Embedding the customer in the center of our organizations

In a world where product differentiation is no longer an advantages it is very important that an organization differentiates in how good it delivers the promised customer services.  Most customers today are expecting only the very best service, even if that price for service is dirt cheap. Let's say I dine in an Island in the Philippines, I pay 10$ for an excellent meal coupled with an excellent friendly service so if I dine in London and spends 100$ I will expect the same level of service. If I don't get a good service I might not come back again or might give a bad rating for the place in Yelp or any other social channels. You see I am not the only one with this way of thinking. Do you think the same? Talking of London, I have been to Nobu and to Ramsey's I was surprise to spend less in Ramsey's where the service was a lot better and the food was excellent… Now I can say that Ramsey's is a very good example of providing a wonderful customer service, you leave happy and want to be back again as soon as you can.

All customer experiences are rooted to the people who provides them. When it comes to businesses, the customer experience is all that matters, most specially on service industries like Telecom. So the question to most if not all executives is "How do you embed customer centricity in your organizations?". There is no easy answer to this, there are no shortcuts. Its true that we train our front line staff to deliver a good service, but delivering a good service is no longer just a service, it is giving a positive experience that counts. To ensure that we provide positive experiences, our customers expects us to take the extra mile, go a bit further to give them delight and happiness. Doing should not break the bank either, after all as a business we aim for profitability and as executives we are judge on profitability by our shareholders. In April, at the CEM Summit in Dubai, Liz McSorley of du (VP  Customer Experience) will share how they do it in du.

For a product and technology led company like AmanziTel, we ensure that customer centricity is embedded in our corporate DNA by ensuring that each and every one of us understand and embrace customer centricity and the importance of ensuring happiness to our customers. We do this in various ways

• Customer centricity starts from the top, from our board members to our CEO down to our software developers.

• We hire resources who are naturally service and innovation oriented, so no matter how difficult our deployments get we continue to strive to provide happiness to each and everyone of them.

• It is embedded in our product and service design. When we design a product, especially new innovations and ground breaking product, in every decision we take our customer needs and happiness are taken into consideration. We call that customer driven development.

• We treat every customer request with utmost care and respect. Its like having your own baby being born when customer request arrives and ensuring that he or she is always happy and that he or she is raised and developed the right way.

• In times when we are not perfect, we ensure that we make up for our shortcomings by continuously delighting our customers in our own little ways and make that extra effort.. Walk the extra mile…

• We empower our front line resources to make key decisions in delivering customer happiness when they are put on those awkward situations.

• We always keep in mind that our customers are serving Billions of subscribers that at the end of the day each of our customers will have to deliver that happiness to their billions of subscribers

• For each and every one of us in the company we will always ensure our customer's happiness in our own little ways

And since its Valentine's day let me say we love our customers and we love the billions of subscribers they have.

Optimizing mobile networks without drive testing, is it really doable and practical?

Traditional network optimization always involves drive testing. Since the first generation of mobile/cellular (AMPS, TACS, NMT) networks were built drive testing has been a core component in optimizing performance. However is it possible to optimize a 2G, 3G and 4G network without drive testing? Most engineers have doubt that it can be done since the most difficult part of the network to operate optimally is the air interface or the RF part of the network. Further to that most engineers first learn optimization through drive testing. Is it really possible to optimize a mobile or cellular network without drive testing?

We all know that drive testing is costly, time consuming and difficult to implement. Having that said there are several ways to optimize a network without using drive testing. This involves the use of network recordings, statistical counters, customer mobile measurements and probes. The simple idea is to optimize the KPIs in a way that the performance gain are much better than using drive testing alone. The question is can you really optimize the RF part (antenna configuration and parameter settings) without drive testing. The answer is YES, it is possible as long as the KPIs are correlated across multiple data sources such as network recordings and statistical counters at the very least. If you can bring in probes and customer mobile measurements the better the results will be.

There are of course a very few tools or software systems and solutions in the market that can do this today, most especially correlating multiple data sources for optimization. One such tool is Actix One which relies mostly on the drive test input and another example is the Wireless Explorer that uses all available data sources and is open source. The challenge of course is to find out a solution that satisfy the custom requirements of every operator and the differences in processes and procedures.

The best optimization results are of course obtained by incorporating and correlating drive test data to the network recordings, performance statistics, probe measurements and actual customer experiences. Customer experiences are captured through detailed network or probe recordings and more accurately directly from the customer mobiles. So if you can utilize each and every subscriber in your network as a drive tester collecting massive amount of data, wouldn’t that be better than sending out several teams of drive testers? At the end of the day drive testing is still needed for trouble shooting and competitive benchmarking. It will not completely go away but it can be complemented and at the same time reduce its overall cost.

Releasing ADaM

Starting one of the first companies developing open source system and platforms intended for telecoms network is indeed exciting. The challenge of deploying open source solutions is reflected in the amount of time for Linux to take off in the market.

The past weeks have been truly remarkable in terms of corporate development in AmanziTel where we received multiple interests in both AWE and ADaM platforms. Due to high customer demand for a Demo of ADaM, we decided to release a demo version of ADaM using a small part of a due diligence module. The demo version of the ADaM platform is now available online. Everyone is welcome to sign up and try it out.

ADaM (amanzi data management) is a rapid route to fully featured web applications for mobile network data, for example: roll-out management, configuration and parameter management or infrastructure audits. ADaM is a family of web applications for shared network data management and reporting. These applications are tailor made to suite the operators’ specific needs. The demonstration version is provided for the purpose of allowing users to try out the capabilities of one possible end-user application. Features and capabilities of the 'ADaM Demo' are not a guarantee or limitation of the kinds of features that might be available in any real deployment of 'ADaM'.

Currently a site audit application of ADaM is deployed and being used by Vodafone, LCC and Deka Group. That deployment will benefit from the improved reporting engine developed while working on the demo version. The beauty of open source is that updates can be provided to users without additional cost, same as distributing the software platforms free of charge.

Making a Difference

We live in a world with more than 6 billion people, each one of us are different from each other but similar in a way that we are but a small dot in a bigger universe. The question is how do we make a difference in the world? Some of us have left their legacy to history, some are more influential than others, a few are on the path of giving something wonderful to mankind.

Let me compare the world to a sandy beach, where people are the sand and stones across the entire beach. Most are small grain similar to each other unnoticed, some are stones which are visible and a few like rocks that are conspicuous. Common people are like the small grain of sand going about their own business almost completely ignored. More famous people are like stones, which leaves their mark in history and are more prominent. The rocks are the prominent ones, well known to many and are influential to society.

The rocks can be seen from afar, followed by many and can change the way the beach looks when they move. To each an every grain of sand, the challenge is how to make a difference on the beach. Although rocks are popular and prominent they are outshined by grains of sands working in coordination with each other to build beautiful structures that are admired by all.

Organisations such as the ones focused on open source software and educational foundations were created to make a dent in history, give sands a facility to outshine the rocks on the beach. This is achieved by pioneering disruptive but supportive concepts and technologies that will forever change the way telecoms business is operated. Furthermore, it gives the opportunity for the common staff to become a part of something beautiful, like a gorgeous sand castle.