Demand for broadband services is growing at an explosive pace as consumers look for richer and more personalized connected customer experiences. But service providers’ fast and reliable networks can’t win over every customer. In addition, competition from new brands is making it tougher to differentiate with devices, services and pricing. In short, to stay competitive, service providers (SPs) have an imperative to cater to the needs of the market that goes beyond traditional approaches.

While consumers are aware that new technologies can bring added complexity, they also expect their devices and services to keep bringing them simpler and more compelling experiences. Based on these trends, SPs need new differentiators to remain competitive. To stand out and deliver market leading customer experiences, SPs need to make their offers easier to buy, easier to use with more user-friendly options for payment.

Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive portfolio of solutions offers a four-pronged approach for SPs to step up their games:

1. Motive CX Management is focused on getting new devices, applications and services up and running quickly, by simplifying their introduction on the network, managing upgrades and service modifications, and providing a consistent, low-hassle experience for customers.
2. Motive CX Analytics provides monitoring tools that track the performance of the devices, applications and services running on the network. These tools, which leverage unique algorithms developed by Bell Labs, provide key insights and dashboards that infer overall customer experience and allow for detailed customer experience insights.
3. Motive CX Optimization empowers SPs to provide customers with the best service experience possible while making better use of network capacity. Using historical data about customers, devices, applications and the network, SPs can examine trends, experiences and usage patterns – segmented by types of users – and take accurate and proactive actions with yield management and loyalty.
4. Motive CX Consulting consists of a dedicated team that – using a patent-pending methodology – identifies unique opportunities to improve the wide range of customer experience touch points within a service provider organization.

Source:  Alcatel-Lucent Motive

At the end of the day, SP ability to improve the customer experience is about engendering more immersive and enriching engagements.  In fact, Alcatel-Lucent contends that with Motive Customer Experience Solutions SPs can increase profitability by:

• Simplifying customer interactions
• Improving business performance using customer insights
• Enhancing loyalty and profitability
• Improving the customer experience

With commoditization fast becoming the norm in many service markets, and alternatives only a click away, it is becoming increasingly clear that customer experience management may be the most important competitive differentiator in the future.  SPs understand this and are aware that having the right tools in place to accurately measure and manage their relationships with customers will be critical to their success. 

As active transactional individuals in the Internet age, here are a few questions to ponder for a moment.

• How do we present ourselves to the world, or choose not to, and why? 
• What does our view and management of our multiple identities —on multiple physical, virtual (and where they intersect/converge/blur) platforms —tell us and others about predicting and/or leveraging our behavior?
• Does where you are in your life matter? 
• In an age where dynamic context-based identity mediation will be paramount (for individuals and organizations alike), whom do we and can we trust and entrust with our identities?
• How does trust factor into our purchasing decisions?

These are not existential questions.  In fact, as pointed out in a previous blog, they are the subject of an important new book, Identity Shift : Where Identity Meets Technology in the Networked-Community Age, written by Alcatel-Lucent’s Allison Cerra and Christina James. 

I recently had the privilege of speaking with author Cerra to get deeper detail and insights into her work with Ms. James. It happened to coincide with an Ad Age article by Michael Learmonth entitled, “CMOs Explain Why They're Flocking to Vegas for CES,” which was fortuitous. 

The book is about advancing the science of understanding behavior (aka shifting IDENTITY) and the role and criticality of trust in a world of accelerating technologic change. The article had a great quote from GE CMO Beth Comstock that validates why the Cerra/James work goes far beyond being an academic exercise.  Comstock says she and other marketers need to be at CES because, "I'm a marketer and that makes me a behavioralist…How is tech changing the behavior?"  Finding the answer to that and other questions like the ones above is why CMOs should attend CES. She might have added, as the book does, that there is a vice versa involved here since what the Internet has done is profoundly change the nature and relative power in buyer/seller relationships.

A look between the covers

OK, so maybe this is not just a deeper dive between the traditional covers but the virtual ones as well. It is instructive to look at the flow of the sections of the book to get to the meat of the matter.

