Amdocs and Heavy Reading Research: Personalized Data Plans and Real-Time Data Spending Control Top Service Providers' Wish Lists for New 4G Services

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Amdocs, the leading provider of customer experience systems and services, today released a global research report that finds service providers are looking to offer personalized data plans and real-time visibility and control over data spending in order to improve the customer experience and better monetize 4G investments. The research also reveals that service providers currently lack the integrated charging and policy management capabilities required to enable this.

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Key research findings reveal that:

As 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) becomes the standard network technology, service providers' marketing departments want to launch more advanced services and price plans

• 80 percent of respondents said their companies have either launched or are trialing LTE services
• 92 percent of respondents said their IT organizations are being asked by Marketing to enable innovative data price plans
• 63 percent of respondents plan to launch VoLTE (voice over LTE) by 2013-14

IT organizations need new capabilities in order to fulfill Marketing's wish lists

• 70 percent of respondents said their companies cannot enable innovative data price plans because of IT limitations
• 60 percent of respondents said their companies are looking to establish IT capabilities to enable personalization of data plans and promotions
• 50 percent of respondents said their companies are looking to establish IT capabilities to enable real-time user visibility and control over data plans and spending 
• Almost 60 percent of respondents said it takes their companies three to six months to launch a new service; an additional 20 percent said it takes even longer

There is overwhelming consensus among service providers that charging and policy management integration is key to enabling more advanced services and price plans

• The vast majority of respondents from Europe, North America and Asia Pacific (100, 90, and 80 percent respectively) said their companies see a need to integrate charging and policy management capabilities. Forty percent of service providers in Latin America also agreed. Integration between charging and policy management allows providers to introduce personalized services that relate to the device type, service type, network status, customer location and other customer information, across all lines of business, and with real-time user visibility and control over data plans and spending.
• 75 percent of respondents said their companies are looking to manage rules for policy and charging from one location, i.e. implement a centralized product catalog
• 40 percent of respondents said their companies have either tried or are currently trying to integrate charging and policy management systems with unsatisfactory results, compared to 10 percent last year

"Our research shows that service providers' data services strategies are evolving in tandem with recognition that they need to fully integrate their charging and policy management capabilities in order to enable these strategies," said Ari Banerjee, senior analyst, Heavy Reading. "Those who recognized the importance of charging and policy integration last year, have since launched tiered and family plans and are now looking to enable even more advanced services with real-time user visibility and control capabilities. Those who weren't convinced last year about the need for policy and charging integration are much more convinced today, and therefore they are now looking to enable tiered and family plans."

"Service providers are looking to 4G to deliver service innovation beyond higher capacity and faster speeds, but need to integrate charging and policy to enable this," said Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing at Amdocs. "The research shows they are seeking solutions which pre-integrate charging and policy systems, also including a single product catalog across both systems, to solve broken product management processes which cause time to market delays."

The research is based on 70 qualitative interviews conducted between October and November, 2012, with decision makers from both IT and marketing departments of 35 service providers. Service providers interviewed included tier-one and tier-two companies based in Europe (10), North America (10), Asia Pacific (10) and Latin America (5). This is the second research report conducted for Amdocs by leading analyst firm Heavy Reading to identify service providers' data monetization trends and challenges year-over-year. Findings of the first survey were announced in September 2011.

Amdocs offers a pre-integrated, convergent charging and policy management solution, scalable to meet the needs of the largest service providers. The Amdocs Convergent Charging  software incorporates Amdocs' innovative, real-time charging technology – Amdocs Turbo Charging – and holds the industry record for real-time charging performance, demonstrating the ability to process 435 million busy hour call attempts (BHCA) measured for a customer base of 220 million, comprised of 184 million prepaid customers and 36 million postpaid customers.

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About Amdocs
For 30 years, Amdocs has ensured service providers' success and embraced their biggest challenges. To win in the connected world, service providers rely on Amdocs to simplify the customer experience, harness the data explosion, stay ahead with new services and improve operational efficiency. The global company uniquely combines a market-leading BSS, OSS and network control product portfolio with value-driven professional services and managed services operations. With revenue of over $3.2 billion in fiscal 2012, Amdocs and its workforce of over 20,000 serve customers in more than 60 countries.

Amdocs: Embrace Challenge, Experience Success.

For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.

Amdocs' Forward-Looking Statement
This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about Amdocs' growth and business results in future quarters. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be obtained or that any deviations will not be material. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, the effects of general economic conditions, Amdocs' ability to grow in the business markets that it serves, Amdocs' ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, adverse effects of market competition, rapid technological shifts that may render the Company's products and services obsolete, potential loss of a major customer, our ability to develop long-term relationships with our customers, and risks associated with operating businesses in the international market. Amdocs may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future; however, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These and other risks are discussed at greater length in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2012, filed on December 11, 2012.

SOURCE Amdocs