Dear Colleague:

The trouble with this telecom industry of ours is we can't help falling in love with the latest network innovations and communications gadgets.

That's why the telecom press is forever debating the network question of the day: the delivery of mobile and IPTV video streams . . . the emergence of VoIP and MVNOs. . . or the pros and cons of IMS, Parlay, and IP-MPLS.

The debate makes for lively reading, of course, but if we've learned anything from the recent telecom recession, it's that investing in the latest network innovation is no guarantee of business success.

That's why, in today's competitive world, a telecom's investments in customer care and cultivation become as vital as its investments in network infrastructure. 

From Customer Care to CRM

When telecom was still a monopoly business, the concept of "customer care" had not fully formed. In fact, monopoly telecoms cared more about their networks than wooing their more or less captive customers.

But around 1984 when AT&T was split apart and the wireless industry was born, things started to change. New technologies like IVR, real-time bill inquiry, and screen pops appeared. And "customer care" emerged as the umbrella term to describe these new efficiencies in the call center.

Then, after we became comfortable with the "customer care" term, a new paradigm took hold -- Customer Relationship Management. CRM opened our eyes to the power of customer knowledge. By feeding customer intelligence to CSRs, salespeople, and direct marketing campaigns, CRM became a valuable way to win, up-sell, and retain customers.

Assuring the Customer with Analytics

Telecoms invested heavily in CRM in the late 90s, but when the telecom bubble burst in 2000, it was time for a reality check.

Carriers discovered that CRM alone wasn't enough. For customer cultivation often misses the larger issue: is cultivating this customer actually profitable for the business?

In other words, additional analytics is required to leverage the powerful data that CRM systems collect.  Above all, a telecom needs to mind its bottom line by 1) conducting a complete profit analysis of its customers, then 2) aligning its CRM, credit-scoring, collections, and other customer-facing systems around the goals of the enterprise.

We call this new customer care paradigm "customer assurance"  because a telecom's relationship with its profitable customers is a valuable asset to be assured -- or protected -- from loss.  

Dittberner's New Report

To understand the solutions being used by carriers to assure and grow revenue from their valuable customers is the purpose of Dittberner's new 137-page  report: Telecom Customer Assurance & Analytics: The Market for CRM, Customer Management, & Business Intelligence Software & Services.

Dittberner sizes this telecommunications software market at $997 million in 2005.  The report analyzes the forces shaping this market, providing case studies of how carriers are using forward-thinking business practices and software to capitalize on the opportunities.  For instance, you'll learn:

While the CRM software revolution may be over, Dittberner feels the CRM knowledge revolution is only just beginning -- telecoms have merely scratched the surface of knowledge that can be gleaned and leveraged from their daily interaction with customers, operations, services, networks, and salespeople.

The report points to the tremendous potential analytics holds for the telecom market's future. The opportunity is not for analytics software alone, however, but the combination of: 1) analytics software; 2)  industry consulting and 3) analytics experts who know how to build customized analytic apps.

Who Can Benefit from the Report

Whether you're a telecommunications executive aiming to improve your customer  assurance or analytics program or a vendor delivering these or related solutions, the Report will help you discover:

• What are the most important market priorities?. . .
• Which vendors have industry market share and are leading in specific niches?. . .
• Which players should you partner with?. . .
• What emerging trends can your company capitalize on?
• Which are the growing market sectors and which are in decline?

Please scan the executive summary and full table of contents below. You'll see why this report delivers the tactical and strategic information you need to fully understand where this customer assurance and analytics market is  headed.

To access this market intelligence today, contact Dittberner's sales office at 301-652-8350.

Sincerely,

Dan Baker
Research Director, Dittberner OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase

P.S.  The  Telecom Customer Assurance & Analytics study is one research module in Dittberner's on-going OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase covering the breadth of telecom software innovations on a yearly basis.

P.P.S.  To demonstrate to you the value of this report's intelligence, we're happy to arrange a briefing so you can personally preview sections of the report on-line.  Simply call Dittberner's sales offices at 301-652-8350. 

