Telecom APIs: Speaker Interview with Nooky Umali

 

Ahead of Telecom APIs 2014, we’ve conducted an exclusive speaker interview with Nooky Umali, Mobile Apps and API Innovation Program at Smart Communications, about his upcoming contribution at the Telecom APIs event, and general insights on API opportunities and trends…

 

Nooky Umali
Mobile Apps and API Innovation Program
Smart Communications

 

IIR Telecoms: What are the opportunities enabled by telecoms APIs?

Nooky Umali: Through the conference we become direct witnesses to the triumphs and pains of Operators in executing their API strategies at the same time gain insights on some of the best digital strategies around. Operators must realize the need to be our own disruptors and build on this need to come up with some remarkable new pure OTT or hybrid solutions (Mobile Apps that consume Location based, Carrier Billing and SMS APIs).

IIR Telecoms: Are carriers giving up on API standardisation or is this still a realistic goal?

Nooky Umali: Standardization might still happen but not within the next 2-3 years. Operators must begin with standardizing the interfaces for their internal platforms (Communications, VAS, Financial and Big Data) via SOA or another approach.

IIR Telecoms: What are the opportunities enabled by telecoms APIs? 

Nooky Umali: Through the conference we become direct witnesses to the triumphs and pains of Operators in executing their API strategies at the same time gain insights on some of the best digital strategies around.  Operators must realize the need to be our own disruptors and build on this need to come up with some remarkable new pure OTT or hybrid solutions (Mobile Apps that consume Location based, Carrier Billing and SMS APIs).

IIR Telecoms: Are carriers giving up on API standardisation or is this still a realistic goal?

Nooky Umali: Standardization might still happen but not within the next 2-3 years.  Operators must begin with standardizing the interfaces for their internal platforms (Communications, VAS, Financial and Big Data) via SOA or another approach.

IIR Telecoms: Which are the most profitable Telecoms APIs to offer?

Nooky Umali: Profitability depends on the region.  In South East Asia where Internet adoption (and disruption) is slower compared to the US and UK markets, SMS APIs packages still reign supreme.

IIR Telecoms: What are the optimum business models for developing Telecoms APIs – working with aggregators or not? 

Nooky Umali: Collaborative innovation should be undertaken.  Leveraging Developer Communities and Content Providers coupled with TAD (Telco Application Developers) to create new innovative services.  “Copying” can be ok as long as it is “Copied” the right way.

IIR Telecoms: What do you hope to achieve in attending  Telecom APIs 2014?

Nooky Umali: If you want to validate you API strategy, you should attend this conference first.

Join Nooky and the rest of our acclaimed speaker line-up at Telecom APIs, to discuss all this and more. Register at www.telecomapis-advanced.com/register

Telecom CEM: Exclusive Interview with Astellia

Ahead of this year’s Telecoms CEM World Congress we interviewed our 2013 exhibitor, Astellia, about changes we have seen in the market over the past year and what themes they expect to emerge in 2015

 

 

Here is what Eric Van Haetsdaele, Global Solution Marketing Director of Astellia had to say:

IIR Telecoms: How has the market changed since you last took part in the Telecom CEM World Congress?

Eric Van Haetsdaele: CEM has gained in importance over the last years and has moved up the priority list of many mobile operators. Astellia is receiving more and more RFPs, reflecting this increased commitment and investment in CEM. We notice that these RFPs are no longer exclusively issued by large operator groups but also mid-size and smaller operators see the importance of CEM to improve the customer experience, understand reasons of customer defection and better segment service offering.

Read the full interview

IIR Telecoms: What do you think will be the biggest themes to emerge in 2014 & 2015?

Eric Van Haetsdaele: On the one hand, voice calls remain central to mobile operator’s business model as they receive over 60% of their revenues from voice and SMS traffic. Operators know that there is no room for error and that they need a solution to guarantee a premium QoS to their subscribers to protect this revenue.

Read the full interview

IIR Telecoms: Are there any new services or products that Astellia have launched in the last 12 months, or looking to launch in 2014? How will these help Operators improve their customer experience strategies? 

Eric Van Haetsdaele: In 2013 Astellia launched Nova Care which provides mobile operators’ customer service teams with the means to improve customer complaint investigation & handling and hereby improving customer retention and loyalty.

Customer service agents are under increasing pressure to enhance first call resolution (FCR) and to lower significantly the number of trouble tickets sent to level 2 teams. Nova Care provides not only the means to engage with customers and to show awareness and understanding of their experienced problems but also to diagnose if the subscriber is the only one impacted or if it is global to the cell. This is key information in helping operators organize resources and in prioritizing optimization activities based on the number of impacted subscribers.

Read the full interview 

IIR Telecoms: What advice would you give to Operators who are looking at differentiating their services to compete in today’s fast paced environment?  

Eric Van Haetsdaele: Through partnering with OTT players like Skype, Deezer, Facebook, etc. operators can promote their brand, can differentiate themselves from competition and can deliver a premium service to their subscribers. These attractive offers can motivate for instance high value customers to upgrade their tariff plans to get free access to OTTs which they are used paying for 10€/month. These new tariff plans allows increasing the share of wallet of some subscriber segments and the ARPU.

Operators’ marketing teams can benefit from Astellia’s solution to understand the portion of subscribers registered but never using the OTT service. This information provides key arguments to be able to change/improve the revenue sharing agreement with OTT partners. They can also use the solution to see which subscribers are frequently using the OTT service, meaning they are happy using it. So there is no need to invest in expensive retention programs for these subscribers.

Read the full interview

Telecom CEM World Congress will take place from 4-5 November 2014 at the Thistle Marble Arch, London. Please visit the website for more information: http://www.cemcongress.com

Telecom CEM: Exclusive Interview with SpatialBuzz

Ahead of this year’s Telecoms CEM World Congress we interviewed our 2013 event partner and exhibitor, SpatialBuzz, about changes we have seen in the market over the past year and what themes they expect to emerge in 2015.

Here is what Andrew Blake, CTO of SpatialBuzz had to say:

IIR Telecoms: How has the market changed since you last took part in the Telecom CEM World Congress?

Andrew: Both the mobile customer experience management market and the broader mobile communications market are developing quite rapidly. The market for mobile phones is becoming increasingly commoditised, and customers are seeing it as a utility, like water or electricity. In this challenging market environment, operators need to find a way to differentiate themselves. Some, for example, are offering premium apps bundles like Spotify with their package but this is easy for competitors to match. An excellent way of differentiating and securing loyalty is by offering exemplary customer service, and this is where SpatialBuzz can help.

The roll-out of 4G infrastructure and the consolidation of the networks are both causing disruption to the mobile service, and if this happens to coincide with regular maintenance nearby, then the combined effect can be disastrous for customer satisfaction. Pro-actively communicating with customers to let them know of possible service disruption and monitoring the experience of customers in real time can help greatly to avoid user frustration, and can assist the operator in planning the works in the least invasive manner…

Read the full interview >>

IIR Telecoms: What do you think will be the biggest themes to emerge in 2014 & 2015?

Andrew: Crowd-sourced data is a growing theme, and SpatialBuzz has pioneered this as a means of providing the MNO with the most comprehensive real-time picture available of how the network is performing, and what issues might be arising or about to become critical. It is an affirmation of this approach that other CEM providers are starting to emulate it…

Read the full interview >>

Telecom CEM World Congress will take place from 4-5 November 2014 at the Thistle Marble Arch, London. Please visit the website for more information: http://www.cemcongress.com