Communications and Technology Blog

Proactive Care Puts Operators One Step Ahead

By Thomas Fuerst, Senior Director, Multimedia Solutions MarketingAlcatel-Lucent

Monitoring and analyzing network data proactively saves operators time, money, and customers.

When a network service fails, it makes headlines, ticks off customers, and costs that network operator money. When a failure is headed off in advance, on the other hand, there might not be praise-laden headlines, but it's newsworthy nonetheless.

The traditional approach to customer care has typically been: a disgruntled customer calls customer service and complains of a service interruption or problem; the rep, learning of it for the first time, sends out a technician the next day, and eventually finds a resolution. Often, customers are left feeling put out, and the operator has spent significant time and money resolving the problem. Even worse is the customer who doesn’t call and just feels this is ‘typical’ of their network experience. That is a customer at risk of leaving.

Proactive care flips this dynamic on its head by using predictive analytics to identify potential outages or errors in the network and stop them before they occur. It consists of three main parts: one, constantly monitoring and measuring data on the network; two, real-time analysis of the data; and three, the most important, acting on that analysis to fix the problem.

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Tagged Alcatel-Lucent, big data, customer care, KPIs, network monitoring, procativecare | Responses

10 Lessons from Volleyball

By Peter on Monday, May 20

I've played volleyball for over 25 years. I have traveled around the US to watch the pros live - both indoor...

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Tagged hiring, strategy, volleyball

Emerging Threats Combats a Million Plus Pieces of New Malware a Week

By Rich Tehrani on Friday, May 17

There are 250,000 plus new pieces of malware being produced each day equating to one piece per person in the US in...

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Tagged emerging threats, interop, malware, security

NFV-Based Software Telcos Need OSS/BSS Interoperability

By Rich Tehrani on Friday, May 17

One of the goals of ETSI NFV is to allow new entrants to provide solutions to carriers based on software instead of...

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Tagged bss, carrier, ericsson, huawei, interoperability, nfv, nokia siemens networks, nsn, oss, sdn, software telco

SysAid's Lifshitz: The Cloud Will Dominate ITSM Market

By Rich Tehrani on Thursday, May 16

Cloud computing has really become a household word with mainstream media outlets running stories on television about the growth in the space...

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Tagged help desk, itsm, mdm, sysaid

Avaya Takes Networking Lead in SPB

By Rich Tehrani on Wednesday, May 15

At Interop Las Vegas 2013 Avaya was demonstrating their real-world Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) solutions and while interoperating with Spirent, HP and...

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Tagged alcatel-lucent, avaya, hp, interop, lucent, mpls, networking, spb, spirent, zeus kerravala

Alianza Wants to Host Your Software Telco

By Rich Tehrani on Tuesday, May 14

The software telco(r)evolution representing the move from hardware to software is perhaps the biggest trend in the world of carrier telecom this...

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Tagged acme packet, alianza, etsi, hosted ims, nfv, oracle, software telco, software telco congress, virtualization

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Should RIM Be Judged on its Hires or Fires?

July 3, 2012

No company wants Apple as a competitor as the company has more momentum than the euro crisis. But that is the challenge companies like Nokia and RIM face on a daily basis. Yesterday I delved into the problems RIM faced because it had an email-centric view of the world which was just as keyboard-centered as it was focused on asynchronous corporate communications.

This morning I had a chance to speak with Luca Filigheddu who is the new BlackBerry Developer Evangelist for the Italian market.

Posted in 4G, AT&T, Amazon, Android, Apple, Blackberry, Broadband, Consumer Electronics, Facebook, Gadget, Smart Ecosystem, Technology, Verizon, Wireless, iPad

Tagged: alec saunders, android, apple, blackberry, consumer electronics, gadget, google, luca filigheddu, microsoft, mobile, mobility, rim, thorsten heins, wireless : Related Tags: competing apple, hires fires, company, blackberry, course, developers

E-mail Focus Built and Hurt RIM

July 2, 2012

Compaq’s iPaq ( pictured), brought to market early last decade was a blockbuster device from the standpoint of its aesthetics. It had a bright color screen, had great audio at the time and felt good in the hand. Competing the Palm 7 black and white wireless device, it was less practical from a battery perspective and didn't have cellular connectivity build-in but was infinitely more easy on the eyes.