Table of Contents

A. Executive Summary (2 pages)

B. Customer Assurance (4 pages)
   1. From Customer Care to CRM
   2. Assuring the Customer
   3. The Customer Assurance Imperative
   4. Market Forces Driving Customer Assurance
   5. Internal Customer Assurance Drivers

C. Analytics & Business Intelligence (6 pages)
   1. Definition of Terms
   2. Gaining A Vendor-Specific Definition of Analytics
   3. From Spreadsheets to OLTP for Business Intelligence
   4. Business Intelligence with OLAP
   5. Data Pre-Processing
   6. Predictive Analytics
   7. Analytics Challenge: Changing the Organization Mindset
   8. Why Back Office Integration is so Critical

D.  Churn Management & Retention (11 pages)
   1. Customer Churn and Its Impact on Operators
   2. Goals of a Churn Reduction Program
   3. Bundling As A Retention Tool
   4. Fair Isaac’s Champion/Challenger Campaign Technique
   5. Portrait Software’s Uplift Campaign
   6. Verizon's Customer Retention Program - RETAIN
   7. Forensic Data Analysis
   8. Proactive Campaigns
   9. Outbound Campaigns for Customer Retention
 10. Increasing Customer Care Interaction Times
 11.  Personalization & Customer Segmentation
 12.  Buying Behavior To Why a Customer Buys

E. Profitability Analysis (3 pages)
   1. How to Assess the Financial Impact of Customers
   2. Why Profitability Analysis is not Easy
   3. Assessing the Profitability of Large Enterprise Customers
   4. Profitability Measured at Acquisition, Origination, and On-Going
   5. Types of Data Used to Measure Profitability
   6. The Treatment of Unprofitable Customers

F. Customer Relationship Management - CRM (8 pages)
   1. Customer Relationship Management & Live Interaction
   2. Definition of CRM & Customer Care Functions
   3. Consolidating & Extracting Value from CRM Systems
   4. Digital Content and Customer Interaction
   5. Trouble Ticketing Systems - Functions & Benefits

G. Sales Force Automation (6 pages)
   1. Inside the Telecom Sales Organization
   2.  Large Account Selling Without Tools
   3. Catalog Management & Sales Guidance
   4. Sales Quotation and Administrative Systems
   5. Nextel’s Automation of Sales Leads
   6. BT Group’s Field Sales Information System

H. Call Center Technologies & Systems (8 pages)
   1. Strategic Significance of the Voice Contact Center
   2. Urgency of Contact Center Efficiency in Next Generation Networks
   3. Driving Organization Effectiveness not just Call Center Efficiency
   4. Customer Care Quality & Monitoring
   5. Behaviorial Intelligence Gathering
   6. The Evolution of ACDs: The Dedicated Switch
   7. Skills-Based Call Routing
   8. How Rules-Based Routers Work
   9. Predictive Dialers – A Switch for Outbound Calls
 10. Speech Recognition in the Contact Center
 11. Organizational Changes in the Contact Center: Empowering the CSR
 12. Contact Center Workforce Management
 13. Customer Care Integration with Retail Operations
 14. The Drive to Consolidate Contact Centers
 15. Intelligent Network Routing & the Virtual Contact Center
 16. Screen Pops, DNIS, & Call Identification
 17. CSR Training & the User Interface
 18. Synchronizing Customer Support Information
 19. Call Center Policies at Orange

I. Enterprise Marketing (6 pages)
   1. The Need for a Better Marketing Coordination
   2. One-to-One Marketing
   3. The Flow of Enterprise Marketing Management

J. Mergers & Acquisitions (1 page)

K. Market Threats (1 page)

M. Market Opportunities (2 pages)

N.  Carrier Recommendations (1 page)

O. Market Segmentations & Forecasts (5 pages)
   1. How Dittberner Develops its Market Segmentations
   2. Telecommunications Industry Software Market Growth Forecast
       a. Finance, CRM & eCommerce Software Market
       b. Analytics & Business Intelligence Software
   3. Software Distribution Channels 
   4. Software by Geographic Region 
   5. Software by Service Provider Type 
   6. Software by Service Provider Size 
   7. Software Delivery Method 

