Policy: It’s Not Just Traffic Shaping

By HP’s Nigel Upton

The old saying, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it," is undeniably applicable to players in the end-user services arena. For years, we've been working hard to increase both mobile and fixed-line service adoption among consumers, and targeting much of our marketing spend on explaining how lifestyle services can add convenience and richness to the daily grind. Service providers and vendors alike have touted the extraordinary capabilities of new mobile devices, and how they can keep us seamlessly connected to family, friends and colleagues around the world. We've enticed consumers to try new services with incentives and offers that have often cut margins right to the bone. And we've promised a customer experience that consistently delights.

Congratulations — consumers have listened. Adoption of new lifestyle services is exploding, new revenue channels have opened, and traffic is flowing across our networks. Lots and lots of traffic. So much in fact, that the sheer volume now threatens to overwhelm network bandwidth and seriously derail the very customer experience we've spent so much time selling.

So, now that many of these goals have been achieved, how can the necessary balance be established and maintained between meeting customer expectations and the business requirements? One part of the answer is to implement an effective customer-focused policy management solution. Policy-based traffic management will be increasingly important as bandwidth-intensive devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and smartphones gain ever-more traction. Already, we've seen that users of such devices utilize many times the bandwidth of the typical mobile voice user. That has left operators scrambling to keep pace with capacity.

However, policy management must be more than traffic shaping. It must coordinate the need for bandwidth with the need to maintain customer satisfaction and an appropriate business plan in order for new business models to be successful. To keep customers happy, they need to be empowered. We can enable them to set their own service levels depending upon such criteria as monetary limits, time-of-day or day of the week, self-selected service tiers, customized pricing packages and other options. This approach is already showing success in both enhancing user loyalty and satisfaction and in freeing up valuable – and always limited – network resources.

Sophisticated uses of policy management also include such areas as parental controls, where policies enforce the use of texting by schoolchildren during school hours. In Europe, we're already seeing policy applications for combating bill shock. The intensive bandwidth of video downloads is another major area for policy management to step in and regain control. In fact, the numbers and creativity of use cases we're seeing discussed and implemented worldwide is impressive.

It's taken a long time and a lot of money and effort to get consumers to try and buy new service offerings. Now that they have, it's imperative to invest just as much effort in making sure we can deliver on our promises, and that the potential of rich services can be realized. Well thought-out and intelligently implemented policy management solutions provide a workable means for achieving this goal.

Nigel Upton is responsible for the Customer Intelligence and Billing portfolio within the HP Communications & Media Solutions (CMS) business. In his current role, Nigel has P&L responsibility across the portfolio for Product Development, Solution Engineering, Solution Delivery, Support, Product Marketing and Business Development.  Nigel brings over 20 years experience with HP in Europe and the United States, managing various Enterprise and Telecom software businesses within HP, as well as managed Global Alliances. During the Hewlett-Packard/Compaq merger, he led the software integration, defining the new software areas for growth. Nigel represents HP on the board of directors of the IMS Forum. He is a frequent industry speaker on BSS topics.