Sandvine Enables CSPs to Interact Directly w/Subscribers; How does it Work?

Sandvine announced the "latest version of Sandvine OutReach, a subscriber communications and interaction product. Communications service providers (CSPs) have long sought ways to communicate directly with subscribers without negatively impacting their online experience. 

Sandvine OutReach provides operators with a powerful set of subscriber-friendly, device-agnostic tools to interact with subscribers to satisfy a range of use cases, including:

• Usage Information: Keep subscribers informed about remaining or consumed quota or time in order to help avoid bill shock
   
• Promotions: Offer new products or short-term promotions to subscribers
   
• Brand Awareness: Make subscribers aware of the network provider for Wi-Fi hotspots and sponsored connectivity
   
• Alerts: Contact subscribers infected with malicious software
   
• Compliance: Address regulatory notification requirements (e.g., extreme weather alerts, amber alerts, etc.)

How does Sandvine OutReach work?

For direct notification and interaction, the Sandvine Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) intercepts HTTP flows and:

• either injects a specially-crafted HTTP packet to create a floating in-browser overlay (this method ensures that the notification process is completed without ever inspecting or modifying the requested page)
• or provides an HTTP redirect to a captive portal

For indirect notifications (e.g., email, SMS), the Sandvine Service Delivery Engine (SDE) is integrated directly with the CSP’s short message service center (SMSC) or another messaging gateway. Policies defined in the Sandvine Policy Engine and executed in the control plane determine when such notifications are triggered.

See "Sandvine OutReach Opens a Communication Channel With Subscribers" - here.

[Analysys Mason]: Oracle and Amdocs Lead the $3.6B Customer Care Market

A new report by Mark H. Mortensen [pictured], Practice Head, BSS, and Atul Arora, Research Analyst, Analysys Mason finds that "The customer care market generated USD3.58 billion in revenue in 2013, an increase of 9.1% from 2012. The market was driven by communications service providers (CSPs) increasingly offering packaged service bundles, consumer demand for self-service and control over their accounts, and the need of CSPs to increase customer satisfaction (thereby reducing churn), bring many new digital services to market quickly and reduce customer support costs.

Oracle and Amdocs continue to dominate the market, with a combined market share of more than one third of the worldwide market, while China-based vendor Huawei Technologies dominates its domestic market. However, more than 60 suppliers that constitute the ‘Other’ category command revenue of several hundred million dollars in this market, many of them smaller, geographically focused suppliers.

Customer care systems were originally ‘add-ons’ to billing systems and provided the basic functions of ordering and supporting CSRs in answering queries from subscribers. Billing system vendors still provide these functions as subscriber management systems. However, CRM systems have grown in importance, providing advanced features to CSRs (and customers through other channels) as well as access to the subscriber management system functions.

See "Customer care systems: worldwide market shares 2013" - here.