As mentioned in the previous blog, the research model employed is Ethnography. This approach goes beyond the number crunching of demographics and psychographics to focus on how close-up observation of human interactions correlate, corroborate and yield insights that can be extrapolated and used with insights from larger behavioral studies.

Cerra fleshed out the authors’ “3-P Model of Identity.” and why understanding the categories and where and how they intersect, as well as relate to the issue of trust, is so critical as a tool for causal explanations of what was observed and how the observations can be applied.  

Presentation:  This is the predominant thing most of us worry about.  It is about how the world views us.  In the physical world we tend to have more than a modicum of control over our image/reputation.  However, in virtual world our image is as much created by anyone else as by us.  This creates tension according to Cerra, “I can choose who I want to be, but have little or no control necessarily over who I am.”  In the context of identity management online it means having a presentation strategy that encompasses our various persona modes —personal, professional, visible and known and anonymous.

Protection:  Cerra says this is the one that grabs the headlines, but it turns out the research indicates people say they are very concerned, yet for the most part willingly provide information online without taking precautions.  As she pointed out in the interview, “Not all harms are created equal. We are equipped with primal senses that guide us as to whether “fight or flight” is the path to feeling safe about our privacy, loved ones, and valuables.”  She noted that physical defenses are rendered useless in the virtual world, and that the dynamics of constantly changing and blurred personae at any given decision point are all related back to the issue of trust in terms of behavior. This is a case of “watch what I do and not what I say”, since actual behavior can veer widely from stated intention.

Preference:  This aspect of the role of identity looks at how, when, where and why future actions can be understood in the context of what we prefer is likely to be what we want. In fact, preference is an important component of sites such as Amazon, Pandora, Spotify, etc.  

Cerra cautions that the conscious and sub-conscious dynamics of these aspects of identity can turn on a dime which is why observation of individuals as they act are key.

Universal laws

Based on the model, and a close analysis of observed behavior as tested against a broader look at the actions of 5,000 individuals, the authors came up with what they call “universal rules.” They are examined in the book to demonstrate how the power of rationalization and confluence exemplified in these laws, “lay the foundation of behavior and perceptions that unites consumers, no matter their age, socioeconomic status or gender…Represent the entry point for understanding individuals in a virtual world – whether as ourselves or as consumers we attempt to serve.”

The laws are as follows:

• The Law of Learned Helplessness— we fail to do things because of a perceived lack of control over our environment.
• The Law of Illusion— roughly translated means I can’t handle the truth but am ok with a rationalization that makes me feel good about a decision.
• The Law of Recall— we fall back on what’s familiar – either because an experience or recollection is recent or prevalent in our own lives – regardless of the true probability of an occurrence.
• Rationalization: Finding Harmony in the Discord — doubt is good because it gives us license to act without feeling responsible or accountable.

It is all about trust 

The section following universal laws on identity attributes during life stages is worth a read because it shows that when it comes to transactional issues and how we behave when faced with a decision, even taking into account the laws, where we are in our life and what is important to us at that stage matters. However, at the end of the day, the 3P Model and the universal laws, roll up into that “behaviorist” thing, i.e., given our various personae in a virtual world, whether we are driven by presentation, protection, preference or looking through the world via age-colored glasses, it all comes back to trust. 

In other words, at any given moment in time, based on the policies and rules we associate with the virtual dissemination of our volition via electronic means, what level of control are we willing to give up/tolerate to not only get what we want, but to feel good about the experience. Why the book is such a breakthrough is the application of its analyses as predictive of what identity profiles are willing to accept, including such things as privacy conditions and opting-in versus opting-out models of interaction, to be transactional.  This includes a thorough discussion related to the title that our identities are not static but are constantly shifting. In fact, they need to be mediated by us manually, automated through the enforcement of our policies and rules, or in partnership with trusted service providers.

