operationalexcellence-101129041803-phpapp01.pdf

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S T R A T E G I C W H I T E P A P E R

Traditionally, the majority o network provider eorts to create a high Quality o Experience

(QoE) or end users have been ocused on deploying and maintaining a state-o-the-art

network inrastructure to provide connectivity and advanced communication services.

More recently, these eorts have included new business processes that improve service,

such as the introduction o detailed billing and sel-care portals. But to achieve business

objectives, increase competitiveness, and improve end user QoE network providers needto achieve a level o operational excellence a philosophy o leadership, teamwork and

problem solving resulting in continuous improvement throughout the organization in

all unctional areas. This requires eective integration o network transormation programs

with eorts to consolidate the previous separate worlds o IT, network operations and

customer care. Based on Pyramid Research and Alcatel-Lucent market analysis, these

three areas represent approximately 36 percent o a providers operating expenses. A

proper integration strategy supported by ongoing measurement and management will

create a streamlined operational environment that improves competitiveness by ocusing

all business operations to deliver the highest QoE to end users at all times. The integration

process can begin with optimizing resources and service operations to reduce costs, enabling

new services creation and efcient customer care.

Increasing Competitiveness through OngoingOperational Excellence

Streamlining IT and network operations to improve end user qualityof experience and sustain growth


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Table of contents

1 Its All About the End User

2 Placing Operational Excellence in a Network Provider Framework

4 IT infrastructure transformation

5 Cost optimization5 Integration and interoperability across platforms

6 Managing headcount and network OPEX

7 Alcatel-Lucent and Operational Excellence

8 Putting the Concept to Work

9 Conclusion

10 Acronyms

10 About the Authors


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Increasing Competitiveness through Ongoing Operational Excellence | Strategic White Paper 1

Its All About the End User

Reduce churn. Increase average revenue per user. Lower operating costs. Improve margins. Meet risingdemand or a myriad o services ast. Dierentiate. Go beyond doing it aster and better than theother guy by anticipating and delivering end user wants and needs. Be the provider o choice.

I there have been any constants in the business o delivering communications services over the past

ew years they have come rom the ongoing eorts o network providers around the world to achievethese objectives. In a changing environment and increasingly competitive landscape, network providershave struggled to nd the key to success in these areas. Some have ocused on improving the networkto ensure it can deliver high quality voice, data and multimedia services. Some have concentratedon developing advanced, Web 2.0 services by exposing key network assets to application and contentproviders (ACPs) under the banner o application enablement. Some have looked at alternatives tomanage their networks through reducing their costs and ocusing on the customer experience. Somehave opted to replace aging, high maintenance equipment in their data centers. And some have shitedtheir gaze inward and introduced new processes that streamline the way the business is managed.

The approaches are as varied rom one network provider to the next as are their networks. And theredoesnt seem to be nor should there be one denitive solution. But what all approaches have in

common is that they all stem rom one basic realization: Winning in this market is all about the end user.

Regardless o which path is taken, the ultimate goal is to anticipate end user needs and maintaina competitive edge by improving the end user quality o experience (QoE). This is best achievedby ensuring that each individual consumer and enterprise end user is satised and continues to besatised with everything a network provider has to oer the network, the services, and the qualityo service (QoS) at all levels. However, addressing one area o the business alone will not leadto ultimate success. To achieve business objectives, increase competitiveness, and improve end userQoE network providers need a better way to manage their business at the network and operationslayers. They need to achieve operational excellence.

Unortunately, operational excellence is one o those business catchphrases with many meanings.

A simple Google search reveals pages o links and accompanying documentation that outline theconcept and the philosophy as it applies to a variety o market sectors, rom manuacturing toservice-oriented enterprises.

Wikipedia denes it as a philosophy o leadership, teamwork and problem solving resulting incontinuous improvement throughout the organization by ocusing on the needs o the customer,empowering employees, and optimizing existing activities in the process.1

In a nutshell, operational excellence is not just concerned with the unctions o the operationsgroup in an organization. It applies to the operations o all unctional areas. What this means to anetwork provider is in the mind o the beholder. All network providers will take this concept anddetermine what operational excellence is in their own environment based on their priorities and

those o their customers. Likewise, eorts to achieve operational excellence will vary rom onenetwork provider to the next.

