Internship Robert Bosch

A Report on the
a) Business Plan for RBEI’s entry in Telecom Sector

Software
b) Business plan for M-Learning
at
M/s. Robert Bosch Engineering and Business

Solutions Ltd.
Submitted by
Sourabh Soni
07030241032
MBA (ITBM)
(07-09)
Symbiosis Centre for Information

Technology
(a constituent member of Symbiosis International University (SIU), estd., under
Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956 by Notification No. F.9-12/2001-U-3 of Govt. of India)
Business Plan 1
Year of submission 2008
Acknowledgement
My Project Internship at Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd. has been an
excellent learning experience. So, at the very outset of my project report, I would like to express
my thanks and gratitude to Dr. Arup Ray Section head of E-learning services, Mr. Rakesh Poddar
my mentor, Roma Tiwari and Mr. Atul Rane, Group Manager for providing me with the opportunity
of being associated with RBEI for my summer internship.
I feel greatly indebted to Ms. Jyoti Mani, (Tech lead) and Madhanraj K. (Project manager) for
providing me with very useful insights into E-learning processes at every point in my project
phase. They consented to guide me inspite of their tight schedule and provided support to the
successful completion of the project. I would like to thank them for the crucial insight and
exposure which he provided me during my project duration. They helped me to refine my work
and pointed out the weaknesses.
I would like to thank internal college Faculty, Symbiosis centre for Information Technology for
their constant support and encouragement towards the attainment of project objectives.
Last but not the least, would like to thank the entire E-learning team who provided a conducive
environment and helped me refine my work by providing constant support and guidance without
which this report would have been a distant reality.
Sourabh Soni
MBA-IT Business Management (2007-2009)
Symbiosis centre for Information Technology
Business Plan 2
Index
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………......4
Chapter 1: Introduction
About Company……………………………………………………………………………….……5
Project 1: Business plan for Telecom sector software
Challenges……………………………………………………………………………….……….….6
Technology…………………………………………………………………………………..………7
Scope……………………………………………………………………………………….….……..8
Objective…………………………………………………………………………………….……….8
Background of study………………………………………………………………………………8
Methodology of research………………………………………………………………………... 9
Project 2: Business plan for M-learning
Situation analysis…………………………………………………………………………………..9
Scope………………………………………………………………………………………………...10
Objective……………………………………………………………………………………………..11
Background of study………………………………………………………………………………11
Chapter 2: Analysis of Work Done
Project 1 – Business plan for Telecom Sector Software

Step 1: Market trend Analysis…………………………………………………………………….12
Step 2: Study of technologies and standards…………………………………………………14
Step 3: Study of Business model of customers in the Telecom Value Chain……………19
Step 4: Competitor Analysis in the Telecom Software domain…………………………….22
Step 5: Formulating the Business Model……………………………………………………….24
Step 6: Proposed Capabilities of RBEI in Telecom Software……………………………….29
Step 7: Functionalities for Telco 2.0……………………………………………………………..35
Step 8: Marketing Plan……………………………………………………………………………..38
Project 2 – Business Plan for M-Learning
Step 1: Situation analysis…………………………………………………………………………42
Step 2: Trends that fuel m-learning……………………………………………………………...44
Step3: Content development and architecture………………………………………………..47
Step 4: Marketing Plan……………………………………………………………………………..51
Step 5: The Strategic Planning, Implementation, and Control Process…………………..56
Step 6: Financial Analysis…………………………………………………………………………58
Chapter 3: Learnings

Linking Theory to Practice………………………………………………………………………..62
Challenges faced during the study……………………………………………………………...66
Key Learnings……………………………………………………………………………………….68
Chapter 4: Conclusion

Findings………………………………………………………………………………………………69
Suggestions………………………………………………………………………………………….69
Findings………………………………………………………………………………………………71
Suggestions………………………………………………………………………………………….72
Business Plan 3
Annexure………………………………...…………………………………………………………76
Abstract
Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions limited India, RBEI, has been looking to
diversify into 3rd party to generate new and consistent revenue streams; today telecom sector
software provides us the opportunity for that. Telecom sector has been growing at a phenomenal
rate of 55% per year over the last 5 years and is affected by various phenomenon like
convergence, consolidation, next generation services and growth of ON-Demand business
model, so at this moment it seems to be an ideal area to get into. Telecom sector requires this
software to automate its backend and front-end processes seamlessly. As these solutions can be
deployed very effectively throughout the mobile value chain we can have long list of different
types of customers which range from telecom service providers, OEMs to content providers. The
primary objective is to cater to the most productive segments of this industry through those
services which we have already deployed for our parent organisation like business intelligence,
migration, trouble ticketing and testing. The methodology undertaken for the project was- a)
studying the value chain of the telecom sector b) Study of the business model of the client
organisation c) understanding of the technologies and standards d) preparing a business model
e) defining the services portfolio and the f) marketing and branding of our services. For each of
the above steps thorough research was done and I met with concerned people to know more
about the capabilities of our organisation.
Finally what I could conclude from my study was a list of services that we can provide to our
customers based on our current strengths, who should be our customers, what approach needs
to be taken in order to make us more visible in the market, how to create a brand in this niche
area. While designing the product portfolio I took into consideration the various new business
models like SaaS and WEB 2.0 which are affecting the way the software is being developed and
sold today.
In my second project I made a plan for implementing M-learning for e- learning section of RBEI,
ESL. Currently this department is looking to enter 3rd party and brand itself as an end to end
service provider. For sustained growth the department is trying to diversify its portfolio of services
in the area of M-learning to target a market size that is greater than existing one. By implementing
M-learning we also intend to incorporate WEB 2.0 functionalities into our learning methodologies.
In the longer run our foray into M-learning will also help us in our future endeavours like
implementing knowledge management system for client organisations.
There are also signs that people in future would be spending more on data and content than on
voice services so this is a huge opportunity for M-learning. Also it would help up capitalize on
growing mobile market which is booming with the advent of new technologies like 3G and 4G.
Thus, taking this into consideration I formulated a portfolio of services for M-learning by
capitalizing upon the existing products of ESL, this was done to reduce the expenditure on
creating separate courses for m-learning. During the course of study I did the situation analysis of
the training market and found about the various trends that affect the learning today. I also did
that mapping of the course development process for M-learning and E-learning and studied the
M-learning cycle. The architecture of the M-learning was studied to have and understanding of
the technical up gradations required when the client moves from e-learning to m-learning.
Then I did the marketing plan of the project which started with 4 Ps of marketing, after that I did
the segmentation of the market which dealt with dividing the market into 3 broad segments
namely managers, technical employees and training departments. Then I devised various
methods of targeting the identified market segments. While deciding upon the strategies of
marketing I took into consideration the initial stage of market life cycle which guided me to
determine the sales strategies, cost per customer, competition scenario and pricing
methodologies. SWOT analysis gave me the perspective about which areas we need to be
looking at more closely.
Business Plan 4
Finally the project was summed up by showcasing the benefits that we intend to achieve on the
financial front by determining the revenue generation models and calculate its ROI.
Chapter 1: Introduction
About Company
Robert Bosch GmbH is the world's largest supplier of automobile components and has business
relationships with virtually every automobile company in the world. About 50 percent of Bosch's
worldwide annual sales are produced in automotive technology. Bosch invented the anti-lock
braking system (ABS), and is a leader in specialized fields as traction control systems (TCS), the
Electronic Stability Programme (ESP), body electronics (such as central locking, doors, windows
and seats). Bosch has over $1 billion in annual sales.
Bosch is also an established global brand in industrial automation systems after the acquisition
of Rexroth Through this division, Bosch supplies technologies for driving, controlling, and moving
machines. These technologies serve Bosch's two core markets – factory automation and mobile
hydraulics. Bosch also supplies electronic security systems for homes, offices and vehicles.
Bosch's packaging technology division plans, designs, manufactures and installs packaging lines
for manufacturers of pharmaceutical, confectionery, food, and similar products. Bosch is the
largest supplier of packaging technology.
Bosch is a leading player in car stereo systems and in-car navigation systems, which is sold
under the Blaupunkt brand name. Bosch caters to the areas of consumer goods and building
technology with its power tool, thermo technology, and security systems, as well as with its
household appliances business within the BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH joint
venture it has become the largest consumer appliance company in Germany and western
Europe.
. The company prides itself in constant innovation. It is reported to register 13 patents each
working day. Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI) is the services wing of
Bosch which provides services for the various software related needs of its core and non core
business. It is now trying to establish itself in 3rd party by leveraging upon its expertise with Bosch
global. Being a Bosch subsidiary it cannot keep more than 10% margin on its offering to its parent
company so to grow, entry into 3rd party is inevitable.
E-Learning department (ESL)
Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI) offers e-Learning services globally
through ESL department. The department ensures competitive and timely solutions for client’s
learning needs. The customized course development methodology incorporates detailed analysis
of customer requirements, development of learner-centric content and integration with
appropriate technology tools to service customers in technical and non-technical domains. Their
services include high-quality eLearning packages, state-of-the art graphics design including 2D
and 3D animations, special effects and animation for films, virtual reality simulations and content
services using world-class technology. Their specialisations include developing customized,
Multi-lingual e-Learning Course Development by application of Instructional System Design (ISD)
Methodology as per User Psychographics, deployment of content as per Sharable Content
Object Reference Model (SCORM) Standards and integrating new content with Learning
Management System (LMS). It also makes 3D engineering modelling, simulation and virtual
walkthroughs for various clients
.
Business Plan 5
Project 1: Business plan for Telecom sector software
The telecom industry is focusing on implementing highly complex technology to improve the way
they maintain the relationships and the loyalty with their customers in an extremely competitive
environment. Integrating with global organizations and their infrastructure is important than ever
so that they can work in partnership to deliver mobile and distributed solutions and finally
improving the security of information and systems is becomes more complex and greater
confidentiality is required for their operations. Also there has been a need for increasing wallet
share and helping service providers accelerate product innovation at the same time decreasing
product development and support expenses
All these functions can be performed when the telecom companies have state of the art IT
solutions and this provides great opportunity to software development firms. Competition and
consolidation on the telecom space puts IT in the driver seat because when competitors become
partners, there is a huge overhaul in terms of IT, as right from software to hardware, all digital
assets have to be seamlessly integrated. The telecom software market grew by 55% during FY
'06-07, garnering revenues of Rs 17,871 crore.
While studying the market we can segment our customers as- Telecom service providers,
Equipment manufacturers and content developers.
Challenges for Handset Vendors

• Retaining market share
• Building upon brand value
• Building up supply chains to reach into all parts across the country
• To continue in handset business, one needs to be present in both CDMA and GSM segment
• Face price threats from low cost manufacturers
• Speed up the integration of latest technology into phones and introduce into the market – Time
to market
Challenges for Network Equipment Vendors

• How to increase number of repeat customers?
• How to have exclusive customers
• Win contracts for network expansion in remote areas
• Penetrate equally in CDMA and GSM business
• Local R&D is a good idea, how about Local manufacturing?
Challenges for Telecom service providers

 Reducing customer churn and making new customers
 Consolidation of the industry
 Falling av. Revenue per user
 Increasing operational efficiency
 Faster time to market for new services
 Integration of new IP enabled services with existing ones.
Research revealed that the most profitable portions of this domain are
1. OSS (operation support systems)
2. BSS (Business Support Systems)
3. Network Management Systems
Business Plan 6
4. Equipment and Embedded testing
Fundamentals Required (Technology and Methods)
The most important aspect of software in telecom is the OSS, itcan be defined as “the hardware
and software that service providers use to manage their network infrastructure, deploy services
and provide connectivity.”
OSS are generally divided into 3 domains
1. BSS – Handles business operations and is customer centric, done by operations team
and they report to operations officers
2. OSS - Handles service oriented OSS like Assurance
3. NMS – Handles management of network resources, done by network engineers
Refer annexure A-1
The project also requires knowledge of the various industry standards and models like
Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model and the TMF’s eTOM model. These are
business process model or framework that provides the enterprise processes required for the
service provider
Present scenario of technology and methodology
One of the most important components of service differentiator for the telecom service providers is
Operation support system and Business support system. Their functions are as follows-
Function #1 — OSSs/BSSs enable operators to manage their customers
Manage the customer account

• Contact information — admin, technical, billing, ...
• Track products purchased, contracts
Manage the sales process
• Correlate customer requirements with service offering
• Service ordering
• Service changes, termination, etc.
Manage the billing process
• Determine how much a customer owes
• Invoicing, apply payments, adjustments
• Manage customer expectations
• Communication of service performance
• Failure resolution
• SLA credits
• Delivery dates, downtime, and more ...
Function #2 — OSSs/BSSs enable operators manage their service offerings
• Defines technical, legal and contractual specifications of service (SLA, regulatory)

• Catalogs services into product offerings
o Pricing, promotions, discounts
o Availability, eligibility
o Facilitate quote generation
• Manage the order process
• Configures the network to deliver services purchased
Business Plan 7
• Determines the quality of service (QoS) actually delivered by network
• Reconciles the delivered QoS with customer expectation / contract (SLA)
• Provides business-oriented reports of resource capacity and utilization
• Facilitates resource planning
Function #3 — OSSs/BSSs enable operators to manage their network
Ensures proper operations of equipment

• Installation
• Configuration
• Testing
• Inventory and assignment
• Maintenance
• Fault detection and resolution
• Security
• Usage collection
• Fraud detection
Why is the OSS/BSS domain so challenging?
Network services are complicated

• Challenging IT problems
• Requirements are a constantly moving target
• Legacy heritage
• Cost tradeoffs difficult to quantify and predict
• Difficult to get it right the first time
• Multiple generations software and infrastructure
• Theory (getting it right) doesn't align with pragmatics (good enough)
.
Revenue assurance is one area which saw a high demand as, at the end of the day; this solution
is the most important element to the business. To meet the competitive demands of the market
and the customers, value added services and billing were the differentiators
Scope
RBEI is eyeing the lucrative segment of telecom software market, but it has no idea about it. So
in order to know how to enter a market it requires a detailed analysis of market, available
technologies & standards, approaches to enter the market and which services it needs to provide.
The project also included study of competitors and their offerings, then make a business model
which outlines how we will conduct our business.
Objective
To make a business model keeping in mind the technologies and trends of the market. The
current capabilities of RBEI have been taken into consideration while making the plan and the
current business models that are prevalent in the software market have also been taken into
account while making the business model. I have tried to incorporate most profitable services and
services for the segments of the value chain that have not yet been targeted by the bigger
players.
Business Plan 8
Background of study
From research I found some stats that I would share, like – for every new user that the telecom
company adds to its customer base it spends nearly Rs 7 for database up gradation, service
provisioning and service activation. Seeing the rate at which telecom service providers are adding
customers this is a big opportunity for software developers.
Methodology of research
The study started with the analysis of the trends in telecom sector software with a detailed view
on the market size, growth areas, challenges faced by companies and a market SWOT analysis.
Then I did a value chain analysis of the Telecom sector to find which parts of the value chain we
can cater to keeping in mind the Gaps in the desired and actual services provisioned. The next
logical step was to do a detailed competition analysis to determine how strong are our
competitors and what is their existing clientele. This also helps in refining our services offering so
that we target those areas where our competitors don’t have a strong foot hold.
Next thing to be done was to study the technologies and standards that are involved as this
sector being a very technology intensive one requires a deep understanding of present and
future technologies and their impact on how the business will be done in future. The standards
and regulatory norms for the telcos provide new entrants like us with new opportunities and
challenges about how to shape our offerings and create a niche.
With this knowledge I was well equipped to make a business model to clearly identify that our
service offerings would be a balanced mix of products and services. The various areas that I
covered in this were value proposition, types of services, description of products and services for
various elements of value chain, our marketing and sales channel and lastly our pricing model.
After the business model was finalized I designed my service offerings according to the same.
Categorising it in 2 broad divisions: first for Large telcos and secondly for small and new telcos.
These offerings were further classified into services for various parts of the value chain namely
Original equipment manufacturers, Independent Software vendors and Telecom service
providers.
Keeping in mind the recent developments in how software is made and sold I thought it would be
useful if we made our offerings in sync with the changing business model brought about by the
advent of SaaS, open source and web 2.0.
Lastly in the marketing part I did the 4 P of marketing along with the Branding and studied the
buying cycles of the telecom service providers
Project 2: Business plan for m-learning
Introduction to project
--R--/ESL is already into e-learning in a big way and currently it is facing stiff competition in
acquiring 3rd party projects due to the fact that there are more established players in the market.
The solution to this problem may be given by diversification of services portfolio. The next big
opportunity seems to be coming from m-learning so it would be wise to get in this sector as it
gives us the chance of establishing ourselves as an end to end learning company. Foremost
advantage that I see for ESL venturing in m-learning is we will be able to address a larger target
audience; this would give us the edge on the economies of scale front and would help us being
cost competitive in 3rd party projects.
According to the Law of Distance Education
Business Plan 9
It is not technologies with inherent pedagogical qualities that are successful in distance
education, but technologies that are generally available to citizens. Today mobile phones have
provided a very viable way to provide the latter.
Statistics also reveal the support for M-learning in future. According to Ericsson and Nokia
tell us there were 1,500,000,000 mobile phones in the world in 2006 for a world population of just
over 6 billion. The roll-out of 3G will create pressure for the purchase of 3G compatible handsets.
Situation analysis
a. Organizational wants- Organizations today want to decrease the time spend on training
and improve its effectiveness.
b. Employee goals- Employees want to work for a continuous learning organization.
c. Training department- Wants better ROI for training along with more courses on soft skill
and cultural development as more foreign clients are acquired.
d. Top management- Require real time information to accelerate decision making and
avoid classroom learning.
e. Knowledge management- Requires collaboration of employees to share information on
generic problems in the work place.
Trends in market
i. The spending on content and services will dominate the m-learning

market in future.
ii. Extraordinary range of new networks like 3G and 4G will facilitate
better connectivity
iii. Next generation learning would require location based learning,
handheld decision support, identity based learning to personalized learning
iv. There are more smart phones than computers in the world.
v. WEB 2.0 is affecting learning in a great way. The collaborative tools
help the learners to contribute to the learning community.
Target market identified
I. Top management, decision makers & sales personnel

