Published twice a year, Comarch Technology Review (Telecom Edition) provides expert commentary and analysis on current trends shaping the telecommunications market, as well as insight on how to solve problems most commonly faced by telecom operators

1. www.comarch.com n0 1/2008 (06)
Comarch Telecommunications Business Unit
Comarch Technology Review is a publication created
by Comarch experts and specialists. It aims at assist-
ing our customers and partners in obtaining in-depth
information about market trends and developments,
and the technological possibilities of addressing the
most important issues.
in focus
Customers & ProduCts
>> Comarch Product Catalog
>> Convergence in Telecommunication
>> On-premise CRM
>> Why CRM does not deliver?

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3. Table of Contents < 3
in FOCUS SOlUTiOnS & CaSe STUdieS TRendS & STRaTegieS
4. Comarch Product Catalog 20. Comarch OSS Suite 4 29. Comarch eSB
Efficient Portfolio and Product Next generation OSS systems – True SOA
Life-Cycle Management are just around the corner – A case of empowered integration
Is Master Data Management (MDM) another buzz OSS systems have never been as important as Easy and effective integration – a myth or a real
word, the next marketing slogan or a specific they are today. Their importance will grow even business requirement? Enterprise Service Bus
idea to solve a real problem? MDM, also known further with the rising popularity of Next Gen- is mature enough to enhance integration pro-
as Reference Data Management, is an IT disci- eration Networks. Nowadays, operators can not cesses by introducing: faster deployment, trans-
pline that focuses on the management of ref- even think about delivering services without parent communication, control and scalabil-
erence or master data that is shared by several strong help from supporting systems. There ity. Yet a solution integrated using ESB remains
disparate IT systems and groups. is no such army of people who can plan, pro- open to other components, not necessarily origi-
8.
vision, deliver and bill these new services in a nating from the same vendor. This ensures enter-
Convergence in matter of seconds. prise business security and the independence
24. Comarch
of suppliers.
Telecommunication
Billing System perspective
Only about 20 years ago, the telecommunica-
Fault Management in PTC 32. next-generation TV
The revolution of user experience
tion world was clearly defined. During these Is your network expanding really quickly? Are the
competitors just waiting for your bad move? Do Next-generation television is approaching! It
days, an incumbent operator delivered a voice
the network outages cost you Millions? In that is time to stop being merely a Network Opera-
service based on a relatively simple technology
case it is high time to think about a unified Fault tor and time to become a Multimedia Service
dedicated for that purpose.
Management system tailored precisely to your Enabler. This article shows how IPTV works and
14. On-premise CRM needs! discusses the business model that lies behind
it.
A sinking ship or a flying fortress?
The CRM market has gone through its phases
26. Comarch Twilight 36. Service Centric OSS
Billing System perspective
of hype, disappointment and recovery. Now The first step of Next Generation
Operators are recognizing the market of wire-
a returning wave of interest based on a more OSS transformation
less Internet more and more often. Business
realistic approach to customers and vendors
opportunities are evident however the cost of Today, we see an increasing level of changes in
offers reasonable alternatives to the big CRM
entering the market is high. With basic Internet the telecommunications environment. We see
implementations that have historically been
access services, enterprise class OSS/BSS solu- a major shift from traditional, heavy architec-
expensive, troublesome and time-consuming.
tions may become too cumbersome and too ture to next generation networks, with the ser-
One such interesting alternative is CRM on-
expensive. Perhaps it is a good time to evaluate vice layer separated from the networking equip-
demand.
more cost-effective alternatives... ment. This change enables telecom providers to
18. Why CRM does not deliver? quickly and easily introduce new services to get
subscribers’ attention. As a result, the telecom-
Surprisingly, telco operators continue to per- munication services market is getting more and
form miserably when it comes to: selling a prod- more dynamic.
uct to a customer who wants it badly, retaining
a valuable customer who does not think about
churning away, and acquiring a new customer
who falls “straight into their hands”.
editor-in-Chief: Daniel Nosiadek Technology Review is a free publication available by subscription.
assistant editors: Łucja Burek, Radosław Czyrnek The articles published here can be copied and reproduced only with
layout: Maciej Urbanek the knowledge and consent of the editors. The names of products
dTP&graphics: Magdalena Majkowska-Tracz and companies mentioned are trade marks and trade names of their
Proofreading: Scott Reynolds producers.
Publisher: Comarch SA, Al. Jana Pawła II 39a, 31-864 Kraków
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Circulation: 1 000

4. 4> in Focus
Comarch Product Catalog
efficient Portfolio and Product life-Cycle Management
Is Master Data Management (MDM) another
buzz word, the next marketing slogan or
a specific idea to solve a real problem? MDM,
also known as Reference Data Management,
is an IT discipline that focuses on the manage-
ment of reference or master data that is shared
by several disparate IT systems and groups.
technology review [www.comarch.com]

