Telcoms operators are now facing both opportunities and challenges in equal measure.

Currently their focus is on:

1 Containing costs (mostly though outsourcing)

2 Delivering more complex services 

3 Adding more value to the customer experience

1. Containing costs

The global outsourcing deals of the past 2-3 years have successfully delivered on the goal of containing costs. IBM, EDS and others now run the application development and maintenance functions of major global telecoms providers such as Vodafone and Telefonica. The benefit of lower cost comes at the cost of divesting out of IT as a business competency. While this does not present a huge risk, it is important for the operator to have strong systems integrators who understands the business drivers and who can integrate legacy systems with newer platforms to reduce time to market for propositions.

How we can help

Over the past 10 years, the iSite Telecoms team have successfully delivered large complex systems integration projects. Working in the areas of Billing, CRM, Project and Operations management, iSite have been a key local provider of telecoms consultancy to the Irish market. As a small agile supplier, we compliment the large global suppliers such as IBM GBS and HP/EDS. We also have a strong TIBCO competency in this space.

2. Delivering more complex services

Telecoms Operators such as Telefonica and Vodafone are finally moving towards exposing network intelligence to third parties - thus moving from a closed network model (NetCo) to an open platform model (WebCo). This initiative promises the convergence of mobile telecoms and Web 2.0 technologies including social networking. This is often referred to as Telco 2.0. One of the major issues around exploiting these opportunities is that Telcos need to learn how to operate and support these open platforms. They also need to provide the APIs to allow third parties to host mass-market applications.

How we can help

iSite have developed several mobile applications primarily on the Symbian platform. We have a small expert group who are currently innovating on several new-to-market applications in this space.

3. Adding Value to the customer experience

Customer Value Management was one of the first initiatives of Vittorio Coloa, when he became CEO of Vodafone. This involved investment in understanding the customer - product and service offerings on buying behaviour, interaction patterns and how demographics, macroeconomics and external influences can all impact on revenue and profit. The large global Telco's have a strong understanding of how all these variables impact on their bottom line.

How we can help

iSite are innovating on ways to leverage the best practices of Analytics and Data Integration. Using tools such as DI Diver and Tibco, iSite can provide a highly integrated view of seriously complex data to drive business decisions. iSite have a unique team of IT Consultants with 5 years+ experience in TIBCO BW and iProcess development in both EAI and SOA environments.

Talk to the iSite Telecoms team here to find out more