II. HR and training department
III. Technical departments
Behavioral factors of the target market

• Top management requires ready to use information that they can use in decision making.
They also cannot go to classrooms.
• Technical departments require solutions that act as a ready reference at site.
• Training departments want better ROI and manage learning.
Cost comparison between classroom training and m-learning

The comparative cost analysis between m-learning and traditional classroom training appears
straightforward with quantitative variables. The costs involved with classroom training
includes facility costs, training materials, teaching aids, instructor costs, travel costs, learner
costs and time away from workplace. While for M-learning a substantial cost can be covered
if the learners have the required device. Also the course development costs are one time.
M-learning advantages for ESL
Business Plan 10
• Number of web enabled mobile devices are more than PCs so by the help of m-learning
we target a market size that is greater than the existing one.
• The premium targeted audience for these services is going to be people who are
constantly on the move like the top management or the sales personnel. We can extract
greater price from these people.
• Demographics have a vital role to play when we are choosing a target audience. In
RBEI the average age of the associate as 25 years, who are most proficient in operating
a mobile
• WEB 2.0 is affecting learning in a great way. The collaborative tools help the learners
to contribute to the learning community. M-learning can be very easily integrated to web
2.0
Scope
ESL wants to diversify its portfolio and for that it has chosen M-learning. I am required to study
the feasibility of the M-learning market and identify the target markets for ESL. Defining the
products portfolio of the M-learning is another responsibility I need to fulfill, as well as determining
the ROI of M-learning for ESL and client organizations need to be done. Finally I am supposed to
make a marketing plan that encompasses the strategies of our venture in this sector.
Objective
The major goal of the study is mapping our current capabilities in e-learning development to m-
learning so that we are able to provide these services to clients without investing too much on the
infrastructure and people. Secondly, prescribing the ROI of these initiatives along with an
implementation plan.
Background of the study

Our department had been facing difficulties recently regarding penetrating 3rd party as there were
many established players in the market, so a need was constantly felt for diversification of our
portfolio in such a way that we target a more lucrative segment which is still in the initial stages of
growth cycle and has immense opportunities for the future.
Methodology
The first step involved study of inherent problems of training and how we can solve them by use
of M-learning. The situation analysis revealed the Organizational wants, Employee wants and
how m-learning can be beneficial to specific departments and employees. Among the benefits
realized by the organization the most evident were retaining the employee by providing him with
learning opportunities and how the resource can contribute maximum to his working hours by
undergoing mobile based training in his leisure hours. I also tried to determine the usefulness of
mobile learning to specific departments. In the next step I determined what more investment
would be required by our department in terms of people, equipment, skills and tools.
The trends of the market which seem to affect the m-learning market were also studied and
research revealed that m-learning opens the gate for us to enter the field of knowledge
management in future.
A comparative study of the Content development methodologies was done to map our methods
and m-learning development methods. The architecture for M-Learning was also studied in detail
to accomplish the above motive. M-Learning cycle and new standards of m learn also gave
insight into development process.
Then I prepared the marketing plan for the section regarding m-learning, which included 4 P’s of
Marketing, Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning and Product Differentiation strategies. While
formulating the marketing plan the stages of the Market life cycle were considered vis-à-vis the
SWOT analysis of ESL for M-learning. I also did the Mapping Customer’s buying cycle to our
sales cycle to effectively align our course to the business strategy of client. Lastly the ROI of m-
Learning was determined which seems positive in most cases except when the technology
completely changes very regularly. The revenue generation models for various target segments
Business Plan 11
were also determined along with the cost comparisons for each in terms of classroom training
and m-learning.
Chapter 2: Analysis of Work Done

Step 1: Market trend Analysis
The first step was to see how the growth of the telecom sector has been over the years and what
are the services that IT companies provide to them. Analysis of the role of IT in telecom revealed
that software in telecom known as OSS (or Operations Support System) includes all systems
used to support the daily operations of a telecommunication service provider. Examples of these
systems include billing, provisioning, element management, and network management
applications. These support systems that reduce the operating expenses while increasing system
performance, productivity and availability.
The telecommunications industry today is experiencing a number of changes and challenges.
Deregulation, new services, new technologies, reengineering business processes, mergers and
acquisitions are just a few that demand attention. Also, multiple concepts such as service
differentiation, quality of service, time-to-market, customer care, return on investment and total
cost of ownership request attention on behalf of business managers of service providers. Quality
of processes, automation of processes and integration of support and management tools may
mean difference between business success and failure thus IT plays a very vital role for these
telcos to perform their activities properly.
Trends that support the need of OSS

The various industry issues of support systems The market drivers for support systems are
include
(1) Convergence and telecom (1) Growth of the global
consolidation telecommunications market
(2) Developing support systems market (2) Increasing network complexity
(3) Emergence of complex, multi- (3) Emerging standards for
platform environments telecommunications providers
(4) Emphasis on telecom system (4) Deregulation & Privatization
integration (5) Communication convergence
(5) Growth of support systems is tied to (6) Customer orientation
share-shift among telecom end (7) ASP model
markets and carriers
(6) Outsourcing
(7) Product based vendor driven
solutions
(8) Upgrade cycles in support systems
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE
Business Plan 12
The telecom software market grew by 55% during FY '06-07, garnering revenues of Rs
17,871 crore. . The OSS/BSS space continues to be hot as it provides companies the opportunity
to offer an umbrella of services. Also, this is the space where large telecom players need to
efficiently deploy IT for several transactions like online billing and providing value added services.
Competition and consolidation on the telecom space puts IT in the driver seat because when
competitors become partners, there is a huge overhaul in terms of IT, as right from software to
hardware, all digital assets have to be seamlessly integrated.
MARKET PERSPECTIVE
The Current traits of the market that drive the need for OSS
• In developed markets where high-end technologies have been deployed, the need to
increase operational efficiency will drive the market. While in developing regions like
APAC, the driver is system integration capability amongst open platforms (OPMA- Open
platform management architecture).
• Revenue assurance is one area which saw a high demand as, at the end of the day; this
solution is the most important element to the business. To meet the competitive demands
of the market and the customers, value added services and billing were the
differentiators.
• The focus, both international and domestic, has been on application development and
management. There has been an increased focus on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
implementation and systems integration. In India the focus primarily has been on SI
covering all aspects of OSS and BSS
The telecom industry is focusing on implementing highly complex technology to:
• Improve the way they maintain the relationships and the loyalty with their customers in a
extremely competitive environment
• Integrate with global organizations and their infrastructure so that they can work in
partnership to deliver mobile and distributed solutions
• Improve the security of information and systems as this becomes more complex and
greater confidentiality is required
Competition and consolidation on the telecom space puts IT in the driver seat because when
competitors become partners, there is a huge overhaul in terms of IT, as right from software
to hardware, all digital assets have to be seamlessly integrated. As consolidation escalates
both from an operator and vendor perspective, telecom software providers are bound to get
new avenues for growth in the ongoing year. The major share of revenues still remain global
centric with domestic opportunity coming from players like Airtel and others
CURRENT CHALLENGES IN VARIOUS SEGMENTS

1. EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS
CURRENT CHALLENGES WHAT WE NEED TO PROVIDE:
Faster development and release of devices and
Solutions that shorten product development
equipment to support new technologies and keep
time, product testing solutions, and strategies
pace with growing customer expectations as
for manufacturers to aid faster release of
networks evolve from GSM/GPRS to 3G and
more functional, flexible, and reliable
beyond
equipment
2.REGULATORY BODIES
Keeping abreast of evolving technology and Efficiency-increasing strategies including

industry developments, and monitoring policies in deploying integrated systems and creating
the best interests of the industry and its repositories that store information on policies
Business Plan 13
consumers and standards
3.ENTERPRISES
Transforming operations, re-engineering business Comprehensive strategies to automate and

processes, and deploying flexible technology streamline business processes to increase
architecture to easily accommodate business and efficiency, and enhance relationships with
regulatory demands customers and partners
4.SERVICE PROVIDERS
Building in network flexibility, rapid service Strategies for robust and flexible operation
development, and operational efficiency to meet support systems (OSS) and business support
growing customers demands systems (BSS), including assessing
frameworks, re-engineering, upgrades,
migration and support, as well as solutions for
managing networks, next generation
applications, and voice and data services
Therefore based on my research I concluded that

The major sources of revenue in telecom sector software would be –
5. OSS (operation support systems)

6. BSS (Business Support Systems)
7. Network Management Systems
8. Equipment and Embedded testing
Step 2: Study of technologies and standards

Operations Support Systems (OSS) includes all systems used to support the daily operations of a
telecommunication service provider. Examples of these systems include billing, provisioning,
element management, and network management applications.
OSS are generally divided into 3 domains
4. BSS – Handles business operations and is customer centric, done by operations

team and they report to operations officers
Business Support System (BSS)
The business support systems (BSS) domain encompasses the systems designed to support
business processes including billing, CRM, marketing/sales support, partner management, and
more.
• Billing — masters account, invoicing, payment processing, taxes, bill calc, rating,
discounts, cycles (if any), adjustments, ERP interface, recurring charges, credit
management, ...
Business Plan 14
• Customer relationship management (CRM) — masters customer record, product catalog,
order entry, contract, trouble management, SLA violations, service order, order status, ...
• Sales force automation (SFA) — manage the sales process, product configuration,
eligibility, custom contract negotiation, RFI/RFP processes, SLA negotiation, upsell
• Decision support (DSS) — market analysis tools, pricing analysis, data warehouse
Refer Appendix B-1
5. “Service” OSS - Handles service oriented OSS like Assurance
The "service" OSSs are used to bridge together the BSS and NMS domains — enabling
seamless, flow-through integration of each.
6. NMS – Handles management of network resources, done by network engineers.

Network Management OSSs (NMS) are designed to manage specific hardware
elements deployed by the operator. For example, broadband deliver services that are
based on data transport equipment / technologies. Hence, their NMS are optimized for
broadband infrastructure such as DSL, IP, ATM, and Frame Relay equipment.
Refer Appendix B-2
Industry standards / models

1. Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model
The Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model was defined by the ITU to help
operators formalize the structure of their OSSs.
Business Plan 15
TMN Model
TMN’s Service Management / Network Management layers
The TMF has expanded the TMN's service management / network management layers, in the
telecommunications operations map (the so-called TOM model).
2. The TMF Model

From an operations perspective, the TMF model is commonly divided into three core functional
areas, namely: fulfillment, assurance and billing (FAB).
TMF eTOM model
Business Plan 16
eTOM is
• Business process model or framework that provides the enterprise processes
required for the service provider
• Based on the Telecom Operations Map (TOM)
• Most service providers are working with eTOM since they need an industry standard
framework for procuring software and equipment as well as to interface with other
service providers in an increasingly complex network of business relationships
Refer Appendix B-3
eTOM for Telco business processes
• Highest conceptual view of the business process framework

• Differentiates strategy and lifecycle processes from Operations processes
• Differentiates the key functional areas in five horizontal layers
• At the overall conceptual level eTOM can be viewed as having 3 major areas of process-
o Strategy Infrastructure and Product Management ( Covering Planning and Life
Cycle Management)
o Operations ( Covering the core of operational management)
o Enterprise Management ( Covering corporate or business support management)
• The four supporting functional process areas are-
o Marketing, Product and Customer processes( sales and channel management,
marketing management, product and offer management)
o Service (Service development, configuration, problem management and rating)
o Resource( Development and management of firm’s infrastructure)
o Supplier Partner( Dealing with the firm’s interaction with it’s suppliers and
partners)
Refer Appendix B-4
Operations
• FAB” is still the core of the Operations area

• Operations Support & Readiness is separated from FAB
• “OPS” also supports functional process groupings shown as horizontal layers
Strategy, Infrastructure & Product
• SIP” encompasses strategy and lifecycle management processes in support of

operations
o Strategy & Commit
o Infrastructure Lifecycle Management
o Product Lifecycle Management
• “SIP” also has functional groupings, aligned with those in “OPS”
High level functionalities of the various FAB (Fulfillment, Assurance and Billing)
components
 Order Management
 Uses GUI which guides order takers or customer-care representatives through

the ordering process for any number of services.
Business Plan 17
 Services range from basic telephony lines to complex services such as ISDN,
ADSL etc.
 Incorporate some default data common to each service a provider offers to ease
the keystroke burden
 Also perform a certain amount of error checking
 Integrates with other systems like Work Force Management etc.
 The system generates specific tasks for other systems that must be completed to
activate service on the network
 Provisioning (Service Configuration, Network Provisioning and Activation)
 Involves specifying which pieces of equipment and network routes a given

service will utilize
 The activation system activates service on the proper network elements (any
piece of network hardware, such as a switch, multiplexer, or cross-connect system)
 The Network Provisioning System encompasses the configuration of network
resources, and logical resource provisioning for individual customer instances.
 Current network elements are generally designed with an intelligent element
manager built in that can receive and execute commands sent by activation systems.
 Element managers also can feed equipment status data back to upstream
systems for network-and trouble-management functions.
 Element managers use protocols such as SNMP for traditional data equipment to
communicate with activation and other systems.
 Today’s service providers are working toward enabling flow-through provisioning
and activation, combining provisioning and activation systems to allow order and
design-and-assign systems to issue commands to an activation system.
 Inventory Management
 Maintains the status of communication equipment. Gives an in-use view of the

Inventory
 Helps you identify the different equipment details, how and where it is being
used. The inventory items includes Switches, Routers – Ports, Hubs, CPE, Servers,
Back bone circuits(includes cabling), Third-party access circuits, Location, Building,
Floor space (routers, Access Points, reference to CPE data),Cards, Dish Antenna,
Equipment Code, Relay Rack, Shelves, Slot, Circuit Name, Phone number and IP
address ranges, bandwidth capacity etc.
 The inventory data includes serial number ,warranty dates ,acquisition dates,
whether they are owned or leased, item cost , location of equipment ,date
assigned ,maintenance cost ,one-time and/or recurring charges
 Maintenance of information on Vendor, Manufacturer of various equipment.
Inventory management of items in geographical warehouses
 Capacity Planning and Performance Monitoring
 Generation of various Inventory Reports for Management review.
 Trouble Ticket Management
 Interfaces with Fault Management modules & other OSS for the acquisition of
network faults and trouble-tickets.
 Trouble-ticket generation, distribution, log, and resolution management
capabilities to improve service quality and response time.
 Reports to illustrate staff efficiency in clearing problems
Business Plan 18
 Support for reduced response times and increased service quality
 Network Fault monitoring capabilities
 Workflow
 Brings all the pieces together, enabling work to flow electronically across your
organization
 Key tools in Work Management are provisioning plans. Provisioning plans help
you organize the flow of tasks and resources that are critical to your success.
Provisioning plans include information such as task assignments, dependencies
between tasks, and expected completion intervals.
 A service request triggers the correct provisioning plan to be applied and
generates tasks for the respective employee(s) involved.
 Workforce management
 Suggesting technicians based on skill sets/location.

