Service operations centre: enabling differentiation based on superior customer experience

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RESEARCH STRATEGY REPORT

SERVICE OPERATIONS CENTRE: ENABLING DIFFERENTIATION

BASED ON SUPERIOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
ANIL RAO

© Analysys Mason Limited 2014

Service operations centre: enabling differentiation based on superior customer experience
About this report
This report analyses the key market drivers for investments in the
service operations centre (SOC), the increasing relevance of the
SOC, and provides an overview of the key implementation
strategies.
It looks at the challenges presented by traditional network
operations centre (NOC) tools and processes, and how an SOC
can help operators address these shortcomings. It provides
recommendations to both operators and vendors on the
implementation and positioning for the SOC solution.
The report provides:
 a detailed analysis of current challenges and limitations of
traditional NOC tools and processes that create the issue of
‘service blind spot’
 analysis of ways in which SOCs help address some of these
challenges, and enable the operator to focus on improving
operational efficiency and enhancing customer experience
 three key strategies for implementing an SOC
 recommendations for operators and vendors.
It is based on several sources including interviews and surveys
conducted with a number of vendors and operators.
© Analysys Mason Limited 2014
KEY QUESTIONS ANSWER E D IN THIS R EPOR T
 The key challenges and business drivers that has created the need for
implementing service operations centre (SOC)
 The role of an SOC as an enabler for operators to differentiate based on
service and customer experience
 How can SOC break down organisational silos and enable close
collaboration among different groups such as customer care, network
operations and planning and engineering
 What should operators and vendors do to enable the evolution from a
network focused operations to a service and customer centric operations
WHO NEEDS TO R EAD THIS R EPOR T
 Departments heads of network operations and customer care operations
 Executives in the COO office responsible to improve operational
efficiency
 Senior executives responsible for improving customer experience
 Vendors who are predominantly focused on network operations and
considering portfolio evolution
 Vendors providing OSS solutions for service operations centre
2
Service operations centre: enabling differentiation based on superior customer experience

CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

THE NEED FOR THE SOC

THREE STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTING AN SOC

THE INCREASING RELEVANCE OF THE SOC

APPENDIX

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ANALYSYS MASON

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Service operations centre: enabling differentiation based on superior customer experience

Executive summary

The service operations centre (SOC) is a key enabler for Figure 1: Evolution from network operations centre to customer experience centre
operators that aspire to differentiate themselves based on the
customer experience. A successful SOC implementation can
help operators to reduce churn and improve operational Customer-centric operations
efficiency. CEC Based on CEM systems.
Traditional network operations centre (NOC) tools and processes Customer
Tighter integration with
are highly network focused, creating a ‘service blind spot’ that experience
billing, CRM and social
lacks service, customer and business context. An SOC provides centre
networking
the necessary tools and processes to monitor services in an end-
to-end context, enabling operators to prioritise actions based on
their impact on services and the customer experience. Service-centric operations
Operators should focus on three key strategies when SOC Provides tools and
implementing an SOC: Service
processes to monitor
operations
 deploying a service quality management (SQM) solution services in an
centre
end-to-end context
 designing a dedicated process in the SOC
 focusing on service model lifecycle management.
Network-centric operations
Operators should consider an SOC as one part of a holistic NOC Network assurance focused;
customer experience management (CEM) strategy, not as a Network lacks service, customer
complete solution. operations and business context
Vendors should bring to market service management solutions for centre
enterprise business services that cover both telecoms and IT
infrastructure.