Alcatel-Lucent believes operational excellence or network providers is the optimum balancebetween three key objectives:

Managingandscalingnetworkbandwidthandcapacityefcientlytoaccommodateever-changing demands

ImprovingnancialperformanceandReturnonInvestment(ROI)byloweringoperatingexpenditures(OPEX)andmanaginginvestmentsforsustainablegrowth

EnsuringQoEmeetsorexceedsenduserexpectations

1 Operational excellence, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_excellence


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Increasing Competitiveness through Ongoing Operational Excellence | Strategic White Paper2

Achieving this balance requires eective integration o network transormation programs with eortsto consolidate the previous separate worlds o IT and network operations. A strong integration strategysupported by ongoing measurement and management will create a streamlined operational environmentthat improves competitiveness by ocusing all business operations on delivering the highest QoE toend users at all times.

Placing Operational Excellence in a Network Provider Framework

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) provides guidelines that tie QoE with the QoSassociated with the delivery o services to end users. These guidelines outline delay, delay variation,and inormation loss and provide perormance targets that meet user expectations or various appli-cations, such as conversational voice, audio streaming, and Web browsing. The ITU also providesa model or estimating the perormance o data applications over Internet Protocol (IP) networks,which covers network, application, and perceptual perormance.

Meanwhile, the TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum) looks at QoE rom the perspective o servicelevel agreement (SLA) management. It denes Key Quality Indicators (KQIs) and Key PerormanceIndicators (KPIs) as measurements o perceived quality rather than network perormance. AndAlcatel-Lucent Bell Labs denes QoE as the measure o how well a system or an application meets

the users expectations based on user-perceived eects, such as degradation in voice or video quality.2

These and other denitions explain QoE within the context o network provider eorts to improveend user satisaction. The more satised end users are with the overall experience oered by the networkprovider, the more likely they are to respond to up-sell and cross-sell oers, generate new businessby word-o-mouth, have a lower cost to serve, and the less likely they are to churn (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Customer satisfaction drives network provider business benefits3

Traditionally, the majority o network provider eorts to create a high QoE or end users have beenocused on deploying and maintaining a state-o-the-art network inrastructure to provide connectivityand advanced communication services. More recently, these eorts have included new businessprocesses that improve service, such as the introduction o detailed billing and sel-care portals.

2 Delivering Quality of Experience in Multimedia Networks, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, March 2010.3 Integrated Customer Experience Management, McKinsey & Company, February 2010.

Percentage of consumers likely to

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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Cancel

Recommend

to friend

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or buy more

products

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Customer satisfaction score


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But operational excellence means going beyond independent eorts to improve network inrastruc-ture, services, or customer service. It includes every aspect o the business that contributes to anend users overall experience. And it requires network providers to move rom network-centric toservice-centric KPIs and KQIs that shit the metrics rom measuring the network to those measuringservices and experience. This requires proactive planning across the entire organization, includingnetwork, marketing, and customer care.

To achieve this, network providers must look at their network operations and their business opera-tions as an integrated whole and optimize them both to eciently and eectively meet end userexpectations, rom the moment they sign or service, through service delivery, to upgrades, billingand right through to the web portal (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Customer perception and key satisfaction drivers4

Applied properly, operational excellence results in end users who are intrigued enough by a specialpromotiontovisitthepromotionalportalonthenetworkproviderswebsite.Oncethere,theportaldraws the end user in urther by allowing easy navigation through a myriad o options that can becustomized to t individual service preerences. Policy and privacy statements are easily ound and

understood. Service control and billing unctions can be tailored to t liestyle and administrationpreerences. And sign-up and activation are simple and ecient.

Beyond the initial sale, the end users overall experience is enhanced by the services unction.Availability, reliability, and QoS are continuously o the highest level. And i there is a problem,the end user is notied in advance, or can quickly and easily access support personnel that canknowledgeably answer key questions. This level o experience is maintained throughout the relation-ship with accurate, detailed billing, ongoing notications o service upgrades and options, and easilyaccessible addition and/or change options to the service via an intuitive, security-enabled web portal,or an ecient call center operation that can make modications as required.