 Assigning resources to appointments
 Optimizing Appointments based on location, change in customer orders, order
cancellations.
 Billing
 Call detail Records (CDR) are generated by the switch for each call made. One
CDR can have more than one call record. CDR contains information on the source
number, destination number, call duration etc.
 Mediation device picks up the call records from different switches and converts
them into format that is understood by the billing and rating systems
 Rating Engine applies the tariff plan on the call along with discounts etc as
applicable and then the rated record is stored in the database
 When Billing is run at the end of each month( the period is variable and is
decided by the service provider ), the rated records are aggregated, discounts, taxes
and other fixed prices as applicable are added and sent to the invoicing system to
generate an invoice
Step 3: Study of Business model of customers in the
Telecom Value Chain
Mobile value chain Analysis
Business Plan 19
There exist different types of pricing models between the various players in the value chain. For
example the relation ship between the content developers and operators may be based on the
revenue sharing model while that between the operators & end users would be based on the
usage or subscription.
Revenue Sharing Model Revenue sharing is the sharing of profits and losses between the
general partner(s) and limited partners in a limited partnership. More generally, it refers to the
practice of sharing profits between companies in a business alliance.In this pricing model the
customer company doesn’t really buy the product but agrees on sharing a part of revenues with
vendor.
Study of GSM business model
The billing relationship in India exists exclusively between the operator and the consumer. All the
other contributors (value added service providers, ASPs, TV channels and movie production
houses maintain revenue sharing or profit sharing relationship only with the operator. Operators
in India get to keep a major share of the revenues coming from all the other services besides
voice. When a consumer downloads a ringtone or a logo from a website, operator gets to keep
60% of the earnings, similarly;
•Almost 60-70% of the revenues for services hosted by ASP
•80% of the revenues for SMS based TV opinion polls
•75% incase of downloading a movie clip or a movie ringtone
M ticketing is missing in India, however, one can request for a ticket for an event through an SMS
but one cannot actually complete a transaction over his mobile phone
Refer Appendix B-5
Study of CDMA business model
CDMA service providers from the very beginning provided features like streaming media options
and always ON internet connectivity @ 114 kbps. These helped them to capture a huge
market.Due to spectrum availability it is feasible for the operators to introduce enhanced data
services over their networks. This includes streaming media, JAVA games etc.
The possibility for offering enhanced data services has proved to be a catalyst in promoting
CDMA services in India.
Business Plan 20
Refer Appendix B-6
Content Business Overview

Indian content market is mainly SMS driven. The various service providers experience traffic of
almost 2.5 billion SMS per month. Even today most of the downloads and service requests are
oriented through SMS service. Services like M-banking also available by SMS. The GPRS
penetration still remains low at 8-10%. The global market for mobile phone premium content will
exceed US$43 billion by 2010, according to a new study by iSuppli. This compares to the figure in
2004 which barely reached US$5.2 billion. Over the last four years, the market for such extra
mobile services as music, gaming and video has expanded at an annual rate of 42%. SMS and
MMS account for 18% of operator ARPU. Today downloadable content is available through
content provider’s portals & operator portals.
M-ticketing (i.e payments made through mobile)is still very new in India and is expected to grow
in the future.
Refer Appendix B-7
Market and Sales Strategy

Our customers can be categorized into 3 broad categories namely—
1. Retail — large customer base, few contract options, small volume each, large-scale
customization.
Customers here include network service providers
Current Challenges: Building in network flexibility, rapid service development, and operational
efficiency to meet growing customers demands
What is required: Strategies for robust and flexible operation support systems (OSS) and
business support systems (BSS), including assessing frameworks, re-engineering, upgrades,
migration and support, as well as solutions for managing networks, next generation applications,
and voice and data services
2. Wholesale — small customer base, large volume, custom deals, reconciliation is key
Customers here are Equipment Manufacturers
Current Challenges: Faster development and release of devices and equipment to support new
technologies and keep pace with growing customer expectations as networks evolve from
GSM/GPRS to 3G and beyond
What is required: Solutions that shorten product development time, product testing solutions,
and strategies for manufacturers to aid faster release of more functional, flexible, and reliable
equipment
3. Enterprise — small customer base, custom deals, SFA, performance feedback /

account- management style interfaces
Current Challenges: Transforming operations, re-engineering business processes, and
deploying flexible technology architecture to easily accommodate business and regulatory
demands
What is required: Comprehensive strategies to automate and streamline business processes to
increase efficiency, and enhance relationships with customers and partners
Refer Appendix B-8
Market SWOT Analysis
Business Plan 21
Strenghts Weaknesses
• Huge wireless subscriber potential • Lowest call tariffs in the world
• Fastest growing mobile market in the world • Market strongly regulated by Govrenment body –
• Consumers are ready to pay for cutting edge Governing both ISP and Telecom sectors
services • Too many authorities ruling the sector
• Government proposes to hike FDI limit in • Huge potential for low end and cheap handsets
Telecom to 74% • Wide scale Consumer churn in Telecom and ISP
• Wide spread VAS deployment is restricted due to
• Unified license regime
language and literacy problems
• Primarily a voice based market
Opportunities Threats
• To offer value added services on GSM, CDMA • Low cost service providers – no possibility of
and IP breaking even in short term
• Language independent services • Weak IPR protection
• Mobile Marketing concepts • Software and digital content Piracy
• Content influenced by local culture and Global • Political instability
sucess stories • Regulatory interference
• M-Commerce
• Unified messaging platforms
• Foreign investment in form of equity or
technology
Effect of mergers and acquisition

Consolidation has been and will continue to be a vital part of the telecommunications. The U.S.
telecommunications industry has seen several mega-mergers both announced and completed.
The OSS systems will be at the crux of the ability of the enterprises to be combined, the
synergies realized and the future profits earned.
These mergers will generate a flow of new orders to BSS/OSS vendors. Mergers are compelling
events that drive strategic investments.
The two transformation models shown in the chart below are:

(1) Choose and go--then transform;
and (2)Freeze and transform.

Refer Appendix B-9
a) In Chose and go then transform we have 2 OSS of the firms that have merged.
The most suitable of the two will be used until a Next generation OSS is not implemented.
This integration service is a huge opportunity for the vendors.
b) In freeze and transform we continue using both the OSS until the NG OSS is
not finalized.
Step 4: Competitor Analysis in the Telecom Software

domain
Pure play telecom software providers or IT companies like Wipro or Infosys, telecom has
emerged as a leading practice with solutions cutting across OSS/BSS to building custom specific
applications. The telecom software market grew by 55% during FY '06-07, garnering revenues of
Rs 17,871 crore. As usual, the front line IT companies took a major chunk of the revenues with
TCS topping the charts. Another star performer was Tech Mahindra, which saw revenues soaring
by 136% compared to the previous year.
Business Plan 22
Analysis of top 5 Players in telecom sector software
Refer Appendix B-10
Pest Analysis of Sector
Refer Appendix B-11

Market Risk Analysis
Refer Appendix B-12
Porter’s 5 force model

Five Force Analysis assumes that there are five important forces that determine competitive
power in a situation. These are:
1. Supplier Power: Here you assess how easy it is for suppliers to drive up prices. This is
driven by the number of suppliers of each key input, the uniqueness of their product or
service, their strength and control over you, the cost of switching from one to another,
and so on. The fewer the supplier choices you have, and the more you need suppliers'
help, the more powerful your suppliers are.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers

In general Low
2. Buyer Power: Here you ask yourself how easy it is for buyers to drive prices down.
Again, this is driven by the number of buyers, the importance of each individual buyer to
your business, the cost to them of switching from your products and services to those of
someone else, and so on. If you deal with few, powerful buyers, they are often able to
dictate terms to you.
Bargaining Power of Buyers Risks

Large or concentrated buyers High
Purchased products represent a significant fraction
of
buyer’s costs Low
Standard or undifferentiated products Low
Low switching costs Low
Low profit buyer Medium
Buyers pose a creditable threat of backward
integration Low
Business Plan Product is unimportant to the quality of the buyer’s 23
products or services Medium
Buyer has full information Medium
3. Competitive Rivalry: What is important here is the number and capability of your
competitors – if you have many competitors, and they offer equally attractive products
and services, then you’ll most likely have little power in the situation. If suppliers and
buyers don’t get a good deal from you, they’ll go elsewhere. On the other hand, if no-one
else can do what you do, then you can often have tremendous strength.
Existing Competitors Risk

Numerous or equally balanced competitors Medium
Slow industry growth Medium
High fixed or storage costs Medium
Lack of differentiation or switching costs Medium
Capacity augmented in large increments High
Diverse competitors Medium
High strategic stakes High
High exit barriers High
4. Threat of Substitution: This is affected by the ability of your customers to find a different
way of doing what you do – for example, if you supply a unique software product that
automates an important process, people may substitute by doing the process manually or
by outsourcing it. If substitution is easy and substitution is viable, then this weakens your
power.
Pressure from Substitute Products

In general Low
5. Threat of New Entry: Power is also affected by the ability of people to enter your market.
If it costs little in time or money to enter your market and compete effectively, if there are
few economies of scale in place, or if you have little protection for your key technologies,
then new competitors can quickly enter your market and weaken your position. If you
have strong and durable barriers to entry, then you can preserve a favorable position and
take fair advantage of it.
Business Plan 24
Threat of New Entrants Risk
Economics of scale High
Product differentiation High
Capital requirements High
Switching costs High
Access to distribution channels High
Step 5: Cost disadvantages independent of scale High
Government policy Low
Formulating the Business Model
Our portfolio would be a balanced mix of Products and Services.
The things to be kept in mind while deciding on whether we want to be a services company or a
product company are-
Refer Appendix B-13
Key issue Software product Software service companies

companies
Intellectual Very important Less Important
property rights
Very important Less Important
Product complementarities
A fixed-cost structure allows A variable-cost structure
Returns from for makes
scale higher returns from scale increased returns from scale
rare
Gather and leverage generic Customer-specific knowledge
Abstracting product knowledge. more
knowledge and Architecture level technology important than generic domain
integrating integration is important . knowledge.
technology Integration based on
standards:
emphasize development
efficiency
Companies have long-term Companies have project-driven
Connections relationships: typically the relationships: typically, the
with users users users are
are technologically technologically unsophisticated
sophisticated
Business Model Template Refer Appendix B-14
1. Business Model: Customer and value proposition
Business Plan 25
TSP: Helping mgrs. Through a DSS. Tackling issues like convergence, reduce
customer churn, Accelerating time to market, increase ARPU & reliability of service
Customers and ISV: Providing consultancy for platform migration & handling non core activities.
OEM: Providing equipment and embedded testing and reduced time to market for
Value Proposition new products.
2. Business Model: Description of Products and Services
Tailor made Component based Customised Parameterized Standard

solution tailored solution Product product Product
General 1. Interoperability 1. Business 1. Network Design 1. Data quality mgmt. 1. Migration
services service practices Intelligence & engineering capability
2. Consultancy 2. Business Proc. 2. Technology
services Mgmt. Practice enablement services
3. Mobility Solution
Name Of 4. Trouble
Services Ticket Management
Handset Platform services Localisation Testing

domain
OSS/BSS 1. Fault Mgmt. Revenue Customer Mediation Billing Solution

services Assurance care solution (COTS)
2. EAI
Business Plan 26
3. Business Model: Services
Types of services offered
� Customization: services to customize the product

� Integration: services to integrat4e the product into customers’ systems
� Deployment: services to help in deploying the system into use
� Training: services to train customers’ personnel
� Helpdesk: services to provide helpdesk support to customers
Degree of standardization in services
� Customized services: time and materials costing

� Competence-based services: services offered based on specific personnel competencies
� Standard services: services are based on standard processes and templates
� Productized services: services are partially automated
Role of partnerships in services
� In-house: services are provided by in-house resources

� Outsourced: services are provided by partners
Degree of
Types Provisioning Standardisation
of In Out- Customised competence Standardized Productised
Services Service House sourced based
Customisation Y Y
Integration Y Y
Deployment Y Y
Training Y
Helpdesk Y Y
4. Business Model: Marketing and sales channel

Who is responsible for the marketing and sales activities
May vary between different market segments, e.g:
• Direct in the domestic market (direct sales to customers)
• Partner in specific vertical segments (sales to key accounts in Europe through a partner)
• Network-based in the horizontal segment (horizontal version offered through the web)
Business Plan 27
Software Sales
Software is a complex experience. Good Sales process needs to provide sufficient information for the
buying decision. Complexity and integration needs increase sales lead time
Basic steps of sales:
1) Opening/Qualifying
• Obtain access to decision makers
• Referrals, contacts
• Cold-calls are harder with complex products
2) Information Gathering/Interviewing
• Understanding customer’s needs allows better formulation and communication of the value
proposal
3) Proposal/Plan
• Make a concrete proposal
4) The Close
• The most critical part of the sales process
• Sales process needs to be measured and managed:
• Number of visits
• Cost and duration of the sales process
• Hit rate of bids
• Prioritization of leads is critical
5. Business Model: Distribution Channel
The distribution channel is often linked to the sales channel:

Distribution is usually done by the seller
Can be different when
• Delivery involves services and they form a substantial part of the added value
• Sales process is labor-intensive while delivery is simple
Business Plan 28
6. Business Model: The Revenue Model
Pricing model and strategy

�Cost-based pricing: price based on time and materials used
� Fixed price: price based on a fixed sum
� Use-based pricing: prices based on number CPUs, users or
transactions
� Value-based pricing: price based on the value created
�Revenue sharing model
�Determines how revenues are shared between various partners in the
value network, e.g:
� Royalties of software licences
� Compensation of service charges
Main strategies
� Fixed rates: revenue sharing based on fixed rates

� Cost-based: revenue sharing based on costs incurred
� Risk-sharing: revenue sharing based on the sharing of risk
Business Plan 29
Advantages of SaaS pricing
Refer Appendix B-15
Software Pricing
As our business model is a mix of service and product we can use a pricing model that is a mix of
SaaS (S/W as a service) and License Pricing model.
Traditional licensing with its up-front payments more easily supports heavy investments because
the revenue payoff is concentrated at the front-end of the customer relationship. On the other
hand, SaaS applications require smaller initial outlays from the customer, removing a big hurdle
to new customer acquisition. The vendor is provided with a smaller, but continuing, revenue
stream and encourages a closer relationship between vendor and customer that may lead to
better long-term retention.
Factors influencing software pricing

Refer Appendix B-16
Step 6: Proposed Capabilities of RBEI in Telecom

Software
We would provide end-to-end service capability spanning the entire value chain consisting of –
1. Original Equipment manufacturers
2. Independent Software Vendors (Content Developers)
3. Telecom Service Providers.
4. Network Infrastructure providers
The value chain can be described as-
Our various capabilities would include-
Service offerings to Telecom Service Providers
1. Business Intelligence
Managers need access to factual information on a real time basis in order to anticipate changes
and make proactive decisions. Business Intelligence and Data Management help business
managers make their decisions better by converting data into useful information.
We can provide consultancy to clients to implement BI & DW solutions so that the organizations
would implement ETL (Extract, transform & load) design ETL is important, as it is the way data
actually gets loaded into the warehouse. ETL can also be used for the integration with legacy
systems.
An ETL Process may be shown as
Refer Appendix B-17
Business Plan 30
These solutions will ultimately help in the following capability development in the client
organization-
1. OLAP Reporting (online analytical processing) - is an approach to quickly provide
answers to analytical queries that are multi-dimensional in nature. OLAP is part of the
broader category business intelligence, which also encompasses relational reporting and
data mining.
Refer Appendix B-18
2. Data Mining - Data mining is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and
picking out relevant information.
Refer Appendix B-19
2. Interoperability Service Practice

Interoperability Practice encompasses all functions related with the inter-working between
partners, suppliers, customers and employees through various e-channels. Using the portal
framework, CMS and B2B systems, the Delivery Unit provides a transaction platform by which the
various stakeholders/partners can interact or transact amongst themselves.
The interoperability services would include
1. Development
2. Testing
3. Consulting
3. Mobility Solutions
With Value Added Services (VAS) being viewed as the main source of service differentiation,
Telecom Service Providers (TSP) are facing a number of challenges-
1. Integration of new service delivery platforms with existing infrastructure frameworks
Service delivery platform provides the core services required to integrate diverse
hardware platforms, third party tools and equipment maker’s proprietary software
applications
2. Rolling out new applications and content
3. Delivering enhanced user experiences.
The growth and ubiquity of telecom networks coupled with advances in bandwidth capabilities
has led to the creation of new market opportunities for media and content businesses. Our
Mobility solutions enable customers to monetize assets by implementing innovative value added
services.
Enterprise Mobility solutions for public services, BFSi, telecom, utility and FMCG businesses
• Field force / sales force automation
• Field data collection
• Unified messaging and collaboration tools
• Mobile banking solutions
Refer Appendix B-20
4. Customer Grievance Addressing (Trouble Ticket Lifecycle Mgmt.)
Trouble to resolve is an area that has high financial and competitive impact for communication
service providers. Ticket life cycle management helps the company to track the customer
grievances, assign those problems to respective individuals and give relevant feed back to
customer to solve their problems
This includes the following-
Business Plan 31
• First call resolution- is properly addressing the customer's need the first time they call,
thereby eliminating the need for the customer to follow up with a second call.
• Proactive monitoring - Adaptive Management strategy seeks to make infrastructure

monitoring more proactive thereby tracking the failures before they occur
• Remediation – coming up with viable alternatives to deal with failures
Service Offerings in the Handset or Device Manufacturer’s domain
Platform Engineering
Platform Engineering includes development of device drivers, operating systems, speech and
multimedia, wireless and supplementary protocols, connectivity protocols and mobile application.
Development of proprietary frameworks and components will help manufacturers accelerate
product development.
Application Development
We need to work in following domains like SIP, RTP/RTSP/RTCP, UDP-TCP/IP, Bluetooth,