In fact, as Cerra highlighted, the book goes a step further.  It provides a peek into the value of the analysis. She offered a couple of titillating findings from the authors’ testing of 20 possible identity-oriented services against the 3P profiles:

• Those who are primarily presentation-oriented represented  50 percent of those studied
• They also represented 66 percent of buyers of identity services
• Four of top five services were presentation ones  

In addition, they found that when they measured trust there was a 60 percent correlation with a willingness to pay for identity services.  And, reflecting the universal laws, customers love or hate of a brand seemed to bear little or no correlation with willingness to pay if a customer perceived value in the offering.   As Cerra stated, “it turns out that what I say is different from what I do and from what I value.” This is certainly a profound finding for CMOs.

Getting closer to finding the Holy Grail

As the saying goes, “the bottom line is the bottom line!”  CMOs as accurately observed are behaviorists.  They do need to understand technologic change and its impact on shifting consumer transactional tipping points.  CES is the perfect place for them to get educated.  However, they also should read, Identity Shift: Where Identity Meets Technology in the Networked-Community Age, if they want deeper context. 

People do not buy and use technology for technology’s sake.  The Internet changed that aspect of the buyer/seller relationship forever. It has also accentuated the need to recognize, understand and act upon the shifting nature of our multiple personae, especially as more and more of who we are, and how we act/transact moves into the virtual world. 

A marketer’s Holy Grail is being able to target a market of one with perfect knowledge as to what can/should/will motivate a transaction. A consumer’s Holy Grail is having perfect knowledge, absolute comfort when they purchase something, and control over the terms and conditions of a transaction. Are we there yet on either front?  No!   In fact, as we all know there are no perfect worlds. However, there is certainly invaluable illumination to be gained from the quest.

That said, thank you, Allison and Christina, for your contribution to making the journey well worth it. 

Assessing the performance of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) servers in a multi-vendor environment is a difficult proposition for today's service providers. This issue is mostly due to the lack of common SIP call log standards, a reality that allows vendors to develop call logs based on their own format.

The myriad of call log formats acts as a barrier for service providers that want to review SIP transactions across multiple vendors, evaluate and troubleshoot their servers, and analyze call trends.

Fortunately, the answer to this concern – SIP CLF (Common Log Format) – has already been developed and is currently in the process of being standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

SIP CLF is a signaling protocol that creates a common log format that enables complete visibility and network management across all Session Initiation Protocol servers, no matter how many vendors are involved. This is highly important for carriers that deliver messaging, voice, video and other multimedia services using SIP.

The benefits of SIP CLF for service providers will be immense. Vijay Gurbani, a distinguished member of technical staff in the enabling computing technologies domain at Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs, recently discussed these industry gains in a TechZine post, Easier Network Management with the SIP CLF.

Gurbani notes that, when implemented, SIP CLF will allow service providers to assess the state of SIP transactions across multiple vendors, thus providing trend analysis and traffic reports that help carriers better their service and streamline their network. In addition, SIP CLF can train anomaly detection systems to trigger alarms and enable the use of SIP equipment tests.

SIP CLF "provides an easily digestible log of past and current transactions, and its format allows quick parsing to discover relationships between transactions," says Gurbani. "In addition, it provides a foundation for creating other innovative tools that can be used to simplify call tracking, troubleshooting and identifying calling patterns."

Gurbani stresses that the signaling protocol will provide carriers with a number of different ways to improve their network performance, including the enabling of trend analysis and troubleshooting tools. Specifically, SIP CLF will eliminate the time-consuming and costly process of correlating data from a diverse set of SIP servers.

The common log format can also help create a standardized diagnostic trail to follow SIP call sessions across the globe, and make troubleshooting adjustments accordingly. The protocol can even help detect attacks based on perceived anomalies.

Gurbani expects SIP CLF to be standardized in the near future. "And as it is implemented throughout the industry, it will give service providers better ways to maintain high performance for multivendor networks, resulting in a better quality of experience for end users," he says.

