Press Release & News Service - Free: Global Carriers Get Serious About Customer Portals

Press Release & News Service - Free

Press and News

Press Release & News Service - Free: Global Carriers Get Serious About Customer Portals

Global Carriers Get Serious About Customer Portals

Posted by Editor at March 12, 2007 1:43 PM and is filed under Telecom

Paris, France – Enterprise customers want better control of their sprawling fixed and mobile voice/data networks – and they want the carriers to get the problem sorted. Service providers have answered the call with managed IP services, and Current Analysis provides a wide-ranging, in-depth Solutions Assessment of the leading global carriers’ Managed IP Services capabilities. This latest analytic component focuses on the carriers’ ability to provide customers with near-real-time management capabilities, by integrating their OSS/BSS capabilities to support user-friendly front-end customer portals.

The Current Analysis’ mapping of the five global operators’ progress highlights major differences in how they approach the task. The following table is a subset of the data points available in the full Current Analysis report:

Carrier	AT&T	Verizon Business	Orange Business Services	BT Global Services	T-Systems
Current Analysis Perspective	Very Threatening	Threatening	Threatening	Competitive	Vulnerable
Platform Name	BusinessDirect & IGEMS	VBCC & IMPACT	WebVision	VBC & AAI Management Centre	FlexSolutions & point solutions
Availability	88 countries	142 countries	220 countries	95 countries	50+ countries
Comments	AT&T has spent over $250 million on developing its BusinessDirect portal and iGEMS back-end engine over the past ten years. Its wide range of functions and the ability to adapt to the customer’s managed IP services profile and the existing preferred network management platform, puts it at the head of the league table.	The hottest challenge comes from the new Verizon Business Customer Center delivering deep monitoring and management solution to its customers across the range of Verizon Business IP services as well as rapid fault analysis and repair capabilities based on inputs from some 50 support tools.	Orange Business Services provides the widest global footprint for its portal, as well as the most advanced end-to-end application based SLA service. Going forward OBS must develop a lighter end-to-end application monitoring solution at a lower price point without the need for a large professional services staff.	The BT Global Services Virtual Business Centre (VBC) offering covers the whole range of BT IP services and can be tailored to individual customer requirements, but remains a fragmented offering despite the new My Account thin portal. Customers are provided with a wide range of choices, but no clear assurance that what they chose optimally fulfills their needs.	The T-Systems FlexSolutions portal provides a limited range of capabilities, lacking interactivity. It measures network parameters to improve the transparency of contract SLAs, but the monitor-only approach of FlexSolutions requires customers to utilize other ways of managing their overall corporate networks.

Additional findings include the following:

· The carrier services supported are consistently VPN, VoIP and DIA (Dedicated Intern Access) whereas Ethernet and managed Contact Centers are not on yet. Connections to security services are also widespread mostly through links to a separate security platform or via a second set of log-on procedures. Some carriers also provide a medium level of secure access for MAC (Moves, Adds & Change) functions.

Applications performance and user controlled MAC tasks along with historical data, billing and ordering functions are also widespread, whereas integration with 3^rd party applications is still limited, but becoming increasing important as carriers transition their major business customers’ networks to their IP infrastructures.

For more information, or to receive a copy of the full report, please contact the author:

Bernt Østergaard - Research Director
Direct +45 45 50 51 83
Email: bostergaard@currentanalysis.com

or:

Sylvain Bélètre – PR EMEA
Direct +33 1 41 14 83 14
Email: sbeletre@currentanalysis.com

About Current Analysis

Current Analysis provides Competitive Response solutions that enable companies to effectively anticipate and counter competitive threats, and win more business. This is achieved through the rapid delivery of tactical, actionable intelligence to help fast-paced companies compete in highly volatile markets. Unlike traditional research companies or strategic market intelligence firms, Current Analysis provides unique tactical competitive analysis that is designed for everyday use.