In today’s ever-changing telecom market, operational excellence is more important than ever for managed service providers.
In a recent whitepaper, "On The Road To Operational Excellence," Alcatel-Lucent describes a model that managed service providers can use to improve operations in support of customers’ needs for enhancing quality of experience (QoE).
In the past, creating a high QoE for end users has been focused on deploying and maintaining a state-of-the-art network infrastructure to provide connectivity and advanced communication services. However, today these efforts also include new business processes that improve customer service, such as the introduction of detailed billing and self-care portals.
Based on key principles articulated in an earlier white paper featured on TMCnet, "Increasing Competitiveness through Ongoing Operational Excellence," employing Alcatel-Lucent’s operational excellence model managed service providers have demonstrated they can improve operations in support of their service provider customers’ efforts to enhance end user QoE. They have also shown how this can be achieved through proactive planning across the entire organization, including network, marketing and customer care.
“But while service providers strive to improve network quality, they must also reduce costs and extract the maximum value from their existing investments,” the recent white paper points out.
According to Alcatel-Lucent, operational excellence needs to be a structured approach to business management if it is to steer the organization to world class performance by the apt amalgamation and implementation of the foundation and cultural levers in the “Operational Excellence” model.
When a managed service provider sets out to maintain a high level of network quality for service provider customers, they must deliver a combination of quality, price, ease of purchase, and service that no other organization can match. According to Alcatel-Lucent, this can be achieved by implementation of an operational excellence model that:
- Aligns management systems with the needs of service providers;
- Runs operations that are standardized, optimized, simplified and controlled; and
- Fosters a culture that centers on excellence and accountability.
“By carefully managing and manipulating the internal foundation and cultural levers, managed service providers can achieve higher levels of operational efficiencies for their customers’ networks,” the whitepaper concludes.
