Ian Vernon's Blog
Customer Experience Directly from Mobile Devices
Posted at February 15, 2012 15:57
Recently there have been a huge wave of public outcry on Carrier IQ's embedded CEM solution in the US. The issue is now even being called for congressional hearing as Lawmakers seek hearing on Carrier IQ privacy issues. The controversy on this is best summarized by Jaikumar Vijayan's article behind the issue and an article by Zachary Lutz explains what it is all about.
What does this mean for us who are in the telecoms industry? Does this mean that we should now all drop our CEM solutions because of privacy concerns? To my little world I believe we should not, but we should also avoid the pitfalls that carrier IQ have gotten themselves into. Managing customer experience is important to the network operators to ensure they deliver the best service and the correct level of service to each subscriber. It is equallly important to subscribers so they do not get bombarded with advertisement and offers that they do not want aside from the satisfaction of a good mobile / cellular network service.
Subscriber activities are actually being captured by the network even without the device agents by using network probes that records everything about a subscriber activity. This solution is not only expensive but can also be considered as breaking privacy laws, since it captures subscriber activity without the knowledge of the subscriber. The question to my mind is what CEM solution is actually efficient, effective and acceptable by subscribers or mobile phone users. There is no holy grail here but I can offer an answer. Native applications.
The main problem with embedded application or network probes is that the subscriber and phone user are not aware of the records being made, there is no opt-in or opt-out possibilities. With a native app the subscriber or phone user can easily install such CEM app if they want to and can easily remove it as well. Awareness I think is the key.
For network operators perhaps the best approach is to only have device agents on the subscriber phone to solve issues notice by the subscriber instead of recording everything the subscriber phone is doing. One such application is GEOptimA.
What does this mean for us who are in the telecoms industry? Does this mean that we should now all drop our CEM solutions because of privacy concerns? To my little world I believe we should not, but we should also avoid the pitfalls that carrier IQ have gotten themselves into. Managing customer experience is important to the network operators to ensure they deliver the best service and the correct level of service to each subscriber. It is equallly important to subscribers so they do not get bombarded with advertisement and offers that they do not want aside from the satisfaction of a good mobile / cellular network service.
Subscriber activities are actually being captured by the network even without the device agents by using network probes that records everything about a subscriber activity. This solution is not only expensive but can also be considered as breaking privacy laws, since it captures subscriber activity without the knowledge of the subscriber. The question to my mind is what CEM solution is actually efficient, effective and acceptable by subscribers or mobile phone users. There is no holy grail here but I can offer an answer. Native applications.
The main problem with embedded application or network probes is that the subscriber and phone user are not aware of the records being made, there is no opt-in or opt-out possibilities. With a native app the subscriber or phone user can easily install such CEM app if they want to and can easily remove it as well. Awareness I think is the key.
For network operators perhaps the best approach is to only have device agents on the subscriber phone to solve issues notice by the subscriber instead of recording everything the subscriber phone is doing. One such application is GEOptimA.
Traditional Drive Testing is at RISK!
Posted at January 30, 2012 22:06
With the advent of advance CEM solutions such as mobile applications either embedded or native that captures user experiences directly from mobile phones the need for drive testing has been reduced. In some vendors and even in some operators they claimed that there is no longer a need for drive testing. How true is this? Is this possible?
In drive testing we normally simulate user experiences based on calls, data sessions and other test scenarios conducted where potential subscribers are located. Now with so many smart phones in the market the focus has moved towards testing smart phone performance and user experiences where they use the mobile network services, especially data services. Since 2006, new breed of testing companies have poped out, they do not simulate tests rather they capture actual user experiences. The difference is that in traditional drive testing, low level messages such as layer 3 are captured in CEM applications it is purely user activities that are captured.
For trouble shooting purposes, drive testing is hard to replace. However for gathering customer experience, behavior and usage then drive testing is no longer the answer. To fix network issues and improve network performance then there is still a need for the traditional drive testing since the lower level messages has to be captured, measured and analyze to adjust the correct radio, transmission or core network parameters.
Having said this hybrid CEM solutions have started to emerged in the market. This employs a combination of passive testing (pure CEM, capturing user experiences, behavior and usage) and active testing (similar to drive testing but without the traditional laptop based equipment). With this hybrid solution it is now possible to deploy commercial handsets preloaded with advance firmware to thousands of subscribers supplemented with the traditional CEM to millions of subscribers By doing this it gives network operators everything they are looking for. A solution that is easy to deploy, captures actual subscriber experience and at the same time provides the low level information needed to fix network issues.
With the correct solution deployed, every subscribers contribute into improving their experiences in the mobile network they are using and at the same time ensures they are provided the best service possible.