5. in Focus < 5
MDM is required to enable con-
sistent computing between
diverse system architectures and business func-
data spread out over their post-paid billing sys-
tem, CRM, pre-paid billing system, network, loyalty
system, logistics, warehouse, dealer management,
systems or having complex data sharing processes
among products, CPC becomes the central point
for operators in the creation and modification of
tions. In this article we try to answer the ques- commissioning, campaign management, recharge products and offers.
tion: How do telco providers use the MDM para- and voucher management and ERP. In a typical scenario, products are defined in
digm for Efficient Portfolio and Product Life-Cycle To solve such a problem and to provide opera- each of an operator’s systems independently or
Management? tors with the support they need, the concept of through complex synchronization. This results in
Master Data Management has emerged. Comarch poor time to market. CPC can significantly change
a crucial problem Product Catalog (CPC) implements this idea in the this approach. For example, the CRM department
Today, telco providers, in particular incumbents areas of portfolio and product management. does not directly use the CRM GUI in order to cre-
and tier 1 and 2 operators, possess vast amounts ate new products but does this through CPC. The
of products and services. Meanwhile, competition The idea behind CPC same is true for billing administrators: the billing
on the telco market is focused rather on offer qual- Comarch Product Catalog (CPC) is a central prod- system receives information about new products
ity and time-to-market and not on prices. Conse- uct repository for service providers. Information from CPC. This dramatically reduces the time to
quently, this is why Portfolio and Product Life-Cycle from CPC can be used by any other BSS/OSS system market of new products and offers.
Management is a crucial problem for providers. related to products and services such as a billing,
This is a critical problem related to product and CRM or provisioning system. CPC is a tool for defin- Products and their components
offer management. Product and offer data must, ing, storing and managing end-user products. CPC collects information about which low level
in fact, be shared among multiple systems which CPC acts as a master and central database for services (network services) and which systems
are completely independent from each other. It is products and offers for all of an operator’s systems. realize particular business products. This means
common for operators to have product and offer Instead of defining products and offers in several that CPC allows for the creation of new products
nr 1/2008 (06)

6. 6> in Focus
Figure 1 Central Product Repository
Comarch Product Catalog Pre paid billing
Products and offers data
Vouchers
Products and offers data
Post paid billing
Open and standard communication bus / OSS / J aPi
Products and offers data
Pre paid billing
Comarch Product Catalog Products and offers data
CRM
Generic and complete products Products and offers data
and offers data
Product livecycle management
logistic
Products and offers data
Commissioning
Products and offers data
Warehouse
Single GUI
Products and offers data
dealer management
One master database
Products and offers data
loyalty
Products and offers data
eRP
Products and offers data
and offers based on small element “blocks”. Pro- > Testing
Benefits viders have a complete and current view of their > Publishing
Fast introduction of new products – many ways of
products and offers on the market and also have > Service fulfillment and assurance
creating new product specifications
knowledge about which systems are responsible > Service ordering
High number of products in the manageable port- for these products. > Service activation
folio – organized in folders with searching and ver- > Service monitoring
sioning capabilities Product life-cycle management > Service quality management
Moreover, CPC supports the product definition > Eliminating the product from the market
easy adjustment of existing products – multiple
ways of adjusting product specifications
process (i.e. the product lifecycle). CPC enables the > Halting sales
monitoring and management of tasks flowing from > Halting support for the product
Reduced product development costs – multiple department to department and from person to per-
ways of reusing existing product specifications son. At each moment, providers have information This is a long term process. As always, the time-to-
about the status of product development. market paradigm is critical for this competitive
lower system integration and operational costs
– the implementation and utilization of a standard-
A typical product life cycle includes: market. CPC actively supports the development
ized API > Product development phase of such lifecycles. CPC can help significantly
> Collect product ideas/requirements shorten the product development phase.
> Evaluate product ideas
> Product specification/definition architecture and industry
> Product development standards
> Product launch (begin offering it on the mar- This solution is developed according to industry
ket) standards such as Shared Information Data (SID)
technology review [www.comarch.com]

7. in Focus < 7
Figure 2 Product lifecycle
Comarch Product Catalog
Product Product launch Service Service eliminate
development development product fulfillment assurance product
– ideas – definition
decision to offer the product on the market
Select ideas that seams to be promissing
eliminate product from the market
Official launch of the product
Collect Product
Service Service Stop
product ideas/ specification/ Testing
ordering monitoring sales
requirements definition
Evaluate Service
Product Service Stop support
product Publishing quality
development activation for product
ideas management
Idea Draft Ready Active Retired
created by Telemanagement Forum and OSS/J spec- The CPC Engine is the back-end and can be used
ifications. The application is built and runs on a as an independent application that implements
3-tiered architecture – an Oracle database, a J2EE the OSS/J Inventory API specification, with layers
Application Server (EJB) and Java Web Start (GUI, responsible for business logic, validation and data
desktop application) – which requires no extra storage. This results in the possibility to use the
software installation on user machines. CPC engine as a back-end for a graphical interface
This open and scalable architecture makes other than the one provided with Comarch Product
Comarch Product Catalog ready for the future. It Catalog. In this case, certain functionalities may be
uses the newest, although very reliable, technol- disabled depending on the functionalities of the
ogy standards. existing system. <
Comarch Product Catalog is pluggable software,
meaning that it is made of several components.
Communication with external systems within
these components is open. It is even possible to
replace the components, or their parts, with one’s
own components.
Stanisław Zbroja
Comarch Product Catalog consists of two main Comarch SA
parts: the GUI and the Engine. Position: Department Director
department: Product Management and
The GUI is the front-end and is used to manage
Marketing Department
entities such as product specifications, product info: 11 years of experience in the fields
offerings and service specifications. of billing systems and CRM
nr 1/2008 (06)

