Mergers and Acquisitions - Just the beginning.

The telecommunications industry both locally and internationally has seen its share of is mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with companies jumping into new business markets and expanding their existing footprint to be more competitive. Internationally, the M&A activity garnering the most attention has been AT&T’s $85 billion deal to buy U.S. media company Time Warner Inc. Not to be outdone T-Mobile US, recently agreed to acquire Sprint, in an all-stock deal for $26 billion, that will combine the third and fourth largest U.S. wireless carriers.

Within the region we have seen our share of M&A activity, mainly:

Trinidad -  51% of Green Dot Limited by One Caribbean Media Limited

Trinidad - TSTT acquired Massy Communications (Amplia Communications)

Regional – Liberty Global acquires Cable and Wireless

Regional - Digicel buys Idom Technologies

Dominica - Cable & Wireless acquires Marpin 2K4 Ltd

M&A have been a mainstay of the telecom industry for many years and have undoubtedly transformed the telecom industry landscape into the competitive playing field we see today. The trend of in-country consolidations is predicted to increase based on ongoing regulatory liberalization, privatization of the industry and as operators attempt to improve their revenue and cost position and seek to achieve synergies and gain access to key assets such as fiber networks and spectrum. Operators are also expanding into non-core areas such as retailers, IT services, business-to-business (B2B) thereby enhancing their growth opportunities. In a recent survey conducted by Ernst & Young, 61% of telecoms executives, indicated that the impact of digital technology on business models and threats from digitally enabled competitors are the biggest disrupters and a clear impetus for M&A in the sector, which enables an operator to access new opportunities that can help avoid the impact of disruptive innovation.

In Trinidad and Tobago just like the rest of the region and Internationally regulators seek to “deepen competition” whilst operators are seeking to solidify their positions and improve EBITDA margins. One only has to look at India’s savage mobile telecom space where Aircel who has 85 million customers across the Indian sub-continent, was recently forced to file for bankruptcy because of minuscule profit margins and market congestion. Given existing wafer-thin margins and overcrowded markets, which are stunting operator’s ability to invest and thus impacts operators who race to develop and implement 5G and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks. What can we expect locally in the next 12-18 months as it relates to M&A activity? Here are the companies on my watch list.

As M&A activity heightens, we can expect to see a much different telecoms landscape in the next 12-18 months. But in this industry “Change is the only constant.” Invariably if any of the above-mentioned entities do in fact end up being part of a merger or acquisition, the buyer needs to be aware of the three major Pre-merger/acquisition risks, which are regulatory approval, human capital considerations, contract review and due diligence.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this commentary are those of the writer, who is communicating in his personal capacity. All commentaries seek to provide personal analysis and interpretations of telecommunications themes in the Domestic, Regional, and International markets.

TSTT acquires Massy Communications

The industry was abuzz today when Massy Communications and TSTT signed a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA), in which TSTT will purchase 100% shareholding of Massy Communications Ltd. Last time we had this excitement was when 51% of GreenDot was acquired by One Caribbean Media. Let me start off by saying I believe the TT$ 255 million to be a fair price based on my calculations. This is all part of TSTT's 5-year strategic plan which speaks to transforming the company into an Agile Broadband Communications Company (ABCC) utilizing both organic and inorganic growth strategies.

So let's get down to the nitty-gritty and examine potential outcomes and other matters

Option 1 - Vehicle to facilitate organization transformation

So you need to transform your organization from a legacy entity to an ABCC. This presents an opportunity for TSTT to do the same by making this the model organization (keep it separate) and the company determines when and how individuals, business units etc move into the future state org. By the way, the future state from an outside plant perspective will be fiber (which was a decision some exec made back in 2013 ). Tied to this will be some level of rebranding most likely similar to what was done by Digicel - Digi Mobile vs Digi Play. I can only assume other options were analyzed such as what transpired at BWIA and found not palatable at his time. 

Option 2 - Integrate into existing "legacy" operations

Massy Communications lost TT $40 million in 2016. So it means that something has to be done quickly to get this profitable. This could lead to rationalization of duplicate resources. eg. Call Center resources, Infrastructure (buildings, Inside & outside plant) etc. The company will obviously be mindful of what assets it can impair as Massy's assets would have been commissioned less than two years. However, this also presents an opportunity for TSTT,  who are seeking to rip out their legacy OSS/BSS. Depending on what Massy has in place it may enable TSTT to get ahead of the curve with its implementation. 

