David Byrd
Chief Marketing Officer for ANPI
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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10 Lessons from Volleyball
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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Emerging Threats Combats a Million Plus Pieces of New Malware a Week
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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NFV-Based Software Telcos Need OSS/BSS Interoperability
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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SysAid's Lifshitz: The Cloud Will Dominate ITSM Market
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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Avaya Takes Networking Lead in SPB
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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Alianza Wants to Host Your Software Telco
The software telco(r)evolution representing the move from hardware to software is perhaps the biggest trend in the world of carrier telecom this...
Full Story »The Evolving SIP Trunk
May 21, 2013It is important to note that SIP Trunks have evolved from just providing cheaper more reliable VoIP calling. Of course, there is nothing wrong with cheaper business quality phone service. However, our industry spends so much time reminding people about the ability to save up to X% that it tends to forget to mention the other benefits of having a SIP Trunk.
SIP is first and foremost about managing sessions.
What is a SIP Trunk?
May 17, 2013The answer to this question continues to evolve and is influenced by one’s understanding of either telecommunications or packet switching. I like to begin first with the definition of SIP or Session Initiation Protocol. The session is not just about voice but can also be used for many forms of sessions involving the Internet. The protocol allows SIP endpoints (phones, computers, applications, etc.) to discover, locate, negotiate and create sessions.
The FCC May be Getting a Much Needed Wheel
May 13, 2013
President Barack Obama announces the nomination of Tom Wheeler, right, as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in the White House, May 1, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Last week it was announced that President Obama would nominate Thomas Wheeler to replace Julius Genachowski as FCC Chairman. On the surface Thomas Wheeler does not seem like a questionable choice but given the state of things in Washington one can never be sure of anything. Wheeler has been a lobbyist for the wireless and cable industries and served as the president of the National Cable Television Association and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.
ANPI Goes to Washington
May 2, 2013Last week the NTCA Rural Broadband Association had their annual Legislature and Policy meeting in Washington, D.C. For me it represented an opportunity to participate in a process that is cloaked in secrecy and looked upon with disdain. I was going to learn about the effort by rural telephone companies to lobby congress. The first day of the process began with a discussion of the process, aids that would represent the actual congressman and senators, and key talking points.
ANPI Goes to Washington
April 29, 2013Last week the NTCA The Rural Broadband Association had their annual Legislature and Policy meeting in Washington, D.C. For me it represented an opportunity to participate in a process that is cloaked in secrecy and looked upon with disdain. I was going to learn about the effort by rural telephone companies to lobby congress. The first day of the process began with a discussion of the process, aids that would represent the actual congressman and senators, and key talking points.
Monetizing Hosted Solutions at IP Possibilities
April 19, 2013This week I represented ANPI at IP Possibilities 2013 in Minneapolis. The event is produced by NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association that represents nearly 900 independent, community based telecommunications companies. IP Possibilities had nearly 500 attendees with 67 exhibitors. Given my onsite meeting schedule I was not able to listen to all of the sessions but I was able to get a good feel for the types of discussions taking place during the event.
Effective Email Marketing
April 16, 2013Email marketing offers the highest return on investment (ROI) of any form of digital or interactive marketing tools. Currently, it is nearly 40:1 or for every dollar invested an average return is $40. Knowing email marketing has a high ROI potential does not necessarily translate into developing and executing an effective email marketing campaign. So, let’s identify some basic steps to complete for effective email marketing.
Email, The Not Respected Marketing Behemoth
April 11, 2013Earlier this week while preparing to discuss Digital Marketing with some prospects, I came upon an interesting article extolling the value of using email to market products. I was somewhat surprised to see a very solid return on investment (ROI) for email marketing. According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) for every dollar spent on email, the average return in 2011 was $40.56. The DMA estimates that the ROI for 2012 will be $39.40 and $35.02 in 2016.
Telepresence and Video Conferencing, Growing?
April 8, 2013
When Cisco Systems purchased Tandberg, it signaled the beginning of a converged solution for video. One that combined video, voice and IP technologies into something that continued to move towards the promise of true video collaboration. Normally, this blog addresses the growth of Skype and Google’s Hangout. These are video applications that deliver good value to small businesses.
Ten Best Free Apps for Small Businesses
April 1, 2013Today’s small business owner has tools available to him or her that were unthinkable just a decade ago. With the advent of more and more powerful mobile devices, easy access to the Internet and the proliferation of mobile applications and online services, every business owner can be more productive with little to no cost. The following applications are available for either iOS or Android:
- Google Drive – Google Drive app lets users port and edit files from PC to a tablet to a smartphone. It is a comprehensive office suite and cloud/remote drive.