Within a few years after the release of the iPaq however the industry started to shift from wanting the most gorgeous device to one which provided the best email experience.

Posted in 4G, AT&T, Android, Apple, Blackberry, Broadband, Microsoft, Technology, Wireless

Tagged: blackberry, compaq, consumer electronics, email, gadget, hp, ipaq, mobile, pda, rim, smartphone, wireless : Related Tags: mobile email, large screen, mobile device, black white, device, mobile

It's Time for Apple to Allow Default iOS Browser Choice

June 29, 2012

Google’s Chrome browser was released for iOS today and it is getting good reviews. After becoming the leading desktop browser it has also become the number one free app on the iTunes App Store. But there are two big problems for Chrome running on Apple’s mobile devices. First of all the browser is slower than Safari because Apple doesn’t allow other developers access to its Nitro Java engine.

Posted in Android, Apple, Broadband, Gadget, Google, Microsoft, Technology, Wireless

Tagged: apple, browser, chrome, google play, ipad, iphone, itunes, nexus, nexus 7, nexus q, safari : Related Tags: default browser, browser choice, mobile device, allow users, apple allow, browser

Nexus Q: Google's Lateral Move into the Home Entertainment Ecosystem

June 28, 2012

There has been massive speculation regarding Google’s decision to purchase Motorola Mobility. Many, including the author believed this move was primarily driven by patents but it is becoming clear that even if this was the case, the search leader has looked to Cupertino as a guide and decided it too needs to be a hardware company building out ecosystems. Yes, Google, a company which makes most of its revenue via auctioning ads - having no brick and mortar stores, is getting beaten in terms of market cap and sales growth by Apple, a company which relies on malls and physical stores for a good part of its revenue.

Google obviously thinks it can take Apple on and while most of the tech sphere is focusing on the company’s Nexus 7 tablet, I find it only mildly interesting.

Posted in Amazon, Android, Apple, Cloud Computing, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, Google, IP Communications, SaaS, Smart Ecosystem, Social Networking, Wireless

Oracle Customer Experience Live Blog

June 25, 2012

The event is about to begin.

Judy Sim CMO takes the stage

Mark Hurd President takes the stage.

Mark started off talking about the need for happy customers.

Only 30% of customers can engage with customers on mobile - few of these people have insight on the mobile experience and fewer even can transact on a mobile platform with customers.

Anthony Lye Senior VP Oracle CRM takes the stage

It is very easy for companies to copy one another. we all recognize a great experience with a company - there is downside when there is a negative customer experience.

Our customers want help to deliver a good customer experience. Historically you had to use a number of niche vendors to to provide good solutions.

Posted in Cloud Computing, Technology

Tagged: call center, crm, customer, customer service, ecommerce, oracle : Related Tags: customer experience, customer customer, takes stage, customer experiences, premise cloud, customer

At Oracle Event in NYC

June 25, 2012

I am at an Oracle event right now - I got here early. It is really hush hush - I am not allowed to say much except that it is pretty important news based on the briefings I have seen so far. I may live blog so check back soon.

Location:Fashion Ave,New York,United States

Posted in Technology

Tagged: oracle : Related Tags: oracle event

Is a Negative Comment From Dell a Positive?

June 21, 2012

Fifteen years ago Michael Dell infamously said that Apple should shut down the company and return the money to shareholders. Big mistake. But honestly, at that time most everyone who wasn’t in the cult of Apple would have agreed.

Now, ex-Dell CEO Kevin Rollins says no one wants a Microsoft tablet as they are happy with Android and Apple.