4 Integrated Customer Experience Management, McKinsey & Company, February 2010.

1 Calculated impact of touch point on overall satisfaction (regression based approach)

2 Derived importance weighted by penetration

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Cross-channel consistency

Prepayment

Mobile broadband/3G access

Call center

Activation/provisioning

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Retail store

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Derived importance2 for the whole baseTouch point

Key drivers of

satisfaction are offering,

network quality and

activation as they touch

all customers

Billing, cross channel

consistency,

prepayment, and call

center are still important

(in particular when you

experience them)


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This integrated approach worked well or a Tier 1 xed/mobile network provider. Beore launchinga new triple play service, the network provider established new KQIs and KPIs. Every division inthe organization worked together to achieve these benchmarks and deliver complete customersatisaction. In addition, the benchmarks were tracked to ensure the organization as whole achievedthe desired level o service. As a result, this proactive management approach helped the networkprovider grow its subscriber base by 175,000 in just 12 months.

What this experience shows is that the required level o excellence touches a network providersentire operation. Thereore, achieving it requires a phased process supported by ongoing measure-ment, assessment and management. But because every network providers business is unique andbusiness objectives vary by market, there is no one-size-ts-all solution. However, the process willusually involve our key areas o ocus:

ITinfrastructuretransformationandoperations(desktop,ITdatacenters,VASservers,LAN/WAN)

Costoptimization(networkutilizationandperformance,operatingandmaintenancecosts,andQoE)

Integrationandinteroperabilityacrossplatforms

ManagingheadcountandnetworkOPEX

How these activities are applied and integrated within a network providers environment will be

determined by each provider as part o a customized operational excellence development process.

IT infrastructure transformation

Like most enterprises, a network providers IT inrastructure is the oundation o the organizationsinternal and external business processes. Thereore, like most enterprises, network providers areaced with the challenge o improving IT inrastructure and operations to enhance the quality andeectiveness o those processes while at the same time containing IT-related costs. Eorts in theseareas may include:

Streamliningandoptimizingmultipletechnologyassets,suchasnetworkingequipment,servers,storage and sotware

AdoptingWeb-basedservicesthatautomateavarietyofsupportandmaintenancefunctions

to simpliy system management and cut operations costs Introducingremotehardwareeventmonitoringandautomatedincidentnoticationtohelp

prevent potentially critical ailures

But network providers have an additional concern. To compete eectively with their traditionalcompetitors, as well as with new and emerging players, most network providers have realized thatthey may need to transorm their business. This requires adopting new business models and arrange-ments that leverage the capabilities o their networks to support new relationships with third partyACPs. By working cooperatively with these new partners, network providers can develop and delivernew, advanced and personalized services that address end user demand or access to multimediaapplications and services, anywhere and anytime.

As a key component o an operational excellence integrated strategy, an eective business trans-ormation will require convergence o best in class IT and telecom technologies and processes. Forsome network providers this may include retirement o legacy IT and network inrastructure assets.This may be ollowed by a build-out o telecommunications inrastructure that is tightly integratedwith IT technologies to bring network operating expenditures onto an enterprise IT cost curve whilemaintaining the traditional reliability o a telecom inrastructure. And it may include adoption omanaged services or key IT and network inrastructure assets.

Whatever the approach, an eective transormation will lead to the creation o tighter links between themany domains that make up a telecom inrastructure and a set o new capabilities in the areas o real-time customer and business intelligence, charging, customer service processes, and new service delivery.


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Cost optimization

Since most network providers have already embarked on cost optimization eorts, this paper willnot review those activities. However, cost optimization does play a key role in any eort to achieveoperational excellence. Thats because in todays evolving market revenue is centered less on theindividual user and more on the trac transported between users (data, media, and bits). As aresult, overall usage is a key measure o revenue.

As part o an integrated operational excellence strategy any network provider optimization eortsshould be ocused on maximizing margins while reducing costs. The overall goal should be to achievethelowesttotalcostofownership(TCO)pertransportedbitbyfocusingcosttransformationeffortsoncreatingaHighLeverageNetwork architecture, achieving non-linear cost reductions, and makingstrategic investments. With these eorts, network optimization savings will vary widely romve percent to 65 percent but the improvements will help lead an overall transormation program.

