It is imperative for business to stay in touch with their customer base and with the developments in the industry in which they compete. The methodology used to do this is referred to as telecom OSS, a two pronged approach to the business of telecommunications. Business support systems deal with the way the industry works with its customers, the operations support systems deal with the physical infrastructure and controlling tools.
There are few places on earth that are not part of a global communications system we refer to as telecommunications. There are cables on the ocean floor stretched between continents, satellites in space, and towers traverse the wilderness and are mainstays in our cities, usually along our transportation infrastructure. Most of us take this service for granted, giving little thought to the complexity of managing a service that is global and personal.
The two sides are equally important to the conduct of a successfully implemented telecom billing OSS, yet companies often have difficulty balancing the focus given to the two, with the predominant focus leaning to the customer side, as that is the revenue generating source. But for the company to sustain itself, a balanced approach must be maintained or the risk of falling behind will become reality.
This predominance of people related interest is understandable given the precarious nature of service industries where customer service reputation is critical due to intense competition. What has to be clearly understood is that the operations portion of business is the true lifeblood. Without it, there is nothing to market, no new application to provide and therefore no new business. Instead of feeling uncomfortable about expenditures on the hands on part of business, it needs to be humanized as an asset to the customer.
One method of using the technical side of the industry to bolster the people side is to guide the discourse into how the technical provides service to the customer. Successful campaigns have employed the Herculean task of providing coverage to the entire nation as a foil to demonstrate the care taken to provide service to customers. The complex customer base that the telecommunication industry courts demands they filter their data for trends and stay ahead of the curve.
Dealing with the overwhelming mass of information and attempting to determine what it is the consumer really wants is a Herculean task. Considering the telecommunications consumer population diversity and the extreme penetration each provider is attempting to attain, it is important to evaluate data in multiple levels. Having a dual path system that tracks, analyzes and selectively reports data to management allows maximum flexibility.
The solution is to orchestrate a series of computer programs to be able to drill down through data to find that important inquiry that is on the table. The business has been entering data into computers for nearly half a century. These first level computers have an enormous quantity of data, but it is nearly impossible to extract the exact threads of data needed for a single decision. A computer program to drive the first level computers to surrender the data in packets of information is key.
The future of telecommunications and the determining factor of who will succeed and who will become footnotes in the evolution of communication depend on data mining and accurate decisions. Consumer data alone is an overwhelming cache of information to accurately parse, and adding the relentless innovation and information system updates to the database makes it nearly impossible for human control. The enlightened players are focusing on telecom OSS to keep their seat at the table.
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