Option 3 - Combination of Option 1 & 2

Industrial Relations

The Recognized Majority Union will seek to engage the executives and board if option 2 or 3 are selected and certainly draw to management's attention Article 1.3 of the existing collective agreement which states"All provisions of the Agreement shall be binding upon the successors or assigns of the Company and the Union. In case of a consolidation or merger, representatives of the Company and the Union shall meet without delay and negotiate suitable provisions for the protection of the employees’ seniority, service, benefits and other interests". This may have longer-term implications on wages and salaries as a % of total opex. Note wage bill is approximately 45% of total opex.

If option 1 is selected the union will certainly pursue recognition seeing that the RMU has recognition for Borde Communications (Illuminat).

What happens to the 49%

Source: Massy 2016 Annual Report 

Massy was rumored to be the front-runner in acquiring the 49% shareholding in TSTT that is owned by Cable and Wireless. A colleague of mine said it is too much of a stretch for Massy seeing that their share price took a hit for 2016. But in my humble opinion with a debt to equity ratio of 32 percent and a strong cash flow and cash position, I would not rule out a sale and buy-back agreement in the medium term. As Massy should see telecommunications as a significant pillar and key to achieving its long term goals. Whether they own a piece, all or none is another story but time will tell. Who knows maybe the end game is to transform TSTT into a regional operator.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this commentary are those of the writer, who is communicating in his personal capacity. All commentaries seek to provide personal analysis and interpretations of telecommunications themes in the Domestic, Regional, and International markets.

To Cut or Not (Cord Cutting)

Recently a few friends of mine were engaged in a heated argument surrounding what is fondly called in Trinidad "Android boxes" or to the rest of the world "Kodi Boxes". These boxes enable a user who has the right apps and add-ons to access copyrighted material such as premium pay-for-TV channels, live sport, and films. For the most part out of a group of 9, 6 favored these boxes with 3 against. The 3 against was a lawyer, one telecoms executive (hmmm) and a musician. The arguments for cord cutting were as follows:

1) Rising cable subscription cost.
2) Commercial-free viewing.
3) No need to Pay for unwanted channels.
4) TV on demand (Watch what I want when I want).
5) TV "anywhere" (Once a Broadband (BB) connection is available).
6) Freeing the younger generation from subscription cable services (Cord Nevers).
7) One time fee (box pays for itself in a few months).
8) BB cost cheaper than TV subscription.
9) Movies/TV Show quality (1080P and 720P).
10) Cinema is too expensive.

The arguments for not cutting:

1) It's illegal (Selling of boxes got one user 4 years in an English prison).
2) The impact of piracy on thousands of jobs. (ESPN Layoffs)
3) Loss of revenue to parties in the entertainment industry supply chain. (AT&T lost 233,000  customers in Q1 2017 because of cord-cutting and cheap data plans)

The entertainment industry has always had to contend with piracy just like the music industry. Twenty years ago, monetizing content meant releasing it to a sizable audience at the multiplex or on VHS, DVD, pay-per-view or cable television. This is being challenged by today's customer demand for streaming on-demand content.

What are operators to do besides taking legal action against individuals selling these boxes?

1) Lobby regulators to take a firm position on pirated content.
2) Block relevant IP addresses.
3) Anti-Piracy public awareness programs (Some providers may get little sympathy from their current and past customers).
4) Push KODI (XBMC) and Android developers to adopt DRM (Digital Rights Managment) thus enable streaming of legal content.
5) Develop a robust broadband offering to offset the potential revenue decline in their subscription TV service. (Dominate the BB Residential, Enterprise, and Government market spaces)

Sadly piracy is here to stay, remember Napster circa 1999. Has music piracy stopped? Bottom line operators need to quickly formulate strategies to address declining revenues resulting from customers cutting the cord, as somehow everyone loves the word free, even when all that glitters is not gold.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this commentary are those of the writer, who is communicating in his personal capacity. All commentaries seek to provide personal analysis and interpretations of telecommunications themes in the Domestic, Regional, and International markets.

ATT and Time Warner Merger

So in case you haven't heard AT&T is acquiring Time Warner Cable (TWC) for $85.4 billion. TWC has three divisions which are as follows:

• HBO, which consists of domestic premium pay television and streaming services (HBO Now, HBO Go), as well as international premium & basic pay television and streaming services.

• Warner Bros. Entertainment, which consists of television, feature film, home video and video game production and distribution. Warner Bros. Film franchises include Harry Potter & DC Comics, and its produced TV series include Big Bang Theory and Gotham.

