Service providers are facing a perfect
storm with new competitors, new
demands from customers, and a brutal
economic downturn.
Navigating successfully through the
storm requires that service providers
simultaneously develop and deliver a
superior customer experience while
reducing costs and maximizing the
impact of every new investment.
Four initiatives are particularly critical:
improving process efficiency, speeding
time to market, increasing
organizational agility, and ensuring
disciplined transformation.
The idea of businesses and industries
facing a ―perfect storm‖ has become a
widely used metaphor ever since a
giant Nor’easter storm hit the east
coast of North America on Halloween
1991. That storm was literally a once-
in-a-century event with multiple storm
systems converging to generate
overwhelming energy and impact. The
metaphor may be overused, but in the
case of the communications industry, it
seems perfectly apt.
For service providers, three different
―storm systems‖ have combined to
wreak havoc across the sector:
A wave of new competitors,
including content creators and online
Solution partners play an essential role
in critical initiatives, but often fall short
due to product limitations, a product-
centered approach, reinventing the
wheel, lack of depth, or weakness in
project management.
Selecting the right partners requires a
rigorous look at their industry
knowledge, product and service
excellence, solutions orientation,
integration capability, project
methodology, collaborative work style,
and management commitment to
success.
information channels, washing over
existing customers and prospects
An accelerating demand from
consumers for always-on
connectivity to support an
increasingly multi-device,
personalized, digital lifestyle
The current deep recession and
corresponding pressures to cut costs
and find new sources of profitable
growth
A safe course through the storm seems
at least generally clear, but is far easier
said than done:
Deliver a superior customer experience
that reduces churn, strengthens

Veering off course with
transformation projects can
be costly indeed. Consider a
few recent service provider
crashes amid failed attempts
to reach higher ground:
A large carrier in Asia-
Pacific launched a two-
year, $200 million project
to replace its customer
care and billing system.
Four years later the cost
had doubled but the first
release was inoperative.
A subsequent upgrade
eventually solved the
problem, but company
subsidiaries
understandably backed
off from similar projects.
A large US wireless
carrier launched a multi-
year project to implement
a new CRM system and
improve customer loyalty
and spending. Two years
and $80 million later, the
company canceled the
project after discovering
that the chosen solution
was significantly more
complex than promised,
and would have required
much greater spending
and a longer timeline to
possibly achieve
promised results.
A large US digital media
company launched a $15
million CRM replacement
project planned to take
about a year and half.
Following extensive
integration problems, the
company rolled out the
new system a year
behind schedule at more
than three times the cost.
Ultimately, management
decided that ongoing
license fees were not
worth it so dumped the
system and went back to
legacy applications.
–Dr. Raul Katz, Why CRM and
Billing Systems Implementations
in the Telecommunications
Industry Are So Prone to Failure
(Telecom Advisory Services,
October 2008)
loyalty, and expands capabilities to
build new revenue streams…while
reducing operational costs and
ensuring maximum impact for each
and every new investment.
Navigating this course successfully
requires that service providers make
headway in four critical areas at once:
Increasing process efficiency in
areas such as billing, service
configuration, resource
provisioning, and customer
support—and doing this from an
outside-in perspective to make
sure that every process change
supports the intended customer
experience
Speeding time to market with new
offerings in content and service to
ensure continuing relevance,
interest, and convenience for end-
consumers while better monetizing
existing carrier assets
Improving organizational agility to
initiate and react to market
One thing is extremely clear: Service
providers with the best solutions
partners will have a great advantage.
The rapidly increasingly complexity—
and interconnectedness—of the
challenges facing service providers
put a much greater premium on
having partners with a clear vision of
the future, top-quality capabilities in
every area, and the ability to bring it
all together with no risk of delay
or failure.
The problem, of course, is that while
a great many vendors promise the
moon, their collective track record is
littered with failure. In today’s
market, partner failure can translate
quickly into business failure. The
margin for error in choosing the right
partner is fast approaching zero.
Consider some recent advice from
Gartner to vendors in the operational-
support system (OSS) domain, a
critical and highly competitive arena
for service provider partners:
changes and emerging customer
needs more quickly, including
providing faster, more accurate,
and more personalized service
delivery
Ensuring the success of ongoing
business transformation by
prioritizing initiatives to enhance
the customer experience,
rigorously managing
organizational change, and
selecting partners that minimize
the risk of wayward investment
Successful navigation also requires a
very delicate balancing act on the
budget front: cutting spending
enough to maintain profitability even
as your own customers cut their
spending, but at the same time still
investing enough to roll out essential
new services, fend off competitors,
and lay the strongest possible
foundation for longer term success
when economic growth returns.