H.324M, Pict Bridge and work for the development of new features, like assisted GPS for location
services, video messaging, digital viewfinder, voice recorder and FM receiver.
Localisation
The company needs to work with handset manufacturers and mobile operators to provide
applications and services in local languages reflecting the local preferences.
Testing
To meet the ever increasing quality expectations of mobile users, and achieve targeted market
penetration, Original Equipment Manufacturers / Device Manufacturers and network operators
need to engage in ongoing specialized testing of mobile handsets for interoperability with
networks and content, compliance testing with standards body, user experience testing on
multiple phone models. This human resource intensive activity demands quick ramp up and ramp
down of skilled resources to address the peak and lean periods of the handset product life cycle
and respond to markets in an effective way.
Operator testing primarily includes user acceptance and interoperability from the perspective of
the network operator’s infrastructure.
Service Offerings in the OEM domain
VoIP Product Design and Development
Product design and development services can be offered by RBEI for VoIP vendors which would
include protocol and application development on top of protocol stacks like the Session Initiation
Protocol (which is a signaling protocol, widely used for setting up and tearing down multimedia
communication sessions such as voice and video calls over the Internet). For VoIP vendors,
these services will translate into substantial gains in time-to-market and cost.
We should try to extend our services and expertise in all relevant technologies in convergence
spectrum. This would enable us to offer a variety of services. Our VoIP repertoire would include
reusable components that should enable VoIP vendors to fast-forward their product development
efforts.
Business Plan 32
Testing services for telecom software and services
1. Broadband-IP testing
2. IP-Multimedia Carrier & Enterprise Networks (ICEN) Testing
3. Wireless Testing Services
4. Wi-Fi Pre-Certification and Certification & WLAN Testing
5. Handset / Application Testing Network Testing
6. OSS-BSS Testing
Full spectrum testing services for the following OSS-BSS areas:
• Mediation, provisioning, network management, element management
• Enterprise App. Integration(EAI), data warehousing, CRM & ERP
• Billing, customer case, interconnect billing, revenue assurance, order
management and fraud management
Description of the functions of the OSS
1. Our OSS Functionalities at the network level include:
Network Planning and Engineering (NPE): NPE functions deal with dimensioning the network
based on projected market forecasts. It involves selection of best access technology taking into
account geographical and economic factors. The inputs required for this exercise include
geographical maps, demographic analysis, customer locations and others. The output of NPE is a
network map that contains service types supported, maximum traffic volume supported, customer
classes, network infrastructure costs and operating expenses.
Fault Management (FM): Also known as s Service Assurance, FM functions detect, isolate,
debug and troubleshoot network errors and malfunctions. Network alarm monitoring and handling
is the most commonly employed FM approach. Tools that are used for error troubleshooting are
root cause analysis, event traces and event log analysis.
Performance Management (PM): PM, as the name suggests, is related to the handling of
network operations. Specific functions that fall in the purview of PM are Network Element (NE)
discovery, event reporting, resource availability monitoring, Service Level Agreement (SLA)
management, QoS monitoring, identifying performance bottlenecks and similar others. Most
telecom operators have an integrated Network Operations Center (NOC) to manage these
functions.
Provisioning and Service Activation (PSA): Provisioning process begins with order intake and
ends with service activation. Service requests are commonly delivered in the form of Work Order,
which is a series of actions that need to be performed to complete the provisioning process.
Order templates are created by the telecom operators and activities are assigned to individuals
and groups. After the order intake, the order is validated, followed by planning the service
implementation. After this the concerned NE is configured appropriately to activate the service.
Inventory Management (IM): Inventory management tracks and manages telecom assets such
as equipment, services, financial records, contracts, locations and other data. A database of
these assets is maintained, reported and analyzed periodically to ensure optimal allocation of
resources.
2. Our OSS Functionalities at Business Support level include the following:
Billing and Customer Care (B&CC): Telecom retail or subscriber billing functions include
generation of call records, processing the call records in a real-time or batch mode based on pre-
defined rules (rating), rendering the rated record into the bill and presenting the rendered bill in
the prescribed format. Billing processes vary based on type of data recorded, type of access
network, whether the subscriber is pre-paid or post paid and the rules of rating the record.
Business Plan 33
Interconnect or wholesale billing deals with the revenue reconciliation among interconnected
telecom operators. The processes for wholesale billing remain similar to that of retail apart from
the differences in the volume and rating rules. Customer care involves resolution of customer
queries and requests, generally through a contact center. Many telecom operators also provide
for a web-based customer self-care application wherein the customer where bill presentation,
payment and limited service activation can be carried out. Settlement functions reconcile
accounts between the telecom operators and the content provider partners. The settlement
process is driven by revenue sharing agreements and the computation is based on transaction
value, relationship value, volume, service, region, delivery mode and regulatory standards.
Mediation (MD): Mediation deals with conversion of raw call data to a format understandable by
the billing and accounting systems. Steps involved in mediation are data collection, archiving,
normalization, filtering, enrichment, aggregation, correlation, buffering, format mapping and
reconciliation.
Refer Appendix B-21
Revenue Assurance (RA): Revenue assurance functions enable the telecom operator to
address the issue of revenue leakage. This achieved by advanced analytical processes that start
with customer verification, credit balance checks, usage monitoring through appropriate control
points and interfaces for data extraction, dashboards to present results and workflow based
processes to take appropriate corrective actions.
On a broader level, the demands posed by NGN over OSS and BSS are: Ability to support wide
array of rich end-user applications and services: Quicker roll-out of the above services and
applications; Flexible provisioning of services in order to support variations as required by the
market; Increased efficiency and effectiveness of existing OSS and BSS processes; Closer
working with multiple business partners; Consistent revenue assurance achieved by lower cost of
ownership and investment protection; Matching the challenging QoS requirements of end-
customers; Transparent and seamless inter-process handshake; Greater visibility into customer
usage patterns and data; Ability to support diverse charging and reconciliation mechanisms
Our solution for revenue assurance would be-
The revenue assurance system would include solution template which is ready-to-use and
includes:
• A set of appropriate health checks for monitoring
• Control points & interfaces to extract data
• Reports & dashboards to present results, and
• Workflow to monitor, action & close cases
Fraud Management
Fraud Management System delivers on a 3-step philosophy of Detect-Investigate-Protect. Fraud
Management System detects known fraud types and patterns of unusual behavior; helps
investigate these unusual patterns for potential fraud and uses the knowledge generated to
upgrade and protect against future intrusions.
Fraud Management System is differentiated by its unique architecture that harnesses the power
of proven rules-based alarms and pattern matching driven by advanced statistical techniques.
Adding power to this hybrid detection system is a set of strong case management tools. These
tools provide all relevant case data which are made easily accessible through a single window in
a fast web-based GUI.
Fraud Management System’s high flexibility allows operators of different sizes to customize rules
to suit unique network and business requirements. Moreover, seamless visual alarm linking using
3rd party visualization software reduces investigation efforts, thus decreasing case turnover time.
Business Plan 34
Fraud Management System has the ability to detect fraud types in all telecom environments -
Wire line (PSTN, ISP, VoIP), Wireless (2G, 2.5G, 3G) and across all services - postpaid, prepaid,
VAS, MMS, M-commerce.
Functionalities of Fraud Management System

1. Future Proof Detection Techniques
2. Guard against Repeat Offenders
3. Ensure Pre-paid Service is truly Risk-free
4. Launch Profitable IP-based Services
Trouble Ticket Management

Trouble ticket management consists of the following steps-
1. Capturing Customer Complaints

– Call Logging to keep a track of all the calls made by the customers tio the customer
care of the operator
– Web interface for Call Logging makes the data available to customer care executive
about calls made to them on a web platform.
2. Call Flow Management
– Log Calls according to the problems and methods of resolution
– Multiple Assignments would be made per call with reference to the technician
allocation.
– Call Closure or resolving the problem
3. Call Monitoring
– Track complaints from start to closure
4. Reporting- includes making the relevant entries regarding the processes undertaken for
the resolution of problem
– List of tickets based on status of call
– Ticket Register containing ticket details and actions undertaken
– Action Register containing date-wise log of actions undertaken.
– Query facility
Workforce management
By the use of Workforce Management System, the operating company can

maintain a service call-logging environment that supports interaction with customer service
applications and can be integrated with other help desk functions such as trouble management.
Response to service requirements can be driven by customer entitlement, with those parameters
accessed through the integration with the customer service applications and used to calculate
required task completion deadlines. The system then supports monitoring of task progress and
can indicate the need for escalation procedures when necessary.
To select the best professional to carry out a required activity, Workforce Management System
can assess each technician's skill level and experience with specific systems and equipment. All
of an operating company's workforce can be managed from a central database with local
scheduling authorized as appropriate. Technicians can be divided into teams based on their
complimentary skills, and individuals or teams can be designated as responsible for performing
repair and maintenance activities in specific technological and/or geographic areas. Maintenance
companies and contractors can also be included in the resource pool with rule-based parameters
established to control when those resources are considered for assignment.
When a work order is issued, Workforce Management automatically chooses the available team
or technician most capable to perform the activity. An intelligent scheduling engine sequences
task assignments according to task or location criticality, customer priorities or process driven
timelines. Workforce Management can also evaluate each technician's schedule to minimize
workload imbalance by avoiding such conditions as unnecessary travel or extended overtime
Business Plan 35
EAI (Enterprise application integration)
Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the process of linking diverse applications within a
single organization together in order to simplify and automate business processes to the greatest
extent possible, while at the same time avoiding having to make sweeping changes to the
existing applications or data structures. EAI is the unrestricted sharing of data and business
processes among any connected application or data sources in the enterprise.
The primary challenge faced by organizations today is of integrating different applications and
database systems across various functions and departments. EAI enables an enterprise to
integrate its existing applications and systems and also makes it possible to add new
technologies and applications to the mix so that an enterprise can model and automate its
business processes. EAI Framework enables Telecom Service Providers to achieve seamless
business and process level integration among their BSS and OSS applications
EAI service focuses on integrating new software modules or applications with the existing system
in a company’s IT department.
Refer Appendix B-22
Step 7: Functionalities for Telco 2.0

Over the last decade, convergence has been the buzz word for the industry. Today, we see
convergence entering a new phase - often referred to as Telco 2.0 - where conventional
telecommunications offerings merge with technologies from the Web 2.0 community to form a
virtually endless array of innovative new services and mashups. Not only has convergence finally
entered the mainstream, the communication business models that were once effective are
becoming outdated and need to be changed fast.
Need for Telco 2.0 strategy
• Telecom (including mobile) is one of the worst-performing sectors in most stock markets in
recent years.
• The vertically integrated business model is under attack from all sides: tougher regulation,
new technology (most notably VoIP and open spectrum), arbitrage, new entrants, and
advancing customer expectations.
• P/E ratios suggest little investor belief in this improving. They have low confidence in
“converged” or triple/quadruple-play bundles providing high returns.
Refer Appendix B-23
SaaS advantages to telecom software
1) Market Potential
SaaS has enormous market potential. An IDC study predicts the SaaS market will reach $8 billion
by next year. OK, this is peanuts compared to telecom’s $1 trillion in revenue. But IDC further
predicts that by 2010 more than 70 percent of worldwide software licensing could evolve to a
subscription service model.
2) Network Assets
By definition, the SaaS business model requires network connectivity. Since the application and
data are hosted, the SaaS model cannot succeed without a network. So telcos have a strategic
asset that is a fundamental enabler of the SaaS architecture.
The important question here would be, what type of network support will the software need?
Business Plan 36
3) Service Assurance
SaaS benefits from enhanced telecom services such as security, service assurance, QoS
transport and more. One of the main reasons for the failure of ASPs—an outsourced software
business model similar to the SaaS model—was that network performance was unpredictable
and service quality was low. Also, data security was (and still is) the No. 1 concern for most
enterprises. Telcos can help mitigate these risks for SaaS providers.
4) Bundling Strategy
SaaS aligns with a carrier’s bundle strategy. Operators want to put as many services on their bill
as possible, because bundles have proven to lower churn and drive ARPU via uptake of
incremental value-added services and products. SaaS aligns perfectly with this bundling strategy,
because software is sticky. Once users are familiar with a software package, have their data
loaded and make it part of their routine, they don’t switch. It is simply too painful. Also, software
packages are defined by features, performance and other characteristics that can be sold
incrementally. Again, this aligns perfectly with an operator’s bundling strategy.
From the SaaS perspective, if software becomes a network-based service, then telcos are a
natural channel, because telcos have a billing and care relationship in place; consumers
generally trust their telecom providers, and hence have a propensity to buy recurring services
from them.
5) On-Demand Services
SaaS is on-demand. It is an “on-demand” world according to IBM’s commercials. Telecom
devices—cell phones, set-top boxes, game devices, etc.—are essentially multimedia computers
that can support a range of applications. They should have every conceivable application ever
written for that device available, and ready to use on demand. Telcos can make that happen in
the wireless and cable space, because for the most part they control what the device can and
can’t do. That is the essence of on-demand services, and it is very appealing to consumers.
6) Marketing
SaaS needs marketing channels. Many of the SaaS offerings will target a niche audience—the
so-called long tail. The trouble with the long tail is the difficulty in finding and targeting that
audience. SaaS providers will need a “try it, buy it and put it in front of the right consumers’ face”
marketing mechanism.
The telcos are in the best position to make this happen. Only the telcos have insight into user
profiles, preferences, buying patterns, interests and so on. And, as in the previous point,
operators often controls the device and the customer relationship, so they have a natural way to
promote SaaS offerings—either on a cell phone’s “deck,” the customer bill, at the call center,
online or otherwise.
7) The IMS Model

SaaS and IMS perfectly complement each other. Telecom operators, particularly mobile
operators, are committed to deploying IMS. IMS is about simplifying service creation, monetizing
IP assets and consolidating OSS/BSS stacks.
SaaS aligns perfectly with the IMS model. IMS offers real-time charging, real-time authorization,
QoS provisioning, standard application APIs, service profiles and more. These are exactly the
OSS primitives SaaS will need.
IMS is also about converged access—mobile, broadband, and so on. As such, it is a natural
solution for fixed-mobile voice convergence. But it is also a natural solution for SaaS convergence
—that is, any software, on any device, at any time. Mobility and home-office are not only a huge
driver behind voice communications, but also what you can do with IP devices beyond voice
(namely software).
SaaS based services portfolio
Business Plan 37
We can position ourselves in the market as a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider for
Telecom Management services to operators and enterprises. We can provide our customers with
1. Online Telecom Management (OTM) service [ for operators ]

2. Telecom Expense Management (TEM) services [ for enterprises ]
OTM would be a commercial Electronic Bill Presentment Service offered in a SaaS model
enabling operators to deliver web-based bill presentment, advanced analysis, split billing, cost
allocation, and fleet management services to enterprises.
Our service would boast as a service differentiator for operators as it supports the enterprise
requirement for advanced telecom management tools that enable them to gain control over
telecom spend through a web-based user-friendly service. OTM offers all the benefits of SaaS;
low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), managed service with strong Service Level Agreement
(SLA), and continuous improvement of functionality and performance through customer insight.
Additionally OTM can be operational within days and offers seamless integration with the
operator's infrastructure.
OTM would allow operators to generate new revenue streams by offering advanced cost and
service management services to enterprises, while reducing operational cost by eliminating the
paper bill and making the Internet the first point of contact for bill enquiries.
TEM services provide insight and telecom cost control, and simplifies the administration process
by means of end user self-service. OTM services allow operators to offer electronic bill
presentment, analysis, split billing, and fleet management to customers, leading to higher
customer retention and lower operational cost.
Online Telecom Management

Refer Appendix B-24
Telecom Expense Management

Refer Appendix B-25
Open source in telecom

Refer Appendix B-26
Mashup
A mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single
integrated tool, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided
by either source.
Mashups and portals are both content aggregation technologies. Portals are an older technology
designed as an extension to traditional dynamic web applications, in which the process of
converting data content into marked-up web pages is split into two phases - generation of markup
"fragments" and aggregation of the fragments into pages
Mashups in a business environment
Mashups can have a big role in the business environment specially in telecom software sector
because it addresses the following problems like end-user desire for personalised information
services, addressing information overload issues, and the need for technology integration.
Refer Appendix B-27
Business Plan 38
Mash up Service Delivery Platform for Telecom
We can help telecom service providers to enhance their services by developing Service Delivery
Platform (SDP) 2.0 that enables operators to offer their customers greater access to convergent,
multimedia and "Web 2.0" services on their mobile devices.
The platform also addresses the need for operators to increase revenue from convergent
services while simultaneously reducing the cost and risk of creating such services. SDP 2.0
incorporates software technologies for governance, management and quality that help service
providers take full advantage of the platform's service-oriented architecture (SOA).
This approach creates a unified resource layer through which multiple services communicate with
underlying wireless or wired networks, third-party applications and innovative combinations of
web services known as Web 2.0 mash-ups.
As a result, SDP 2.0 enables operators to create converged services that blend the best of
telecom, web and IT resources. Examples are music, video and business services that
personalize content delivery using:
• network resources that show a customer's active presence on the network or his or her
physical location;
• no web resources for access to vast stores of information, multimedia content and social
communities; and
IT resources such as billing, network management, and other business and operations
support systems (BSS and OSS).
Step 8: Marketing Plan

4 P’s of Marketing Refer Appendix B-28
Marketing mix table
Product. Service Price Image Cost Time Effort Risk

Function
Product Imp Imp Imp Imp
Price Imp Imp Imp Imp
Place Imp Imp Sec
Promotion Imp
Branding for the telecom software
The Five Key Elements of B2B Branding in the telecom software domain
1. Targeted: Our Targeted customers include OEMs, Telecom service providers,

Independent Software vendors, Network solution providers. We intend to supply solution
to all of the above so that we can cater to the most profitable applications throughout the
value chain. Also this strategy helps us to make new customers. If a particular customer
of the value chain is using our product their customers would be temped to buy our
Business Plan 39
product as it would provide ease of integration with their supplier’s system, but we have
to strike a balance between the services that we provide to them as if we diversify to
much too early we would loose the focus and quality of the products. Narrowing down our
products range would be too risky proposition as we then come across as a niche player
in the market.
2. Value Based: Most of our products deal with increasing the revenue, dealing with the
changes and challenges caused due to convergence and increase in the demand of
value added services caused from the customer side thus our products deal with highly
sensitive issues which confront the vendors directly. B2B technology purchases require
demonstrable justification so in order to attract such clients we need to showcase our
strict quality standards and certified processes. Association with a clear value proposition
is a requirement for a strong B2B brand. Success stories and testimonials with
quantifiable benefits are the best tools to promote such value association.
3. Differentiating: There is no market without competition and in our case the competition
is stiffer because the competitors have extensive experience in developing applications
for the telecom market, some like tech Mahindra were formed with the collaboration of
telecom giants like BT and have serious knowhow of the existent systems. Here we can
create a differentiation by offering newer services by studying the market trends and
developing applications for newer platforms. Our suite of features based on web 2.0
features would serve us well in the longer run as these applications would become more
popular in the future.
4. Coherent: translating the value proposition and differentiation into a coherent message is
what makes a brand stick to customers' minds. The only way to know we got it right is to
test our products with the competitor’s products to create trust among our customers.
Another way we can differentiate in market is by novel pricing strategies like risk sharing
pricing methodologies which underlines our customer focus.
5. Memorable: this is the ultimate test of a brand strength. Even if we did all the right
things, and built the value proposition and differentiation into a coherent message that
speaks specifically to the target customers, but if we still haven't done much if they
cannot remember it. This is where we get to the role of marketing communication.
Refer Appendix B-29
Importance of branding considering the market context
Business Plan 40
The Buying Center
Buying centre is the decision-making unit of a buying organization. The buying center is
composed of all those individuals and groups who participate in the purchasing decision-making
process, who share some common goals and the risks arising from the decisions. The buying
center includes organizational members who play any of seven roles in the purchase decision
process:
Sales Dept.
1. When they see the sales are dipping they may
Initiators: People who request that order new system to increase functionality and
improve attractiveness of services.
something be purchased, including users or 2. When they see that competitors are providing
others. new VAS, applications etc. that could cause
churn in the existing customer base.
Technical Dept.
When a function of the organization needs to be
automated new system buying takes place.
Finance Dept.
When they feel that the revenue is leaking out as
they are not getting the amount they are billing their
customer for.
Front Office
1. Sales and distribution- Due to low sales, revenue
Users: Those who will use the product or decrease and high customer churn they may
order a new system
service; often, users initiate the buying
proposal and help define product 2. Service Application- Due to high mean time to
requirements repair faults , less satisfaction among clients and
difficulty in service provisioning the service dept
can be the buyer.
Back Office
1. Finance Dept.- Due to revenue leakage, revenue
decrease and change in govt policies and
taxation norms.
2. New service discovery – whenever a new
technology hits the market or a new technology
platform is emerging.
Management
To implement management support functions
like Business Intelligence, OLAP,ETL and
Dashboards. The companies may order a new
system.
Influencers: People who influence the buying

decision, including technical The influencers in case of telecom companies would be
personnel. They often help define various technical persons and domain experts who would
test the feasibility of the new system.
specifications and also provide information for
evaluating alternatives.
Deciders: Those who decide on product
requirements or on suppliers. The purchase dept takes the decision on what should be
bought by evaluating the proposal of various vendors.
Approvers: People who authorize the The upper management takes the decision of the purchase
proposed actions of deciders or buyers. after analyzing the pros and cons of the deal.
Buyers: People who have formal authority to

select the supplier and arrange thepurchase Purchase dept. formally makes the payment to the selling
terms, including high-level managers. Buyers party.
may help shape productspecifications, but
their major role is selecting vendors and
negotiating.
Gatekeepers: People who have the power to The cross functional team that would consist of people from
prevent sellers or information from reaching various departments who would evaluate the proposal
members of the buying center; examples are thoroughly.
purchasing agents, receptionists, and
Business Plan 41
telephone operators
Telecom Startup Buying Cycles
The diagram shows a typical buying cycle of a telecom service provider.
We can categorize the Buying cycles of the telcos in 2 phases