There is no universal solution to the challenge o increasing network value through cost optimization.The market pressures and network architecture each network provider aces are unique. But, as ageneralrule,reducingOPEXandcapitalexpenditures(CAPEX),whileincreasingrevenuepertrans -ported bit depends on the successul transormation o operations and IT into a next-generation,high-value network. And to remain viable, that network must be capable o providing end users with

the services and applications they require at the moment, while remaining fexible and protable arinto the uture.5

Integration and interoperability across platforms

An eective operational excellence strategy should include the integration o automated operationalsupport and billing support unctions to enable better measurement and attainment o QoE basedon KQIs and KPIs. This is important because operational support is needed to track inventory, aswell as introduce and provision services to ensure end users get what they need when they need it.Business support ocuses on customer relationship management, which includes orders, bill processingand payments. With changes in the competitive market and customer expectations, impeccabledelivery is required in both these areas or good QoE rom the onset. But it must be achieved cost-eectively. I it is, it enables the network provider to overcome the hurdles o introducing new serviceswith more agility than competitors.

Until recently, KPIs have been used by network providers to measure the perormance o their networks.However, because they are network-centric, KPIs cannot be used to measure the perormance orquality o the services the network delivers. As a result, most network providers also use KQIs to geta better indication o service quality based on the perormance o a product, product component,service, or service element. By building SLAs based on both sets o indicators, network providers canestablish service quality metrics against which to measure end user QoE. And these metrics can besupported by service quality management processes in all business support system (BSS) and operationssupportsystem(OSS)functions.

Eective monitoring o QoE and SLA management is a key requirement or operational excellence.It should include the integration o network resource-acing services (hardware, protocols) andcustomer-acing services, as well as ongoing measurement o end-to-end QoE so that in cases o poorQoE early ault localization is possible. Implemented properly this will improve problem resolutioneffortsbynetworkoperationscenter(NOC)staffbypinpointingactualproblemssothattheycanbe resolved in minutes rather than days. It will also enable impact analysis that allows networkproviders to plan a response to potential problems.

5 For more information about cost optimization, see the Alcatel-Lucent white paper The New Economics of Telecom Networks: Bringing valueback to the network, Alcatel-Lucent 2009.


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Any operational excellence eorts in this area should include automated problem detection andevent resolution through permanent, service-aware, multi-domain monitoring, which enables:

Continuousimprovementofnetwork/servicecongurationstoreducerepeatproblems

LowerOPEXbecauselessmaintenanceworkwillberequiredasaresultoffewerproblems,thereby creating a higher QoE based on better service delivery

Higherrevenueasaresultofincreasedcustomersatisfactionthatwilllowerchurnandmay

allow capture o a competitors churn Higheraveragerevenueperuser(ARPU)becausecustomerswillbemorelikelytosubscribe

to more services, and because there will be a lower burden on a customer care inrastructure

Managing headcount and network OPEX

To support the shit to more services-centric quality metrics, network providers must also rethinktheir approach to network management. Traditional network management requires ensuring con-nections are up and trac fows properly. But this approach does not address end user QoS and QoErequirements. Eective delivery o advanced applications and services anytime, anywhere, and inthe way that end users want them, requires a shit rom traditional network-centric monitoring andmanagement to services-centric management. This will put network providers in a position to pro-actively detect, diagnose and resolve services-related problems beore end users know about them.

To make this possible, network providers need systems, procedures, capabilities and skills that maynotbecurrentlyavailableintheNOC.

For many network providers, the additional investments required to make this network monitoringand management transition may not be a cost-eective option to undertake internally or alone.They may want to ocus their investment capital and resources on the development o new revenue-generating services rather than on operations inrastructure. Furthermore, the expertise, processes andtools needed or a rapid and ecient transition to a services-centric operations management approachmay not be readily available. Likewise, assembling a collection o internally developed services-centricmanagement solutions can distract rom application and service development and delivery, and maynot completely address end user QoE issues. These and other business drivers may convince somenetwork providers to outsource specic network operations unctions to network equipment vendors.