“A leadership position in the
current OSS market requires that
vendors offer, besides best-in-
class products, strong professional
services consulting and a system
integration constituent. They
should achieve this by taking a
holistic approach toward carriers’
processes, organization and IT
operations, complemented by
long-term migration guidance.”
–Gartner, Dataquest Insight: OSS
Market Overview and Strategic
Scorecard for Vendors, 2008 (Oct 2008)
Strip away the dry language and
jargon and what they really mean is
that service providers need partners
that literally can do it all, partners
that can design, integrate, and
manage the necessary new processes
and technology.
From a slightly different angle,
research from the IT Services
Marketing Association (ITSMA)
suggests pretty much the same thing:
Communications industry executives
are looking most of all for solution

While the headwinds for
service providers are strong,
the opportunity to thrive in
the converged future is
enormous. As consumers
move toward an always-on,
multi-device digital lifestyle,
their appetite for content and
communication is growing
exponentially. And service
providers are extremely well
placed to sit at the center of
that 24x7 experience.
Carrier assets—network
control, customer
information and
relationships, billing and
payment systems, content
and device partnerships—
create a strong foundation to
deliver next-generation
services to consumers and
financial value to everyone
on the value chain.
Building on that foundation,
though, requires a
substantial effort to
modernize systems, take
appropriate advantage of
existing assets, develop or
partner with the right new
services, and ensure a near-
flawless experience for
consumers every step of the
way.
In so doing, the risks and
challenges are clear: don’t
move too quickly or too
slowly, stay focused on the
right initiatives, pick the right
strategic partners and
technology, control costs and
timelines, and keep the
customer experience front
and center in every action
and decision.
partners with a proven track record,
deep industry knowledge, and ―an
organization they can trust.‖ They
simply have no tolerance for sub-par
performance.
–ITSMA, How Customers Choose Solution
Providers, North America 2008 (Nov 2008)
High standards and skepticism are
fully justified. The costs of failure
with a large implementation are
enormous, and the examples are far
too common for comfort.
Gartner and other analyst firms
suggest that up to 40% of major IT
projects fail. One recent study of five
Navigating successfully through the
perfect storm to gain competitive
advantage and deliver a superior
customer experience will require
undertaking some enormously
complex projects. Typically these will
include investing heavily in new
hardware, software, and services;
rethinking and reshaping critical
business processes; and, perhaps
most difficult, implementing
organizational and individual change
across multiple functions and teams.
Doing all this in partnership with one
or more strategic vendors adds even
more complexity to the effort. Of
course, it all has to be done while
running full speed and not missing a
beat with existing systems and
processes, too.
It’s not surprising, then, that major
implementations go bad. But it’s how
they go bad that really matters. To
minimize the risk of failure, it is
especially important to understand five
specific problems that typically emerge
(individually and in combination) in
projects that fail to achieve promised
and expected results.
Deploying best-in-class software
platforms and applications to support
customer management, billing,
resource allocation, and other critical
business processes is not sufficient for
failures in implementing CRM and
billing systems documented project
timelines more than doubling, costs
escalating tens or even hundreds of
millions of dollars over budget, and
only two of the five projects eventually
being implemented fully. The negative
impact of this type of failure in
essential areas such as customer
acquisition, customer churn, and new
services deployment can be
substantial, to say the least.
–Dr. Raul Katz, Why CRM and Billing Systems
Implementations in the Telecommunications
Industry Are So Prone to Failure (Telecom
Advisory Services, Oct 2008)
success, but it certainly is a necessary
step in the right direction.
The real product challenges, though,
are related not to individual features,
but rather to customization for diverse
corporate environments and ease of
integration with existing systems.
Difficulty in getting new and older
products to work in the necessary
harmony is one of the most common
stumbling blocks to success.
Great products that are easy to
customize and integrate are step one,
but they should not sit at the center of
the decision process. The reality is that
complex implementations are much
more about service than product.
As Gartner notes: ―Besides best-in-
class products, carriers should
prioritize vendors’ integration and
interoperability expertise.‖ Service
providers that ignore the centrality of
the service dimension of complex
solutions have a much tougher path to
progress.
The good news is that best practice
does exist. As the industry has
advanced, best practices have
emerged and been documented in
dozens if not hundreds of critical
business processes.

Service provider executives
are not exactly overwhelmed
with the help they receive
from vendors in thinking
through the future.
ITSMA recently asked
industry executives this:
―How helpful are solution
providers in bringing you
new ideas and showing you
the possibilities to solve your
business issues?‖
On a five-point scale,
industry executives gave
solution providers a
disappointing 3.2 score. That
equates to a ―C‖ grade, and
clearly not enough to help
service providers move to
the head of the class.