1. Pre-launch Phase
2. Post launch Phase
Pre Launch Phase would require the telcos to establish the following capabilities.
1. Database services
2. Data and network security
3. Revenue assurance
4. Billing and service assurance
5. Provisioning and service management
6. Mediation
Post launch Phase requires

2. BPM solution
3. Trouble Ticket Management
4. Customer care solution
5. OLAP reporting
6. CRM
7. Order Management
8. Sales Automation
Business Plan 42
Step 1: Situation analysis
In this section I tried to find out the factors which affect training and how we can tackle those by
having Mobile learning. Analysis revealed the following—
1. Organizational wants - One of the most important things that the organization wants
today for its employees is – The learning should start as soon as the employee moves out of
the office and the implementation starts when he is back in the office. This can be provided
most effectively by m-learning.
2. Tradeoff between HR(Training Dept.) and the PM’s – The training department has the
responsibility of getting the people trained, so to accomplish such objectives it organizes
training sessions for employees during the working hours of the day. This sometimes doesn’t
go down pretty well with the PMs because their resource is engaged in training while he
should be on the project he is assigned for. Thus sometimes the HR and the PM are at
loggerheads about the relevance of training. The problem can be resolved if the training is an
ongoing one and the employee can take care of training in his leisure time.
3. Usefulness to specific departments – Departments like ORG which take care of
language training and soft skills training can reach out to students in a better way as the
learners are in continuous touch with the subject. This time for classroom training can be
greatly reduced.
Suggestions – 1.The intercultural training module may be greatly enhanced if the m-
learning component is attached to it.
2. The evaluation for language training can be mobile enabled.
4. Gives new dimension to the concept of continuous learning – The learners are
always connected by a mobile so they could be reached any time of the day. The students
can be given small amounts of information on a regular basis, this would sustain the interest
of the learner over a longer period of time and give him time to reflect and apply the concepts.
5. Achieve the objective of Blended learning – Today most organization go for blended
learning solutions. M-learning provides the missing link in the blended learning puzzle as
concepts can be given through ILT while the evaluation that requires the involvement of
learner only can be done through mobile.
M-learning advantages to the E-workforce
Today’s workforce has a migratory nature; if they are not satisfied with their position or growth
they will keep changing companies. There is an uncomplicated, long-term solution to these
business concerns -m-Learning. M-Learning combined with E-learning not only addresses the
workers' need to develop knowledge and skills, but provides learning-on-demand (LOD). Workers
appreciate and tend to stick to companies which offer them e-learning options, as they see future
growth and security with such a company.
Who are the beneficiaries: M-learning can be of great advantage to management, sales,
marketing, customer service, and professional development as the skills for these require
constant updating of knowledge.
1. Real-time learning.
M-Learning offers real-time learning and application of critical knowledge. M-Learning is
immediate and provides up to date information, this information can be saved and reviewed
again and again.
2. Learner-based training.
M-Learning changes the focus of training from traditional instructor-based to learner-
based training. It can be customized according to the learners pace and needs.
3. Individual training
Business Plan 43
An effective m-Learning system is based upon the learners learning style, job
requirements, career goals, current knowledge, and personal preferences. M-learning creates
individualized learning experiences
4. Learner Empowerment.
M-Learners are responsible for their own learning. This empowers them to manage and
implement their own learning and growth plans. This is crucial for individual growth and
retention of employees. Empowerment creates confidence and direction, resulting in powerful
learning and growth possibility.
5. Global coverage
If you have companies spread out over the globe they can all learn from the same e-
learning program simultaneously. This promotes interaction and development from between all
the employees around the globe. This results in tremendous new ideas as well as what works
and doesn’t work in different parts of the globe.
Implementing m-Learning for an organization
A basic M-learning infrastructure includes a Learning Management System, which when put
together with a micro-portal interface layer will facilitate access to m-learning services through a
variety of mobile devices and also enhance it’s reach through web and TV access. Also in case of
interfacing with devices having minimum multimedia functionalities, and for the benefit of learners
facing sensory difficulties, m-learning has developed speech-to-text and vice-versa and SMS
facilities. In its more advanced phase, m-learning development includes support for collaborative
learning and peer-to-peer interaction.
M-Learning modules are designed to be delivered to the learner from Mobile Learning Portals.
Any learner can install the m-Learning Portal interface by connecting a web link sent to him/her
by a sms.
The portals are guarded by user name and password, on validating the learner’s credentials. It
takes the learner to the Student Locker, where a set of m-Learning module is assigned to
him/her.
An important factor here is the affordability of Mobile Learning. You don’t need a hi-end handset
with fancy features for m-Learning. Navigation inside the course is easy and designed with
usability study. The technology delivers rich Multimedia. The Constructive Instruction Technology
used to design content keeps the Learner glued to the pages.
The various platforms and OS for mobile phones are
1. Windows mobile - Devices that run Windows Mobile include Pocket PCs, Smartphone,
Portable Media Centers, and on-board computers for certain automobiles. It is designed
to be somewhat similar to desktop versions of Windows, feature-wise and aesthetically.
Additionally, third-party software development is available for Windows Mobile.
Microsoft projected in 2008 that shipments of devices with Windows Mobile will increase
from 11 million to 20 million units. Microsoft licenses Windows Mobile to four out of the
five world's largest mobile phone manufacturers, with Nokia being the other.
2. Symbian OS is an open operating system, designed for mobile devices, with associated
libraries, user interface frameworks and reference implementations of common tools,
produced by Symbian Ltd. It is a descendant
3. BlackBerry OS is the proprietary software platform made by Research In Motion for their
BlackBerry line of handhelds. It provides multi-tasking, and makes heavy use of the
device's specialized input devices, particularly the thumbwheel.
Why M-Learning for ESL

• M-learning is the natural extension for e-learning. Developing the e-learning course is
similar to developing m-learning. We are already developing e learning and converting
the content to a mobile compatible form requires much less investment. But m-learning
Business Plan 44
contributes to ROI in a much greater way than e-learning, so considering the benefits that
we can extract from m-learning the costs are peanuts.
• Web enabled mobile devices overtook PCs in early 2003 so to provide e learning
solutions to people who don’t own a PC but a high end mobile phone we need to extend
our services in the m-learning domain. By doing this we naturally target a market size
that is greater than the existing one.
• The premium targeted audience for these services is going to be people who are
constantly on the move like the top management or the sales personnel. Any learning
service to these people will translate into business right away for the organization so the
m learning offerings can be sold to them at a higher value.
• The technology makes anytime anywhere learning possible the learners are no longer
bounded to the classrooms and this technology truly brings the content to learner rather
than learner to content. So, the accessibility of the learning material is extended to any
place the learner goes. This feature would thus shift the onus of learning on the learner
rather than the instructor. This would translate into savings for training department.
• Young people accept hand-held devices as more than just phones: information,
transaction, communication and fun so this type of learning pedagogy targets youth
which is the biggest chunk of learning audience. The demographics of the workforce of
the organization is one of the key points that need to be seen while providing m-learning.
Research shows that RBEI has the average age of the associate as 25 year, so our
target audience is relatively young. This would fuel the growth of m-learning.
• Provides access to previously excluded learners and helps bridge the digital divide. M-
learning provides an easy solution to middle aged employees who are not abreast with
the newer ways of learning. M-Learning is a powerful method for engaging learners on
their own terms especially those who could be classed as non-traditional learners or for
those groups of students who cannot participate in class-room learning for whatever
reason. So m-learning aligns with the HR strategy of the client organisation.
• The WEB 2.0 is affecting learning in a great way. The collaborative tools help the
learners to contribute to the learning community. M-learning takes this association
between the learners to a new level. The mobile workforce along with the static ones can
share knowledge on a real time basis. GPS enabled mobile devices can provide valid
support for instant information access and just-in-time lesson modification, even during
in-field lessons. Learners can take notes directly into the device during outdoor lessons
or on field trips, either typed, handwritten or voice. Thus being on site doesn’t hinder the
contributors. To capitalize on the WEB 2.0 technology m-learning is most suited as
the prime requirement of WEB 2.0 is the constant involvement of the contributors. Mobile
devices only can provide 24 X 7 connectivity to users.
• Shared assignments and collaborative working is also enhanced, several students and
the practitioner can pass the device around a group, or "beam" the work to each other
using the infrared function of a PDA, or a wireless network such as Bluetooth. So sharing
content among the devices is also easy.
• The tools that are used for the development of m-learning are usually the same for the e-
learning so our development team will not face any problems with developing m learning
content.
Tools required for m-learning content development Refer Appendix B-30
Step 2: Trends that fuel m-learning

1. The spending on content and services will dominate the m-learning market in
future- This is because m-learning companies will spend less on the dedicated
technologies as the mainstream technologies are enabling integration with mobile
technologies.
Business Plan 45
Refer Appendix B-31 a
2. Revenues from data and content will overtake voice market- This shows that
customers will be using data services more often. This gives a new found acceptability
among users for m-learning.
Refer Appendix B-31 b
3. Extraordinary range of new networks- The newer networks like 3G and 4G will
facilitate better connectivity over longer distances.
Refer Appendix B-31 c
4. Next generation mobile technology trends

Refer Appendix B-31 d
THE ARRIVAL OF 3G WILL BRING

• The Internet and the WWW will be accessible directly to citizens on their phones
• The data rates available from 3G will make large data transfers from phones practical
• Applications that run today on a computer will be able to run on a phone
• For covering citizens in their homes with the data rates they need to support the services
they want they must have 3G.
• In 3G the bandwidth for applications is available to the phone so that the only limitation to
applications is the imagination.
• It is important that learning and training do not miss out.
Results of a survey done among the members of eLearning guild in September 07
Mobile learning (m-learning) is moving beyond the innovation stage to full implementation in all
sectors of the economy, according to the results of a survey of the members throughout the world
of the US-based eLearning Guild (eLG). Apparently:
• 44.8% of respondents expect to do more m-learning in the next 12 months.
• The US and Canada lag behind other countries in terms of implementation of, and plans
for, m-learning.
• Of those who have implemented m-learning and have measured its ROI, 88% report a
positive ROI.
• Those who have implemented m-learning report a 52% improvement in user performance
and an 83% increase in making learning available to users.
Knowledge Management and m-learning
In relatively short history m-learning and KM have proved their vitality and viability in knowledge
sharing processes. The mobile-KM built strongly on knowledge management technologies and
approaches takes the association between m-learning and Knowledge management to another
level.
Business Plan 46
Similarities between mobile learning and mobile knowledge management
Although m-learning and mKM often are applied in different scenarios they have a lot in common:
• Both carry the attributes of any time and anyplace accessibility to knowledge as well as
Personalisation, context awareness for content creation and delivery, and option for
permanent connectivity.
• Both make use of out of office learning situations or knowledge acquisition “without any pre-
planed infrastructure” thus bringing information to where the people need it instead of forcing
them to be in the place where information resides - classroom, library, etc.
• Both gain from advances in fields of microelectronics, wireless communications and human
computer interfaces.
• Both use the same or similar technology tools and therefore have inherently the same range of
technology limitation such as performance, limited memory, and software compatibility problems.
• In both adaptation of content is necessary when delivering either course content in m-learning
from e-learning system or delivering a knowledge chunk in mKM from KM system. This involves
creating a “cut down” versions of original material and also adding of new features provided by
mobility.
• Both tend to support rich interactive multimedia communication and knowledge capture.
Key concept
The key concept of mobile KM is the context–aware information processing. This means that
the system has certain knowledge about the user’s current situation (in terms of all the temporal,
personal, organizational, environmental, and even global conditions surrounding the user) while
assisting the user in the tasks he is performing with his portable computing device. The figure
highlights in particular the process of context-aware authoring (CAA) and context aware retrieval
(CAR) of information.
Concepts of context-aware authoring and retrieval Refer Appendix B-32
Context aware authoring (CAA) - The user while entering data in the system gives the details
about the relevance and context of the content.
Context Aware Retrieval (CAR) – while the user asks for the data he also specifies the context
this helps him to retrieve the appropriate content quickly.
Business Plan 47
Step3: Content development and architecture
Mobile learning Framework
Means to overcome the problem of mobile phones
Contrary to e-learning, which supposes always-on connection, m-learning could be delivered in

three different ways. We can schematically call them “pure connection“, “pure mobility” and
mixture of the previous two (intermitted connection). “Pure connection” is when the mobile
device is always connected to internet. Now there are quite a lot of technological ways of having
the WWW and other services available for the small devices, i.e. through WAP, GPRS, UMTS,
Bluetooth, etc. On the other hand “pure mobility” is when no connection is available and so all the
data the applications need should be uploaded on the device and used offline. In this case
nowadays mobile phones, have sufficient memory to record a lecture or speech. But the situation
will quickly changes and the new generation cell phones have more processing power, memory
and embedded software.
Learning information system

In order to support the experimentation of any tool or technique of m-learning a rather complex
information system is necessary. Its role should include distributing didactic material, user
identification and authorization, gathering of data relative to the user system interaction,
provisioning of mobile services etc.
General Architecture for M-Learning
The idea of interoperation between a Learning Information Systems (LIS) and mobile technology
is still weakly explored. In this sense we think that the provided m-learning architecture should:
(1) Sit on the top of e-learning platform, i.e. be an extension to traditional LMS and should provide
adapted and additional services for the mobile users;
(2) Be general, i.e. the system should be able to carry out all the services of the e-learning and
all the services for m-learning;
(3) Be generic, i.e. it should be easily extensible for different nowadays devices and also for the
new generation mobile phones and PDAs thus not excluding their usage in the future.
M-learning architecture Refer Appendix B-33
Business Plan 48
Some of the functionalities that need to be supported by the m-Learning system.
1) In first place it is best if a mobile device is able to access all the available system’s
functionalities through either a specific application or through a web/wap browser. This means
that the system should be able to automatically detect the devices’ capabilities and limitations
(software and hardware) and to check what services can be provided. We called this functionality
“Context Discovery” service.
2) The second step should be to select the services proper for the device and adapt them the
best way. Nowadays the main service in e-learning is the presentation of content. Adapting e-
learning material for a mobile scenario might imply something more than a simple reshaping of
material or translating from one presentation language into another. It should be more precise
and could involve different presentation logic than in e-learning (Mobile Content Management).
The presentation adaptation can include adaptation of the structure, adaptation of the media
format, quality or even type, etc.
3) For allowing offline usage we need a mechanism for selecting what is needed by the user and
also for taking care of content’s coherence and synchronization with the system. During the
offline usage it is better to continue the tracking of the user activities and feedback the statistics to
the LMS.
MOBILE LEARNING COURSE DEVELOPMENT
The learning courseware development for mobile has evolved from various phases. This can be
categorised into 3 generations namely—
Generation 1. Development in WAP 1.1 and WML.
This was the use of the general telecommunications technologies that were available at
the time. They were not specific to elearning nor were they used for it. Successful courseware
was nevertheless created
Generation 2. Development in XHTML and WAP 2.0.
By now there were phones with colour browsers, with bigger screens and functional
browsers like Opera. Great progress was made by installing a web-authoring tool like
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Version 1.0, installing a desk-top browser e.g. Opera 6.31 that
has page rendering characteristics similar to a mobile phone, using XHTML 1.0 Transitional to
code the web pages, using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to separate presentation style from
document content. To this was added video functionality and the streaming of video onto phones,
resulting in courseware composed of structuring text and graphics enhanced by streaming video.
Generation 3. Development in Flash Lite.
Our present generation of mobile learning course development in based on Flash Lite.
This development is motivated by the fact that there are thousands of developers who have used
Flash to develop elearning content and that there is a lot of elearning content available in Flash,
so that – for the first time in the history of mlearning – you can reuse the pedagogical and
technical skills of the developers and the content can be reused too.
Criteria for successful mobile learning development
A rich mobile Internet experience includes the following attributes:
• Ubiquity: How widely available is the media player that will be required for the viewer to
see the application on the device display?
• Access: How widely available is the wireless network that will distribute the mobile
content?
Business Plan 49
• Richness: Do pages load quickly? Do animations play in a smooth and seamless
manner? Does the streaming media (media that is consumed—read, heard, viewed—
while it is being delivered) flow at a sufficiently rapid rate?
• Efficiency: How large is the client that will be required to make use of a particular media
player? How fast will the application load and play?
• Flexibility: Will the application be viewable on a variety of devices? Can content
designed for use with one kind of device or operating system be played on other devices
with some expectation of comparable quality?
• Security: Is the interactive mobile device protected from worms and viruses? Is the
shared content protected from being intercepted by unintended recipients?
• Reliability: Will content be displayed in a consistent manner, regardless of the browser,
device, and screen size?
• Interactivity: Does the application allow users to interact freely with the display and the
content?
The New Standard for Mobile Learning: M-learning cycle
ARCS Model of motivational design – This standard of mobile content development

describes a learning cycle, which includes: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction
(ARCS). In the ARCS model of motivation, the initial phase is to attract learners by stimulating
their interest and curiosity. This can involve the use of interesting facts or statistics, conflict,
humor, audience participation, variability, and questions. The second phase is designed to show
learners the relevance of their learning, so that their motivation to learn increases. This can be
accomplished by providing examples, previous experiences, concepts, and presenting goal-
orienting statements. The third phase allows learners to develop their confidence. This can be
achieved by setting realistic expectations, providing opportunities for practice, and elevating the
contents' difficulty to increase learner independence for completion. The final phase provides
opportunities for learners to use their newly acquired skills and/ or knowledge in a real or
simulated setting. Reinforcement sustains the desired learning behavior, which can produce true
satisfaction.
ARCS Mobile Learning Model was created to support instructional design for mobile learning. The
learning cycle in this model includes:
1. Sending a multimedia message to mobile phones to trigger and motivate learners
2. Searching the Web for relating information by using embedded hyperlinks (URLs) in the
message received in the phone
3. Discussing with learning peers by text, voice, picture, or video messaging
4. Producing a digital story telling of what they learn by audio or video diary (mobblogging
journal)
5. Applying what they learn in the simulated environment, such as online educational
gaming
Learning Cycle in ARCS Mobile Learning Model
Business Plan 50
ARCS mobile learning model draws on the philosophy of social constructivism through use of
collaborative discussion and a learning styles theory based on digital story telling. The model
facilitates peer learner interactions via mobile communication. This learning model mainly relies
on the mobile computing infrastructure, and would be most suitable for applications in blended
learning and/ or pure mobile learning environments.
ADDIE Model – Our development process

