.gif)
IPTV: Intelligent automation
Potential profits from lucrative IPTV services can quickly be eaten up by the number of technical problems a helpdesk has to deal with. Intelligent automation could be the solution, says Sanjay Castelino
IPTV is one of the hottest topics in telecommunications today. And while all major European service providers are involved in some form of IPTV rollout – with all of them due to launch commercial IPTV services by the end of the year – there are still many technical hurdles and challenges to overcome if these services are to be truly successful and profitable for providers.
According to a recent international survey published by Accenture, the term 'IPTV' means little to consumers who are more interested in the 'TV' aspect rather than in the groundbreaking 'IP' revolution. Moreover, technology worries account for 30 per cent of consumer IPTV concerns. Successful IPTV deployments will need to overcome these problems by shielding consumers from unfamiliar and complex technologies, while providing services that are simple and easy to use, ultimately ensuring a positive end-user experience.
And the IPTV challenge is shaping up to be very lucrative. Infonetics Research predicts that worldwide revenue will exceed £44 billion in 2009, with global subscriber numbers topping 53 million. Europe is leading the way in this market, with ten new IPTV services launched in 2005, compared with six in 2003. At the end of 2005, the number of IPTV subscribers stood at 1.185 million, up 203 per cent on the 390,000 subscribers at the previous year end.
Despite the predictions and hype, the rollout of IPTV continues to be plagued by complicated technical issues. Building a next generation network capable of supporting IPTV involves sophisticated network infrastructure as well as multiple devices in the home. It is therefore hardly surprising that consumers' primary IPTV worries relate to the technology and complexity. Compounding this are consumer expectations that IPTV should 'just work' at least as well as, if not better than, traditional television services.
Service providers are discovering that IPTV not only offers opportunities for growth, but also carries a number of risks due to the complexity of the service bundle. With more providers offering bundled services, it is vital that these services work together to meet customer expectations and ensure complete customer satisfaction. Consumers simply will not stand for unreliable and problem-prone services. If one services fails, the provider faces the risk of the consumer, not just unsubscribing from one service, but losing the whole service bundle. For this reason, providers are moving cautiously to avoid any issues that might contribute to the failure of an IPTV service. Delays in IPTV rollouts by major providers point to the fact that this is not yet a straightforward service. Service providers need to tread carefully to ensure their IPTV service is successful from the outset as positive customer experience will be essential if they are to succeed in winning – and holding on to – customers.
In order to deploy an IPTV service that is a success in the long term, providers must ensure that consumers have confidence in their services, and are not put off by the technological complexity. All the devices needed for such deployments are subject to constant change, creating a dynamic, highly distributed new architecture that makes it challenging for providers to deliver and manage their IPTV services. Indeed, according to current estimates, providers can expect an average of two and a half support calls per subscriber within the first 30 days of a typical installation, many of which will result in a technician visiting the subscriber's home. After the first 30 days, providers can expect 5.6 calls per subscriber per year, each lasting an average of 20 minutes. As a result, providers can expect as much as 20 per cent of their revenue from IPTV services to be consumed by support costs. The frequency with which problems occur not only negatively impacts profit margins, but also leads to dissatisfied customers.
Repeat offenders
The first port of call for customers with technical problems is the helpdesk. In reality, just four main problems – troubleshooting video, system configuration, troubleshooting connection and information – account for 86 per cent of all these calls. With the same problems occurring time and time again, providers need to put an effective system in place to deal with these repeat offenders. Exacerbating this further is the fact that IPTV is being placed in to the hands of non-technical consumers, who will jump on the phone to the provider at the first sign of any problem.
The current options for dealing with these problems are inefficient, ineffective and expensive. First-call resolution rates are low and therefore problems often recur, leading to greater customer dissatisfaction and greater impact on profit margins. The overall cost of managing digital services is very high, with nearly 100 per cent of all technical support calls requiring live assistance from a customer service representative. And when problems recur, the usual tactic is to deploy a truck to the home – a 'solution' that is costly for the provider and inconvenient for the customer. Equally, providers lose revenue when the IPTV service is down, impacting further on profit margins. Every call to the help desk and truck roll lengthens time to profitability for the provider and increases the risk of customer churn – not only away from IPTV but from all associated bundled services.
The high cost of technical support issues is a major challenge to the successful deployment of IPTV and triple play services. Providers must be able to control these costs from the outset to realise profitable margins. Even if a problem does not need a visit from a technician, fielding calls to the help desk requires vast staffing investment. Coupled with the huge capital costs of building networks capable of supporting IPTV, losing customers over technical problems is simply not an option for today's next generation service provider, if it wants to stay competitive.
One solution is to build self-management into IPTV services, thus reducing the cost of technical support and improving the time-to-profitability for providers. Self-managing services use intelligent automation to empower users to help themselves – whether identifying the problem with a faulty service, or fixing the problem without contacting the call centre. By building customer service into the viewing experience, providers can ensure increased customer satisfaction and loyalty – and even bigger revenue streams.
Real-time visibility
For more complex problems, providers can provide remote management capabilities to call centre representatives, giving them real-time visibility and control over the IPTV system, including quick access to diagnostic information. Empowered with this information, call centre representatives can quickly isolate trouble spots and reduce the chance for problem recurrence. This dramatically reduces the operational costs required to roll out and support new services, while providing a convenient and rewarding experience for consumers.
With projections of phenomenal growth rates, IPTV represents a huge opportunity for service providers. They will need to act fast to become successful in this potentially lucrative, emerging market. IPTV management technology that automatically installs, services, diagnoses and repairs problems – all while shielding the complexities of the underlying technology from the consumer – will help eliminate consumer worries that the technology is too complicated; they simply will not be exposed to it. By abstracting complexity and ensuring that consumers get the service they expect, providers can control costs, maximise profits and ultimately deploy truly successful IPTV services.
• Sanjay Castelino is vice president of industry marketing at Motive Inc and can be contacted via e-mail: europesales@motive.com
Share this article with others
Post to del.icio.us
Printed from http://www.eurocomms.com/features/111214/IPTV%3A_Intelligent_automation.html
Comment on this article
Skip to comments
We encourage users to analyse, comment on and even challenge European Communications's articles, including the one above - 'IPTV: Intelligent automation'
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site.