Choosing the Right
Vendor: Scorecard
for Success
Industry Knowledge
 extent do they represent a true
and Vision
 Knowledge of Your
Business
 Business Impact First
Best-of-Breed
 Technology AND
Integration Capability
 Collaborative
Approach
 Key Performance
Indicators
 Phased Approach to
Value
 Proven Record
The bad news? Vendors are far from
equal in their knowledge and experience
of best practices across essential areas
of infrastructure management and
operations. Skimping on due diligence in
this area can lead one to a solution
partner learning on your dime how to
reinvent the wheel while deadlines are
missed and the budget continues to rise.
All large projects begin with a scoping
exercise to clarify critical initiatives,
priorities, and timelines. The question is
how detailed that exercise becomes.
How deep does it go? Does it get
beyond the generic industry level and
into the weeds of company-specific
products, systems, and organizational
dynamics? Does it work backwards from
the desired customer experience
through the specific business processes
to support that experience and then
back to how software and services
support those processes?
In evaluating potential solution
partners, service providers should
consider eight essential criteria:
How well do vendors understand
what’s happening in the industry?
What’s their vision for the future?
What sort of roadmap do they have to
advance their own solutions and help
you transform and evolve? How
confident are you that they will
become a true advisory partner in
helping you navigate through the
perfect storm?
Industry knowledge is essential, but
still not enough. Do they really get
your business? Do they understand
your business ecosystem, strategic
partners, and end-customers? Do
they have a good feel for your
organizational culture? How sure are
you that they truly understand what
makes you special and different?
Absent a truly deep dive into how the
particulars of each constituent process
and technology support the desired
outcomes, it is difficult to create and
connect the right plan, the right tools
and processes, the right criteria for
success, and the right metrics to help
measure progress along the way.
Managing large implementations
effectively requires a complex mix of
formal processes, cross-organizational
collaboration, and cultural fit. Projects
that go bad often fall short in at least
one of these areas, and often all three.
One particular challenge that comes up
again and again is communication and
collaboration between the business and
IT sides of the organization. Lack there-
of is not solely a failure of the vendor but
the vendor can and should push hard for
an integrated business-IT approach to
input and governance from the start.
As noted earlier, products are just one
piece of the solutions puzzle. To what
solutions approach with a clear focus
on your core business challenges and
priorities? To what extent are the
vendors focused on business impact
and return on investment (ROI)? How
well do they understand and measure
total cost of ownership (TCO)?
Technology is only part of a business
solution, but you can’t skimp on
advanced features and capabilities. Can
the vendor deploy the latest systems?
As important, though, as noted earlier,
are software and platform flexibility and
ease of integration. How easy is it to
adapt and customize to your
environment? What assurance do you
have about integration with existing
systems and processes?
Technology and consulting firms
almost always claim uniqueness
and differentiation from the
competition. It’s rarely true, and
service providers are right to be
skeptical. In the case of Amdocs,
though, the claim is well worth
considering.
Five points are particularly relevant:
Unlike most large solution
providers in the communications
space, Amdocs is singularly
focused on helping service
providers succeed. The company
launched in 1982 to provide
software for directory
information services, and today
serves 90% of Fortune’s Global
500 service providers with an
integrated suite of products and
services for business
management and operations.
Service providers account for
virtually all of Amdocs revenue.
This singular focus means that
top company executives, not just
practice area leaders, are eating,
sleeping, and breathing service
provider concerns every day of
the week.
Peering through the perfect
storm facing service providers,
Amdocs has put forth a strong
point of view that ―the customer
experience is the only way to win
the hearts and minds of next-
generation consumers, and gain
a real competitive advantage.‖
The basic idea is that service
providers need to provide
personal, timely, and
participatory access to
communications and content—
through multiple devices and
channels at all times. It’s a useful
vision to support strategic
planning as service providers look
to become purveyors of the
digital lifestyle. Amdocs has also
done a good job turning the
concept of ―customer experience
systems‖ into a concrete portfolio
of products and a road map for
upgrading and transforming the
platforms, applications, services,
and processes required to meet
emerging customer demands.
Amdocs is indeed unique in
offering service providers a
comprehensive suite of products,
services, and solutions under one
roof. Unlike the other software or
services firms that compete in
the communications marketplace,
only Amdocs has the ability to
design and deliver fully
integrated solutions based on its
own industry-leading products.
Certainly there are arguments for
and against relying solely on a
single vendor; there is little
doubt, though, that a company
like Amdocs will naturally have a
deeper understanding of how the
products work and how best to
integrate them in the field than
companies that only offer part of
an integrated solution.