The ADDIE model that we use for the e-learning course development can be also used for
development of courses for m-learning.
Refer Appendix B-34
Development Process
The course development process at ESL can be described by the following procedure—
1. Preproduction
a) Initiation- In this step the requirements are gathered from the clients about the
course and information about the target audience.
b) Kick off meeting- Our ID team and subject matter experts from the client side
meet and discuss about the objectives of the course, at the end of this process
an official document is made which contains details of contents of course, this is
signed by both the parties.
c) Design (Storyboard) - In this step the flow of the content is freezed keeping in
mind the client requirements and the target audience. This storyboard acts as an
input for the development team and keeps them on the right track.
d) ID review- The ID team thoroughly reviews the storyboard and cross checks it
with the requirement of the client.
2. Production
Depending on the requirements stated in the storyboard the development team
concurrently works on the graphics, animation, video and audio. After all these activities are
completed these are integrated together to form the final course.
3. Post production
After the production part is over the QA team checks for the adherence to standards of e
learning. After the alpha delivery is made and if there are any bugs that are reported the QA
team again fixes the bugs with the help of the development team.
Refer Appendix B-35
Checklist for the training department
We need the help of Training Manager, when we are planning to implement m-Learning in an
organization, we need to make a checklist of requirements and details to get the most out of
learning.
1. Choosing the right Target Audience –
To validate target group’s readiness for accepting mLearning
a) Choose a group of learners widely distributed in different geographies

b) The group of learners who mostly travel and hardly can be put together in a training room
c) The learners who are acquainted with computer based eLearning
d) The learners have basic mobile handset that support multimedia features with GPRS
connectivity
Business Plan 51
But remember, a learner is used to his/her hand phones, you are not teaching them how to use
his/her handset.
2. Deciding on the right Technology –
Using right technology is the key to successful m-Learning implementation
a) Sample survey the different Handset models Target learners’ use. Analyzing this data and
categorize them into Make, OS, and multimedia support
b) If a learner doesn’t have a required hand set-buy him one. It’s cheaper than arranging a
training class for a full day!!
c) Sharing of this Handset data with the Technology Partner and asking them to design a
single build that’s accessible by most of the models, make and OS used
d) Choosing only those features that learners really require
e) Making the content available online and accessible through credential validation only
3. Delivering the right Content –
Delivering the right content for a mLearning is the key to make it effective
a) The content should be granular and It should be of Small bite size. A mobile learner is going
to spend lesser time on it compared to a traditional e-Learner
b) Using Voiceovers for the contextual learning. People are used to listening to a phone rather
than viewing it
c) Using limited Text to appear on screen, just to re-enforce what is been taught
d) Using big graphics and pictures, again to re-enforce learning. Bigger images look better in
small screen
e) Use of assessment and evaluation that gives the m-Learner a sense of satisfaction, Capture
the score and retrieve it from the phone for analysis. The assessment should be game based for
better learner evaluation.
Step 4: Marketing Plan

Formulating the product portfolio
Our Product portfolio for M-learning would consist of the following services--
Product name Target audience

1. Mobile versions of Eclipse and Product Business Managers and Business development
Liability team
2. Support for soft skill training courses like All learner groups
EFGP and Intercultural training in form of m-
Flashcards and m-Evaluation
3. M-Catalogue Marketing professionals
4. Mobile version for BR Lexicon Technical learners
5. Wiki Tutorial for Mobile phones Technical learners
6. Mobile training and product manuals Technical learners
7. Game based learning All learner groups
8. Making Podcasts and audio books All learner groups
Business Plan 52
SWOT analysis of ESL for M-learning
Strengths Weakness
1. We have considerable experience with 1. Small team can hinder progress as the
Bosch in e-learning. As they would be projects increase.
our first customers. 2. Customer readiness is not known
2. We have made courses for diverse 3. Availability of required devices with
topics like technical, soft skills and customers.
management. 4. Competition from companies like t-systems
3. Being a Bosch brand helps us get for Bosch Germany
business and gives financial stability.
4. Score well on CSI, this could help us get
referrals.
5. Animation and simulation enhance the
product quality
6. No substantial investment required for
moving from e-learning to m-learning.
Opportunity Threats
1. M-learning gives guaranteed ROI if 1. New technology and platforms may evolve
infrastructure is in place over time.
2. Targets at more profitable market 2. No standards for mobile learning have
segments like Management and sales. been developed yet.
3. Ideal for a young workforce, who are 3. Device limitation hinders the interaction
proficient working on mobile phones. with the users.
4 P’s of Marketing
Product 1. Migrating available e-learning courses on mobile platform.

2. Language training assistance by giving blended learning solutions
to ORG (Germany and --R--). Eg. Language flash cards and mobile
lexicon.
3. Training learners about reading & contributing through mobile on
DCT- WIKI as it is a compact course.
4. Evaluation of classroom training through mobile quizzes.
5. Assistance for cultural training programs to shift load from
classroom trg
6. Context awareness services for suitable delivery of content and
enabling mobile-KM in future.
7. Integrating WEB 2.0 tools with mobile like blogs, RSS, IM, sharing
calendar, m-conference etc.
8. Podcasts of important lectures, meeting & audio books.
9. Designing user & training manuals for use on site by workers.
Product 1. Good as we are one of a kind service in Bosch and we will first migrate
Quality those courses that are relevant to mobile workers
2. Use of flash courses will provide novelty to courses
Product 1. As diverse as our e-learning courses.
variety
Brand Name Being a Bosch internal department helps us in knowing our clients
better and could influence the sale.
Business Plan 53
Value based As many users are unaware about m-learning benefits we have to price
Pricing our offering according to their perceived value so that price is not a
hindrance.
Competitive To capture new customers who are unaware about the benefits of m-learning to
their department we can give these services for a lower price
Volume By bundling our products i.e. giving blended learning solutions we can fuel the
discounts & sale of our m-learning solutions. This way we can also push customers to buy
wholesale more services.
pricing
We can service the customers by having some of our staff on site but
Direct Sales primarily we will follow offshore delivery model with a distributed work
force.
We can hire agents to bring us business so that we can concentrate on our
Agent sales competencies. The agent commission will be decided according to the number
of deals we finalise.
Public Our sales team will be in constant look out for customers to whom we can
relations provide service.
They would also keep in touch with the existing buyers by sending
information brochures, so that we can get an opportunity of system rebuy,
service or upgrade.
Referral scheme: We could also offer the existing customers attractive
discounts and cash backs if they refer our products to their customers (in
the same value chain)
Sales By bundling our products in such a way that we entice customers who were not
Promotion interested in buying m-learning from us, this way we can hook these customers
to m-learning.
Promotional Activities
1. Launch mobile versions of courses like Eclipse and Product liability. This would help the
people get accustomed to the mobile learning.
2. As the project on Intercultural training is being overlooked by President it makes sense
that we showcase our M-learning development prowess in these courses as we may use
his reference for bagging projects from our German clients.
3. Products like “M-catalogue for Marketing” and “Eclipse for senior managers” help us to
target a market that is more profitable.
4. Giving services like m-flashcards, m-evaluation, m-Lexicon etc. would help connect with
the customers in a better way; hence this promotes the usage of m-learning among
targeted users.
5. Mobile based learning games target youth segment of the employee population.
Business Plan 54
Segmentation
Major buying segments of our services.
Our customers can be broadly classified in 3 groups.

1. Top management, decision makers & sales personnel – The courses for these people
would give them instant insight about the problems they face on a daily basis. Such
courses should give them market information and trends. Eg ECLIPSE
2. HR and training department – Courses that provide training in the most efficient and cost
effective way. We can demonstrate the ROI for such courses as a selling proposition.
3. Technical departments – The technical people require material of quick reference for the
problems they face in their daily work and site. So the courses for them have to be
concise. Courses like DCT-wiki, Lexicon would be useful for such target customers, along
with this we can also provide them with technical guides and manuals.
Targeting
Segment Attractiveness Profitability Effort-research

( Need based) required
Management High High High
HR and Training Medium Medium Medium
Technical High High Low
department
Variables that affect Targeting
1. Demographics
o Industry - Bosch (Germany and India)
o Company size – 4500 in --R--
2. Operating variables
o Technology – Automotive sector
o User Status – Medium and light users
3. Purchasing approaches
o Bosch is a company that has a highly centralized purchasing organization
o Knowledge of Bosch will give us a definitive edge over competitors
Positioning
1. By foray into m-learning we can portray ourselves as the company that provides
end-to-end solutions.
2. Web 2.0 functionality would give us edge among those client organizations
where sharing and collaborative working is very important.
Points of difference for ESL

1. Use of animation in the technical courses.
2. Bilingual courses are our USP.
3. Simulation in courses can be leveraged upon.
Product Differentiation
The most important features of our offering are
1. mobile- KM functionalities
2. Web 2.0 features in course.
Business Plan 55
Formulating the marketing plan according to the stages of the Market life cycle
Since the industry is still in the introduction phase it is important that we take into consideration
the marketing strategies that justify this.
Characteristics
Sales strategies: As the sales in this phase will be slow so we need not worry too much even if
we don’t make profit as the customers are not yet used to using these
services. The primary motive should be making the customers aware about
the services and promote usage among them. According to the “NETWORK
effect” the more people use a particular product or service, the more valuable
it becomes.
Cost per The cost per customer will be very high initially as we would require more time
customer: and resources for doing a work, this would definitely have an effect on the
profits we make. Promotional expenditures are high because of the
need to (1) inform potential consumers, (2) induce product trial, and
(3) secure distribution
Nature of the Mostly innovators and early adopters would be buying our products initially. As
customers: the number of these customers is very small we may not have many
customers in the beginning.
Number of There are not many competitors in this field right now but soon they would
competitors: grow exponentially, so we need to create a brand that could stay afloat when
the number of competitors increases.
Marketing Strategies
Product The product we will offer in this phase will have very limited functionality and
functionality: feature as m-learning has not yet found acceptability in the market. Giving
complex functionality would hinder the learning process; also the targeted
audience may not have the devices to run complex applications.
Price: The margins cannot be too high as this would deter the customer who is
already in doubt about the returns of the service.
Advertising: Being a Bosch internal department we can save the advertising costs to a
great extent as we need not advertise for our services. We would be having
the advantage of word of mouth advertising which is supposed to be the most
cheapest and effective way of driving sales.
Five product levels Refer Appendix B-36
Business Plan 56
Step 5: The Strategic Planning, Implementation, and Control
Process
Planning
1. Corporate planning- This step involves study of the buying cycle of the customers.
2. Business planning – Mapping our sales cycle with the buying cycle of customer.
Identification of the business goals of the customer is also a very important step in this
exercise.
3. Product planning – On the basis of the business requirements of the customer we can
formulate our products and offerings.
Implementation
1. Use of technology like flash and captivate to design the courses which fulfill the
requirements of the customer.
2. Following the ARCS learning model to keep track of learning throughout the learning
cycle.
Controlling
1. Implementation of quality measures at each step of the development process.
2. Evaluating the success of the course on the basis of the Kirkpatric’s Evaluation method
Mapping Customer’s buying cycle to our sales cycle
This exercise helps us in mapping the requirements of the customers which is evident in their
buying cycle and our selling cycle. By mapping both the cycles we can effectively prepare for
the various contact points between our team and the client team. This would improve
efficiency of dialogue between the two
Buying and sales cycle Refer Appendix B-37
Business Plan 57
Awareness Stage
What client sees What we have to do
1. The client is looking for a 1. The presales team should be
company that has more equipped with
previously done similar customer intelligence tools
kind of projects. to find the profitability of the
2. The cost they quote for deal that we are looking
their offerings. forward to.
3. What is the market 2. Referral is a great way to
reputation of the kick start a meeting with the
company? client so we can have the
trust of the customer easily.
3. Showcasing our previous
projects and customer
reviews.
Assessment Stage
Need Analysis
The needs of the customer are 1. We can show the customer
— the similar kind of projects
a) Increasing ROI we have done in past and
b) Increasing Productivity ROI generated for same.
c) Shorten the learning cycle. 2. The business goals of the
d) The HR and training dept. client have to be aligned
wants to decrease the cost with the goals of its
associated with the training. customers and employees
(target audience)
3. Services we can provide
4. Tools and technologies that
we use.
5. Certification that we have
6. Quality standards that we
have.
7. How well our courses rate on
the Kirkpatric’s scale
Resources
1. We need to show what will
be the budget of the
complete course and the
payment options that we can
offer.
2. Time required for the
completion of the course
3. People that would be
involved with the project with
their profile
Finalising Purchase
Decision process
Customer looks for the We have to suggest the solution
probable solution from based on our understanding of
various vendors and maps the the client’s business and taking
problem with the solution into consideration the training
provided. requirements and cultural
context of the target audience.
Solution Assessment
The customer wants to know The story board is made to
how well we have understood finalise the flow and the content
the problems how we plan to of the course. This is then
provide a solution for that. signed off by both parties.
Post sales
1. We should make sure that
the course runs properly at
the client side.
2. Provide Post
implementation service.
Business Plan 3. Build rapport with the 58
customer so that we can
explore the opportunities of
Step 6: Financial Analysis
Revenue generation Model
a) For HR and training departments- As they are driven by increasing ROI, they are very concerned
about cost of training courses, so we can provide this solution to them by selling the solutions to them
without selling the copyrights. This would be beneficial for us when we are making generic courses like
training on SAP because we can sell same products to many customers with minor customizations.
b) For technical departments- To decrease the ownership costs of the training material to smaller firms
we can host these courses through our server. Such customers would be charged according to the number
of heads undergoing the training. This would help us build a client base in small sized firms.
Before embarking on a project we need to:

• To prove the full ROI of m-learning we need to measure its value
• The value of m-learning comes when you link the training solution to the business goals
of the company. That means doing serious front-end analysis before you even invest in
technology, and meeting with executives and business unit leaders to find out what the
business vision is and what obstacles may stand in the way
Effectively Calculating ROI of m-learning

M-learning brings down the expenditure graph and brings out a better ROI if the number of
students undergoing the m-learning program or training is big. The more the number, the more
feasible it is, simple economics.
The ROI ratio of m-learning can be calculated using three different mathematical formulae:
1. Percentage method
For example:
If total benefit = $600,000 & total cost is $350,000 then, ROI is 71.4%
So in other words, one Year ROI = 71.4%
The points that support the case of m-learning when ROI is calculated by this method are:
1. The benefits are recurring for a longer period of time for the amount spent, if the content and
technology don’t change too often, as the same course can be used all over again for different
batches.
2. Moving from e-learning to m-learning doesn’t require too many technology changes, so if a
company has e-learning implemented, then with some more investment in m-learning the
effectiveness of the course can be improved substantially.
2. Ratio Method
Return divided by investment
Business Plan 59
e.g: $160,000 / $40, 000 = 4:1
3. Break-even Time method
Example:
$40,000/$160,000 X 12 months = 0.25 X 12 = 3 months or 90 days
The points that support the case of m-learning when ROI is calculated by this method are:
With the use of m-learning some very important aspects of the training like evaluation can be
done through mobile and at leisure time of the learner so the time period of learning process will
be greatly reduced.
According to the time value of money concept, a dollar earned today is always worth more than a
dollar that will be earned tomorrow, so shifting the training time to the leisure times of the learner
will encourage the learner to spend more time in productive activities for company.
Calculation of ROI has its own limitations.
• The cost savings that reflect that value—increased productivity, a shorter learning curve,
improved retention, and greater satisfaction—are difficult to measure.
• The ROI calculation in the normal scenario never takes into account the time value
associated with money.
• The amount of risk associated with a particular e-learning project or investment.
• It also doesn’t take into consideration the effect of inflation.
Thus for the success of project the total risk involved in the e-learning project needs to be accounted for
through incorporation of all the possible financial outcomes associated with that particular e-learning project
Cost comparison between classroom training and m-learning

