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News & Events News The Brazilians Are Coming
News & Events News The Brazilians Are Coming
:: The Brazilians Are Coming
?You Never Dig a Well When it?s Raining,? says Torsten Bojlesen, chief operations officer for CPqD USA.
The Brazilian expression explains why the subsidiary of that country?s telecom technology powerhouse has landed on US shores with an integrated billing and OSS suite for the struggling market. With the industry sitting at rock bottom for an uncertain duration, many US service providers continue to focus on quarter-to-quarter survival. But for well-capitalized entities outside the market, this is the prime time to get involved in telecom.
?We understand that there?s a worldwide retraction in the market, but I believe BSS and OSS specifically will continue to grow faster than other areas of telecom. The number of people and computers that need to talk to each other is growing,? Bojlesen told us at last week?s CompTel Fall Business Conference in Vancouver, BC.
?We?ve done a lot of research on convergence of technologies and mobility. We know that in the future, a handheld will be able to do Internet, wireless telephony, voice, data and a lot of other services. Some system will have to create a bill for all that,? he says. ?CPqD is research and development. Over the years, we have developed a lot of solutions for telecommunications
companies, so we understand the processes and net-work elements. We understand how to take costs out of maintaining a network.?
CPqD grew out of the research lab of Telebras, which operated phone companies in Brazil?s 27 states (essentially, the country?s RBOCs). On its massive campus at Campinas, the firm developed a unique 1,200-man brain trust over the last quarter century ? 75 percent of the staff have PhDs and masters degrees related to telecom. Even in the now-privatized market, CPqD enjoys nearly 100 percent market share for its telecom products and services. In its homeland, it performs consulting services for the likes of MCI, BellSouth, Telefonica and Telecom Italy.
That credibility doesn?t translate to points north, but Bojlesen says, ?Customer satisfaction is customer satisfaction.? Billing and customer care is a crowded market, but ?a lot of companies here are not so satisfied with their current provider,? he says. ?And with all the new services coming along, you al-ways need a better billing engine. I think we can give this extra value of very high quality support and customer care.?
The wide range of experience that the firm brings to its specific US market niche enables CPqD to offer revenue assurance and recovery ? the kinds of tools that billing providers typically don?t offer. The firm claims that telecom service providers can recover up to 75 percent of revenues lost to re-cording errors, delinquency and fraud through the adoption of policies and software tools that sync up with business processes. CPqD research shows that telecoms worldwide lose about 3 percent of their earnings through revenue leakage from cell phone cloning, lost records, database inconsistencies and poorly configured switching systems. Most of all, an excessive number of systems attached to the billing process can mean millions in uncollected revenue.
?If somebody in the switch takes out a card, it doesn?t show in the billing system, but it shows if you analyze the switch. We have software to do that automatically ? to reconcile the service rendered and the services billed,? he says.
It?s not easy to make a name for yourself in the mature US market, even if your firm is a giant in Brazil. But Bojlesen is also finding that it?s not easy to limit the sales pitch in this market either. Determined to spend the next five years building brand recognition for CPqD as a top-notch provider of billing and OSS systems in the US, the Brazilian is often asked about wireless local loop and other areas of company expertise in the South American market.
?We have a lot of products and services that we offer in Brazil and other geographies, but we?ve elected for strategic reasons to start small in the US,? he says. (North American clients interested in more extensive services are referred to staff on the Brazilian side of the firm.)
CPqD plans to make its reputation based on its extensive knowledge of telecom business systems ? and the experience (and a stockpile of solutions) derived from a long history of supplying solutions elsewhere in the world. At the center of that is customer support.
?The quality of support is important: Having people to help the customers work on problems and not leave them alone ? for a very reasonable price. All US companies have sup-port, but they come in at a low value and then the curve is very steep,? he says. ?We know the way we can be different is to give better customer support.?
Jeff Lundberg, an American who is the firm?s eastern region sales manager, says the increasing consolidation in the industry has created a technical nightmare for telecom firms. It?s not practical to run four different billing systems in four different markets for four different offerings.
?We?ve been focused on bundled services offerings ? getting everything onto one bill ? and offering our customers solutions that relieve them of the burden of running multiple billing systems,? Lundberg says. ?CPqD has developed slick processes for converging other billing systems onto our technology and consolidating everything from rating engines to billing and customer care systems. Part of our value proposition is that, as these CLECs, ILECs, ISPs and service providers start acquiring or partnering with other companies, there?s no need to run these other systems. We have the expertise to bring it all together.?
Four interconnected product elements represent the US rollout of the firm?s solution suite: billing, customer care, outside plan management (creating unique sets of bundled services for individual customers) and workforce management (scheduling installs and so on). ?We can go down to a level of detail to help the phone companies that none of our competitors can do,? says Bojlesen, ?because we?ve been doing this in Brazil for so long. All of these products are compatible with
the needs of the North American market.?
The integrated service offering ties into one crucial fact: Firms can cut costs if they have a good understanding and management of activity on the network. Bojlesen recalls, in his former life as CTO and CIO of a Brazilian telecom, desperate calls to their supplier for more telephone poles. The supplier asked what happened to the poles he sent the previous week. ?The system wasn?t good enough to see that the inventory was in stock. This happens in every telephone company in the world,? he says. ?You have to manage and control your inventory ? and there are incredible cost reduction opportunities in that alone.?
The firm has sold four systems into Tier 2 and Tier 3 US markets thus far. But hints of the market?s future are evident in Bojlesen's business plan for the next five years. CPqD will vigorously focus on disseminating its OSS offerings in the US market, ?but we will not leave a business opportunity on the table,? he says.
