and has, over the past 27 years, managed start-ups, built sustainable businesses and led successful sales teams in Asia-Pacific for large multinational corporations including HP, Intec, Oracle and TCS. Raghu holds a Diploma in Organizational Psychology from the Singapore HR Institute, a MBA from the National University of Singapore and a Master’s degree in Mathematics from The University of Madras. When Raghu isn’t speaking at industry events and conferences as one of CSG’s recognized “thought leaders”, he is volunteering his time for a NGO in Singapore that focuses in rehabilitating ex-convicts and their families back into society. Recently, SPECTRUM Magazine’s Editor, Renée Harper, had a coffee with Raghu to chat about CSG, his role, his thoughts on the industry, and also just to get to know one of CSG’s finest that little bit better! Renée Harper: Raghu, tell SPECTRUM Magazine’s readers a little more about the customers you work with at CSG and what you love most about your role as Head of Business Development for the Asia-Pacific region? Raghu Ramanadhan: Every customer is valuable to me and I genuinely get tremendous joy in holding all their contracts particularly as I am privy to the real impact we can have on their business operations and processes…. I do get very attached! I have a long list of customers at CSG but it all started many years ago with PLDT & Reliance and our relationship with both organizations continues to go from strength to strength.
Business Development is my passion …I find it difficult to think of what I do as a ‘job’. I love developing sales strategies and seeing them yield results. In such a dynamic industry, there is so much to learn every day and many challenges to overcome to reach your end goals. I often liken it to playing Bridge - …you do the best with cards you have been dealt, rather than relying on having the best card! To top it all off, I get to work with colleagues that I respect and love to argue/interact with. I really am surprised I get paid to have so much fun!
Renée: You are obviously passionate about your customers and CSG as a brand and employer… - something shared by many if not all of our 3,700 employees across the globe! Are there any specific CSG products or services that you are particularly excited about at the moment? Raghu: Undoubtedly CSG’s billing solution: Singleview. This award winning billing platform has a place in almost all of the major telco providers in ANZ and a tremendously broad base in Asia with many of our customers being with us for over 10 years!
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COFFEE WITH
There are not many organizations like CSG who can claim to have such a varied customer base across APAC – we are truly versatile. It lends itself to tremendous possibilities across a wide choice of verticals outside telecom as well. With recent successes in Managed Services in Australia having just acquired a major multi-million dollar contract, we now have another facet of Singleview that is gaining attention worldwide. Very exciting times indeed! Renée: I couldn’t agree more, particularly as there are many organizations vying for a seat at the table with the majority of our customers. We have over the last 30 years become a trusted, respected and valuable partner for our customers who genuinely look to us for support during times of uncertainty and change as well as periods of growth and progression. This being said, what are some of the present industry trends that are top of mind for your customers and therefore you? Raghu: There are a large number of areas of focus my customers have at this point in time which include, but are not limited to, the virtualization of infrastructure, everything-as-a-service, Business Level Agreements in Managed Services, single stack transformations and LTE. They are all big topics of interest across APAC. Essentially, our customers want us to be relevant and offer a competitive solution. The challenge is to extend ourselves from selling and delivering products to consulting and managing solutions which many say is easier said than done, but at CSG I’m proud to say we just get it done!
Renée: We’re also the kind of company that attracts great people and we have made a significant number of Managed Services hires already in 2013…. What are your thoughts on the direction in which the industry is heading in terms of Managed Services and the value of running operations in the cloud? Raghu: Every operator I am talking to has an opinion on Managed Services, as they all face the same market challenges: competition, depressed economic conditions, shortage of top technical talent and increasingly sophisticated OTT options. All of these areas are forcing operators to re-think their relationships with strategic applications vendors. Operators now demand closer partnerships, sharing of risks, assurance of service levels, outcomebased payment models and longerterm roadmap commitments that ties application technology specialists to business results. In the APAC region especially, low ARPU, multiple-SIM, dominance of prepaid and the lack of brand loyalty are driving operators to demand more from their technology vendors than just supply support and maintenance! This environment forces constant innovation in services delivery. Various Managed Services strategies are already emerging in this dynamic hotbed of service innovation by incentivizing vendors to outcomes rather than focus just on technology (which is a given). I see operators wanting technology specialists to take ownership of key systems including OSS/BSS rather than the generalists - a trend we believe helps operators peg their spend to business outcomes rather than just CAPEX and OPEX costs.