The comparative cost analysis between m-learning and traditional classroom training appears
straightforward with quantitative variables.
Classroom Deployment M-Learning Deployment
 Facility costs  Cost of owning a smart phone

 Room rental or overhead allocation  LMS costs
 Refreshments  Course development costs
 Training materials  MIS support
 Teaching aids  Hosting costs (if any)
 Cost of delivering content to user
 Instructor costs
 Instructor salary and benefits (if
internal)
 Instructor fee (if contracted)
Business Plan 60
 Travel and meals
 Learner costs
 Time away from workplace
 Replacement labor
 Travel and living
 Course development costs
Quantifying the benefits of m-learning on the basis of Efficiency and Speed of learning:
The breakdown of costs doesn’t solve all the pieces of the ROI puzzle. At least two additional
factors have an impact on ROI: efficiency (E ) and speed (v).
Efficiency
If learning is defined as knowledge or skills acquired by instruction or study; learning efficiency

(E) can be defined as the sum of knowledge and skills gained that improves performance divided
by the sum of all the information delivered during the learning process.
Perfect learning efficiency--where all of the information delivered leads to learning that improves
performance--is achieved at a rate of 1.0. Unfortunately, most classroom events are inefficient
within the context of the E equation due to the following factors:
• Single course design. Learners vary in skill level, but classroom events assume a single
target skill level. Learners with mastery levels that are higher or lower than those of the
target audience will have a low learning efficiency.
• Poor course description. Once the learner arrives at the classroom, it's too late to
conclude that the course doesn't apply to his or her job, particularly when travel is
involved.
• Quality of instructor. This is the single most important determining factor for the success
of the classroom learning. The costs of hiring a trainer are recurring and vary with time.
To illustrate: A four hour course for a professional might have just 1 hour of useful content for
him. But he has to spend all that time in class for that 1 hour of useful learning, while in m-
learning (like e-learning) he can navigate through the unimportant content to start the training
from the place he wants. Also if he wants to have a glance at those un important topics he can do
it at a leisure time.
Speed
A classroom event needs to be scheduled weeks in advance, but m-learning can enable instant
access to knowledge at exactly the point in time it's needed. The other deciding factor is the
number of persons undergoing the training has no bearing on the costs involved.
Business Plan 61
This increase in speed actually increases the value of the course content simply because of its
improved availability to the learner. Speed, in this case, has a clear value.
Unfortunately, efficiency and speed are rarely accounted for in ROI calculations. Yet, in a very
real sense, they have a significant impact on bottom line performance. So, the next time you need
to figure out e-learning's ROI, don’t forget E and v. Those factors--more than dollars--may
produce the most compelling argument to move to m-learning.
Chapter 3: Learnings
One of the most important learning was how technology enables the accomplishment of business
goals; great technologies come and go without leaving a mark while mediocre technologies
succeed because they solve the business problems at hand. The company with the fastest go-to-
market strategy and cheaper service offerings often wins. This when enabled by IT provides an
edge to the clients
Project 1
For organizations in the telecom industry, reliance on technology is critical. We need to
understand the importance of delivering high quality solutions in a fiercely competitive market,
where the regulatory aspects are becoming more and more stringent. Many of the leading
telecom organizations are turning this into a competitive advantage and adapting their business
models to improve the variety of their services and products and helping create new markets.
Also important is improving the way they maintain the relationships and the loyalty with their
Business Plan 62
customers in a extremely competitive environment. As more mergers and acquisition are taking
place need for integration with global organizations and their infrastructure is becoming important
so that they can Indian companies work in partnership to deliver mobile and distributed solutions
This call s for improvement in the security of information and systems which is becoming more
complex and greater confidentiality is required in the operations. Consolidation in the telecom
space puts IT in the driver seat because when competitors become partners, there is a huge
overhaul in terms of IT, as right from software to hardware, all digital assets have to be
seamlessly integrated. As consolidation escalates both from an operator and vendor perspective,
telecom software providers are bound to get more business from it.
The major functions that technology provides is transforming operations, re-engineering business
processes, and deploying flexible technology architecture to easily accommodate business and
regulatory demands.
What IT firms need to be looking at is way of more innovative pricing of their offerings to curb the
effects of recent rupee rise and newer outsourcing markets coming up.To do the above we need
to understand that there exists different types of pricing models between the various players in
the value chain. For example the relation ship between the content developers and operators
may be based on the revenue sharing model while that between the operators & end users would
be based on the usage or subscription. We need to keep in mind these factors when we are
pricing for individual customers for example it would not be a bad idea to sell our offerings to the
telecom service providers on a revenue sharing basis, seeing the rate at which they are
expanding their client base.
Telecom software has always been one of the most profitable segments for Indian software
developers. But a closer look at the figures shows that more than 80% of the software export
revenues come from contract work. Projects have typically fallen into either the body-shopping
variety or offshore services carried out on Indian soil. To reverse this trend for good we need to
focus more on the product development as they would give us good earnings. Also we need to
take into consideration the changes in the software business models brought about by SaaS, web
2.0 and ON-Demand.
Linking theory to practice
1. We had studied in Enterprise Business Solutions the 3 means by which we can acquire
technology i.e. by Acquisition, Exploitation and Management. In telecom sector
software I came across all three types of methods. Namely in the acquisition method I
saw how Oracle acquired BEA systems to improve their Enterprise Application
Integration expertise in telecom sectors. It may be recalled that most of the telecom
companies have their databases running on Oracle, so it can be seen as a strategic
move to diversify its offerings in this domain. In exploitation method I saw how Infosys
capitalized its expertise in implementing Business Intelligence for its clients in banking
(namely RBS) to provide the BI services like OLAP reporting and Data Mining to its client
in telecom sector, British Telecom. Management method of technology is also very
evident in this sector as there are various partnerships between various firms for
exchange of technology and expertise.
2. Effect of mergers and acquisition on technology. In Business strategy we had
studied the effects of mergers and acquisition on the technology strategy of an
organisation Consolidation has been and will continue to be a vital part of the
telecommunications. The U.S. telecommunications industry has seen several mega-
mergers both announced and completed. The OSS systems will be at the crux of the
ability of the telecom enterprises to be combined, the synergies realized and the future
profits earned. These mergers will generate a flow of new orders to BSS/OSS vendors.
Mergers are compelling events that drive strategic investments. The two transformation
models are:
(1) Choose and go--then transform- In this we have 2 separate technologies that the
acquired and the acquirer firms employ. The suitable of the two will be used until a Next
Business Plan 63
generation technology is not implemented. This integration service is a huge opportunity
for the vendors.
(2)Freeze and transform.- In this we continue using both the technologies seperately
until the newer technology is not finalized.
3. The impact of Business intelligence is very profound for managers and decision makers
in the telecom companies because they need factual information at all times. Business
Intelligence and Data Management help business managers make their decisions better
by converting data into useful information. For IT companies business intelligence, CRM
analytics and data-quality solutions, could be differentiators. IT companies can implement
OLAP reporting, data mining and dashboards functionalities to accomplish corporate
reporting in the client organisations.
4. Business Process Management practice is required to align the most sought after
priorities of service providers with an aim to integrate people, places, processes, data
and systems. An amalgamation of these business elements with attributes like
alignment, transparency and efficiency can bring dynamic process control with lean
operations.It provides maximum value addition by combining Business, Strategy,
Processes and Technologies. The focus remains on building robust, efficient KPI-based
customer-centric processes. This facilitates innovation and continuous process
improvement through BPM Solution which is based on the strong foundation of Six
Sigma and Balanced Scorecard practices.
5. We had studied the the major reason of ERP implementation was to make the diverse
systems interoperable. In telecom domain companies opt for a portal framework to
attain the same result. The IT companies are using their expertise to implement Content
management system (CMS) and diverse B2B systems to attain the interoperability
among the customers and vendors.
6. For telecom companies the data is of utmost priority and integrity of data is one of the key
requirements. The IT firms can Data Cleansing to ensure data correctness, integrity,
uniformity, consistency. This translates into various business benefits like Reduce
operational costs due to improved Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and the ability to
predict performance issues along with seamless network and application operation by
proactive management and fixing of performance bottlenecks.
7. With technologies and equipment becoming obsolete every few years, migration for
technical upgrades and for moving to the next generation products becomes very
important for communication service providers to retain their competitive edge. This calls
for tremendous expenditure on hardware and software which is a tough call for the
decision makers. IT can help in this regard by migrating the old applications onto newer
platforms. For telecom service providers IT can provide 3 types of migration services
namely 1)Application migration 2)Database or service migration and 3) Network migration
8. Customer relationship management is particularly important for services as when the

number of competitors increase, their margins are squeezed so they require to improve
the quality of service and look for innovative solutions for retaining customers. Here IT
companies can help them by providing Trouble Ticket life cycle management that
helps the company to track the customer grievances, assign those problems to
respective individuals and give relevant feed back to customer to solve their problems.
The companies are also looking at methods of Proactive Monitoring to track defects
and problems before the occur.
9. With Value Added Services (VAS) being viewed as the main source of service
differentiation, Telecom Service Providers (TSP) are facing a number of challenges
primarily because of integration of new service delivery platforms with existing
infrastructure frameworks. Service delivery platform provides the core services required
to integrate diverse hardware platforms, third party tools and equipment maker’s
proprietary software applications. The other requirement of the telcos is to implement
Business Plan 64
Enterprise Mobility solutions in order to attain functionalities like Field force / sales
force automation, Field data collection, Unified messaging and collaboration tools,
Mobile banking solutions.
10. As the services industry is growing the regulatory bodies are putting emphasis on
standards and regulations. Telecom clients require specialized consultancy from IT
companies in order to align their processes and products with the existing industry
standards it would also substantially enhance their product quality and acceptance in
specific markets. The IT companies in telecom domain have the advantage of
specialization in telecom-specific technologies and solutions to help the providers to
improve and extend on their market offerings. Certifications (like TL 9000) which can be
used to drive business improvement and to standardize the existing processes of the
customers are becoming mandatory for the IT vendors. The IT vendors are also gaining
expertise in telecom-specific quality management systems like meeting FCC
specifications to increase their portfolio of services.
11. Experience of various IT vendors in the telecom domain translates into business in the
following areas a) execution of new product projects, b) sustaining existing projects, and
c) supporting end-of-life projects
12. Revenue assurance functions enable the telecom operator to address the issue of
revenue leakage, this is particularly important for telecom companies because billing and
charging the customers for the services is of utmost importance to make profits. This is
achieved by advanced analytical processes that start with customer verification, credit
balance checks, usage monitoring through appropriate control points and interfaces for
data extraction, dashboards to present results and workflow based processes to take
appropriate corrective actions.
13. While making a business plan the most important step is the formulation of Business
Model. One of the most important considerations to be made is deciding on whether we
want to be a services company or a product company. Seeing the trends in the industry it
is advisable that our portfolio be a balanced mix of Products and Services as products
give you a chance of rapid growth while services bring back the customer for rebuy which
generates a revenue stream for a longer period of time. The important points that need to
be covered in a business model are a) Customers and value proposition b) Degree of
productisation c) Description of services d) Marketing and sales channels e) Distribution
channels f) Revenue models
14. Thorough study of the value chain is very important to understand the market and to find
the potential customers in an industry. While starting up a business it is very important to
know what growth and profitability lies in the industry. An industry can only prosper when
all the players in the value chain are in good health and it also helps in determining the
opportunity of up selling and cross selling.
15. Today proprietary telecom software is challenged by more innovative software business
models like open source and SaaS this revolution is often referred to as Telco 2.0 -
where conventional telecommunications offerings merge with technologies from the Web
2.0 community to form a virtually endless array of innovative new services and mashups.
Not only has convergence finally entered the mainstream, the communication business
models that were once effective are becoming outdated and need to be changed fast.
Software as a service (SaaS) is a model of software deployment where an application is
hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. By eliminating the need to
install and run the application on the customer's own computer, SaaS alleviates the
customer's burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. Using SaaS
also can reduce the up-front expense of software purchases, through less costly, on-
Business Plan 65
demand pricing. From the software vendor's standpoint, SaaS has the attraction of
providing stronger protection of its intellectual property and establishing an ongoing
revenue stream.
16. SaaS business model works as-By lowering the entry barrier for entry we can increase
the currently addressable market manifolds. For lowering the entry barrier, the SaaS
model prescribes lowering of total cost of ownership of equipments by the customers and
paying just for the service. , a key selling point of software as a service is the generally
much shorter time period required to install and implement new software applications.
Given the rapid growth of e-commerce and innovative Internet applications, it is
paramount that companies react quickly.
17. Open source in telecom - traditionally, telecom cos. developed their own proprietary
platforms and APIs, which have failed to attract large developer communities. Hence the
development of new services has progressed slowly. Now, with competition from the
internet world, carriers are under a lot of pressure to create new services and to launch
them to market quickly. Choosing a platform that is open, standardized and an active
community of users and developers ensures that it will stay around for a long time and it
lowers service development costs. An open and standardized platform is also beneficial
to independent software vendors, who will find it easier to sell their applications to several
operators.
18. Importance of branding - Another key takeaway from the project was why should
telecom software firms involve in branding to a greater extent. One of the reasons is
because because most players provide end-to-end these solutions this calls for
awareness among the target audience. One of the key methods of getting recognised in
a B2B scenario is referrals, by use of this we can tap the opportunity of selling to our
customer’s customer without putting in too much money in promotion.
19. Knowledge of B2B buying - B2B buying procedures are complex and require lengthy
steps to be followed where the suitable vendors are thoroughly evaluated and the
decision is taken with due consultation with departments like sales, purchase, technical
and finance. The contracts are usually given after the interested vendors apply a tender
with the customer firm.
20. Knowledge of Buying cycle - The study of telecom startup buying cycle revealed that
the buying cycle of the telecom firms can be broken down into 2 phases namely pre
launch phase and the post launch phase. The software firm which is trying to cater to the
needs of these companies has to thoroughly understand these phases to refine their
services portfolio.
21. Segmentation strategies - According to Henry Mintzberg “The breadth of a firm’s