8. 8> in Focus
Convergence
in Telecommunication
Billing System perspective
Only about 20 years ago, the telecommunication
world was clearly defined. During these days,
an incumbent operator delivered a voice service
based on a relatively simple technology dedicated
for that purpose. A few years later,
the introduction of mobile services brought about
a major revolution.
technology review [www.comarch.com]

9. in Focus < 9
Figure 1 architecture of Comarch Billing System for Convergent Services
Web Self-Care Web Dealer-Care CRM on-line interaction
Channels
Sales
off-line interaction
Billing System
Convergent
Billing
Off-line charging Customers
& Contracts
Product
Balances Catalogue
Convergent
On-line charging Accounts
Applications
Off-line, postpaid
On-line, postpaid
Application Server
Delivery/Control
3rd party
CORE application VAS application Service
Service
Parlay X Provider
SIP
Network Abstraction Layer
Network
Mediation Network Adapters Provisioning
EDR
PSTN, NGN/IMS,
2.5G/3G, Cable, Broadband, IP, ...
Users
Roaming
broker
only about 20 years ago, the telecommu-
nication world was clearly defined.
During these days, an incumbent operator delivered a
> Although relatively simple, the systems were not eas-
ily extendable, such as additional offers for new value
added services such as TV, image messaging, content
voice service based on a relatively simple technology protected download…
dedicated for that purpose. A few years later, the intro- > The back office, and to some extent, the front systems
duction of mobile services brought about a major revo- were, as a result, relatively strongly linked to these
lution. However these services, although basic, had sev- underlying technologies. As an example, billing systems
eral drawbacks linked to the fact that they were heavily were able to deal primarily with fixed line voice in post
dependent on the underlying technology: paid mode.
> The systems were not flexible as minor new features
required huge changes in the operator’s network. Thanks to the generalization of the IP and IMS in tele-
> Different technologies (such as fixed voice, GSM voice) communications, the increase of hardware power as
were ignoring each other since they were based on dif- well as the increased use of layered architecture in soft-
ferent network technology. As an example, a GSM hand- ware development, the telecommunication world is now
set was not able to connect to your fixed line while at going towards:
home to receive a better price plan. > network access convergence: The underlying transport
technology you are using does not matter anymore. You
nr 1/2008 (06)

10. 10 > in Focus
Figure 2 The evolution of Billing Systems
Legacy Billing Solution Architecture Next Generation Billing Solution Architecture
Billing System Billing System
Central
Off-line charging Reference
Customers
3rd party Data
& Contracts Customers
Service (Product
Rating & contracts Catalog,
Product Provider
On-line charging Addresses, ...)
Catalogue
Off-line, postpaid
3rd party
Service
Provider
3rd party
Service
On-line, postpaid
Mediation Mediation Application Server
Provider
Missed
Prepaid Prepaid
calls ...
Provisioning voice GPRS
Provisioning
Provisioning notification
Mediation Mediation evolution Parlay X
Network Abstraction Layer
PSTN Mobile Broadband
Mediation Network Adapters Provisioning
Cable IP
PSTN, NGN/IMS,
2.5G/3G, Cable, Broadband, IP, ...
can use the same handset for your mobile GSM/Wimax increased convergence through better BSS and OSS prod-
or fixed line Wifi connection at home. ucts. This article aims at describing our approach.
> new, innovative value added services. These value
added services are becoming so advanced that we are The evolution of Billing Systems
now seeing a new form of convergence, industry con- To achieve all modern telecommunication requirements
vergence through the merger of the telecommunica- it was necessary to change service delivery architectures
tion, media and Internet industries into one. as well as billing systems architectures. These changes
> improved time to market as new services means modi- cover many aspects like network unification, standards-
fying only a piece of software instead of upgrading a based communication, a centralized product catalogue
full set of nationwide switches. and most importantly - real-time processing.
> Front office and back office systems which are less and Comarch Billing System for Convergent Services uses
less dependent on the underlying technology and more modern multi-layered architecture and solves problems in
and more agile especially when it comes to configura- many business layers of users and their terminals, access
tion updates or convergence management. networks, service delivery/control, services logic, conver-
gent billing and sales channels.
However, we at Comarch believe there is still room for
improvement for increasing these trends and providing
technology review [www.comarch.com]