• Turner consists of U.S. and international basic cable networks, including TNT, TBS, CNN and Cartoon Network/Adult Swim. Also, Turner has the rights to the NBA, March Madness and MLB. Time Warner also has invested in OTT and digital media properties such as Hulu, Bleacher Report, CNN.com and Fandango.

One can quickly see this is not a bad investment for AT&T on the heels of their acquisition of DirecTV last year. 

Period	11-Dec	12-Dec	13-Dec	14-Dec	15-Dec
Gross Margin	53.56%	53.51%	53.25%	76.79%	75.46%

So where is telecoms heading? As I have been telling colleagues in the industry the game is down to two things 1) Bandwidth and 2) Content. So ATT has both Wired(Fiber to the Home) and Wireless (Mobile) offerings and with 5G around the corner, it means that they don't only have pipes but also have significant content which they intend to push to customers. 

So bringing this home it begs the question who is really positioning themselves to not only be the dominant player in the broadband game, but also have the content that not only appeals to a local market but regional and international markets as well. As make no mistake there is value in Caribbean content the issue here who is going to corner the market and become the leader in the converging media and communications industry. Flow (Now Liberty Global) and Digicel have made inroads into the media space and One Caribbean Media (OCM) has made inroads into the telecoms space, so let's see how the local market plays out as vendors seek to make Over the Top (OTT) and TV Everywhere products smarter and more personalized.

Schedule F Overview (Quality of Service requirements)

Trinidad and Tobago celebrated carnival 2016 on the 8 & 9th of February. Ronnie and Caro won band of the year with their presentation Tears Of.....  So by now, you are asking yourself what does a Mas band have to do with Telecommunications. Well, strangely enough, Band leader Ronnie McIntosh highlighted in a TV6 interview that customer service was key to the band's success.

Mas bands like Telcos have to satisfy a diverse consumer population, the key is how do you satisfy increasing customer demands whilst managing cost. As a starting point providers must meet their regulatory obligations. You will recall I mentioned Schedule F in a previous post. Schedule F can be broken down into eight areas and I will highlight a few KPIs to give the readers a feel for what is measured by the TATT (Local Telecoms Regulator) given that concessionaires normally have to provide the regulator with quarterly updates on performance.

General 

1. Service Activation Time - Fixed Telecoms/ Subscription broadcast ≤ 10 working days. Mobile Telecoms ≤ 2 working days. 
2. Service Re-activation Time - ≤ 24 hours or the next working day.  
3. Consumer Query Response Time -  85% of occurrences  within the following timeframe:

• ≤ 40 seconds Customer Service 
• email contact: ≤ 24 hours or the next working day 
• Customer Service Center: ≤ 1 hour

Public Telecommunications Access Services 

1. Public Payphone Availability - ≥ 85%

Public Data (Internet) Telecommunication Services

1. Average Bandwidth to Consumer - Dial-up access: ≥ 28.8 kbps Broadband access: ≥ 128 kbps or ≥50% of advertised throughput.

Subscription Broadcasting Services

Wholesale and Interconnection services

Network Services

1. Call Drop Rate - Fixed access: ≤ 1.5 % Mobile access: ≤ 4 %
2. Call Failure Ratio - Fixed Access: 0.5% Mobile access: 3.5%

Speech Quality 

Internet Access Services

1. Internet Access Local Network Availability - ≥ 95% 

Achieving QOS requirements are not going to satisfy the demanding telecommuting customer in this day and age and actually, you may find yourself with little or no customers if your aim as an organization is to just meet your concession requirements. So set aggressive targets to ensure that the organization focuses on exceeding customer expectations as what separates you from the competition is ultimately going to be the level of service offered to your customers.

TATT is also proposing to implement the Consumer Rights and Obligations Policy  (Additional/revised QOS requirements) which may be a tall order for certain companies. A quick review of one of the KPIs (Repair times) in the current draft is shown in the table below.

18 months from the implementation of this policy the expectation is that all providers must be able to complete 75% of repairs within 24 hours for fixed-line telecommunications. Now whilst this is great for the consumer lets take any day in the week. In most T&T households mom & dad are working and not at home until after 6pm  so this translates into a next day or weekend technician visit (KPI already shot). Whilst there are solutions to address these shortcomings in the proposed policy I will leave that for another time.

So is your provider meeting their QOS obligations as defined in Schedule F? 