One of the Managed Services models that has been time tested and very successful in the cable industry for over a decade in highly competitive cable markets in North America is hosted OSS/BSS and workforce management, which is nothing but cloud-based OSS/BSS. Renée: We are definitely in very interesting times. Now it would be great if you could tell us a little more about you, Raghu. What would you say is your greatest professional achievement so far? Raghu: I think my best is yet to come! Seriously though, my father was proud of me for the first time when I managed to complete my MBA degree and later got myself a Diploma in Organizational Psychology whilst maintaining a 100% sales achievement record continuously between 2003 and 2010. He finally accepted that selling could be a career for me, instead of academia. Getting to this point was a great achievement for me! Renée: I think most people would agree with you there Raghu. Completing a MBA alone whilst working full-time is no mean feat! Before we finish up, please share for our readers a few interesting things about you.… Raghu: I am afraid to say I am a very boring person if I am not doing what I do best, which is actively selling! I do love to read many books at a time as I am too impatient to finish them! Right now I am reading Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. My last vacation was in Glasgow, Scotland for a week last fall - and I have to admit, a part of me didn’t want to leave! The castles and the malted barley were particularly memorable! When I achieve my next sales target, I will be ready for a well-deserved holiday and may just head back there.
Interested in attending a webinar run by Raghu Ramanadhan? Register your interest at info.csgi.com/apacwebinars
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IN DEMAND
Cloud-based Service Layer Unlocking Agile Service Differentiation
Abstracted from the OpenCloud “Cloudbased Service Layer” whitepaper, May 20133.
Over the last few years, traditional CSPs have seen a new breed of competitor emerge from the IP world of the internet, offering messaging, voice and video services over the top of the connectivity provided by conventional telecoms operators. To compete with these new providers, and to create innovative opportunities for cost savings and improved agility, CSPs need to separate service control and subscriber management from the network transport layer. CSPs can realize the benefits of cloud-based service and subscriber management through offering their signaling solutions and telecom services to other operators within their group, and to their MVNOs.
The agile service innovation of OTT players must be matched by traditional telecom network operators if they are to halt the loss of brand value, market share and revenue from their core services. Further benefits arise by providing a cloud-based solution to host the services of these operator ‘customers’ and to further extend this to end customers too (the B2B2C model).
The telecoms landscape has changed dramatically To compete in today’s market, CSPs need to reimagine and recreate differentiators that their business and consumer customers truly value: differentiators that build loyalty and attract new customers, and differentiators that may enable operators to generate more revenue from their existing communications services and network assets.
CSPs must match the agile service innovation of Over-the-Top (OTT) players if they are to halt the loss of brand value, market share and revenue from their core services. Crucially, this agility must be delivered simultaneously with cost reduction. The telecoms service layer and related subscriber management applications (including online charging and the controlling of bundles and balances) are ideal candidates for virtualization and cloud-based deployment. However vendor “lock-in” also remains and CSPs must break free from the constraints imposed by network equipment vendors.
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IN DEMAND
Virtual reality To win the agility and cost-saving race, CSPs need to look to the “cloud”. By implementing convergent charging (consisting of both the charging trigger function and the on-line charging system) in the cloud, operators can enable nimbleness at a lower cost. CSPs can achieve these gains by using cloud technology to separate service control and transport layers. Although the technology behind it is complex, the “cloud” concept is simple in practice: “cloud” decouples the software from the physical computer resources it needs to operate. With this separation, changes to hardware and software can be made independently to one another: more processors, storage or bandwidth can be added to handle an increase in software processing
throughput (more calls, for example, or more subscribers) without the need to modify the software itself. This arrangement provides significant cost and infrastructure savings in both the short and long term.
CSPs can use these cloud services in a number of ways: •
A host of new opportunities CSPs can realign to minimize infrastructure-investment costs by using their own data-centers or outsourced Managed Services as computing clouds for their own telecoms service control layers and subscriber management applications. Additionally, with the dramatic reduction in the cost of moving data around versus the cost of computation, CSPs can capitalize on low-latency/ high-availability cloud-hosted solutions such as those used for service control and convergent charging.
•
•
The host CSP may simply enable other customer operators to use their data-center, enabling the customer to benefit from the “economy of scale” that the host can provide More usefully, the host may add value by providing a hosted service framework on which the customer can deploy their own services and manage their own customers Perhaps more likely, the host CSP will have their own cloud-based service layer from which they can provide hosted telecoms services and solutions, and to which their customers can add their own local solutions and applications. This is shown in the diagram below
..