P. Case Studies (16 pages)
   1. BT Group Customer Satisfaction Improvement
   2. NEXTEL’s Churn Management Program
   3. VTR Real-Time Marketing of Triple Play Services in Chile

Q. Vendor Profiles (56 pages)
   Amdocs
   Business Objects
   Convergys
   Fair Isaac
   Oracle Corporation
   Portrait Software
   Unica Corporation
   Vibrant Solutions

Market Segments & Forecasts

Dittberner has sized and forecasted the worldwide telecom analytics/BI and CRM software markets in this report.  Our forecast model is based on several parameters: Dittberner's historical tracking of the OSS market; Dittberner’s forecast of Next Generation Network (NGN) services growth; discussions with carrier experts; and interviews with software and consulting vendors.

The report provides 2005 base revenue and 2006 to 2010 forecasts for the global market in the following segments:

Telecommunications Analytics/BI Software
- by Application: 
      Customer Behavior Analysis, Operations/Sales, Network &
      Services, Business Management
- by Geographic Region:
      North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, Latin America
- by Carrier Size:
      Tier 1 (>$10 bill. revenue), Tier 2 ($250 mill. to $10 bill.),
               Tier 3 (<$250 mill. revenue)
- by Channels of Distribution: Direct vs. Indirect
- by Service Provider Type:
      Circuit wireline, Broadband, Wireless, Cable/DBS, MVNO
- by Delivery Method:
      Software license, Prof. services (software related), 
          Service bureau/ASP

Telecom Finance/ERP, CRM & eCommerce Software Forecast Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
- by Geographic Region:
      North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, Latin America
- by Carrier Size
      Tier 1 (>$10 bill. revenue), Tier 2 ($250 mill. to $10 bill.),
               Tier 3 (<$250 mill. revenue)
- by Channels of Distribution: Direct vs. Indirect
- by Service Provider Type:
      Circuit wireline, Broadband, Wireless, Cable/DBS, MVNO
- by Delivery Method:
      Software license, Prof. services (software related), 
          Service bureau/ASP
- by Software Application:
       Network-to-Bill Assurance, Broadband Assurance, 
       Billing & Rating Assurance, Switch Trans. & Call Simulation,
      Traffic Routing Assurance, Margin Assurance, Other

Case Studies

1. BT Group Customer Satisfaction Improvement

BT Group plc (formerly British Telecommunications plc) is the privatised UK state telecommunications operator. It is the dominant fixed line telecommunications provider in the United Kingdom.

In an effort to improve its business, BT Group set a business target for itself to reduce customer dissatisfaction by 25% per year for three years.

The scale of BT’s operation was of course a major obstacle to overcome. Each week, BT

Manages roughly 220,000 faults, 250,000 new orders, and 29,000 customer complains. This represents a vast amount of data, but in this case BT was as the saying goes: "data rich and knowledge poor."

The challenge was to analyze this tremendous volume of data through a software tool. More specifically the tool had to be able to analyze textual and transcribed voice conversations from customer dissatisfaction surveys and customer complaints retrieved particularly from the call center staffed with 2,000 call center agents.

The case explains how BT Group installed new software to analyze contact center information in near real-time, lower the cost of customer complaint escalation, and implement a new decision tree analysis program.

2. NEXTEL’s Churn Management Program

In this case study, we examine the highly successful churn management program of NEXTEL, instituted by NEXTEL had prior to the merger with Sprint.

The NEXTEL brand today has over 18.5 million U.S. subscribers, and is particularly popular in the southern United States.

While NEXTEL is widely acknowledged as a telecom success story today, back in 1999 the future of the business was in question.

The company faced increased acquisition costs and the U.S. wireless market was brimming with competition. Churn had earlier reached a peak of 3.5% per month thanks to strong industry price competition.

With the many threats it faced, NEXTEL decided to initiate a full-scale analytics program to better manage its customer relationships and tame its churn problem.

