While I am perfectly willing to give organizations the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the introduction of products and services, Mike Robuck’s piece about recent Verizon FiOS speed increases makes me wonder….

If a telecom can increase the speed just because the competition raises the bar ( … and i am skeptical since the article comes from a cable publication … ); what answers does that same telecom have when they are sitting in front of a House Select Committee and the congressman from <<insert state here>> asks why rural broadband penetration rates aren’t on a par with other developed nations?

Actually, I pretty sure that I know that answer… :)

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (JohnLMyers44) me directly. 

I like to point out that not every KPI makes sense for every organization.  This analysis by Randy Myers points that out very clearly for telecom service providers.

Here’s an example:

In this analysis, Verizon and AT&T are considered some of the worst telecom service providers…. in the areas defined by the Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO), Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) and Days Working Capital (DWC). However, I would dare say that Verizon and AT&T are significantly better than those metrics indicate.

The better matches than the median would be to compare Verizon and AT&T to each other; and organizations like Frontier and CenturyTel to each other.  This is very comparable to the “rules” for KPIs that I presented in a recent webinar (http://www.grapatel.com/A-GRAPA/07-Library/Townhalls/Best_of_Standards/Meeting6.asp).

What do you think of KPI development rules?

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (JohnLMyers44) me directly. 

The winds of regulation and change are blowing… even when the FCC and Congress have better things to do….

Cecilia Kangr looks at how the Senate and the FCC are asking questions about exclusive agreements between handset providers and telecom carriers.  In the wonderful world of wireless handsets, there are lots of people who have issues with the arrangements between carriers and providers.

However, most of people understand the concept of “barriers to entry” and the reasons why AT&T pays a subsidy to Apple for the iPhone…. Then again most people who REALLY want an iPhone either switch to AT&T or drop another chip into an “unlocked” iphone…. :)

What do you think about the renewed interest in exclusive handset agreements?

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (JohnLMyers44) me directly. 

Hey guess what….?  Smartphones drain the data network of most wireless providers… Also, just in… Sky is blue…. Water is wet… Baby ducks are cute…

Not to mock Leslie Cauley’s article on how the iphone is draining the capacity of the AT&T network… However, I am not sure why it took the release of the iPhone 3GS to bring this topic up, but I am glad that the capacity problems are starting to gain a brighter light.

It harkens back to the era of AOL when they kicked open the network to everyone at $19.95 unlimited.  iPhone users are clocking in at 400mbs per month.  This represents also double wireless laptop users and 10x over other smartphone users.

Mobile Banking is something that telecoms and banks love to talk about.  Unfortunately, they have never been able to agree on what it means… For one simple reason:  They both want all the revenues from the transaction and can’t come up with a good way to split the customers and revenues from the customers in an equitable fashion.

Jane Adler takes a hard look at where mobile banking currently is in terms of business models and technologies.

One of the concepts that I particularly liked was the concept of mobile banking on iPhone.  I am not really sure that you can call banking on the iPhone, and other smartphone devices, as telecom based mobile banking.  It is banking that happens to take place over a telecom network.  It is similar to web-based applications.  However, since telecoms and banks couldn’t agree on how to make hardware based mobile banking applications mainstream ( … however, nokia would like to with NFC phones… ); the banks went over the top via iPhone apps and other “off-deck” mobile applications.  These applications use the telecom for nothing more than a dumb pipe rather than making a secure banking relationship.

Where do you think the future of mobile banking lies?  Integrated “walled garden” applications? Or off-deck, dump pipe apps?

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (JohnLMyers44) me directly. 

Found a GREAT way for three major organizations to join forces on a solution that utilizes the strengths of each.  Mary Hayes Weier has a look at how Coke, Verizon and SAP are teaming up to give Coke a better idea of how people consume soft drinks.

The part that I like the most is that each organization didn’t attempt to stray from competitive advantage…. Coke knows beverages, but needed more information.  Verizon knows wireless and communications, but not soft drinks.  SAP stores data, but didn’t try to sell vending machine hardware….

Perhaps more companies can form partnerships rather than attempting to “complete vertical integration of the supply chain” (buzzword bingo alert….).

What do you think of this type of solution integration?

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (JohnLMyers44) me directly. 

Voice of the Customer!

Customer Champion!

These are new concepts for telecommunications organizations.  However, they aren’t new concepts for organizations serious about gain and retaining not just customers, but quality customers.  Jeremy Nedelka and Elizabeth Glagowski take a look at what makes Telkom SA and Earthlink successful in their customer champion programs.

I think that it should be noted that in neither the telecom nor the ISP example do the leaders in customer champion programs look at their operations by customer segment.  They look at their customer programs at the individual customer level and perform analysis up to various segmentation levels.  This level of atomic analysis allows those customer champion programs to act at the individual customer level rather than an aggregate.

Let me know if you have heard this one before:

“Telecom billing systems will be charging for more than just voice, SMS and data… They are on the cutting edge.”

Yep… I have heard that one too…. Maisie Ramsey looks at what some analysts think what the future of telecom billing, in particular wireless, holds. 

NOTE – Personally, I think that telecom billing systems have long had the ability, telecom executives have had the interest…. However, telecom product managers and billing operations teams have lacked the vision and motivation to knock this one out of the ball park…

For years, people have envisioned the combination of micro-payments with cell phones for mobile commerce.  Now, Visa and others are moving toward making that a reality.  Saul Hansell has a good look at combo solution currently being used in Malaysia.

And while this seems like a great idea… ( and who didn’t see the “but” coming… ), but:

Are telecommunications revenue and cost assurance organizations ready to start reconciling all those transactions over phones?

Besides reconciling the number of cost and payment transactions that I’m sure will be flowing across the telecom networks if these systems become reality; attempting to capture the fraudulent transactions from the flow will be a challenge that many revenue assurance teams may not be ready for initially.  This comes from the fact that working with the external fraud teams of the credit card companies will be a new challenge that will be different from working with the internal fraud management teams.

What do you think the future of mobile commerce on wireless phones will be?

1. Integrated phone / credit card apps?
2. Credit card only apps via app stores like iTunes?
3. SMS/MMS based transaction engines?

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (JohnLMyers44) me directly. 

Product bundling is a great way of raising the barriers to exit for customers and enticing new customers to leave their individual product providers.  Emma Lunn takes a good look at what is going on in the UK regarding pricing associated with product bundling.  While I am all for the market setting pricing, I have to wonder if:

Pricing wars will lead to bundles that will make it so that only the “largest” telecom organizations (ie BT, Verizon, AT&T, etc) can provide those services?

Hopefully, sound product management strategy and pricing will allow smaller players to continue to offer innovative products and services.  However, “critical mass” and deep pockets have their advantages in the telecom market.

Where do you think that the current economic situation will drive product bundle pricing?

1. “Big Boy” only commoditization driven pricing models?
2. Premium pricing business models for smaller organizations who compete on options and customer service?

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (JohnLMyers44) me directly.