11. in Focus < 11
Figure 3 Prepaid/Postpaid level Convergence
Web Self-Care Web Dealer-Care CRM on-line interaction
off-line interaction
Manage prepaid
and postpaid subscribers
Billing System
Off-line rating
Off-line charging Billing, invoicing
Product
Database
Catalogue
Real-time rating Usage data storage
On-line charging Prepaid Balance update
Off-line, postpaid
On-line, postpaid
Application Server
3rd party
CORE application VAS application Service
Prepaid application Parlay X Provider
SIP
Network Abstraction Layer
Mediation Network Adapters Provisioning
Call details Records Signalling Services provisioning
files mediation processing (line management)
EDR
PSTN, NGN/IMS,
Subscriber abroud 2.5G/3G, Cable, Broadband, IP, ...
Roaming
broker
Postpaid subscriber Prepaid subscriber
The solution consists of several Comarch products Layer & Application Server, Comarch Product Catalogue,
with Comarch Billing System at its heart which enables Comarch Self-Care, Comarch CRM.
the following features:
> off-line charging utilizing the entire billing process Prepaid/Postpaid level Convergence
(loading, rating, discounting, invoicing, payment col- The system maintains information about prepaid balances
lection, dunning, reporting, off-line billing), assigned to user accounts. Prepaid balance management
> on-line charging (real-time rating, charging, balance has all the features required by standard mobile prepaid
management, high availability), services as well as next generation services with balance
>> event-based charging (for services like SMS), reservations, rollover, automatic recharges, simultane-
>> session-based charging (for services like voice call), ous service usage and the possibility of charging any
> database for reference data (customers and contracts, event in real-time.
financial and usage data, …). The same user account managed by this system may
be used for postpaid services where all usage data is col-
Other products used in the solution: Comarch Billing lected and used later for invoicing.
Mediation, Comarch Service Provisioning, Comarch The decision whether a service is sold in prepaid or
Convergent Services Platform, Network Abstraction postpaid mode can be made at the time of creating a
nr 1/2008 (06)

12. 12 > in Focus
Figure 4 Service level & Customer experience Convergence
Web Self-Care Web Dealer-Care CRM on-line interaction
off-line interaction
Manage prepaid
and postpaid subscribers
Billing System
Off-line rating
Single bill
Off-line charging Billing, invoicing
Database
Real-time rating Usage data storage
On-line charging Prepaid Balance update
Off-line, postpaid
On-line, postpaid
Application Server Payment gateway
Content subscriptions Parking payments
CORE application
Prepaid application
VAS application
P
SIP
Network Abstraction Layer
Signalling
Mediation Network Adapters Provisioning
processing
EDR
PSTN, NGN/IMS, 2.5G/3G, Cable, Broadband, IP, ...
Mobile voice service
Video browsing service
internet acces service
sales offer. The same service may be offered many times ity for offering multiple services and charging or billing
in different models like prepaid, postpaid or postpaid a user with a single invoice or by using a single prepaid
with limits. account.
The logic of each service is defined by an application
Sales Channels deployed on the Application Server Layer. This layer con-
Comarch Billing System for Convergent Services integrates sists of two specialized Application Servers for core and
applications for supporting multiple sales channels: value-added services.
> Self-Care application for customer subscription & man- A customer receives a single bill or uses a prepaid
agement self service, account for many mobile and non-mobile services such
> Dealer-Care application for a dealer’s sales channel, as voice, content, parking or ticket payments. The user
> CRM system for Customer Relationship Management. may check his account status and services history in a
single self-care application.
Service level & Customer
experience Convergence Simultaneous multi-network
Service level convergence allows carriers to rate and/or mediation and provisioning
bill any type of service in the same system with a sin- The Network Abstraction Layer consists of a set of pro-
gle point of management. It also enables the possibil- tocol/network adapters which mediates in real-time
technology review [www.comarch.com]

13. in Focus < 13
Figure 5 Simultaneous multi-network mediation and provisioning
Web Self-Care Web Dealer-Care CRM
Billing System
Off-line rating
Off-line charging Database:
- customers
- accounts
Real-time rating - balances
On-line charging - products
Off-line, postpaid
On-line, postpaid
Application Server
3rd party
CORE application VAS application Service
Parlay X Provider
Network Abstraction Layer
Parlay/SOA Mediation DIAMASTER SIP SS7 adapter RADIUS Provisioning GTP adapter (more)
Mediation iMS services iMS services 2. xg SS&-based aaa for iP services
from legacy charging control services control
fixed etwork
NGN/IMS 2.5G/3G Broadband
PSTN Cable IP
between the network elements and the Application Server > increased competence – fast time to market for new
Krzysztof Kwiatkowski
Layer. services,
The Network Abstraction Layer supports PSTN, NGN/ > decreased OPeX and CaPeX by reusing system infra- Comarch SA
Position: Product Manager
IMS, 2.5G/3G, Cable, Broadband and other IP-based net- structure for launching new services in next generation
department: Telecommunications
works and complies with many standards related to SIP/ and legacy networks, Business Unit
IMS, OMA, Parlay, SS7, IP-based and more. > increased customer satisfaction – a single Customer info: In Comarch for 8 years, all the time
Comarch mediation components are used within the Self-Care system and single account/bill for all ser- in Teleco Department, currently Product
convergent solution to handle the following aspects: vices, Manager of Real Time Billing Systems
> Billing mediation – on-line (near real-time) and off-line > customer diversification – easy integration with 3rd
CDR processing, party service providers who can provide services for
> Service provisioning mediation – on-line service and niche-markets, david gourdelier
subscriber provisioning. > reduced churn rate – telco-grade solution – upgrade Comarch Software AG
and service changes with minimal impact to existing Position: Consultant
Benefits services < department: Telecommunications
Business Unit
Having introduced Comarch Billing System for Conver-
info: David is BSS consultant working for
gent Services, the following benefits may ultimately be main Comarch telecommunicaiton
listed as the most important: accounts in France and Western Europe
nr 1/2008 (06)

