Gerd Holm-Öste, senior product manager, User Service Performance and Product & Portfolio Management at Ericsson, says operators, so far, have focused mainly on network performance, neglecting the performance of the service itself.

"This is why, too often, new services fail," she says. "Just because the network says it is working does not mean the users think so. An important differentiator is missed."

To meet expectations and realize the business potential of new services, operators need to choose the right indicators.

"With new features in new terminals and networks, users expect higher service performance - which operators must deliver," Holm-Öste says, adding that operators must secure quality so that the service can be benchmarked against other vendors and technologies and create good differentiation between the brands.

Consumption behavior is also shifting from needs to wants - or from products to experiences, making it imperative for operators to switch focus from user-service performance targets to user experience-based targets.

Christina Birkehammar, senior strategic product manager at Product and Portfolio Management, Network Solutions, says Ericsson has created the User Service Performance (USP) network for this purpose. By selecting a few user-experience-specific Performance Indicators, this framework enables operators to cost effectively predict and monitor key performance values.

"Operators need only a few performance indicators to reflect the performance that users expect from new services," Birkehammar says. "We call our key performance indicators System Service KPIs (S-KPIs), and the criteria for our selection are strong user focus combined with access and system independence."

The USP framework includes Quality of System Service (QoSS), a new system service assurance level that enables tracking performance closer to actual user service. Separating user services from system services allows operators to set performance requirements and specify how user quality is best measured and monitored.

Improving business

QoSS knowledge simplifies launch and risk evaluation.

Knowing that the service is performing in line with user expectations makes matchmaking of segments and prices a lot easier, Birkehammar says. "The accuracy gained cuts risks and costs in proposition making."

Apart from lowering sales and marketing expenses, QoSS usage also caps costs of ownership, service management and handling.

"The better your user services from the start, the fewer unforeseen deployment costs as well as less need for additional measurements and testing," Holm-Öste says.

Operating expenses are also held in check. "Roughly 5-10 percent of opex is spent on the service level," Holm-Öste says. "This is perhaps the one opex part that is still growing and why the USP framework countermeasures are welcome."

Read the full story:
The brutal truth: Do you really deliver that your customers expect?
Ericsson Business Review Issue No.1 2008, pages 52-55 (pdf)