CONCLUSION Competition from OTT players has driven traditional CSPs to differentiate and innovate via cloud-based service layers and subscriber management applications, diverse deployment possibilities, and cloud-based support layers. However, a significant barrier still stands in the way. To truly compete, CSPs must have the freedom to develop services and solutions with the same agility and low cost as their new competitors, and that means escaping from vendor “lock-in”. The only way to achieve this is to decouple the service control and online charging functions from the network transport layer, and this must be done at a cost-effective price that supports CSPs’ innovation business case. To find out more about Open Cloud or to download the White Paper visit www.opencloud.com. Interested in attending a webinar on how Open Cloud and CSG work together? Visit info.csgi.com/apacwebinars
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AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER CHOSE CSG.
NOW TALK TO US IN THE CLOUD. innovate
engage accelerate
transform
streamline
value-add
grow
profit
There is a reason why Australia’s largest telecommunications provider chose CSG International to transform its complex billing processes for their business, enterprise and government customers. Under a five-year, multi-million-dollar agreement, CSG’s experts will leverage its award-winning Singleview convergent billing platform and CSG Intermediate network data mediation solution to perform billing and mediation processes in a Managed Services environment. So now is the time to talk to the people who truly understand what it means to innovate, accelerate, transform and add value to your business – particularly in these times of constant change, increasing uncertainty and fierce competition. Visit info.csgi.com/cloud
IN THE Spotlight
In the Spotlight GLOBAL EXPANSION
NOW LAUNCHED
CSG’s Managed Services Offering Now Worldwide There was no more fitting location to announce CSG’s global expansion into Managed Services than at the world’s premier telecommunications event: Mobile World Congress.
“It is in CSG’s DNA to apply its heritage of cloud-based convergent charging and billing in new ways that empower our clients to evolve their business models,” said Alam Gill, Senior Vice President, Managed Services at CSG International. “With CSG’s Managed Services, we apply our expertise to remove the technical complexity of delivering business improvement for our clients, using award-winning solutions—including CSG Singleview, WBMS and Content Direct—that support the operations of the majority of today’s top CSPs worldwide.” CSPs also have access to CSG’s regional Managed Services Centers of Excellence in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Central and Latin America regions, as well as off-site and cloudbased customer and revenue management processes and support. CSG’s proven track record of supporting complex technical and business requirements through a Managed Services model continues to go from strength to strength, with numerous recent successes including: •
•
•
CSG transitioned an existing interconnect environment and operations from a client’s European premises into CSG’s Managed Services environment in just four months. This complex migration consisted of 1.6 million subscribers and 570 international roaming partners CSG successfully executed the largest and most complex billing system conversion in our history, successfully migrating more than 30 million active and inactive subscriber accounts. This complex conversion included a system migration of 28 CSG applications and 43 client applications Demonstrating the full scalability of CSG’s Managed Services environment, in just over 5 years, North American transaction volumes have grown from three million per day to 51 million, with US$8 billion in revenue processed every month
For more information, please visit info.csgi.com/managedservices
Wholesale Billing Solution Now in the Cloud
CSG has launched its Wholesale Billing Management Solution (WBMS) in the cloud, a key component of the newly announced Managed Services program. WBMS in the cloud will support complex wholesale partner relationships and revenue streams across national, international, roaming and content partnerships at a significantly reduced operating cost. Used by over 300 Communications Service Providers (CSPs), CSG’s wholesale solutions are the most widely deployed in the world. WBMS in the cloud will complement these existing services, reducing clients’ time to market for new services while keeping hardware and software up to date with changing market conditions. “CSG’s cloud-based offering allows us to apply our deep expertise in maximizing the wholesale revenue stream through extended relationships to other operators and content partners, while also reducing the technical complexity and expense for our clients,” said Alam Gill, Senior Vice President of Managed Services, CSG International. CSG’s WBMS is available in a cloud-based model today. For more information, please visit: info.csgi.com/wbms
cable news
Comcast Cable and Time Warner Cable Renew with CSG CSG International is thrilled to announce that both Comcast Cable and Time Warner Cable have extended their customer care and billing contracts with CSG International in multi-year agreements. “We have been fortunate to work with Comcast Cable and Time Warner Cable for 20 and 30 years respectively,” said Peter Kalan, president and chief executive officer of CSG International.
