Pipeline Publishing, Volume 2, Issue 7
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There's the Rub:
Pain Points for Service Providers
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no failures in customer service due to poor information, and that they receive all inter-carrier settlements due to them. This is not to say that there are not good OSS/BSS products available on the market – there are, and we all have our favorites. But the total operating environment, for many service providers, is still not an enabler for success, it is a source of frustration. The challenge over the next few years is not just to do better than competitors, it is to survive in what is inexorably going to become a commodity market. A prerequisite for survival will be not just highly cost-effective networks, but also lean, low cost, low overhead, highly automated, highly functional environments that enable tighter management of costs, assets and customer information.

So, in ten years time will things be the same? What are the indications that things will change? First, we hear from some service providers that they are going to be much smarter and firmer in dealing with application vendors and systems integrators.

"Profits come from serving customers well, at a price they are willing to pay."

And, secondly, that determination is coupled with an increasing realization (seldom voiced aloud) of what being a facilities-based service provider business entails: It is essentially a commodity business in which the commodity is connectivity.

When we poll our service provider executives in ten years time, will the answers be different? No doubt, they will still lie awake thinking about how to be competitive, how to manage costs, how to make customers happier, and consequently keep the investors on board. Only if service providers and their suppliers succeed in developing the super-efficient processes and support systems needed to make profits in a commodity connectivity environment can service provider employees expect to spend more of their time behind the driving wheel and less time fixing the engine.



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