?The final word is the market. The market will decide where we want to go.?
Fonte: www.scudderpublishing.com
12/11/2002
The Brazilian expression explains why the subsidiary of that country?s telecom technology powerhouse has landed on US shores with an integrated billing and OSS suite for the struggling market. With the industry sitting at rock bottom for an uncertain duration, many US service providers continue to focus on quarter-to-quarter survival. But for well-capitalized entities outside the market, this is the prime time to get involved in telecom.
?We understand that there?s a worldwide retraction in the market, but I believe BSS and OSS specifically will continue to grow faster than other areas of telecom. The number of people and computers that need to talk to each other is growing,? Bojlesen told us at last week?s CompTel Fall Business Conference in Vancouver, BC.
?We?ve done a lot of research on convergence of technologies and mobility. We know that in the future, a handheld will be able to do Internet, wireless telephony, voice, data and a lot of other services. Some system will have to create a bill for all that,? he says. ?CPqD is research and development. Over the years, we have developed a lot of solutions for telecommunications
companies, so we understand the processes and net-work elements. We understand how to take costs out of maintaining a network.?
CPqD grew out of the research lab of Telebras, which operated phone companies in Brazil?s 27 states (essentially, the country?s RBOCs). On its massive campus at Campinas, the firm developed a unique 1,200-man brain trust over the last quarter century ? 75 percent of the staff have PhDs and masters degrees related to telecom. Even in the now-privatized market, CPqD enjoys nearly 100 percent market share for its telecom products and services. In its homeland, it performs consulting services for the likes of MCI, BellSouth, Telefonica and Telecom Italy.
That credibility doesn?t translate to points north, but Bojlesen says, ?Customer satisfaction is customer satisfaction.? Billing and customer care is a crowded market, but ?a lot of companies here are not so satisfied with their current provider,? he says. ?And with all the new services coming along, you al-ways need a better billing engine. I think we can give this extra value of very high quality support and customer care.?
The wide range of experience that the firm brings to its specific US market niche enables CPqD to offer revenue assurance and recovery ? the kinds of tools that billing providers typically don?t offer. The firm claims that telecom service providers can recover up to 75 percent of revenues lost to re-cording errors, delinquency and fraud through the adoption of policies and software tools that sync up with business processes. CPqD research shows that telecoms worldwide lose about 3 percent of their earnings through revenue leakage from cell phone cloning, lost records, database inconsistencies and poorly configured switching systems. Most of all, an excessive number of systems attached to the billing process can mean millions in uncollected revenue.
?If somebody in the switch takes out a card, it doesn?t show in the billing system, but it shows if you analyze the switch. We have software to do that automatically ? to reconcile the service rendered and the services billed,? he says.
It?s not easy to make a name for yourself in the mature US market, even if your firm is a giant in Brazil. But Bojlesen is also finding that it?s not easy to limit the sales pitch in this market either. Determined to spend the next five years building brand recognition for CPqD as a top-notch provider of billing and OSS systems in the US, the Brazilian is often asked about wireless local loop and other areas of company expertise in the South American market.
?We have a lot of products and services that we offer in Brazil and other geographies, but we?ve elected for strategic reasons to start small in the US,? he says. (North American clients interested in more extensive services are referred to staff on the Brazilian side of the firm.)
CPqD plans to make its reputation based on its extensive knowledge of telecom business systems ? and the experience (and a stockpile of solutions) derived from a long history of supplying solutions elsewhere in the world. At the center of that is customer support.
?The quality of support is important: Having people to help the customers work on problems and not leave them alone ? for a very reasonable price. All US companies have sup-port, but they come in at a low value and then the curve is very steep,? he says. ?We know the way we can be different is to give better customer support.?
Jeff Lundberg, an American who is the firm?s eastern region sales manager, says the increasing consolidation in the industry has created a technical nightmare for telecom firms. It?s not practical to run four different billing systems in four different markets for four different offerings.
?We?ve been focused on bundled services offerings ? getting everything onto one bill ? and offering our customers solutions that relieve them of the burden of running multiple billing systems,? Lundberg says. ?CPqD has developed slick processes for converging other billing systems onto our technology and consolidating everything from rating engines to billing and customer care systems. Part of our value proposition is that, as these CLECs, ILECs, ISPs and service providers start acquiring or partnering with other companies, there?s no need to run these other systems. We have the expertise to bring it all together.?
Four interconnected product elements represent the US rollout of the firm?s solution suite: billing, customer care, outside plan management (creating unique sets of bundled services for individual customers) and workforce management (scheduling installs and so on). ?We can go down to a level of detail to help the phone companies that none of our competitors can do,? says Bojlesen, ?because we?ve been doing this in Brazil for so long. All of these products are compatible with
the needs of the North American market.?
The integrated service offering ties into one crucial fact: Firms can cut costs if they have a good understanding and management of activity on the network. Bojlesen recalls, in his former life as CTO and CIO of a Brazilian telecom, desperate calls to their supplier for more telephone poles. The supplier asked what happened to the poles he sent the previous week. ?The system wasn?t good enough to see that the inventory was in stock. This happens in every telephone company in the world,? he says. ?You have to manage and control your inventory ? and there are incredible cost reduction opportunities in that alone.?
The firm has sold four systems into Tier 2 and Tier 3 US markets thus far. But hints of the market?s future are evident in Bojlesen's business plan for the next five years. CPqD will vigorously focus on disseminating its OSS offerings in the US market, ?but we will not leave a business opportunity on the table,? he says.
?The final word is the market. The market will decide where we want to go.?
Fonte: www.scudderpublishing.com
12/11/2002
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