In drive testing we normally simulate user experiences based on calls, data sessions and other test scenarios conducted where potential subscribers are located. Now with so many smart phones in the market the focus has moved towards testing smart phone performance and user experiences where they use the mobile network services, especially data services. Since 2006, new breed of testing companies have poped out, they do not simulate tests rather they capture actual user experiences. The difference is that in traditional drive testing, low level messages such as layer 3 are captured in CEM applications it is purely user activities that are captured.
For trouble shooting purposes, drive testing is hard to replace. However for gathering customer experience, behavior and usage then drive testing is no longer the answer. To fix network issues and improve network performance then there is still a need for the traditional drive testing since the lower level messages has to be captured, measured and analyze to adjust the correct radio, transmission or core network parameters.
Having said this hybrid CEM solutions have started to emerged in the market. This employs a combination of passive testing (pure CEM, capturing user experiences, behavior and usage) and active testing (similar to drive testing but without the traditional laptop based equipment). With this hybrid solution it is now possible to deploy commercial handsets preloaded with advance firmware to thousands of subscribers supplemented with the traditional CEM to millions of subscribers By doing this it gives network operators everything they are looking for. A solution that is easy to deploy, captures actual subscriber experience and at the same time provides the low level information needed to fix network issues.
With the correct solution deployed, every subscribers contribute into improving their experiences in the mobile network they are using and at the same time ensures they are provided the best service possible.
Phones.... smarter phones and how we interact with this devices
Posted at December 27, 2011 23:14
Since we have now deployed our Customer Experience Management Solution on almost all mobile phone platforms namely Android, iOS, blackberry, Symbia and Windows, I got a firsthand look on how customer experiences interaction with this phones… The surprise to me is on how bad iPhone is especially once you start using clever Android phones…. You see I moved from Symbian to iPhone and was very satisfied with that, however getting to use both iPhone 4S and Android 2.3 phone at the same time, Android offers better convenience and user experience…. Maybe it’s because of the applications I use where Android allows more things that can be done and had.. which equates to a much better user experience…. Whatever it is I now understand why people who starts using Android never goes back to iPhone… too bad that Steve Jobs is no longer around….
Speaking about Steve jobs.. I have been reading a wonderful book about his principles written by Carmine Gallo, mind you I like that’s it hard bound and used high quality prints and paper.. it reflects on what’s inside the book… A good reading while on a long flight… Now the question is… Do you want to live like Steve Jobs?
How fast do you analyze 65,000,000 phone calls? and 7TB of data?
Posted at December 21, 2011 11:53
It’s been half a year since AmanziTel merge with DingLi and we are starting to feel like we are part of the family… One of the first signs is co-branding, starting with the logo…. The next steps is aligning our products and solutions. In the past we relied heavily on open source deployment models where the platform is readily available and applications are bolted to the platform to deliver a particular version to a customer. Now we are doing a dual approach, wherein off –the-shelf solutions are being made available to potential customers. Does this affect the way we develop our products.. yes in a small way.
However the large effect is on the way we market and brand our products. Gone are the multiple applications and solutions.. To stay are combined applications that form our solutions based on merging various applications. For example NetShield is a combination of NetView, Automated Optimization and Change Tracker…. Soon we will have ultimate protection in NetShield stemming from our large scale what if simulation models in use at various infrastructure projects from Oil & Gas, Transportation, Energy, and yes Telecoms…..
Considering that our adhoc report creation on 65,000,000 records utilizing a 7 TB storage space takes a mere 100ms, I see very good potential for the solutions… they are game changing and in a way life altering…. Once you deploy you will never go back to slower solutions. The question is do you have the courage to try…..and be hooked....
Blogs and Customer Engagements, do they go together?
Posted at December 13, 2011 08:09
With short flights recently it was not convenient to write blogs, somehow my blog writing time is associated to the flight durations I have on my trips. The longer the flights, the more opportunity for me to write blogs. Perhaps I simply ran out of things to do in the plane…. The suite in A380s, is a must try in the sense… more things to do while flying.
I would normally fly economy extra on long distance trips since the cost is a lot less compared to business class, while the leg room are good enough. However the seats are still the same like in economy and so is the service… Now I wonder if that additional 100$ on a 12 hour flight is a money well spent or it better to fly business and pay 1000$ more? I seem to have found the answer in a recent flight to Jakarta.. If the plane is full then there is no advantage in economy extra since shoulder room is still too small while the seat don’t recline more than 110 degrees…. I can tell you it’s a very painful especially if you spend 7 hours of the flight working or using a laptop and the other 5 hours eating and trying to fall asleep. And with meetings right after a long flight it’s a hard thing to repeat. Of course we cannot all fly business class due to the high cost… but then again airlines should improve creature comfort a little bit, giving us a much better customer experience…..
Mentioning customer experience, the best measure I think is directly from how the customer feels during that time and not a survey afterwards… since us being humans tend to amplify or tone down our experiences based on our mood at the time we are asked of the experience. Now if we apply that to telecoms… how soon do we forget the good experience and remember the bad ones?
