Amdocs is also betting big on big data to improve the customer experience. Amdocs was showcasing its newly announced TeraScale solution at MWC for data storage, enrichment, and for high volume, high velocity operator data management. Adding Terascale to its extensive portfolio of CEM solutions helps operators achieve efficiencies and the ongoing integration with its OSS and BSS solutions helps operationalize big data for operators.  This is on the heels of its recent announcement regarding the acquisition of Actix for the integration of real-time network data into their CES 9.x portfolio. "Network KPIs are great, but unless you can operationalize them and translate them into customer impact, they have little value," Rebecca Prudhomme, Vice President of product and solutions marketing for Amdocs told Pipeline at MWC.

Customer intelligence was also a key focus for CEM providers at the show, particularly around usage patterns and churn reduction. Comverse spoke with Pipeline about its Actionable Intelligence solution at the show. "Actionable Intelligence lets telecom providers create a set of strategies with a set of triggers and rules that indicate a customer may be about to churn," says Yariv Geller, Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Comverse. "It can also be used to identify usage patterns and other indicators that can help operators tailor offerings to them."  The Actionable Intelligence solution was received well at the show, with Comverse closing deals at on the show floor according to Geller.

InfoVista was demonstrating its commitment to CEM at MWC by showcasing its combined strength in network management with its recently acquired companies Aexio and Mentum. The Aexio solution provides subscriber geo-analytics for radio frequency (RF) optimization while the Mentum product brings RAN and backhaul optimization to the party. The combine solution helps operators better plan, operate, optimize and monetize their mobile networks. "Network performance is single most important metric when measuring quality of experience. Bernard Breton, InfoVista's Chief Marketing Officer told Pipeline. "A network that performs doesn't mean your customer will be satisfied, but a network that doesn't perform means that your customer will not be satisfied." InfoVista's acquisition strategy and investments in integration are key indicators of the company's dedication to helping mobile operators improve the customer experience and it would appear that this is just the beginning. "The networks are very rich in the data we can collect. The devices are getting more and more sophisticated which means you can get more and more insights from the devices itself. This is an area we need to go," added Lippe.

NICE Systems, a company that has been way ahead of the curve of CEM with its emphasis on the “voice of the customer,” explained how capturing the true sentiment and perspective of the customer base is the foundation of any effective CEM strategy. NICE was recently named a “most innovative company” by Fast Company, and counts AT&T, Orange, and BT among its service provider customers. 

Viaccess-Orca demoed a powerful content platform for video service providers that could really improve the customer experience for MSOs and telco-TV. Among many capabilities and multi-device integration, the platform featured a dynamically-generated digital publication to help guide users through content discovery and review, all within the operator’s domain. 

M2M and the Internet of things (IoT)

Two concurrent and closely-related trends, machine-to-machine communications and the Internet of Things, will change the fabric of nearly every industry and society as a whole. While they are used interchangeably, M2M tends to refer to devices that communicate with each other, such as manufacturing systems and connected vending machines, and IoT tends to refer to devices connected to humans, like smart watches and fitness monitoring devices.

Service providers and vendors alike were buzzing about M2M and IoT, as the world of connected everything dramatically widens the addressable market for businesses who provide connectivity, device management platforms, security systems, billing platforms, and more. Simply put, nearly everyone exhibiting at a “mobile” event stands to benefit from a greater number of connected devices. 

Cycle30, a cloud billing vendor, has found great success in the M2M market. The company’s hosted billing platform includes flexible charging, rating, and balance management in both usage-based and recurring models, and helps M2M service providers accelerate time to market in an affordable manner. Pipeline met with Cycle30 and one of its M2M customers, Device Cloud Networks (DCN). DCN is an innovative M2M platform provider that leverages all forms of connectivity (LTE, 3G, 2G, WiFi, and Satellite) to connect everything from cars and cargo to cows (yes, you read that correctly, "cows").

Tech Mahindra was also showcasing some of its latest innovations at MWC. This spanned areas like wearable technology with its newly-designed smart watch to its "farm-to-fork" strategy to better enhance agriculture on a global scale.

John Horn, President of RacoWireless, briefly met with Pipeline, but had leave early to make the 20-minute hike to a distant hall, like many others. Still, Horn was excited to talk about the company’s expansion and the growth opportunities enabled by its deal with Inmarsat, a global satellite provider. “This news is huge for our partners in that it truly opens any door when it comes to connecting global, mission-critical applications,” he wrote later that day. “With the growing number of partners that have international M2M deployments, it became apparent that there was great need to equip our partners with the connectivity solutions that would make it easy for them to manage their solutions internationally. Inmarsat not only brings an award-winning network to the table, but also years of experience in the satellite communications world. Needless to say, we’re as happy as our partners about this news.”