Speed Dial into VAS Analytics and Cloud

By bringing innovation to VAS models, the journey of building a favorable customer experience and a scalable environment will start on the right note

The growth in India’s telecom industry has been inspiring and fascinating with the total number of customers across operators crossing over 900 mn in March 2012, with a strong tele density of 162 in urban areas and a monthly addition of almost 6 mn customers in rural India. Yet there is no denying that stiff competition, declining revenues and an exceedingly demanding customers are posing a challenge for most operators today.

Knowing the Customers

The biggest shift and an undoubted game changer will be the operators’ know-how of their customers, ie, what they need, what can be sold, what to prioritize, and how to offer the right set of services to the right customer. This puzzle will change even as you attempt to solve and therein lays the challenge.

India, with its diverse needs, languages, and levels of engagement needs a finely segmented portfolio of offerings that are easy to decipher and engaging enough to ensure customer loyalty. In terms of revenue, the operator still has the lion’s share. However it is becoming increasingly difficult to control the various services and customer experience. Whilst VAS (value added services) is being looked upon as a key competitive differentiator to engage the customer, the lack of focus on a synchronized model for VAS and the inability to analyze data generated from VAS usage in a holistic manner are now beginning to hurt.

The beauty of the Indian market is its diverse needs, compelling enough to adhere to a profitable business model around VAS. As if the diverse landscape and need for innovative yet localized content were not enough, what adds to the complexity are over-the-top players that have set up successful models around how content gets consumed via web. This leaves the operator merely as a bandwidth provider. Therefore an operator needs to have a bouquet of services ranging from the very simple song, sports, gaming option to more sophisticated services like money transfer and video content.

The existing VAS models are a mishmash, often a reaction to a sudden customer need or competitive pressure. Operators are managing multiple vendors, contracts, SLAs, and product roadmaps. Hence there is an underlying requirement for a uniform experience and SLAs across their entire service portfolio to its end customers.

Never before has the task been so well cut out. The time has come to manage the VAS landscape more systematically and capitalize on the power that analytics can provide. This model should take into account the ever-changing needs of customers. While most models in the market have explored managing operational aspects, none have provided