These issues were dealt with recently by a Tier 1 network provider who realized that its aging tech-nical workorce would soon leave it with a relatively small talent pool o qualied personnel romwhichtodrawsupportinthenearfuture.Giventhat30percentofOPEXisusuallyassociatedwithsta, maintenance and operations support, the network provider opted to outsource its technicaloperations support unctions through a managed services arrangement with its major equipmentvendor.ThisoffsetandreducedaportionofitsOPEXandensuredtherightskillsandexpertisewere in place or immediate and uture requirements.

Often,services-centricoperationalexcellencecanonlybeproperlyaddressedbyacomplete,managed,end-to-end, services-based operations solution. A managed solution expands the scope o operationsmanagement beyond traditional network boundaries and extends the network operations demarcationpoint to terminate where the networks IP signal is converted into an application or service theend user premise or device. In this way, SLAs are driven by end user service quality metrics, ratherthan network quality metrics and end user QoE is improved because:

Performanceismeasuredagainstservicequalitytargetsasperceivedbytheenduser

Proactivemonitoringofenduserservicequalityenablesend-to-endproactiveoperationsdataanalysis

Serviceproblemscanbedetectedearly

With this approach network providers can move rom concentrating on the successul delivery o IPbits over the network to a more comprehensive, services-oriented operational excellence strategy.


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However, ew vendors can provide all the experience and expertise network providers will need ora true end-to-end managed services solution. A complete solution requires a mix o IT, telecoms andbusiness expertise. Thereore, network providers will need to nd a solution backed by the combinedskills, experience and capabilities o senior players in the telecom and IT domains. In addition, becauseevery network providers market realities are dierent, these partners must be able to customize asolution to t individual business objectives.

For example, in emerging markets, the related managed services solutions will need to support rapidgeographical expansion while maintaining a lean and harmonized operation model. This requiresfexibility and rapid scalability rom managed services vendors to support quick mobilization olocal resources, skills and expertise while leveraging global processes, tools and practices. While inmature markets network providers may need managed services to support changes in their businessmodels and oerings. As a result, managed services solutions may need to support transormation othe business processes o an enterprise business arm, changes in the application and service oeringsto existing customers, or the introduction o totally new technology and service capabilities.

Whatever the requirements, network providers need partners who can provide a set o already provennetwork, operations, IT and business process solutions that can be rapidly deployed and quicklybecome ully operational. In some cases, this may require the vendors to take ull responsibility or

the network and service inrastructure planning, deployment, integration and day-to-day operations,thereby allowing the network provider to ocus on sales, marketing and product management eortsthat will attract and retain customers and reduce end user churn.

Alcatel-Lucent and Operational Excellence

Ultimately, partnering with the right vendors may well be the best rst step towards a complete,integrated operational excellence strategy, not just managed services. Because eorts to achieveoperational excellence should be applied in all areas o the business, network providers may needto work with multiple vendors who can provide proven, best-in-class solutions or IT inrastructuretransformation,costoptimization,OSSandBSSintegration,andmanagedservices.Butdealingwith multiple vendors requires network providers to coordinate many activities to achieve desiredresults, and this will distract eorts and resources rom managing and growing the business.

To address this problem, Alcatel-Lucent oers products, solutions, and services or cost optimization,OSSandBSSintegration,andmanagedservicesthatcanbecombinedtodevelopthecoreofanintegrated, customized operational excellence strategy. Recently, these services were enhanced withthe addition o IT inrastructure integration and optimization services through an alliance with HP.

The HP and Alcatel-Lucent alliance combines each companys capabilities and processes and alignsthem with network provider operational excellence requirements to deliver the most eective opera-tional excellence transormation solutions and services. By working with this alliance, networkproviders can eliminate the risks and costs associated with multiple vendor coordination, whileimplementingtrueend-to-endsolutionsincriticalareas,suchasnetworkintegration,OSS,BSS,and customer relationship management.

