Delivering a positive customer experience through service assurance

A telco’s service assurance team’s primary task is to ensure that end users receive a predefined level of service. Traditionally this meant ensuring that the telco’s network was functioning optimally. However, the increasing prominence of customer experience management as a means to combat churn and the complex nature of a telco’s services are increasing the scope and complexity of service assurance. In this report we examine the growing pressures on the telco’s service assurance function, and how it can respond to these challenges.

Report Highlights

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Executive summary
In a nutshell
Ovum view
Recommendations for players
The business benefits of service assurance to telcos
Vendor products need to clearly demonstrate their benefits
Key messages
Service assurance is becoming a harder task for telcos
Enterprise customers remain the key focus of service assurance
Moving from assuring quality of service to quality of experience
Mobile operators extending service assurance to devices
Service assurance teams must do more with less resource and do it quicker than ever before
Service assurance can help to improve customer-facing business processes
Business/market drivers
Overview
External forces
Growth in the number of connected devices
Explosion in bandwidth, particularly for mobile operators
Internal forces
The move to IP-based services
Targeting a reduction in churn
A need to manage the customer experience
The push for service innovation
Drive to reduce costs
The service assurance function
The link between back and front office functions
Measuring and monitoring QoE
Business benefits of service assurance
Improving end-user service levels
Delivering on enterprise SLAs – the primary focus of service assurance
Extending service assurance to end-user devices
Reducing costs in the back office
Network management convergence
Service assurance teams must do more with less resource and do it quicker than ever before
Business process improvements
Vendor products claim improved functionality at lower cost
Prioritizing service assurance for high-value customers
Promoting better links between back and front office – intelligent customer care
Increasingly proactive
Valuable input into top-level telco strategy





List of Figures
Figure 1: Ovum wireless backhaul traffic forecast: 2010–15
Figure 2: Most important factors when using fixed Internet services: 4Q09
Figure 3: Reasons for complaints on fixed Internet services: 4Q09
Figure 4: Assuring the customer’s experience – moving up the service layer


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