The term Time to Market refers to how quickly you can introduce a new service or technology. Often there are many touchpoints within the back office systems, both OSS and BSS, affected by even the simplest new product. The full implications and effects of each change may not be appreciated during the design phase, leading to unexpected delays or inability to provide the new service in specific cases.
Consumers have become more demanding
Society’s expectations have been raised in almost every field of products and services. We commonly expect the latest products to be of high quality, easy to use and unlikely to fail. Similarly, we expect customer service to be able to answer our questions quickly and resolve any issues in short order.
In this competitive environment, Service Providers are looking to reduce the time required to introduce new products and services. The pressure to do so increases daily. But the risk to a strong brand reputation from a poorly executed launch is high. How can Service Providers balance these conflicting demands?
What are the key issues?
Amdocs commissioned an independent research project to carry out a detailed analysis of the challenges around time to market for products and services. Originally conducted in 2008, the topic was revisited again in 2011. Comparing the two results showed some interesting trends building up.
If anything, Time To Market has become even more important, with 70% of respondents (up from 59%) now ranking this as Very Important. 68% rated the issue as key business differentiator.
Read the report from the study to find out more.
Walk out working
Launching a new product quickly is in itself not enough. In a time of instant downloads, eBooks and web self-service, consumers are becoming used to completing the buying cycle in minutes or even seconds. Having chosen and paid for their new service, they expect to be able to use it immediately.
Many service providers have sped up their provisioning and activation processes, so that customers buying new services or products in their stores can literally leave with the new device fully functional and configured for their own personalized services.
Service activation taking seconds, rather than hours or days, is the new benchmark. These lead to significant implications for the OSS. Systems that operate in real-time rather than through batch processing, yet still able to handle high volumes of transactions will be required to meet these needs. So how are these industry trends affecting the pace and scope of OSS Transformation?