The case study show how NEXTEL rolled out its customer retention initiatives beginning in 2001. The program initiative included customer focused campaigns, "strategic care" provided to customers with certain calling attributes.

You'll learn what NEXTEL's "Touch Point" strategy was about, the structure of the company' analytics program plus major initiatives NEXTEL put in place to:

• Tame the high cost of handset "giveaways";
• Change the marketing culture surrounding new promotions; and,
• Adjust the billing cycles of small business customers

3. VTR Real-Time Marketing of Triple Play Services in Chile

VTR GlobalCom S.A. (VTR), is Chile’s largest multi-channel television (cable TV) and residential high-speed Internet access provider.

Chile’s telecom market is rapidly growing, so VTR faced increased competition and the need to retain customers became more critical than ever.

VTR needed a closed-loop marketing solution that would enable coordination of targeted, timely communications across channels: call center, door-to-door salespeople, direct mail, retail stores, and email.

VTR’s current marketing solution was a time-consuming manual process that required a combination of tools. This solution did not allow the company to integrate communications across channels, track interaction history or analyze campaign performance. There was no coordinated way to deliver relevant, timely, and consistent messages across channels to customers.

The case study shows how an enterprise marketing system was implemented to provide multi-channel, multi-wave campaign management and to help design, test, execute and analyze market programs and grow campaign volume by 20%.

The study explains how VTR was able to implement real-time marketing and event-driven loyalty programs.

Vendor Profiles & SWOT Analysis

Several software vendors have established themselves in the telecom analytics and CRM software market.

In this section, Dittberner provides in-depth coverage on 8 of those companies, analyzing each of them in 6 to 8 page profiles delivering:

• Historical expertise and background
• Significant investors
• SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
• Significant customers
• Major partnerships
• An explanation of key products

Dittberner's profiles deliver a highly compressed snapshot of vendors in a market place and each profile is organized in the same format so you know immediately where to go to find what you need.

The profiles also include a "Dittberner analysis" section, a candid assessment of where the vendor stands against its competitors and the suitability of its products or services for the needs of the market.

A detailed estimate of each vendor’s 2005 revenue market numbers is also supplied. A list of vendors profiled follows:

About Dittberner’s
OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase

Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase is a market research service designed to help telecoms and OSS/BSS vendors track OSS/BSS innovations and companies.

The KnowledgeBase provides a sweeping view of the marketplace with analyses on everything from Billing and Middleware. . . to Provisioning and Service Assurance.

Dittberner feels it’s important for a telecom research firm to make the leap from market analysis (seeing all the parts) to true market synthesis (pulling all those parts together).

Our research goes beyond beyond discussing market trends to synthesizing those trends in the context of market opportunities, threats, and their strategic impact to your business.

Bottom line: When you finish reading Dittberner's research, you don't ask: "Ok, what's it all mean?"

Web Database and Desktop Analysis Software

Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase delivers a fully organized body of knowledge and analysis across two interfaces: 

1. On-Line Database for searching the text and visuals of our analysis modules, case studies, and vendor profiles, and 
2. A desktop Software Application (using Visual Foxpro) with market segmentation and forecast data that you use to view customized data tables, graphs, vendor comparisons, and print documents.  Note: all data and forecast tables can also be downloaded to Excel and comma delimited files.

Below are some sample screens (NOTE: the examples show non-revenue assurance and non-fraud companies)

Search analysis in On-Line Database. . . 

Compare vendor market strength in grids. . .

View, modify, and print our estimates of company financials. . .

View market share graphs in international currencies. . . 

Compare company financials. . .

About Dittberner Associates

Founded in 1966, Dittberner Associates, Inc. is an international market research and consultancy with over 70 Telecom Service Providers, and in excess of 100 telecom suppliers as clients. The firm specializes in areas of OSS/BSS, NGN Switching, Broadband Access, and Wireless market segments. . . more

Dittberner Associates
44641 Montgomery Avenue
Bethesda MD 20814

Tel: 301-652-8350
To order or get more info, contact Wyatt Greenwalt
wyatt@dittberner.com