What are Telcos to do with their copper plant?

 
Recently we have seen major players in the local telecoms market advertising Fiber to the home (FTTH) or Fiber to the Node (FTTN). Engineers will tell you that FTTX is ultimately the best fixed access technology available today supporting GPON, EPON etc and as such is "future proof". But what are operators to do with their legacy copper plant? The answer is simple. Sweat that asset as long as possible, even against a backdrop of impending Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) regulations.

 On the Cable end they have DOCSIS 3.1 which allows 10 Gbps per network node downstream and 1 Gbps upstream which, despite the shared-bandwidth nature of their networks will enable cable operators to remain extremely competitive. On the Telco side, you have VDSL2, which allow telcos to deliver 100 Mbps services over copper assuming copper infrastructure was previously redesigned to have shorter loop lengths as shown below.


New technology being tested/implemented in Telcos is G. Fast which was tested recently by Cable and Wireless Panama. Download speeds were as high as 500 Mbps existing copper fixed lines. With this technology operators with significant copper plant can "sweat those assets" all things being equal. Obviously, operators have to take this on a case by case basis as in some instances (competitive pressure, quality of existing copper plant, etc.) it may just make good business sense to go the FTTH route. However, note that it doesn't stop here as on the horizon is 5 Gigabit broadband (See bandwidth comparison below). So think carefully as you may not want to wreck that copper plant just yet.

Adapted from Huawei

Watch out that message may not be private!!!!

I came across a judgement in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) dated 12th January 2016 and thought I should share. The terminated employee who was previously classified as an engineer in charge of sales in a private company filed a complaint where he claimed that his right to respect for private and family life, home, and correspondence had been violated by his employer. At his employer’s request, he created a Yahoo Messenger account for the purpose of responding to clients’ inquiries.

The employer On July 13, 2007, informed the employee that his Yahoo Messenger communications between July 5 to July 13, 2007 were monitored and that the records showed he had used the internet for personal purposes. The employee countered in writing indicating that he only used Yahoo Messenger for business purposes at which point the the employer provided transcripts of messages between the employee and family members some of which dealt the health and sex life. The employee was subsequently terminated on 1st August 2007 for breach of the company’s internal regulations which prohibited the use of company resources for personal purposes.”

The employee challenged his employer’s decision at the ECHR. The court dismissed the employees complaint sighting that the employee had been duly informed of the company’s regulations. The court placed on record that it was not unreasonable for an employer to verify that employees were performing assigned tasks during working hours moreso as the employer had access to the employee's account given that it contained client-related communications.

Most local companies have some rules surrounding the use of the communications tools which traditionally would be email and correspondence and as such some companies may have to review these regulations as they may be dated and not contain clauses surrounding social media apps. However, employers need to beware as well given that reading an employee's communication may have implications under the Interception Of Communications Act  depending on how the password was obtained.

Does your organization have regulations surronding the use of personal computers, email systems etc? If so do employees adhere to the policy?

Third Mobile Operator in Trinidad and Tobago

Loaded cell tower 
Photo credit : Hassan Voyeau 

So recently we would have seen several companies articulate the position that a third mobile operator in T&T is not feasible in a market where mobile penetration as at December 2014 was 149.1% and only two operators will get a 4G license in the 750Mhz spectrum. We have seen residents object to mobile towers being built in their communities and in some cases they have gotten towers removed. The issue has always been the provision of mobile coverage vs customers concerns around radio frequency emissions from these sites. However, results from studies/test all indicate that local towers meet the compliance levels set by TATT and even the standards set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the USA.

Most mobile towers are already fully loaded as a result co-location (tower space is rented to other providers) and the number of services being provided via these towers such as Mobile, Wireless broadband etc.

One solution available to TATT if they want further competition in the mobile space is the introduction of a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). An MVNO is really a wholesale arrangement that allows the Mobile Network Operator (MNO - Digicel or TSTT) to sell excess capacity to an MVNO. Virgin Mobile and Red Pocket Mobile are perfect examples of MVNOs.

So what should happen next?

TSTT and TATT battle!!!!!