14. 14 > in Focus
On-premise CRM
a sinking ship or a flying fortress?
The CRM market has gone through its phases
of hype, disappointment and recovery.
Now a returning wave of interest based on
a more realistic approach to customers and ven-
dors offers reasonable alternatives to the big
CRM implementations that have historically been
expensive, troublesome and time-consuming. One
such interesting alternative is CRM on-demand.
technology review [www.comarch.com]

15. in Focus < 15
what is on-demand CRM? What are
the advantages and risks?
The do’s and don’ts? For a telecom operator, is on-
risk of failure. Eventually, even if a CRM system does
get successfully deployed, it is often used improp-
erly (if at all), not taking advantage of its strengths,
tional, often boiling down to a single misconcep-
tion, a misunderstanding of the CRM concept. The
CRM market had to fall.
demand worth considering? leading to results that are far from expected, espe- But what can we say today? CRM is not dead -
cially in terms of return on investment. it may be bruised, but it’s back. Large-scale, long-
The rise and fall of CRM These negative associations we may still have term CRM initiatives are beginning to be approved
What comes to mind when you hear the acronym of CRM aren’t coming out of nowhere. As of the end again. Spending on open-source CRM is projected to
CRM? Is it: „a single view of a customer, driving of 2002 Gartner, as well as several other analysts, increase threefold, there is a comeback of in-house
customer satisfaction, enhancing the bottom line informed us that 70% of all CRM projects fail. The built CRM applications and vendors are transition-
by being better able to understand and fulfill cus- top reasons for these failures include: lack of a ing to new service-oriented architectures (source:
tomer needs”? These all sound promising. However, strategic, enterprise wide approach with little or Gartner 2006). Having learned their lesson, vendors
maybe you have other associations, ones more dif- no board-level commitment, undefined success as well as their clients are increasingly cautious
ficult to find in marketing brochures but more eas- metrics, poor methodology and a focus on technol- while attempting to reduce the risk associated
ily heard by listening to those actually involved in ogy instead of customer and business processes. with a CRM initiative by seeking new models and
CRM projects in recent years. They would say that Clearly, most of the problems companies had with approaches. On-demand CRM is one of the most
the hard reality is that CRM is a never-ending proj- the implementation of CRM were not particularly meaningful and influential new models.
ect, an initiative with a colossal budget and a high technology-related. The problems were organiza-
nr 1/2008 (06)

