October 26, 2006

Understanding Customers' Needs Is Key to Business Voice

The message from the Voice Services session at the SCTE Business Services Symposium was clear: Understand your customers' business needs and leverage what you have to meet them.

By Justin J. Junkus, Communications Technology

In a mixed panel consisting of vendors, operators and operators-turned-vendors, there was only agreement on how to be successful in the business voice services market. The message from the Voice Services session at the SCTE Business Services Symposium was clear: Understand your customers' business needs and leverage what you have to meet them.

The consensus was that simplicity, value and the ability to measure the quality of the service the business receives are key needs. Tom Buttermore, Nortel VP and GM Global Cable Solutions, pointed out that business customers are not interested in 30-page descriptions of services. He opened his comments by stating: "Customers want simple models. They want flat rate structures for basic services plus managed services." Alok Gera, Cisco Systems engineering manager, agreed. "Easy entry is via simple offerings. Keep the architecture and protocols simple. Make your offerings plug-and-play."

Simple does not necessarily mean low cost, however. Jason Welz, Cox Communications VP Business Services, commented: "Businesses don't expect to pay less for more. Rather, services must meet their expectations for 'working.'" To reassure customers that they are getting what they paid for, it is necessary to give them tools that provide quantitative measurements. As an example, Buttermore highlighted MSO ability to do proactive network management, including SLA monitoring, and making metrics such as MOSs available to the customer. The value proposition also includes responding quickly with a fix when something goes wrong.

The panel pointed out that MSOs are in a unique position to serve the needs of small businesses because of their similarity to residential needs. Stan Brovont, Arris VP Marketing and Business Development, raised an important caveat, however. He said: "Business engagement is more unique than for residential. Applications are specific to individual customers, and it is necessary to understand their business. One may value price, while another may focus on a quality metric such as jitter."

The panel also agreed that an operator's existing infrastructure has a lot to offer businesses. Chuck Kaplan, COO of Narad Networks, pointed out the value of fiber to the node and coax trunking right of way. "If the nodes have dark fiber, use it! With CWDM technology, you have eight 10 Gbps wavelengths per fiber that can be offered to either eight customers at layer 1, or aggregated at layer 2 for 80 Gbps. When trunks are coax, fiber can use the same right of way by lashing it to the coax." He also pointed out the value of the media flexibility of Ethernet at the drop. "You can use coax, fiber or wireless, depending upon the customer's needs." The value of back office systems was also stressed.

Finally, the panel noted that many business services will spill back into the residential market. Brovont noted that "most businesses want control over their voice services. Vonage has shown that self-management is also appealing to residential customers." Fixed mobile convergence was also highlighted as an area that will be appealing both to business and residential customers.

- Justin J. Junkus