The global economic downturn has impacted all segments of the wireless business. There is continuing talk of mergers and acquisitions, with major network operators such as MTN, Bharti, Orange, Deutsche Telekom, and others commanding the headlines. Who will survive? Who will grow? Who will dominate the industry, and how will they do it?
Those that bet their future on a purely defensive strategy – cutting headcount and other costs, reducing services and becoming more of a bit pipe than a content provider – will struggle to survive. Short-term business decisions are an economic fact of life, but what about their medium- and long-term effects?
The longer-term effects of certain short-term decisions by operators could make them M&A candidates, thereby shrinking the competitive landscape through consolidation. Perhaps this is evolutionary, but the consequences of action, inaction and strategy are clear.
The challenges of the wireless marketplace continue to evolve, and operators require both defensive and offensive strategies in order to survive and grow. Continued survival necessitates having the latest mobile devices and data services to drive traffic, defend and grow market share, and ultimately increase ARPU. However, the explosive growth in data traffic that has resulted from this trend must be managed.
In the previous issue of Mobile Minute (July 2009), Bytemobile Chief Marketing Officer Adrian Hall discussed the leading-edge technologies and products for data reduction and bandwidth utilization that Bytemobile has brought to market. What goes hand in hand with technologies and products is skilled staff.
During my regular visits to customers worldwide, I am struck by a recurring theme – the shortage of staff and skills required to operate and maintain network infrastructure products and service delivery platforms. The harsh realities of reductions in force and skill deficiencies are a major problem for operators – even more dangerous than many are willing to believe at first. It is clear that either failure of service or lack of service has an enormous impact on operators' revenue and brand value.
In the last year, I have observed a significant increase in customer requests to augment their operations and maintenance teams with specific skills. These skills are intended not only to fill gaps in their O&M teams' existing ability to deliver, but also to support new opportunities.
For example, subscriber traffic analytics are becoming a key enabler for deepening existing data revenue streams while opening new ones, as yet untapped. At Bytemobile, we know that a customer's decision to entrust some or all of its O&M requirements to a supplier is not to be taken lightly. Accordingly, our customer support and services teams have evolved with the market in response to direct customer feedback.
Skills and the application of those skills to actual performance can be difficult to measure. Bytemobile has been able to validate and quantify its own skills and performance with an automated transactional process for customer surveys. A current global average score of 4.26 out of 5 supports our belief that we are providing industry- and sector-leading support and services. We inaugurated the survey in 2008, and in addition to the high level of our scores, we are pleased with their consistency – the global average has never fallen below 4.2.
If you need to augment your O&M staff or add new operational or value-added services, please contact your Bytemobile account manager.
Warren Simpson
Vice President
Worldwide Customer Support