16. 16 > in Focus
Some like it hosted is low, because the service provider takes it on and
The future, or what the CRM The idea behind on-demand CRM (or in other words, delivers guaranteed system availability and per-
crystal ball told me: hosted CRM) is simple: we don’t buy the software, formance (usually providers agree to an SLA much
“Dispersed CRM” – a single view of a customer, but we buy the services – this is precisely the concept more willingly than the internal IT departments of
across multiple dispersed packages – a multi-sourc-
of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Application Ser- their customers). It is very easy to get users quickly
ing and hybrid approach – on-demand solutions for
vice Providing - ASP (for various reasons ASP, like up and running, a provider’s implementation pro-
one or more service providers mixed with on-prem-
ise installations. CRM, also has negative connotations which is why cesses are mostly uniform and are often repeated
the term SaaS tends to be used instead). We don’t – deployment of a single department package takes
Convergence of on-demand and on-premise - migra- care about the technical details too much, the pro- from 30 to 90 days. On demand CRM provides a lot
tion between models will be possible (it is already
vider does. CRM software is available through the of flexibility in upgrades – behind the scenes, devel-
possible for some vendors), infrastructure will get
Internet and less often via a dedicated line. In on- opers have on-line access to the system giving
more and more robust and „invisible”, outsourc-
ing will start to pay off not only on paper but also demand CRM, multiple end-customers share the them unprecedented possibilities for continuous
in reality. same hardware, databases and functionality with software improvement. They can observe and track
various customization options (This is called the usage patterns to optimize and automate the most
Commoditization – The commoditization of CRM
multi-tenancy model. There is also a single-ten- popular instances of use. When the amount of
functional areas, such as sales force automation
ancy model, where each customer has his own tasks, client base and data size grows, we don’t
or customer service and support will be driven by
on-demand vendors, the difference between their database and server, but purists say that in such need a complex process for explaining the need,
offerings will be in their ability and willingness to a case software cannot be considered as a service). getting approval and purchasing additional hard-
act globally, effectively customize software and In this way, vendors achieve an economy of scale, ware or technologies. We just let the provider know
integrate with a customer’s systems. We will get
allowing them to set lower prices for services of that we need additional users or functionality and
cheaper, more rapidly implemented and more use-
guaranteed quality. they assume the challenge and responsibility for
ful CRM.
On-demand differs from traditional on-site or which they receive a payment.
on-premise CRM when we purchase licenses and
Knowing the negative connotations of the CRM own the software (another possibility is when we The third way
term, and that it can be associated purely with a own a home-grown application). Commonly, we It seems on-demand CRM allows you to focus on
technology investment, other terms begin to be have to take care of all the technical details, main- your customers and not on the technology while
used instead:
tain the software and infrastructure, keep dedi- relieving you from the risk and overhead of an on-
> Customer Management,
cated IT personnel and train them so they don’t premise approach. But is on-demand really this
> Customer Centricity
> Relationship Management, get behind. No two clients of a CRM vendor have attractive? What’s the catch? As always, the devil
> Relationship Marketing the same on-premise system. Usually only 30-50% is in the details - what constitutes an advantage
> Customer Experience Management of the enterprise CRM software is standard, the can also pose a threat. Short deployment time is
> Customer Service Excellence
rest represents customer specific functionality, only a promise, getting the system to work could
> Single view of a customer,
customization and integration. This is probably take longer than expected because of problem-
> Sales productivity growth
> ... why it always takes so long to deploy an on-prem- atic customization. Possibilities offered by the API
However, behind all these different names there’s ise CRM system – because 50% must be built from are usually limited and once we want something
a common concept of a business strategy whose scratch! On-demand differs from on-premise in more, we fall into the trap of an on-premise model
outcomes optimize profitability, revenue and cus-
that it aims to make you switch-off the function- – the vendor sends a team to work through a solu-
tomer satisfaction by organizing around customer
ality you don’t need rather than build-up the func- tion, extending the implementation time tremen-
segments, promoting customer-satisfying behav-
iors and implementing customer-centric processes tionality you do (in the on-premise model). Which dously. Moreover, upgrades can be tricky – and tend
(source: Gartner). approach sounds easier? to break existing customization and integration,
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, recently said „peo- which leads to abandoning valuable new function-
ple want hosted CRM”. Although some analysts see ality. Some institutions may be wary of being over-
the future of on-demand CRM as not that bright dependent on the service provider. They have all
(AMR Research predicts that even by 2009, hosted the data which sometimes can be sensitive (banks,
CRM applications will account for only 12% of the health care), difficult to protect from unauthor-
total U.S. CRM market) there definitely is something ized access when out of your control and difficult
to it. Why do people want hosted CRM? Because it to get back from the vendor should relations go
is low risk, low cost and high ROI. There is no enor- south. Other organizations may feel like opting
mous up front investment and only a low monthly for on-demand results in losing their competitive
rental fee with minimal or no service fees. The risk advantage – everyone has the same software, so
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17. in Focus < 17
where’s the difference? However, the greatest prob- able to react to changes in the market, have enor- on-premise doomed? Definitely not. However on-
lem with on-demand CRM is the time scale. Surely, mous IT costs and are unable to fully meet internal demand is a warning sign to license vendors to get
we can achieve the lowest initial cost, the lowest user and customer expectations. more realistic about CRM deployment costs and
risk, but all in the short term. In a three-year period, On-demand is the perfect choice for small and times. On-premise will continue to be the most
the cost can be the same for on-demand and on- mid-sized companies able to function with stand- popular type of deployment for large companies,
premise, yet in the on-demand model the organi- ard processes and data structures, with no real- with on-demand increasingly being chosen by less
zation doesn’t own the system, it can’t be custom- time or complex integration requirements, no inter- conservative telecoms as well as small and mid-
ized to grow along with the needs of the business. nal IT support, yet who want a rapidly deployed sized companies, including MVNOs. <
All in all, we might end up with our hands tied and solution. On-demand is therefore a very interest-
a miserable ROI. ing option to consider for MVNOs and start-ups.
A mixed approach is the best method to avoid, But what about larger telecom operators? Their
or at least compensate for most of the risks related primary business imperative is growth signified by
to implementing CRM in either of the models: on- partnership, innovation, cost control, risk manage-
premise and on-demand. There are at least three ment and availability of talents. On-demand is defi-
blends of mixed approaches: the hybrid, “first nitely a chance for cost control, risk compensation
host, then buy” and “first buy, then host”. Under (or at least diversification) and an increased avail-
the hybrid model, companies could use hosted ability of talent (as top talents continue to gather
CRM at one site, such as a small division, or a dis- around global leaders). On-demand CRM might
tant office, while keeping the rest of the company also be seen as a chance for innovation (when the
on an enterprise, on-premise CRM application. It is vendor is offering outstanding and future-oriented
currently possible with Siebel, RightNow and SAP solutions, which other vendors have yet to adopt)
solutions. The hybrid model can be applied not only and partnership (this may be wishful thinking, but
to geographical locations, but to functional areas major hosted CRM providers are struggling hard to
of CRM since many vendors offer specialized soft- enter the lucrative telecommunications market and
ware packages. A company could use the hosted have a real interest in building long-lasting, profit-
solution for sales automation or customer service able partnerships). Having said that, it is still too
& support, and an on-premise application for the early, and there is probably a good reason that most
rest. The best candidate for on-demand CRM is the telecoms stay away from on-demand CRM. Nor-
area where requirements are changing least often, mally, for telecom operators, customer relationship
where processes are rather stable and mature and management is an area of strategic importance,
there is no need for a high degree of non-standard and experiments aren’t welcome. Nevertheless,
customization or integration. In the “first host, on-demand starts to be a relevant option. Gartner
then buy” approach, we initially buy on-demand predicts that by 2007, 30 percent of new sales force
CRM services from a provider and if all goes well, automation (SFA) production applications will be
we purchase the software and begin to manage deployed as a service. So for most telecoms, maybe
it ourselves. This way, we benefit from the “low the first shot at on-demand will be for SFA as it is
cost, low risk, high ROI” advantages during the first perceived to be an easy, inexpensive and safe way
two or three years and afterwards, take over the to try out an on-demand CRM deployment.
entire thing and benefit from the “greatest power,
flexibility, easier integration and customizability”. Summary
The third approach is “first buy, then host”. This is After a phase of disappointment, CRM is com-
when the on-premise solution, purchased or home- ing back, perhaps under different names. The on-
grown software is outsourced together with the demand model is becoming more and more popular
infrastructure. Although the system is a managed with functionality beginning to reflect the most-
service rather than becoming on-demand, the same wanted, tried-and-true features. At the same time,
Paweł lamik
combined positive effects occur: cost reduction, companies are ready to opt for a compromise and Comarch SA
increased quality of services, increased business require merely the necessary integration and cus- Position: Business Solutions Manager
department: Telecommunications
agility and less focus on technology and more focus tomization. So, without a doubt, on-demand is here
Business Unit
on the customers. These benefits will be particu- to stay and represents a viable alternative to cum- info: Main fields of expertise: CRM
larly visible for large companies that are no longer bersome and expensive licensed CRM projects. Is systems, BI and outsourcing
nr 1/2008 (06)

