Beyond Devices

Both fixed and mobile carriers are increasingly facing the
pressure of commodity pricing. Competition from new technologies such as Voice
over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is expected to increase this pressure. Carriers
and service providers are hence attracted to offer additional and bundled
services to subscribers. They see growth coming from music, video, mobile TV,
and even enterprise applications.

Both fixed and mobile technologies have their respective
strengths: fixed technologies enable high bandwidths; and wireless mobile
technologies enable flexibility in use. Increasingly, however, customers are
demanding both in one service, so a kind of converged offering is required.
Depending on where the user isout in the field, at home, or in an officethere
will be different technologies involved in delivering the service.

To support carriers and service providers in this emerging
initiative, the 360 automation technology offers field-proven applications
that can help service providers reduce complexity and installation costs, while
increasing customer satisfaction.

Visualize the following situation. It is a Friday afternoon, and
Marie, a product manager, wants to contact Paul, an account representative,
about a new business opportunity. She calls his access number, which first tries
his office, then his mobile, but it just goes into voice mail. She tries sending
a text message, and he responds. "In a meeting. Ill call you back from
the car in 10 minutes."

Paul concludes his meeting and calls her back. Marie tells Paul
the background on the potential business deal. "Hang on a second,"
says Paul. "Im pulling into the driveway. I want to review the budget
with you to see where this fits in." He transfers the call from his mobile
to an IP-based session on his laptop, and Marie does the same thing. They bring
up a shared workspace, and review the numbers while continuing their
conversation.

Converging Services

A central concept is that services provided over a converged network are
much more device independent. For example, email and voice mail become available
through a unified inbox, accessible by text or voice. Video services can be
delivered to mobile handsets, in-home televisions, or PC screens. Users can
participate in ad hoc conferences, using mobile phones or PCs. Connections are
made, and services delivered to users, irrespective of their device types.
Subscribers will personalize their interaction with these services in a way far
beyond ring tones, configuring how calls are directed. For example, during a
meeting, a spouse and the boss are put through to the mobile phone, while others
are directed to voice mail. Such a scenario entails integrating customer address
books with their phone systems.

Market Drivers

A number of market trends and business drivers are pushing FMC solutions
that enable seamless handoff of calls and call features across 802.11 Wi-Fi and
cellular networks. As both wireline and cell phone services are under the
constant pressure associated with commodity products, FMC offers service
providers a number of capabilities.

• Increase ARPU through new services and capabilities,
  including personalization and customization

• Increase customer loyalty and reduce churn with an advanced
  mix of services

• Competitive differentiation that enables technologies for
  FMC such as IMS, greatly facilitate the integration of other services,
  including in-house and third-party services

• Customer demand as subscribers juggle multiple communication
  devices and applications

• Leverage existing infrastructure because it is not feasible
  to create an entirely new IP infrastructure

Key Challenges

Though potential benefits for FMC are compelling, but the challenges are
significant. Complexity increases within the network and customer

environment, and devices and services become more varied and complex, and,
therefore, potentially more difficult to install, maintain, and diagnose. Some
of the key challenges are:

• Are subscriber-based tools in place to help pre-qualify
  customer environments, as well as training and tutorial information on how
  to use available services and applications?

• Is the new service installation at the customers premises
  fully automatedzero touch?

• Can new subscribers or services be automatically provisioned
  with back-end systems such as billing?

• How can you ensure that all installation and diagnostic
  procedures follow the best practices?

• Can customer service representatives (CSRs) and field
  technicians perform remote, automated tests against customer equipment and
  the network, without being on-site?

• What tools are in place to proactively and automatically
  keep firmware and configurations up to date?

• Are there mechanisms to store good configurations and
  compare them to current readings when a customer reports a problem?

• Are there solutions to evaluate service levels, both at
  customer premises and the network?

• Are service-level details revealed according to a users
  role? Does the same system provide different levels of information for
  customers and installers as well as first-, second-, and third-level CSRs?

• What tools are in place to help manage service levels such
  as service policy tools?

• Is a golden record captured at the end of every successful
  installation and customer interaction?

• Is the solution adaptable to different networks and work
  processes?

The Solution: Digital 360 Automation

The hard reality is that the FMC environment is varied and complex. Customer
equipment such as different handsets, networks, and customer environments
(modems, firewalls, wireless routers, networking, and so on) can come from any
of the dozens of manufacturers or third-party providers. The back-end network
equipment can be just as diverse as a result of acquisition and third-party
service integration.

Today, digital service providers worldwide using customizable,
intelligent automation to reduce complexity across all aspects of service
delivery while simplifying the user experience including subscribers, CSRs, and
field personnel provide enabling technology, so that service providers can
deliver triple-play servicesthe convergence of voice, video, and HSD over a
single line, and to a single device.

Today, The Digital 360 experience of converged services,
include:

• One automated support experience for installation of
  multiple services and devices

• One integrated support environment for proactive,
  self-service, and assisted service

• One real-time 360 view for problem diagnosis and
  root-cause resolution

Benefiting Millions

The profitable adoption of FMC services will be built on exceptional
customer service. As overall service delivery becomes more complex employing
automation and best practices in a structured and methodical approach for
installation, provisioning, and problem resolution is essential to successfully
implement new services and increase customer satisfaction.

The successful introduction and rollout of an FMC offering is
expected to occur in multiple phases, each bringing new services and
capabilities. This comes with a corresponding increase in complexity, both from
the network as well as the customer perspective. Technology today offers a
modular, scalable, end-to-end solution that can have a direct impact on the
adoption rate of new services and customer satisfaction. To improve the
usability, quality, and reliability of new service rollouts, these products
build on existing standards-based or proprietary systems and employ best
practices, dramatically reducing the cost of service fulfillment and assurance
activities.

In addition to a carrier network, FMC calls for an enterprise
(LAN) component. Enterprise IT environments must also manage and support users
in an increasingly complex technology mix and an extended workplace that
includes the office, home, and any available network beyond. The traditional
software approach carves out desktop management and end-user support as silo
applications, which do not work in the mobile, virtual, and real-time
enterprise. Automation applications, today, help break down barriers to end-user
and IT productivity by automatically linking endpoints, desktop management,
end-users, and the service desk in context and in real time.

Today, the technology helps service providers automate customer
and network activity including voice, video, and HSD and cost-effectively
maintain high customer satisfaction while reducing initial and ongoing support
costs. These solutions are in production deployment at service providers
worldwide, helping millions of users.

Shanawaz Kadavil

The author is country head, SupportSoft
India

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in