Amdocs’ closed-loop business
model enables it to accept much
greater accountability for results
than the software firms or
systems integrators that typically
have to partner to provide
comprehensive solutions. Having
―one throat to choke‖ makes it
easier for service providers to
demand results, and being fully
accountable for those results
helps focus executive attention
on delivering the promised
benefits. Amdocs is also one of
the few solution providers to use
Critical Chain Project
Management, a cutting-edge
approach based on extensive
industry research on why
complex projects fail. Experts
credit application of this
approach with results 10-50%
better in cost and time than
projects using more traditional
management approaches. The
combination of a unique business
model with a differentiated
delivery methodology enables
Amdocs to offer its clients the
strongest possible commitment
to business impact and results.
Results speak loudest, and
Amdocs can boast credibly of a
95% success record in delivering
on time, on budget, and with the
highest level of quality. In an
industry marked by failure rates
up to 40% or higher, the Amdocs
record is truly remarkable. At the
same time, Amdocs has an
enviable record as an industry
innovator and leader,
consistently winning praise,
awards, and top rankings from
industry analysts and media for
its new products, services,
capabilities, and results. The
company has also been a leader
in industry alliances and
initiatives to create open,
interoperable standards to help
service providers thrive amid the
convergence of the media,
entertainment, IT, and telecom
industries.

Picking the right solutions
provider is a good start, but
it’s the delivery that counts.
What matters most to you?
Reducing operational
costs
Bringing new services to
market faster
Streamlining ordering
and fulfillment
Creating a single view of
the customer
Managing partners from a
single platform
Achieving market
leadership
Increasing customer
satisfaction
Technical and even service delivery
excellence are of limited value if
solution partners cannot share the
wisdom and bring your team along. To
what extent do prospective partners
emphasize collaborative development
and knowledgesharing? Do they have
clear and compelling methodology to
ensure collaboration beyond superficial
communications? How strong are their
track records?
Keeping complex projects and
implementations on track is
enormously challenging, and key
performance indicators (KPIs) can play
an essential role in effective project
management. To what extent do
vendors include KPIs in their delivery
approach? How willing are they to
work with you to get them right? What
forms of recourse and resolution do
they provide when they fail to meet
agreed indicators?
Constant economic pressures means
that service providers cannot wait a
year or two to receive value from new
solutions and transformation initiatives.
Do solution providers offer a phased
approach with clear short-term benefits
even before projects are complete? Do
those benefits reach end-consumers as
well as internal teams? Are there
milestones and measures to evaluate
value delivered along the way?
No two solutions are alike, but service
providers can hardly afford to be guinea
pigs for vendors learning everything on
the job. Do the vendors have successful
experience in delivering complex
solutions in similar environments? Do the
specific project managers and other key
team members themselves have that
type of experience? Can the vendors
point to excellent results from similar
implementations? Can they document
important learning from particularly
challenging or even failed
implementations?

Amid their own perfect storm, service In this context, there is no such thing
A veteran marketing strategist, providers face an exceedingly difficult as too much due diligence. Project
Rob specializes in issues- and navigation challenge: How to transform success at the scale required to pass
content-based marketing for
their organizations to deliver a superior through the storm safely relies on far
solutions, helping companies
create distinction in the market-
customer experience and generate more than products and services alone.
place and have strategic profitable new revenue streams while Service providers need to look with
conversations with clients, simultaneously reducing operational tremendous rigor at a broad set of
prospects, and market costs and ensuring maximum impact vendor capabilities, commitments, and
influencers.
for each and every new investment. experiences. Only by choosing partners
Prior to helping launch Solutions
They can’t do this alone; so strategic with a clear vision, best of breed
Insights, Rob was Vice President
of Marketing at Truman partners have become incredibly technology, standout track record, and
Company, a consultancy important. With a mixed track record full executive commitment to success
specializing in executive
among the vendors that purport to are service providers likely to get to the
relationship marketing, and Vice
deliver transformation, though, the other side.
President of Marketing and
Member Advocacy at the choice of a suitable partner can literally
Information Technology Services be a survival issue.
Marketing Association (ITSMA),
where he worked with many of
the world’s top technology,
telecom, and professional
Solutions Insights is a B2B consulting and training firm that helps companies put meaning
services companies, including
Accenture, Cisco, EDS, HP, IBM, into the term ―solutions‖ by solving critical customer problems and driving measurable
Lucent, Microsoft, business value. Building upon deep experience in the technology and professional services
PricewaterhouseCoopers, industries, we provide research, strategy, and programs that create internal alignment,
and SAP.
market distinction, and faster routes to revenue. Learn more at www.solutionsinsights.com.