Together, Alcatel-Lucent and HP provide a set o consulting services, transormation governance,business process improvement, system integration, and managed services that can be leveraged todevelop and implement a customized operational excellence strategy. These services are optimized toenable migration o legacy services onto a new, converged IT and telecom inrastructure that combineshelp desk, integrated service and network monitoring tools to support end-to-end service operationsbased on standardized processes and best practices. As a result, network providers get a telecom-graderevenue generating inrastructure that ollows an enterprise IT cost/eciency/agility curve.


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Putting the Concept to Work

To date, the Alcatel-Lucent vision o operational excellence has been applied in dierent ways bynetwork providers in a variety o markets worldwide.

Orange, Switzerland

Basedonitsoperationalexcellencerequirements,OrangeSwitzerland,asubsidiaryofthe France Telecom group, outsourced the operation and maintenance o its multi-vendor network

to Alcatel-Lucent in 2008.

OrangeSwitzerlandhasbeenofferingmobilecommunicationservicesinSwitzerlandsince1999and is currently the number two mobile provider in the Swiss mobile market. In 2005, the companyactivateditsUMTSnetworkinmorethan20SwisscitiesenablingdeliveryofliveTVandvideo -telephonie, as well as mobile data cards or work on the go. The company also operates the onlyGSM 1800 network in Switzerland, enabling it to provide a variety o messaging services includingmobile e-mail, BlackBerry Internet, text messaging Short Message Service (SMS) and MultimediaMessaging Service (MMS).

OrangeSwitzerlandsmarketobjectiveistobethemostprotablemobileoperatorinSwitzerlandand become the leading provider o outstanding mobile lie services, creating sustainable value orcustomers, employees and shareholders through excellent team work. Its challenge is to accomplishthiswhiledeliveringonitsmandatetoprovidecoveragetoover99percentoftheSwisspopulation,with high QoS.

Toachieveitsobjectives,Orangeneededaninnovativestrategythatwouldenableittoconcentrateon the marketing, sales, and distribution o telecommunications services rather than managemento the network required to deliver those services. It partnered with Alcatel-Lucent and became therst major operator in Switzerland to outsource its mobile network extension as well as the operationsand maintenance o its multi-vendor network. This led to a rapid business transormation and theseamlessmigrationof146networkprofessionalstoAlcatel-Lucent.Orangekeptkeystrategicaspectso network development and planning as well as customer support related to the network.

Asaresultofthismove,Orangerealizedimmediateoperationalsavingsandcontinuestobenet rom higher network operational eciency. At the same time, the company has been able to con-centrate on competitive new customer acquisition and retention strategies. In addition, networkprotability has been augmented by the deployment o powerul automated network managementtoolsthroughanewOSSplatform.

VIVACOM

VIVACOM,theformerstate-ownedBulgarianTelecommunicationsCompany,addressedits operational excellence objectives by outsourcing its xed and mobile network operationsto Alcatel-Lucent.

OncethemonopolytelecomoperatorinBulgaria,VIVACOMoffersafullrangeofservices,includingxed and mobile telephony, Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) broadband Internet anddata transer. It also operates Bulgarias largest and best-developed telecom inrastructure, servingover 2.6 million xed phone lines nationwide.

As the ormer state-owned incumbent, the company was burdened with an aging network inra-structure. In addition, it was acing competitive challenges created by deregulation, which resultedin new mobile companies entering the market and eroding its customer base with sophisticatedservices.Toaddresscompetitionandreducerevenueloss,VIVACOMrequiredextensivetechnicaland customer service transormation, but it realized it could not undertake this change by itsel.


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VIVACOMoptedforave-yearoutsourcingpartnershipwithAlcatel-Lucentforallend-to-end,xedandmobilenetworkoperations.Aspartoftheprocess,3,000VIVACOMnetworksupportemployees were transerred to Alcatel-Lucent. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent provided consultingservices to support the sale o aging and redundant buildings to lower debt and raise revenue or thetransormation. Alcatel-Lucent also provided expertise or the development and introduction o newservices, equipment operation and maintenance associated with xed and mobile networks, mobileradioplanningandoptimization,andmanagementofVIVACOMsNetworkOperationsCenter.

Asaresultofthisoutsourcingarrangement,VIVACOMwasabletoconcentrateonprotectingitscore business, reduce operating expenses and grow new subscriptions by improving network qualityand customer service. The relationship also enabled the development and ast deployment o newuser-oriented services and solutions.