The biggest news item to close off 2015 was TSTT successfully averting a licensing fiasco. TSTT and Digicel had concessions that expired on the 29th December 2015. The concessions that expired are:

Public International Telecommunications Services - Digicel & TSTT
Subscription Broadcasting Service (TV) - TSTT
Public Domestic Fixed Telecommunications Network - TSTT
Public Domestic Mobile Telecommunications Network - Digicel & TSTT


With TSTT holding on to > 50% market share in all markets (mobile?) except television a shutdown of these services would have dire consequences for T&T not just from a commercial standpoint but also from a national security standpoint as well. A simple check of TATT's (Local Telecoms Regulator) website reveals that apart from TSTT, concessions for Flow, Network Technologies Limited and Open Telecom expire today (4th January 2016)

Flow
Public International Telecommunications Services
Subscription Broadcasting Service (over a Public Domestic Fixed Telecom. Network only)
Public Domestic Fixed Telecommunications Network

Network Technologies Limited
Subscription Broadcasting Service (over a Public Domestic Fixed Telecom. Network only)
Public Domestic Fixed Telecommunications Network.

Open Telecom
Public International Telecommunications Service


So a few questions come to mind.

1) The concession document is a standard contract with adjustments made for each provider depending on the services offered and market being served (national, niche/community). The document also defines quality of service requirements (Schedule F - which will be discussed in a future post). So if clauses were amended/removed has this now placed TSTT at an advantage/disadvantage over other concessionaires?

2) Have other providers signed their renewals or are they still in negotiations? If negotiations are ongoing with the other providers why was TSTT forced to sign its renewal?

3) When will TATT give us its side of the story?

Finally, a concession is renewed by the line minister on the recommendation of TATT upon application by the concessionaire to TATT and secondly TATT also examines the concessionaire's previous compliance with the conditions of the concession to determine whether the concession should be renewed.

We're back!!!!

After a well deserved rest I have a lot of things to share with you for 2016. So look out its going to be an awesome year.

More KPIs the merrier?

I often ask persons how do they measure performance and you will be surprised to hear the responses. So if you are working in a telecom or other service type industry and trying to figure out what to measure, rest assured there are probably a thousand + things that you can track but I have compiled a list of ten for my readers. So if you are looking to set up your corporate dashboard you may what to examine a few of these or drop me a line if you have some favorites and why.

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) - Total revenue divided by the number of subscribers.

Churn Rate - Percentage of customers that discontinue their subscription to a service in a given period.

EBITDA - Net income with interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization added back

Average Wait Time (AWT) - Time customer waits before they are answered by Customer service representative

Call Drop Rate - Percentage of calls which, due to technical reasons, were disconnected before either part terminated the call.

Time to repair (TTR) - Average time required to repair service

Revenue Per Employee - Identitfies how efficiently a particular company is utilizing its employees.

Minutes of Usage - The total time, measured in minutes, that a customer uses their phone during a specified period

First-Call Resolution (FCR) - Resolving customer's need the first time they call, eliminating the need for the customer to call back.

Payback Period - The length of time required to recover the cost of an investment.

If your broadband package was only 1000Mb

Tonight I am working and a member of my family asks why is the internet so slow? Now we have a 10Mb package from a local provider and it works okay, although the last few days it was up and down. So I then asked the person how much bandwidth do they want and funny enough, I was promptly informed that they would take the maximum available. 

I was the project owner for the implementation of a 1000Mb aka "one gigabit" connection to a residential community just over a year ago in Trinidad. Whilst it was a first for T&T it was also the first such implementation in the english speaking Caribbean.

Implementation went well with a wonderful public launch etc. The reality is how many of us can afford it. Most of us can't but the speed would be nice given that you can download emails or songs in milliseconds plus get streaming 4k television content.

So what would you do with 1000Mb of bandwidth?

T&T Telecom Operators 2015

A colleague of mine who resides in the US was assisting his mother in relocating to T&T and wanted to know if T&T only had  two providers which I quickly corrected. This prompted me to develop the listing below for the benefit of readers. Enjoy!!

Landline
Columbus Communications Trinidad Limited (FLOW) 
Digicel (Trinidad and Tobago)Limited 
Massy Communications Limited 
Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) 

Broadband
Air Link Communications.
Columbus Communications Trinidad Limited (CCTL)
Digicel (Trinidad and Tobago) Limited. 
Green Dot Limited
Lisa Communications Limited
Massy Communications Limited
Open Telecom Limited
Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT)

Mobile
Digicel (Trinidad and Tobago) Limited. 
Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago (bmobile); 

Subscription TV
Air Link Communications Limited
Columbus Communications Trinidad Limited (CCTL)
DirecTV Trinidad Limited
Diversified Technologies Limited
Green Dot Limited
Independent Cable Network of Trinidad and Tobago (ICNTT)
Massy Communications Limited
Network Technologies Limited
RVR International Limited
Santa Flora Cable Network Limited
Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) 
TRICO Industries Limited

Why we love Contact Centers?

