Applying Real-Time to the Operator’s Tool Kit: Enabling the Second Side of the Two-Sided Model

Up until now, business support systems have had  to keep up with what was happening on the network. The business process started  with the network and then events fed into the billing-to-cash process. In that  old-fashioned world, the billing process was an excellent audit platform and  one of the key revenue assurance tools at an operator’s disposal.

The world has changed. Real-time has real  meaning. Customers want to know what is about to happen on the network when  they press ‘continue’, not what has already happened. The monitoring and management  of networks is converging with the monitoring and management of customers and will  combine to form powerful policy tools. These tools will help operators deliver  real value to OTT players via real-time insights into customer behavior.

The real-time phenomenon has given birth to  another set of opportunities as back office software now begins to control the  network. Operators are beginning to offer solutions to other industries and now  they have the opportunity to manage the threads that link the smart, connected  world together.

Real-time control and monitoring by itself  offers one set of solutions—in healthcare, for instance, as heart monitors and  pacemakers can be linked to machines that can alert specialists the instant  something out of the ordinary happens. Other examples abound in the automotive,  telematics, and content industries where malfunction alerts and alerts for  ‘jitter’ can save a life. Now operators can deliver that level of quality and control—which will be a real benefit to other  industries. Add broadband to ‘real-time’ and ‘mobile’ and the benefits to  medicine, particularly, are game changing. Already, remote medicine is changing  lives around the world as patient records can be emailed to medical experts.

Real-time means real value and real opportunity  for operators to transfer skills and technology to other industries. If they grab  this opportunity, they will be the platform on which the smarter, safer planet lives.

What partnerships with other industries has  your company considered?