Telco Need for Service Flexibility Drives Centralized OM Market, Heavy Reading Finds

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Service providers must pursue next-generation, end-to-end order management (OM) solutions to streamline and lower the cost of customer order fulfillment, or risk losing business to more flexible competitors, according to a major new report from Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com), the research division of Light Reading (www.lightreading.com).

Revolutionizing Customer Experience With Catalog-Driven Fulfillment looks at needs for next-generation OM solutions, the evolution of centralized product catalog, the size of the market, how a product lifecycle management (PLM)-based centralized catalog can potentially bring huge benefits for CSPs, what catalog-driven fulfillment means and how customer experience management (CEM) strategies can be enhanced via strategic OM and centralized product management strategies.

The report also analyzes the products and strategies of 14 key OM/enterprise catalog vendors in the communications market. For a full list of companies analyzed in this report, please see: http://img.lightreading.com/heavyreading/pdf/hr20120926_vendors.pdf

"While past product management priorities were rationalization and streamlining bundling products, CSPs are now looking to streamline their product management strategy to allow for intelligent product creation, offer management and future evolution," notes Ari Banerjee, Senior Analyst with Heavy Reading and author of the report. "This centralized approach will also enable them to increase cross-department collaboration, conduct performance analysis of launched products, enable intelligent product creation with KPIs and create more targeted offers from a multi-sided, Telco 2.0 business model."

The main driver behind this attitude shift is the customer, Banerjee asserts. "Customer satisfaction is crucial, as heads-of-households or influencers can easily churn and take multiple lines of business or accounts with them. A more streamlined product management strategy will allow for end-to-end capability and enable quicker product launches while minimizing errors and improving customer satisfaction."

Key findings of Revolutionizing Customer Experience With Catalog-Driven Fulfillment include the following:

The centralized product catalog market has been growing by about 7.1 percent CAGR. We expect the market to grow from $319 million in 2012 to $366.37 million in 2014. Centralized product catalog engagements are still services-heavy, though vendor solutions are maturing with more off-the-shelf features and functions.

Catalog-driven OM solutions need to keep business decision and policies for OM, fulfillment, service assurance and billing close to product and service definitions. This will help CSPs with faster time to market as they can create bundles and offerings without having to reconfigure fulfillment workflows or billing algorithms.

PLM-based enterprise product catalog links together employees, partners and customers as sources of innovation. PLM-based product catalog is aligned with customer expectations and with deft use of advanced analytics can help to rapidly develop, deploy and provide personalized offers for end customers

Revolutionizing Customer Experience With Catalog-Driven Fulfillment costs $3,995 and is published in PDF format. The price includes an enterprise license covering all of the employees at the purchaser's company.

For more information, or to request a free executive summary, contact:

Dave Williams
Sales Director, Heavy Reading
858-485-8870
dave.williams@heavyreading.com

Press/analyst contact:
Jennifer Baker
Marketing Director, Light Reading Communications Network
617-747-4110
jbaker@lightreading.com

About Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com)

Heavy Reading is an independent research organization offering deep analysis of emerging telecom trends to network operators, technology suppliers, and investors. Its product portfolio includes in-depth reports that address critical next-generation technology and service issues, market trackers that focus on the telecom industry's most critical technology sectors, exclusive worldwide surveys of network operator decision-makers that identify future purchasing and deployment plans, and a rich array of custom and consulting services that give clients the market intelligence needed to compete successfully in the global telecom industry. As a telecom research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com), Heavy Reading contributes to the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.

About Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com)

The Light Reading Communications Network combines the most trusted telecom research brands with award-winning online communities and a rich events portfolio to deliver the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.   With the power of this platform, leaders who build, deploy, finance, and regulate next-generation telecom networks are able to make more informed decisions on emerging market and service opportunities.  Light Reading Communications Network is a division of UBM TechWeb (www.ubmtechweb.com), the global leader in technology media and business information. 

SOURCE Heavy Reading