18. 18 > in Focus
Why CRM
does not deliver*
* – sometimes
Surprisingly, telco operators
continue to perform miser-
most telco operators pursue the
same strategic goals: increase
revenue and retain customers. However, when
right then, the new tariff will be active as of next
month, thank you and have a nice day.”
What’s wrong with this? Well in short, the ques-
ably when it comes to: selling a customer completely resigns from services or tion “why?” was never asked. I had no reason to
a product to a customer who considerably reduces their service usage, there hide that I’ve made a decision to go for VoIP tele-
is a negative impact on these. If there are more phony services from a British provider and to keep
wants it badly, retaining a valu- of such customers, the reduction in revenue and the existing fixed-line from Operator A only in order
able customer who does not the high costs for acquiring new customers to to keep the existing number and to have a back-up
think about churning away, and replace the ones who left becomes increasingly line. Why should the operator need such informa-
painful. Customers need to be well taken care of tion? Firstly, this operator offers VoIP services, so
acquiring a new customer who and sales needs to be well taken care of. It may by having this information from me, they could
falls “straight into their hands”. seem these conclusions are too obvious to even try to cross-sell thereby saving revenue in the
The reason is operators’ inabil- write about. Yet, I only wonder, how my own ex- long term. Secondly, it can provide data for anal-
perience as a former, as well as a potential, cus- ysis (i.e. to analyze the scale of the phenomenon,
ity to gather information and tomer of three different major Polish telecommu- to develop the offer, to track market trends). The
properly leverage it, with the nications providers proves these conclusions as current assumption that Operator A has made is
use of CRM class systems. merely theoretical. that I have made a tariff downgrade and that I will
probably pay more if my usage remains the same
Operator a – Partial revenue loss (however it won’t – this usage has left for good
For over a dozen years, I’ve had a fixed line phone to another operator). It is possible they think I’ve
from this operator. Recently, I phoned the call-cen- downgraded because I’m leaving the country for
ter and asked for a tariff downgrade to the least a long period of time.
expensive possible level (ca. 50% less than the
one I had). “This is certainly possible. Please note Operator B – loss of a customer
however, a charge for one minute is higher in the (and revenue)
cheaper tariff and there are no additional services Until recently, I had cable television at home from
which decrease the cost of calls (i.e. free minutes one of the biggest cable TV providers. The origi-
pack)”, the consultant warned me, “Looking at the nal subscriber was my sister. However, after she
calls you have made in the recent months, I sus- moved out, I wanted to transfer the contract into
pect that you will pay much higher bills, are you my name. I phoned the call-center, provided my
sure you want to downgrade? – Yes I am sure. – All details – name, address – and told them about
the situation. I was told that what I wanted to do
technology review [www.comarch.com]

