http://downloads.lightreading.com/wplib/openet/
WP_UsingSubandNtwkData_US.pdf
With the convergence of information, communication and entertainment industry, operators are looking at combining network capabilities with 3rd party applications and content to create new propositions. And also are looking at delivering services to business and consumers seamless across different network and devices. However service provider will have to understand customer experience and usage pattern to optimize existing service and introduce new services. Offering of this new service can be dynamic service offering through understanding of real time transaction or offline service offering through the network usage. Each of these options have their own challenges.
Increased dynamic offerings for differentiation and revenue growth can be achieved through usage of real-time transaction intelligence (like types of services people use, how they access, network status, service experience (mainly how many service consumption aborts might give an insight in this) and consumer preferences for service). Operator can accesses this real-time transaction intelligence through mediation or through an edge DPI enabled service enabler. Data collection (from network) and correlation (from IT) through mediation can be an option for the operator to have access to the complete view of subscriber activity. With this view also operator can plan sales programs, loyalty plans, data integration, revenue assurance and cost management.
Whether it through mediation or through DPI enabled real time service enabler, operator will have to use the following assets to deliver a better service to the end user (broadly they are network, service and subscriber related assets)
- Network capabilities – subscriber and session aware access, throttling, qos, charging, rating, promotions, bundles, thresholds, notifications
- Device capabilities – downloadable apps, camera browser, multimedia, network single/dual channel
- User context – location, device on/off, session status, weather, current content being viewed
- User identifiers – phone number, MAC, IM, e-mail
- Basic user data – name, address, geneder, credit payment history, preference, location
- User content – pictures, videos, bookmarks, address book, calender
- User profile – historical usage and profile based on usage
But to access these assets, there are certain challenges that operator will have to be aware of:
- Central availability of the data – from different network elements, from IT
- Sanity test of the data consistency across different silos
- Limited set of data sources – increase number of service elements that provide data, is billing only the source of data
- Making analytics functions available for those decision makers who are responsible for customer acquisition/retention, service introduction and marketing (some of these analytics functions are: customer profiling for identifying cross-sell /upsell opportunities, customer value management to determine total value of a customer (map between ARPU and other activities of the subscriber like number of calls to customer care etc), advertising & promotion with specific customer segmentation, product management through usage pattern.
