Make a connection

Consumers seek consistent and personal experiences enabled by ubiquitous connectivity and access to on-demand content, information and applications. Dana Porter discusses how this vision of a connected world is leveraged.

How has the demand for constant and convenient connectivity affected the demand for customer experience systems?
Dana Porter. By 2017, trillions of devices, most of them not phones, will be connected to the network. We believe that service providers have an opportunity to take the lead in supporting this connected world by adopting new, flexible business models to match the growing demand. Our Connected World Vision is a business view of how service providers can monetise their key assets, such as customer, network and product data, by utilizing core capabilities to sell additional services to their customers - consumers, enterprises and partners. The recent Connected World Survey, conducted by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, finds that network, device activation and self-service are investment priorities for service providers and these are precisely the areas that our new Amdocs CES 8 portfolio addresses. Amdocs CES 8 enables service providers to expand quicker to realise new connected world opportunities; drive experience through a unique real-time and personalised customer experience and run leaner by embracing lean and agile operations.

During a time when innovation is a key element in an organisation's investment decisions, what steps is Amdocs taking to ensure they're at the cutting edge?
DP. This industry is going through a dramatic change. As part of our mission, we help our customers maximise their opportunities as the industry transforms. This drives our commitment to develop revolutionary products and services that help our customers succeed. An important part of that is an advanced technologies team that works to turn innovative ideas into reality. We also have a dedicated program called Open Innovation, where we partner with startup companies to maximise the potential of their technologies and bring them to our customers. This is important because the technologies that could make an impact might never have been introduced to many of the world's leading service providers without this channel. In addition, acquiring technologies is an opportunity in innovation. Recently we've acquired two such innovative companies - ChangingWorlds and jNetX - that provide cutting-edge solutions for service providers seeking to invest in the connected world. We'll continue to develop internally, work with the startup community, and acquire strategically to ensure we're driving innovation.

How does the Amdocs approach ensure service providers react quickly to upcoming trends?
DP. With our unique business model, we offer service providers a complete range of business and operational support systems and a comprehensive portfolio of consulting, systems integration and managed services to enable them to react to any challenge. For example, service providers must manage a huge increase in capacity demand while optimizing their investments in the network. Amdocs provides the technology to trend and forecast, and allows them to see where more capacity is needed, how much, and at what rate to build out. The Amdocs Mobile Backhaul solution is a new operational product pack for LTE and WiMax that analyses current, short- and long-term consumption trends of 4G network resources. Amdocs Product Lifecycle Management, meanwhile, governs end-to-end product lifecycles from marketing inception through design, launch and retirement, enabling service providers to rapidly define and launch complex products and reduce implementation time.

How does your CES 8 solution allow service providers to differentiate themselves from their competitors?
DP. In many ways! Amdocs CES 8 enables service providers to personalise (and monetise) customer interactions, making each more valuable. For example, Amdocs Mobile Internet and Amdocs Personalized Mobile Portal deliver a personalized browsing experience for the wider mobile Internet and provide consumers with efficient access to relevant content, ads and services. Amdocs Smart Device Support and Amdocs Retail Experience drive a unique customer experience while offering more capabilities across more channels. And the Amdocs Universal Storefront enables service providers to offer, sell and service physical, network and value-added services in a Web 2.0 portal framework. All of our CES 8 offerings provide unmatched opportunity for our customers to do more in the connected world.

Dana Porter is Vice President and Head of Global Marketing at Amdocs. Porter is responsible for developing Amdocs' vision, delivering strategic insight to customers and bringing to market Amdocs' products, services and solutions. Porter holds an MBA from New York University and an Industrial Engineering degree from Ben Gurion University in Israel.