Alcatel-Lucent

Finally, operational excellence is not just something Alcatel-Lucent believes in or its customers it is a concept that the company has put into practice or itsel.

Onthemostabstractleveloperationalexcellenceforusmeansfulllingourpromisestocustomerson time, on spec and at the costs agreed. It is built on optimized internal processes that allow us

to eciently execute our promises to the market. And it maniests itsel in the results we deliverto customers, which demonstrate that we do what we promise.

Conclusion

Operationalexcellenceinanetworkproviderframeworkisallaboutensuringthateachindividualconsumer and enterprise end user is satised and continues to be satised with everything a networkprovider has to oer the network, the services, and the QoS at all levels. However, addressingone area o the business alone will not create operational excellence. To achieve business objectives,increase competitiveness, and improve end user QoE network providers need a better way to managetheir business at the network and operations layers.

This is best achieved by re-examining the processes that contribute to an end users overall experience.It requires network providers to go beyond independent eorts to improve network inrastructure,services, or customer service and adopt a more integrated strategy or delivering end-to-end QoE. Thisshould be supported by a shit rom network-centric to service-centric KPIs and KQIs that measureservices and experience rather than network perormance.

To achieve this paradigm shit, network operations and business operations must be viewed as anintegrated whole and optimized to eciently and eectively meet end user expectations, rom themoment they sign or service, through service delivery, to upgrades, billing and right through to theweb portal. Because this level o excellence touches a network providers entire operation it requireseorts built on our key activities:

ITinfrastructuretransformationandoperations Costoptimization

Integrationandinteroperabilityacrossplatforms

ManagingheadcountandnetworkOPEX

Integrating eorts in these areas will enable network providers to move rom concentrating on thesuccessul delivery o IP bits over the network to a more comprehensive, services-oriented operationalexcellence strategy ocused on maximizing QoE or all end users.


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AcronymsACP application and content provider

ADSL Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line

ARPU average revenue per user

BSS business support systems

CAPEX capital expenditures

IP Internet ProtocolITU Internat ional Telecommunication Union

KPI Key Performance Indicators

KQI Key Quality Indicators

MMS Multimedia Messaging Service

NOC network operations center

OPEX operating expenditures

OSS operations support systems

QoE quality of experience

QoS quality of service

ROI Return on Investment

SLA service level agreement

SMS Short Message Service

TCO total cost of ownership

About the Authors

Christophe BlachierPracticeDirector,NetworkDesign&OptimisationandE2ELTEServices

Mr.BlachierisresponsibleforleadingthestrategyandtheoperationsforAlcatel-LucentsNetworkDesignandOptimisationServices,acrossWirelessandWirelinetechnologies,includingafocus on the End to End LTE and mobile backhaul. Christophe has 17 years o experience in the telecom

industry.HejoinedAlcatelin1993asGSMRadioNetworkEngineer,andthenheldoperationalroles in large cellular projects with leading operators across the globe. Christophe led the TechnicalExpert Centre or Proessional services in Europe and then in Asia Pacic. Mr. Blachier graduatedfromEcoleNationalSuperieuredesTelecommunicationsin1992inParis.

Marc JadoulMarketCommunicationsDirector,Media,IT&TelecomServices

MarcJadoulisMarketCommunicationsDirectorinAlcatel-LucentsNetwork&SystemsIntegrationDivision in Antwerp, Belgium. He has 20 years o experience in TI and IT, o which more than halin international B2B marketing, strategy, communications and business development roles. Marc holdsa Masters degree in Computer Science rom the Free University o Brussels. He is a member o the

Alcatel-Lucent Technical Academy, author or co-author o over 50 papers and magazine articles,and a requent speaker and panelist at seminars and industry conerences.


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www.alcatel-lucent.com Alcatel, Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent and the Alcatel-Lucent logoare trademarks of Alcatel-Lucent. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.The information presented is subject to change without notice. Alcatel-Lucent assumes no responsibilityfor inaccuracies contained herein. Copyright 2010 Alcatel-Lucent. All rights reserved.SBG5677100412 (10)

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operationalexcellence-101129041803-phpapp01.pdf