19. in Focus < 19
was certainly possible (they always say that), but gather information, make use of
that I needed to pay a cession fee – equivalent to knowledge Comarch CRM for Telecoms
about a one month subscription fee. For over 10 The operators described have one thing in com- It is a comprehensive customer relationship man-
years, I have been regularly paying monthly bills mon – they use customer service and CRM sys- agement solution for operators and MVNOs. With
BI-enabled modules for Marketing, Sales, and Cus-
for one of the highest tariff variants. I declined to tems, including the best in the world (operator A).
tomer Service our product helps increase revenue
make the cession and asked my sister to terminate Did these systems fulfill their role well enough? from new and existing customers, and improve re-
the contract. However, I was accustomed to this To some extent, yes, they facilitated common tention. The built-in Business Intelligence provides
operator and I already had the cable installed. Per- operations – registering subscriptions, answer- contextual hints and drill-in dashboards, supporting
haps a little naively, I decided to register as a new ing inquiries about prices, changing tariffs, termi- timely and knowledge-driven decisions. Unlike the
one-size-fits-all solutions from traditional vendors,
customer, thinking they would treat a prospec- nating subscriptions. However, the systems neither
our lean and flexible solution was designed to fit an
tive customer better. Alas however, it turned out helped retain a customer nor ensured sustained operator’s existing data models and help express
there was an “installation” fee, also equivalent to (or increased) revenue. Furthermore, they did not their own differentiating processes with a built-in
about a one month’s subscription fee. “But listen, I even gather information necessary to understand workflow engine.
already have everything installed, there will be no “why”. In the examples reported, advanced or costly
installation, the cable is there, it is plugged in and techniques (loyalty programs, direct marketing, etc)
it was working only yesterday. Turning the signal were not required to keep or acquire a customer. Today, BPM and BI are increasingly popular con-
on for the cable doesn’t really cost that much does For instance, what would be an appropriate reac- cepts aimed at developing the capability of CRM to
it? – Yes, unfortunately we have such procedures. tion in the case of operator A, to a customer will- deliver the intended results: revenue growth and
There is always an installation fee.” ing to downgrade his tariff? Maybe the system’s customer retention. This direction looks promis-
By requiring these small, annoying fees, this suggestion of “ask why”, with some area for input- ing – in the fight for customers, a successful oper-
operator decidedly lost an entire stream of future ting the customer’s answer. Additionally, further ator’s CRM system will manage centralized and
revenue, which had been consistently flowing from suggestions aimed at addressing the needs the integrated customer data and turn it into knowl-
my address for years. customer expressed while answering the “why” edge with Business Intelligence while providing
question could be made. For operator B, the system leverage by injecting it into business processes: in
Operator C – loss of a potential should have suggested overriding or reducing the a BPM-driven process, appropriate data is gathered,
customer (and potential revenue) cession fee required from a good customer (based which BI uses to deliver relevant, real time sugges-
However, it is difficult to live without television. on a differentiated fee policy for each segment, i.e. tions for “what to do”. This should help eliminate
I decided to buy services from a leading satellite based on a customer’s lifetime value calculation). the situations described in this article, making both
television operator. They offer the channels I’m In the case of operator C, most likely the call-cen- the customers and the operators happier. <
interested in and at a reasonable price. I phoned ter employees were not sales oriented, however
their call-center to learn more about their offer the system could have suggested “take his phone
and the details pertaining to the installation. I told number, a mobile if possible”. As far as the flow of
them I was interested in quickly closing the deal, leads from the web-site to the sales department
however the consultant didn’t ask for my phone is concerned – automated detection and alarms
number or service details. They could have trans- for overdue contacts, and better control of han-
ferred my data to a local partner who would possi- dling leads from the sales department would be
bly take better care of a potential customer. Instead, a possible solution.
I was merely instructed to look for the closest local
partner on their web page. I opened the web page Summary
and found the contact form. I selected the “I am Operators do what they can to secure themselves
interested in signing a deal” option and entered from revenue and customer leakages, but they still
my data: e-mail, mobile phone and exactly what I make simple errors. “Let’s manage our customers,
needed. I even received a confirmation e-mail stat- so they wouldn’t want to leave us and would want
ing that within 48 hours somebody would contact to buy more from us – let’s buy a CRM system” this
me (by the way, why not within 1 hour?). What hap- is an idea most of them already brought to life
pened then? Nothing. There has been no contact long ago. The idea that a CRM system alone is not
so far, and that was 16 days ago. Well, I guess I will enough to manage customer relationships well,
try my luck with their competitors. we have known for a couple of years. CRM systems
Obviously, this operator is not very interested tend not to deliver on this promise. Why? There are
Paweł lamik
in acquiring new customers, the call-center is only many different reasons. One of the main reasons Comarch SA
a cost center (not generating revenue) for this oper- is that customer data is not integrated in a single Position: Business Solutions Manager
department: Telecommunications
ator, and when it comes to the web form that was location and managed consistently, and even if
Business Unit
intended to generate leads, it only serves to gener- it is somehow, it is not always turned into useful info: Main fields of expertise: CRM
ate the frustration of potential customers. knowledge in day to day operations. systems, BI and outsourcing
nr 1/2008 (06)

20. 20 > Solutions & Case Studies
Comarch OSS Suite 4
next generation OSS systems are just around the corner
OSS systems have never been as important as
they are today. Their importance will grow even
further with the rising popularity of Next Genera-
tion Networks. Nowadays, operators can not even
think about delivering services without strong
help from supporting systems. There is no such
army of people who can plan, provision, deliver
and bill these new services in a matter of seconds.
technology review [www.comarch.com]