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Compuware Corporation showcased its new Vantage for Mobile solution at TM Forum's Management World Asia in Singapore on January 26, 2010. Mobile operators in the Asia Pacific region had the privilege of having first look at how they can increase the profitability of mobile data services by improving and managing the customer data experience.
Data service is not yet in full steam in India as 3G spectrum auction and the launch of 3G service is still elusive. On how Vantage for Mobile helps service providers, in an exclusive interaction with VOICE&DATA, Jerry Witkowicz, Senior Product Manager, Compuware, said, “For operators who are planning to offer mobile data services, Vantage for Mobile will help them build the right service support infrastructure and help them address the following needs. Delivering on the customer focus brand, the operator will need to understand what level of customer experience is being delivered to individual users; have visibility into service impairments that are impacting user experience; understand individual users needs and emerging interest; have visibility into competitive threats both from incumbent carriers and 3d party vendors; and have the ability to maximize CAPEX investments.”
Delivering mobile data service is a challenge for those operators who offer it today and will be a challenge for those who plan to do it in the near future. Establishing the right service support process and tools is an essential foundation for profitable business. New entrants into the mobile data market will face the same reality that existing operators face today. They will need to ramp up quickly and efficiently in order to create a customer focused service brand and be able to deliver on that promise.
Compuware claims that Vantage for Mobile is the first integrated solution to provide a real-time view of a customer's mobile data services experience by starting with an individual subscriber's experience and linking back to key business functions. It provides benefits to service providers as it helps increase subscriber retention, and facilitate higher data average revenue per unit (ARPU), optimization of network investments, reduction in customer support costs and improved customer experience.
Jerry Witkowicz said, “To successfully retain customers, the operator needs to understand what influences the customers to stay or leave. Customers leave when they are dissatisfied with the service and/or are offered a more value based option by another carrier. To understand how individual customers perception of the operators services, the operator needs to: ensure that the service both connection and applications are accessible, reliable and fast; provide competent, responsive and accurate support; and understand customer emerging trends, competitive threats, customer behavioral shifts and changes in technology influence on customers usage behavior.”
Vantage for Mobile provides visibility to these critical areas and enables the operator to proactively identify customers who are not realizing good experience, solve problems before the customers complain, understand the emerging needs to create services aimed at these needs and have visibility into competitive influence to counter the competitors offers. Armed with this data the operator will have the essential visibility to ensure that customers have the highest perception of the operator and its services. This will enable the operator to retain their customers.
“Mobile operators have traditionally been focused on the network; demand for mobile broadband data services is already extremely high across many markets in Asia. As demand grows they need to extend their focus to include quality of experience which will differentiate one operator from another,” said Ian Clarke, Global Director of Telecoms at Compuware. “Not having real-time visibility into a subscriber's experience of mobile data services creates an unsustainable combination of decreasing profit and escalating subscriber churn. With the popularity of mobile applications on new bandwidth hungry devices, the customer data experience has to be flawless. This business-wide issue impacts a broad range of departments and must be addressed if operators are to reduce retention risks and increase profitability.”
kannan@cybermedia.co.in