“We are pleased to have enabled them to realize their vision and commitment to serving their customers, and will continue to provide our highly dependable, scalable and reliable products and services to help them succeed.” “We look for innovative technologies and cost-effective solutions that empower our customers. We’re pleased to extend our relationship with a company like CSG International that is wellsuited to help us execute on our vision,” said Scott Alcott, chief information officer for Comcast Cable. For more information please visit: info.csgi.com/cable
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SPECTRUM Magazine: Issue I info.csgi.com/spectrum
IN THE Spotlight
INDIA CABLE DIGITIZATION
“CSG is a global leader in the cable industry supplying its proven innovations in revenue management, customer care, field-based workforce and order management to support the Indian cable industry as it embraces digitalization.”
“Whilst it is challenging times, I’m confident of the positive impact digitalization will have on the cable market and the wider economy in India.” Chad Dunavant, Vice President of Product Management, CSG International
Ian Watterson, Vice President and Managing Director - Asia Pacific, CSG International
CSG Teams Up with CASBAA and Hosts VIP Event
CSG International recently spoke at the CASBAA India Forum 2013 and hosted a VIP event for 50+ cable executives in Delhi, India. The event explored the progress of Phase II digitalization, revealed key experiences from the US and identified the impact digitalization has had on the cable industry in India. “By harnessing our experience digitizing the US cable market, CSG is ideally positioned to take
CLOUD INNOVATION
insights gained from working with Comcast Cable, Time Warner Cable and Dish Network and apply them to the digitization of the Indian cable industry,” said Ian Watterson, CSG International’s Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific. The invitation-only event also offered attendees an opportunity to meet Vice President of Product Management at CSG International, Chad Dunavant, the day before he spoke on the Digital Dream panel at the CASBAA India Forum 2013. For more information, please visit info.csgi.com/indiacable
CSG’S Content Direct® Wins Innovation Award
CSG’s Content Direct® solution has received a Content Innovation of the Year award in the vendor section of the Pipeline’s 2013 COMET Innovation award competition. The awards recognize advancement and innovation in communications and entertainment technology (COMET). “Content Direct® stood out to us all as being at the forefront of advancements in the delivery, management and optimization of content such as video, gaming, and more,” said Scott St. John, Executive Editor at Pipeline. Content Direct® brings secure cloud-based infrastructure to deliver interactive subscription, rental, or owned digital content offerings to connected devices. The solution enables content providers to monetize and capitalize on the explosive demand for multi-device, direct-to-consumer digital content. It also gives the provider all of the content management, customer management, digital rights management, commerce management, customer care, and analytics capabilities required to operate a complete digital content business, including the most comprehensive UltraViolet™ solution. “Across our global customer base, brands are using Content Direct® to create powerful interactive online, mobile and social experiences for consumers, and turning these digital content experiences into revenue,” said Kent Steffen, President of Content Direct®, CSG International. For more information on Content Direct® please visit info.csgi.com/contentdirect
CeBIT Australia
CSG Stands Out from the Cloud
Labelled as “The Digital Economy’s Most Important Event”, CeBIT Australia took place 28-30 May 2013 and attracted some 30,000 IT professionals to Darling Harbour in Sydney. CSG was proud to have Alam Gill, Senior Vice President of Managed Services for CSG International, participate in the “Future of Cloud Computing” panel alongside ANZ Bank, AAPT, Rackspace and the Australian Government Chief Information Officer. Alam spoke of the importance of cloud being used to foster innovation rather than to cut costs which was well received by the audience and other panelists alike. CSG’s exhibition stand was just one of 10 companies visited by the Australianbased US Consular General, Niels Marquardt, who spoke with Alam Gill about CSG’s global presence and the exciting technology innovations that come from our central R&D hub in Brisbane. The Consular General took great interest and now plans to visit the Brisbane office to take a tour of CSG’s offices. Watch this space!
SPECTRUM Magazine: Issue I info.csgi.com/spectrum
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With over 30 years’ experience in managing infrastructure, applications and BSS operations; it is no surprise that CSG International supports majority of the top 100 global communications service providers, including leaders in fixed, mobile and next-generation networks such as AT&T, Comcast, DISH Network, France Telecom, Orange, T-Mobile, Telefonica, Time Warner Cable, Vodafone, Vivo and Verizon.
Make CSG’s Managed Services team your business partner and you too can innovate, accelerate time to market and create value all whilst driving profitable growth for your business. Visit info.csgi.com/cloud