Empirix announced today the acquisition of Verios Software, a provider of real-time analytics to test, monitor and manage wireless networks to improve the customer experience.

Why am I writing about this news in a space usually reserved for more enterprise-focused, Conversational Commerce discussions? Because many of the key drivers that traditional service providers are employing are crossing over into the enterprise.

Let’s take a look at these seven key points:

• It’s all about mobile
• Use of analytics
• Real-time insight/dashboarding
• Drill-down capability
• Business impact
• Creation of a Services Operation Center
• The Testing – Monitoring – Analytics Continuum

1. It’s all about mobile – An obvious statement to make, perhaps, but both enterprise and service providers are investing heavily into mobile strategies to deliver business results and profitability based on mobile usage by customers. I‘m sure you’ve got a mobile strategy, so this point is just a reminder!

2. Use of analytics – Both service providers and enterprises are beginning to make use of large amounts of data. In capturing a great deal of info about users, service providers can apply analytics to profoundly impact the customer experience. Smart enterprises, similarly, are beginning to understand the customer from a truly end-to-end point-of-view by collecting data such as location, handset, type, app usage, etc. to get a comprehensive view of the customer.

3. Real-time insight / Dashboarding – The concept of “real-time,” when applied to analytics, is not always as immediate as it may sound. Many time “real-time” analytics are delayed or “near real-time” for broad analysis. But, today, smart companies are looking to impact the customer experience as soon as it is happening and effectively deliver real-time analysis.

4. Drill-down capability – Smart enterprises head-off problems as quickly as possible, sometimes through a visual drill-down on data. A key trait for successful enterprises is the ability to gain insight at both a macro- and micro-level to attain details that affect the customer experience. With so much data and information available, a rational approach that is inclusive of both high-level metrics and drill-down capabilities is critical.

5. Business impact – The bottom line is both service providers and enterprises are looking to increase revenue, improve customer experiences and reduce churn. There are two fundamental views of these concerns: the “business” view and the “experience” view. The business view looks at total value of a customer, ability to upgrade and other business-focused metrics to prove success. The customer experience view looks at things like churn rate, loyalty, etc. While obviously related, you’ve got to make sure you have a balanced view to positively impact your business.

6. Service Operations Center – Many service providers are evolving from a Network Operations Center view of the world to a Services Operation Center view. The fundamental distinction is that the Services view takes a more holistic view, understanding user behaviors, location, application usage, end-point, etc., services that are beyond just how well the wireless network is working and where the traffic bottlenecks are. Smart enterprises are breaking down silos to understand the customer journey, end-to-end, from a mobile point-of-view.

7. The Testing – Monitoring – Analytics Continuum – Much has been said about the unrealized potential of analytics for both enterprises and service providers. In these types of environments, it’s critical to test the network to establish baseline for customer experience. Monitoring provides a view on network performance. And for its part, real-time analytics helps complete a continuum by using data to immediately impact the customer experience and deliver positive business goals.

Sometimes it’s good to look at what’s happening in the traditional service provider world and think about how this affects the enterprise Conversational Commerce space. What do you think?

Categories: Conversational Intelligence, Articles

Tags: Service provider, Network Operations Center, Verios Software, Empirix, Wireless Networks