I recently had to call a local provider’s contact center for assistance with an issue. Well after navigating the menu and waiting for what seemed like an eternity I eventually spoke a customer service representative. The customer service experience was one of the worst I have encountered in all my years of working in customer service. Contact centers are driven by metrics such as First-call resolution (FCR), Average Waiting Time (AWT), Average Hold Time (AHT) just to name a few and these have to be monitored and adjustments made during the workday in order to meet stated customer service objectives.

But what could cause such a poor customer experience in the first place. Well, here are my top five reasons.

Agent absenteeism – More so seeing T&T is ranked fifth among countries in the world with the highest rates of workplace absenteeism.

High staff turnover – Negatively impacts quality, because every time a trained agent leaves, fewer are on hand to ensure an optimum level of service.

Little focus on first-call-resolution – Resulting in the customer having to speak to several agents regarding a single inquiry

Poor integration of IT platforms – Resulting in the employee having to access multiple systems (CRM databases, workforce management tools and sales order processing applications) to satisfy customer request thus increasing the transaction time.

Employee/Job mismatch – Wrong person for the job.

What's the longest you had to wait to speak to a customer care agent?

Iphone 7. What we need.

Apple jumped into the smartphone business back in June 29, 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone, which took approximately 74 days to sell the first million iPhones with features such as multi touch gestures and pinch to zoom. Eight years later rumors of the next generation of iPhones are all over the Internet and with a planned launch date of sometime in 2016 iPhone users can't wait.

Apple is currently ranked 2nd behind Samsung in the smartphone market. So here is a list of features that  I believe should be incorporated into the next release if Apple wants to keep me as a customer.

• Lower price
• Wireless charging
• Durable Lightning cables 
• 32 GB entry model
• Improve texture of phone to avoid slippage
• Higher resolution screen
• Higher primary and secondary camera resolution
• More RAM
• Better battery life - Functionality to close apps that are not being used automatically after a user  defined time period has lapsed
• Flexible displays

What functionality are you looking forward to in the next version of your smartphone? 

Which Smartphone do you use?

Lets buy a PBX!!!

Recently I met and old business colleague who was looking to purchase a private branch exchange (PBX) system to satisfy his communication needs at his three offices. His requirements were simple:

• A capital spend of no more than a million TT dollars
• A long list of Technical requirements

My question to him was why in this day and age was he seeking to spend a million dollars in capex to own something that in the next three years will have to be upgraded. I then asked my friend had he approached any of the providers for a hosted solution and funny enough his concern was voice quality. I indicated to him that I had implemented a 250+ seat contact centre Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) solution in 2007 which handles in excess of 10 million calls per year and to date there have been no complaints from the user or customers of the provider.

The benefits that he could derive from a hosted solution are:

· Reduced Up-front costs and installation
· Lower/No upgrade cost
· Simplified Moves, Adds & Changes
· Reduction in local call charges
· Smartphone integration for mobile employees

So my friend is now busy looking for a hosted solution. What are your plans for your telephony infrastructure?

Field Service Automation

With operators facing intense competition for customers and pressure to reduce costs one solution that can improve the service delivery channel is Field Service Automation (FSA) whilst also providing the additional benefit of boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty. If your organization suffers from disjointed communication with field service staff, over/under-scheduled resources and under-skilled technicians then you may very well want to consider an FSA solution. Note you should employ a universal technician model so that a technician can install all services and ensure that the components of the Home Area Network (HAN) reduce further truck roles when the customer request additional services.

Back to FSA

At a basic level an FSA solution should provide the following features:

• Cross-Platform Mobile Technician Application that can work offline
• Intelligent Route Optimization
• GPS enabled
• Easy to Use scheduling and dispatch (Alerts and escalation workflow)
• Service Management features for contracts, parts/inventory and assets
• Seamless integration of mobile into a back office application
• Inspection capabilities
• Service reporting and analysis capabilities (e.g.: time tracking, job status updates)

Most providers either have an FSA solution implemented or are well on the way to implementing same. However, as with anything the right tool needs to be selected for the job as there are many vendors in this space, but the key is to ensure the chosen FSA solution can integrate with your operations support systems/business support systems (OSS/BSS) to provide the stated return on investment (ROI). What product does your company use?