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Service operations centre: enabling differentiation based on superior customer experience

NOC tools and processes focus on network resources, creating a service

‘blind spot’ that lacks service, customer and business context
As operators look to differentiate on service quality and Figure 2: Traditional network-focused operational approach
customer experience, the biggest challenge they face is the
lack of a comprehensive service management strategy. Customers

The development and application of most service assurance tools

and systems such as fault and event management and
performance monitoring tools have predominantly focused on
providing ‘network assurance’ but lacked the end-to-end service Customer
context, creating a ‘service blind spot’. Marketing
care
Network usage has changed dramatically from traditional voice Lack of end-to-end view Difficult to guarantee
and SMS to pure data services such as video, gaming and of service and QoE QoS and SLA
ecommerce. The complexity of telecoms networks is rapidly Lack of Highly inefficient
increasing with new IP services spanning multiple network and IT relevant tools Service ‘blind spot’ processes
domains. Bandwidth and signalling-intensive over-the-top (OTT) Difficult to correlate network,
applications are further exacerbating the problem, creating new service and business performance
challenges for operators, particularly for customer care teams
Network
dealing with customer complaints. operations Engineering
In this environment of rapidly changing service consumption and centre
increasing network complexity, with network virtualisation
evolution still to come, traditional network-focused operations will OSS OSS OSS OSS
not be sufficient to differentiate based on service quality and
customer experience.
Telecoms / IT
Source: Analysys Mason

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Service operations centre: enabling differentiation based on superior customer experience

The SOC helps operators to transform from a network-centric to a

customer-centric organisation, but it is not a complete CEM solution
The fundamental objective of the SOC is to address the issue of Figure 3: Service operations-based operational approach
‘service blind spot’ and play the role of an intermediary between
the customer-facing groups such as customer care, and Customers
network-focused teams such as network operations and
network planning and engineering.
Conceptually different from a NOC, an SOC focuses on operations
from a customer and service-centric perspective. It comprises the Customer
relevant technology and processes to monitor customers’ quality Marketing
care
of service, providing near-real-time insight on service impact so
action can be swift and purposeful. SQM forms the technology
backbone of the SOC, enabling operators to measure and assure
end-to-end quality of services.
Service operations centre
Operators’ service operations should span both network and IT
domains. Business focus is increasingly on alternative business
models such as cloud and digital services, so operators need a
Network
holistic service management strategy with big data analytics at operations Engineering
the heart to create actionable insight based on network and centre
service performance data. An effective service lifecycle
management model is also a necessity.
OSS OSS OSS OSS
SOC certainly enables operators to achieve customer experience
objectives such as churn reduction and NPS improvement, but, it
is not a panacea for CEM, which has a much broader remit Telecoms / IT
spanning all customer touchpoints.
Source: Analysys Mason

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Service operations centre: enabling differentiation based on superior customer experience

Recommendations

1
Operators should consider implementing an SOC to make the transition from network assurance to true
service assurance.
SOC technology and processes enable operators to focus on customers’ end-to-end quality of service and foster
close collaboration among diverse teams (customer care, NOC, planning and optimisation, and increasingly
marketing) to proactively monitor and resolve service-affecting issues. This enables operators to improve customer
experience and operational efficiency and reduce churn.

2
Vendors should provide operators with clear evolutionary options for SOC implementation. Most operators will
adopt an incremental approach, starting with SQM.
Large Tier 1 and some Tier 2 operators with a long-term vision and the financial bandwidth will implement
dedicated SOC but most other operators will take a gradual evolutionary path including strategies such as
implementing SOC functions in the NOC. Vendors need to cater for both of these approaches with a clear path for
moving from a NOC to an SOC.

3
Vendors should invest in R&D to develop service management solutions that span network and IT resources,
both physical and virtualised.
Operators are increasingly providing cloud- and M2M-based services, which span the network and IT domains and,
as a result, make it difficult to measure and assure service performance and SLAs. The impending evolution to
virtualised infrastructure will make this even more challenging. Vendors should address this by bringing to market
end-to-end service management solutions that span hybrid physical and virtual network and IT infrastructure.

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Service operations centre: enabling differentiation based on superior customer experience

About the author

Anil Rao (Senior Analyst) is a member of Analysys Mason’s Telecoms Software research team and is the lead analyst for the Service
Assurance programme, focusing on producing market share, forecast and research collateral for the programme. He has published research on
IP probes, real-time network analytics and the importance of service assurance in reducing churn and improving customer experience. He holds
a BEng in Computer Science from the University of Mysore and an MBA from Lancaster University Management School, UK.

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Service operations centre: enabling differentiation based on superior customer experience

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