Yoga has been in the news lately and for network operator strategists, who may be feeling more like pretzels than yogis as they try to twist this way and that to accommodate rapid changes in the value chain, the idea of letting go of strict control over their networks and opening up to a world of potential security threats is anything but relaxing. Yet network operators who ignore these changes, risk falling out of the whole chain of innovation and in the process, defaulting to a commodity utility business, rather than maximizing their revenue streams as innovative and differentiated customer experience providers.

So how do you bring these two opposing views into alignment?

Today network operators who operate the broadband data networks (wireline and wireless) have thinner margins than in the past, while at the same time; all kinds of new players are making money by creating new applications that we did not even know we needed to run on the networks. Innovation brings disruption and disruption brings opportunities and threats. It transforms application and content value chains.

The telecom business is evolving from selling network connections to a more complex circular value chain with all kinds of transactions happening on their networks that are creating an immense value chain, especially in the world of business and enterprise.

The real top-line opportunity is in opening networks to innovation from other value chain players to use their particular expertise to create new things with the exposed abilities of the network at a price. For example, what if Netflix were to cut a deal with the carrier to provide QoS for a premium monthly charge? The network operators start to get a slice of that revenue pie.  Imagine further that all kinds of different capabilities such as location, presence, security, content caching and delivery are made available to developer communities and enterprises and the carrier is compensated per transaction? Their business moves from connectivity to transaction fees over time.

This is analogous to how Apple is leveraging APIs to increase their core business. Twitter had 11 billion API calls per day (May 2011) and Amazon has over 260 billion objects stored in S3 (May 2011) and even Netflix had 10 billion API calls per month at the start of 2011,  according to Programmable Web (a company recently acquired by Alcatel-Lucent). Like Apple the internet players all use APIs to support their core business models.

Google is a good case in point.  APIs give Google traffic, more traffic gets Google access to targeted traffic as they understand how people are using specific applications and can potentially segment according to the information that the application uses. This subscriber intelligence leads to more effectiveness in their advertising which leads to more money being generated through their search/advertising business. No wonder Google has announced $1 billion in mobile revenue.

Similarly, eBay uses traffic from transaction APIs to pay for the core auctioning business. There is huge value in understanding and playing in this new market with many different types of developers: all the way from large enterprises and development houses to the stereotypical “in the garage” developers working on the next popular “must-have” application.

To understand the speed at which this market changes, look no further than the Kindle Fire from Amazon. Released on Nov 15^th, 2011, by early December, it was already the second best selling tablet! In just a few WEEKS it leapt over all other tablet suppliers except the market leader, Apple, with the ubiquitous iPad. Looking at the iPad, its use is proliferating across many industries in innovative and previously unimaginable ways. It is even becoming popular with parents as a must-have gift for the 2011 holiday season. And, iPad capabilities are being integrated into toys . This market doesn’t just require more flexibility from operators; it also demands agility, speed, imagination and the ability to strategically change business models rapidly in response to extremely rapid market demand changes.

For network operators, this requires an integrated plan to use network intelligence and to nurture an ecosystem that allows service creation by outside developers and enterprises without compromising the security of the network or their customer data. Network operators essentially need to evolve up the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) stack. In addition to providing the physical telecom network, network management and OSS/BSS services, the network operator now needs to provide a platform and APIs for securely integrating applications from application and content providers, developers and enterprises in order to enhance the services that they can offer to their end-users - thereby increasing the value of the network core business (the network and communications services) and by extension, their revenue opportunities.

In yoga, stretching and letting go leads to stronger muscles. Could the same be true for Network Operators? By expanding their ecosystem and sphere of influence, their business models and revenue becomes more robust and flexible too.

This is a paradigm change, not just an inversion. It is not a case of evolving the network to 4G and then thinking about what services to offer on it after the fact, nor is it a case of developing 4G services behind closed doors and then upgrading the network to support them. Both of these approaches miss the point. It is about developing an ecosystem that includes everything needed to enable innovation and finding new ways to get paid for it– wherever in the value chain it comes from and making sure that in the provision of that ecosystem are APIs with business models that will enable network operators to get a fair share of revenue for services offered.