"Mahindra Comviva’s RACE enables operators to quantify subscribers’ true mobile data experience"

At a time when operators look for better data monetization techniques, Mahindra Comviva has created RACE (Real-time Analytics for Customer Experience) solution that enables operators to measure and quantify subscribers’ true mobile data experience by combining the power of crowd sourced model with Big Data analytics.

Aditya Dhruva, VP and Head of Messaging & Broadband Solutions, Mahindra Comviva speaks with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com on how RACE can help operators better monetize on data and create market differentiation.

Today a lot of operators look for better monetization opportunities how can RACE help here? What are some its big feature and its benefits?

Customer requirements are becoming increasingly complex and operators are investing heavily towards mapping these requirements and monetize them. The challenge is compounded owing to the multiple touch-points enabled by various technologies and platforms. The current analytics solutions are expensive and reactive and do not leverage the full potential of Big Data analytics. They reflect how the network perceives the subscriber, rather than how the subscriber perceives the network.

Mahindra Comviva’s RACE (Real-time Analytics for Customer Experience) solution enables operators to measure and quantify subscribers’ true mobile data experience by combining the power of crowd sourced model with Big Data analytics, that clearly identifies the right issues in real-time and enables subscribers with the best subscriber experience.

This ensures that operators focus on the key areas for improvement rather than spending millions on unnecessary network upgrades across the board.

RACE enables operators to identify, compile and evaluate crucial Quality of Experience (QoE) parameters resulting in reduced churn, improved customer satisfaction and increased revenues. While traditional CEM solutions are very bulky in the nature of the solution and the price, RACE is simple, easy to deploy and provides much deeper insights that are meaningful rather than a network dump of parameters.

• Reduces time to solve issues upto 60%
• Reduces Operations costs upto 40%
• Improve subscriber experience through proactive engagement

How it enhances subscriber mobile data browsing experience?

Mahindra Comviva has devised a method to measure real-time customer experience by understanding subscriber behavior while accessing the internet from an end-to-end perspective. This is achieved through an application on the device, termed as mobile probe, to the experience and satisfaction levels and through probes in the network that capture real-time traffic information across multiple subscribers, services and cells.

While quality of service (QOS) is an important factor to ensure adoption of data services, without effective QOE measurement, end-user satisfaction levels are affected. Comviva’s RACE ensures the data services are measurable in an end-to end manner.

All the data values captured from these mobile probes will then be consolidated and analyzed through big data-centric tools with detailed and comprehensive reporting capabilities that will help operators analyze the performance and network characteristics better.

Mahindra Comviva’s RACE has industry’s first of its kind real-time policy feedback framework. User experiences and issues are identified in real-time by the device and are reported to the CEM analytical engine.

The CEM engine then analyses the data and identifies critical KPIs that would hamper user experience. These KPIs are then matched to the thresholds to check if they are within permissible limits. If the KPIs exceed the limit, a corresponding policy / rule that is configured in the CEM engine is sent to the PCRF or optimization engine in the core network.

How does this solution work at the technology level? What is RACE’s competitive edge today?

RACE collects 80+ parameters that are invisible to the network and that can help the operator proactively manage the network and identify issues in real-time. Some of these parameters are app usage/bandwidth, packet loss, RTT/Latency, GPS location, Cell tower details, Signal strength, handovers, indoor – outdoor, Background – Foreground, Altitude and the like.

Mahindra Comviva uses a unique and advanced formula to calculate the experience, using a patented algorithm to split it into two parts: Subscriber related and Network related where MOS is the Mean Opinion Score, a quantitative measure to calculate experience. Race’s entire value proposition is on “Understanding the actual subscriber experience from a subscriber perspective” and not a network perspective model. The following are our key differentiators:

1. Patented algorithms to quantify QoE and analyze the why and how of subscriber’s good and bad experiences.
2. Provide real-time policy updates for a 360° feedback loopto PCRF and Optimization solutions for a  better customer experience
3. End to End CEM measurement through mobile device probes, network probes and DPI.
4. Ability to analyze and provide valuable insights on both Radio and IP network performance together with voice, messaging and data service performance metrics.
5. Provides most number of use cases and deployment methods for the operator. Provides both cost saving business model and revenue generating business model

How does the company plan to take this solution to the market? What is the go to market strategy for this solution?

We plan to take this solution globally using a SaaS based model where operators can quickly launch this service. Our customers are operators globally who believe in innovation and service differentiation with a keen interest to build a strong customer relationship and increase the customer lifecycle within their network.

How can this help the today's service providers become tomorrow’s experience providers? 

Customer experience will be the single biggest factor for subscribers to choose one operator over the other. Operators cannot fight on price beyond a certain point and the only way operators can differentiate is services. However, if two operators launch similar services, subscribers will be attracted to a service that gives a better experience.

Due to technology availability to all the operators, differentiation in products and services is becoming narrower day by day, but the ultimate winner is the operator who understands the importance of customer experience and launches the right product.

RACE helps operators to gather insights from the apps, devices and network those experience data points that are currently invisible to the network. This gives the power of a holistic knowledge to the operator about how subscribers perceive their service experience and thus they can fine tune to ensure best possible experience is delivered.

Are there any trials happening in India for this solution? Please share some details?

We are currently in trials with many opcos worldwide, starting from Japan to Latin America including India.