operations is seen as one component of its strategy to gain competitive advantage”. In
telecom software segment usually firms use the above strategy which is evident from
their segmentation. The firms have a large array of services which cater to the entire
value chain.
Challenges faced during the study
The sector being very technology intensive one required a thorough study of the available
technologies and standards that are prevalent in this area. Moreover it was difficult to figure out
whether any new cheaper or better technologies are available as substitute to the existing ones.
The challenges faced by this sector are so diverse in nature that it becomes difficult to prescribe a
new technological solution for each of the problem, so I had to target on technologies which
served a broader set of problems of the telecom providers and hence would attract more
consumers. While doing research it was also imperative that I took into consideration the various
technology areas that RBEI was currently using so that it becomes easier for the company to
Business Plan 66
shell out these services without making substantial investment in infrastructure. For the above
research I had to clearly understand the current competencies of --R--, which required meeting
with relevant people who could share insights about the processes and abilites of the
organisation. These people were usually hard to get hold of and more often than not passed the
buck to other people which finally delayed getting relevant information.
Project 2
1. Inherently the success of any service or software is governed by the phenomena of
“Network Effect” -- a network effect is that the value of a product goes up as more
people use it. When we are targeting a market which is relatively new, we have to give
the users a chance of getting accustomed with the product. This may take a longer time
to get returns but if we ensure that people are using it, we can have guaranteed results.
2. The importance of training to organizations is huge and so are the costs. Whenever we
are proposing a new training methodology then special emphasis has to be give to the
ROI part. As, if the ROI is not substantial then the clients may not be tempted to give up
their old trusted way of classroom training. In our case German clients are still wary of
newer methods of training.
3. M-learning is the natural extension for e-learning. Developing the e-learning course is
contributes to ROI in a much greater way than e-learning
4. Today’s workforce has a migratory nature; if they are not satisfied with their position or
growth they will keep changing companies. Therefore training is required not only to
improve the employee efficiency but also to retain him. There has been a need for
learning-on-demand (LOD) and real time learning for the employees.
5. While drafting the segmentation strategies for a company we should target premium
audience like the top management or the sales people as services to these groups will
translate into business right away for the organization, as a result we can sell services to
them at a premium.
6. WEB 2.0 is affecting learning in a great way. The collaborative tools help the learners
to contribute to the learning community. M-learning takes this association between the
learners to a new level. Learners can take notes directly into the device during outdoor
lessons or on field trips, either typed, handwritten or voice. Thus being on site doesn’t
hinder the contributors. To capitalize on the WEB 2.0 technology m-learning is most
suited as the prime requirement of WEB 2.0 is the constant involvement of the
contributors. Mobile devices only can provide 24 X 7 connectivity to users.
7. There are more web enabled mobile phones in the world today; than there are PC so by
m-learning we are targeting a market that is much greater than the existing one. Advent
of new technologies like 3G will have an impact on the data and content market, so
mobile learning will definitely gain from the recent boom.
8. The informal methods of training will have a greater effect upon the organisational
learning and mobile phones and M-learning basically enable that by collaboration and
sharing among the users.
9. Usefulness of M-learning to specific departments is very high like those involved in
language training and soft skills training can reach out to students in a better way as
the learners are in continuous touch with the subject. This way time for classroom training
can be greatly reduced
10. There are similarities between mobile learning and mobile knowledge management like
both use out of office learning situations to contribute to the learning of the employees.
Both use similar technology tools therefore have inherently the same range of technology
limitation
11. The stage of market life cycle has many profound impacts on how the marketing is
done for a product and service in terms of Sales strategies, Cost per customer, Nature of
the customers, Product functionality, Pricing and promotion strategies.
Business Plan 67
12. The learning management system is very important for organisations which have diverse
training requirements so today it is becoming an integral part of training. It is basically a
common platform for launching and updating learning courses.
13. Whenever we are proposing some new line of business we need to see the impact on
ROI to gauge the effectiveness of the plan. The clients and customers who we reach out
to look at this very closely before finalising the deal, so utmost care needs to be taken
when we chalk this out.
14. When we are doing business with external clients it is very important to study their buying
cycle and our sales cycle. This exercise helps us in mapping the requirements of the
customers which is evident in their buying cycle and our selling cycle. By mapping both
the cycles we can effectively prepare for the various contact points between our team
and the client team. This would improve efficiency of dialogue between the two.
15. To gain the trust of the clients it is important to portray ourselves as an end to end
service provider if we want to bag more projects from 3rd party. The clients are looking for
end to end service providers to take care of their future requirements as well
16. The demographics of the workforce of the organization is one of the key points that need
to be seen while providing m-learning. Research shows that RBEI has the average age
of the associate as 25 year, so our target audience is relatively young. This would fuel
the growth of m-learning.
17. A basic M-learning infrastructure includes a Learning Management System, which when
put together with a micro-portal interface layer will facilitate access to m-learning services
through a variety of mobile devices
18. The various platforms and OS for mobile phones are Windows mobile, Symbian OS ( an
open operating system) and BlackBerry OS
19. Revenues from data and content will overtake voice market in the future this shows that
customers will be using data services more often. This gives a new found acceptability
among users for m-learning
20. The key concept of mobile KM is the context–aware information processing. This
means that the system has certain knowledge about the user’s current situation (in terms
of all the temporal, personal, organizational, environmental, and even global conditions
surrounding the user) while assisting the user in the tasks he is performing with his
portable computing device. The figure highlights in particular the process of context-
aware authoring (CAA) and context aware retrieval (CAR) of information.
21. m-learning architecture should sit on the top of e-learning platform, i.e. it should be an
extension to traditional LMS and should provide adapted and additional services for the
mobile users; the Learning Information System should be able to carry out all the
services of the e-learning and all the services for m-learning also it should be easily
extensible for different nowadays devices and also for the new generation mobile phones
and PDAs thus not excluding their usage in the future.
22. The learning courseware development for mobile has evolved from various phases. This
can be categorised into 3 generations namely a)Development in WAP 1.1 and WML b)
Development in XHTML and WAP 2.0 c) Development in Flash Lite.
23. The new standard of mobile content development describes a learning cycle, which
includes: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS). In the ARCS model
of motivation, the initial phase is to attract learners by stimulating their interest and
curiosity. This can involve the use of interesting facts or statistics, conflict, humor,
audience participation, variability, and questions. The second phase is designed to show
learners the relevance of their learning, so that their motivation to learn increases. This
can be accomplished by providing examples, previous experiences, concepts, and
presenting goal-orienting statements. The third phase allows learners to develop their
confidence. This can be achieved by setting realistic expectations, providing opportunities
for practice, and elevating the contents' difficulty to increase learner independence for
completion. The final phase provides opportunities for learners to use their newly
acquired skills and/ or knowledge in a real or simulated setting. Reinforcement sustains
the desired learning behavior, which can produce true satisfaction.
Business Plan 68
Chapter 4
Conclusions
Project 1
Findings
From the market analysis it was found that Telecom software domain is one of the most
profitable sectors for the Indian IT services sector. The telecom software market grew by
55% during FY '06-07, garnering revenues of Rs 17,871 crore. This contribution is likely to
increase in future as more and more countries are availing newer service architecture and 3G
services are becoming a part of people’s daily lives. The firms like techMahindra which have
banked upon this sector heavily for revenue have not been let down and companies like TCS
which in the last financial year increased their portfolio of services have also gained from the
boom in this sector (Tech Mahindra’s revenues soared by 136% while that of TCS by76%)
Business Plan 69
OSS/BSS space continues to be hot as it provides companies the opportunity to offer an
umbrella of services. This is the space where large telecom players need to efficiently deploy IT
for several transactions like online billing and providing value added services. Competition
and consolidation on the telecom space puts IT in the driver seat because when competitors
become partners, there is a huge overhaul in terms of IT, as right from software to hardware, all
digital assets have to be seamlessly integrated. As consolidation escalates both from an operator
and vendor perspective, telecom software providers are bound to get new avenues for growth in
the ongoing year. The major share of revenues still remain global centric with domestic
opportunity coming from players like Airtel and others.
Indian IT firms are well positioned as trusted leaders in managing large and complex
outsourcing engagements. The flexible global network delivery model across geographies,
proven methodologies, vast project execution experience and centres-of-excellence (CoEs),
labs and R&D capabilities in niche technology areas differentiate Indian IT firms from their
competition, so India has changed its image from being a cost centre to a nation which deploys
high end technology for its clients. The various Indian companies have been working on
technologies for Convergence and wireless broadband, futuristic technologies like WiMAX
have also taken their considerable amount of spending from the IT giants. The companies have
been working for IP enablement for operators globally.
Another trend that has been seen in the market is that the firms are moving towards a
collaborative core (partnerships). Indian companies are now collaborating with giants like
Oracle and Microsoft for various technology transfers. The firms have also been trying to
penetrate geographically alongside increasing their presence in the APAC.
The Indian IT companies are shedding their tag of just a technology implementer to a business
transformation partner. Due to vast expertise of the players in this sector they are assisting
telcos in the entire lifecycle from concept to market. Over the last year the IT biggies have taken
up take up large transformation projects all over the globe and are poised in all three-wireline,
wireless and cable companies, to leverage the concept of IP.
Suggestions
On the basis of my research I concluded that firstly we should be going forward with 7 services
considering our present standings namely-
• CI/ISY department is already doing it so we have the necessary expertise in
implementing these services for our clients
• This service provides decision support to managers which is a very important for
our profits, as the target audience is top management.
• OLAP, Data Mining, Corporate reporting can be implemented as part of BI for the
client organizations
2. Network Design Services
• We can help the client organizations in performance testing for their embedded
software requirements as we have the required expertise in developing embedded
software for specialized chips used for gasoline system. Also the team at RBEI uses
tools like loadrunner which is used across the industry for testing software.
• To predict the performance of the system tools like OPNEt is used in RBEI which
are used industry wide for prediction analysis. So our team has the required
experience with such
3. Developing Portal framework for Telecom Service Providers – CI department has
developed a portal for RBEI to integrate several applications to Bosch internet. Similarly
we can integrate various applications of telecom service providers and their customers to
their website.
4. Enterprise Application Integration – CI/ISY department has been providing these

services to make diverse modules of ERP and applications interoperable to each other
Business Plan 70
for this we would require partnerships with EAI implementers’ like BEA systems, Tibco
etc.
5. Migration Capabilities- We already possess the ability of migrating existing applications

onto different and new platforms. RBEI has had several projects like this namely—
EGS department has started migration of the legacy application on to the AUTOSAR
platform.
6. SAM department is trying to sell a product CI-CAT (customer application tool) which they
migrated from VC++ to .net. This product can be particularly useful to telecom service
providers who want various applications for managing customer applications. We can use
this tool to sell it to our telecom customers.
7. Information security is one the most important features in organizations today,
especially for telecom companies, which deal with huge amount of data related to the
customers. RBEI has been certified ISO 27001 for information security and so our data
security department is providing consultancy to various Bosch customers for
implementing such norms. We can provide such services to telecom companies to
comply with ISO norms.
These services can be easily implemented by RBEI for the clients in telecom sector as
we already have expertise for implementing these services for Bosch. Also, these
services are critical to any business today so, the chances of us making huge number of
clients are very good.
The other suggestions included adopting a SaaS business model as SaaS has enormous
market potential. An IDC study predicts the SaaS market will reach $8 billion by 2008. SaaS aligns
with a carrier’s bundle strategy. Operators want to put as many services on their bill as possible,
because bundles have proven to lower churn and drive ARPU via uptake of incremental value-added
services and products. We should also help telecom service providers to enhance their
services by developing Service Delivery Platform (SDP) 2.0 that enables operators to offer
their customers greater access to convergent, multimedia and "Web 2.0" services on their
mobile devices.
I suggested the organization about why branding should be done. There are only a handful
of companies that provide the extent of services that we are planning to give, these
companies give end-to-end services so branding can be a deciding factors for customers to
decide the vendors. Also buying procedures are complex and require lengthy steps to be
followed where the suitable vendors are thoroughly evaluated and the decision is taken
with due consultation with departments like sales, purchase, technical and finance so
branding differentiates us in the market. The buying cycles of the customers were divided
into 2 parts Pre-launch Phase and Post launch Phase so that we can divide our activities
accordingly.
Project 2
Findings
1. It is not technologies with inherent pedagogical qualities that are successful in distance
education, but technologies that are generally available to citizens. Today mobile phones
have provided a very viable way to provide the latter.
2. There are 1.5 Bn mobile phones in the world today for a world population of just over 6
billion. The roll-out of 3G will create pressure for the purchase of 3G compatible
handsets.
3. The training department has the responsibility of getting the people trained; it organizes
training sessions for employees during the working hours of the day. This uses
considerable time of the resources who should be involved in productive work. Thus
sometimes the HR and the PM are at loggerheads about the relevance of training. The
Business Plan 71
problem can be resolved if the training is an ongoing one and the employee can take
care of training in his leisure time.
4. To achieve the objective of blended learning m-learning can play a very important part.
Today most organization go for blended learning solutions. M-learning provides the
missing link in the blended learning puzzle as concepts can be given through ILT while
the evaluation can be conducted at learner’s spare time.
5. Workers appreciate and tend to stick to companies which offer them e-learning options,
as they see future growth and security with such a company.
6. A basic M-learning infrastructure includes a Learning Management System, which when
put together with a micro-portal interface layer will facilitate access to m-learning services
through a variety of mobile devices.
7. The various platforms and OS for mobile phones are Windows mobile, Symbian OS ( an
open operating system) and BlackBerry OS.
8. M-learning is the natural extension for e-learning. Developing the e-learning course is
contributes to ROI in a much greater way than e-learning
9. There are people who don’t own a PC but a high end mobile phone so; we need to
extend our services in the m-learning domain. By doing this we naturally target a market
size that is greater than the existing one.
10. The top management and the sales personnel are very important in an organisation’s
growth, so we can make specialised m-learning courses for them. Any learning service to
these people will translate into business right away for the organization so the m-learning
offerings can be sold to them at a higher value
11. The demographics of the workforce of the organization is one of the key points that need
to be seen while providing m-learning. Research shows that RBEI has the average age of
the associate as 25 year, so our target audience is relatively young. This would fuel the
growth of m-learning.
12. WEB 2.0 is affecting learning in a great way. The collaborative tools help the learners to
contribute to the learning community. M-learning takes this association between the
learners to a new level. The mobile workforce along with the static ones can share
knowledge on a real time basis. GPS enabled mobile devices can provide valid support
for instant information access and just-in-time lesson modification, even during in-field
lessons. Learners can take notes directly into the device during outdoor lessons or on
field trips, either typed, handwritten or voice. Thus being on site doesn’t hinder the
contributors. To capitalize on the WEB 2.0 technology m-learning is most suited as the
prime requirement of WEB 2.0 is the constant involvement of the contributors. Mobile
devices only can provide 24 X 7 connectivity to users
13. The spending on content and services will dominate the m-learning market in future- This
is because m-learning companies will spend less on the dedicated technologies as the
mainstream technologies are enabling integration with mobile technologies.
14. Revenues from data and content will overtake voice market- This shows that customers
will be using data services more often. This gives a new found acceptability among users
for m-learning
15. New network technologies like 3G and 4G will provide seamless connectivity to people.
Because of these technologies the Internet and the WWW will be accessible directly to
citizens on their phones also data rates available from 3G will make large data transfers
from phones practical. Applications that run today on a computer will be able to run on a
phone
16. m-learning and mKM often are applied in different scenarios they have a lot in common
like both carry the attributes of any time and anyplace accessibility to knowledge as well
as Personalisation, context awareness for content creation and delivery, and option for
permanent connectivity. The use of same or similar technology tools results in both has
inherently the same range of technology limitation such as performance, limited memory,
and software compatibility problems. In both adaptation of content is necessary when
delivering either course content in m-learning from e-learning system or delivering a
Business Plan 72
knowledge chunk in mKM from KM system and both require support of rich interactive
multimedia communication and knowledge capture.
17. For moving from M-learning to m-KM the implementation of context–aware information
processing is very important. This means that the system has certain knowledge about
the user’s current situation (in terms of all the temporal, personal, organizational,
environmental, and even global conditions surrounding the user)
18. There are some functionalities that need to be supported by the m-Learning management
system like the mobile device should be able to access all the available system’s
functionalities through either a specific application or through a web/wap browser. This
means that the system should be able to automatically detect the devices’ capabilities
and limitations (software and hardware) and to check what services can be provided. We
called this functionality “Context Discovery” service.In the second step system should
select the services proper for the device and adapt them the best way. Adapting e-
learning material for a mobile scenario might imply something more than a simple
reshaping of material or translating from one presentation language into another. The
system also needs to have provisions for allowing offline usage we need a mechanism
for selecting what is needed by the user and also for taking care of content’s coherence
and synchronization with the system. During the offline usage it is better to continue the
tracking of the user activities and feedback the statistics to the LMS.
Suggestions
1. We at ESL have to be ready for future technologies like m-learning as they can take a
huge share of market very soon and if the potential of this service is completely realized
then e-learning may become a thing of past so we need to take this threat seriously and
prepare ourselves for the future.
2. There are not many competitors in this field right now but soon they would grow
exponentially, so we need to create a brand that could stay afloat when the number of
competitors increases.
3. The intercultural training module that ESL is currently working on may be greatly
enhanced if the m-learning component is attached to it. Also the evaluation for language
training can be mobile enabled. This would shift the load of evaluation away from
classroom training.
4. The product we will offer in this phase will have very limited functionality and feature as
m-learning has not yet found acceptability in the market. Giving complex functionality
would hinder the learning process; also the targeted audience may not have the devices
to run complex applications
5. The ADDIE model that we use for the e-learning course development can be also used
for development of courses for m-learning with some minor modifications in the steps
when compared to e-learning
6. Segmentation strategies- Our customers can be broadly classified in 3 groups namely a)
Top management, decision makers & sales personnel – The courses for these people
would give them instant insight about the problems they face on a daily basis b) HR and
training department – Courses that provide training in the most efficient and cost effective
way. We can demonstrate the ROI for such courses as a selling proposition c) Technical
departments – The technical people require material of quick reference for the problems
they face in their daily work and site. So the courses for them have to be concise.
Courses like DCT-wiki, Lexicon would be useful for such target customers, along with this
we can also provide them with technical guides and manuals
7. Suggestions regarding the product portfolio of ESL.
a. Mobile versions of “Course on Product Liability” and “Eclipse”
b. Support for the soft skill training courses like EFGP and intercultural
c. M catalogue for marketing professionals
d. Making the training manuals available on mobile
e. WIKI tutorial for mobile phones
f. Mobile version of BR Lexicon
Business Plan 73
8. We can help formulating a Checklist for the training department which would help us to
track the requirement of the customers more effectively. This involves
1. Choosing the right Target Audience –To validate target group’s readiness for
accepting m-Learning. It involves choosing a group of learners who are widely
distributed in different geographies and can hardly can be put together in a
training room. The learners should be acquainted with computer based e-
Learning and finally should have basic mobile handset that support multimedia
features with GPRS connectivity
2. Deciding on the right Technology –Using right technology is the key to

successful m-Learning implementation by having a sample survey to know the
different Handset models Target learners’ use. Analyzing this data and
categorize them into Make, OS, and multimedia support. Sharing of this Handset
data with the Technology Partner and asking them to design a single build that’s
accessible by most of the models, make and OS used. Choosing only those
features that learners really require help them to minimise downloading. Making
the content available online and accessible through credential validation would
enable the efficient distribution of content among users.
3. Delivering the right Content – Delivering the right content for a m-Learning is
the key to make it effective. The content should be granular and It should be of
Small bite size. A mobile learner is going to spend lesser time on it compared to
a traditional e-Learner.
9. Sales strategies- As the sales in this phase will be slow so we need not worry too much
even if we don’t make profit as the customers are not yet used to using these services.
The primary motive should be making the customers aware about the services and
promote usage among them. According to the “NETWORK effect” the more people use a
particular product or service, the more valuable it becomes.
10. The cost per customer will be very high initially as we would require more time and
resources for doing a work, this would definitely have an effect on the profits we make.
Promotional expenditures are high because of the need to (1) inform potential
consumers, (2) induce product trial, and (3) secure distribution
11. Strengths of ESL are that we have considerable experience with Bosch in e-learning, and
we have made courses for diverse topics like technical, soft skills and management. So
far we have scored well on CSI, this could help us get referrals. Animation and simulation
also enhance the quality of our products. But our weakness would be small team size
and customer readiness is not known yet for these kind of services.
12. The Revenue generation Model I propose for ESL can be mix of following
a) For HR and training departments who are driven by increasing ROI, and are very
concerned about cost of training courses, so we can provide this solution to them by
selling the solutions to them without selling the copyrights.
b) For technical departments who want to decrease the ownership costs of the
training material and to target smaller firms we can host these courses through our
server. Such customers would be charged according to the number of heads
undergoing the training. This would help us build a client base in small sized firms
13. There are three methods of calculating ROI namely- Percentage method, ratio method
and breakeven time method. M-learning scores well in all the three because the benefits
are recurring for a longer period of time for the amount spent and m-learning doesn’t
require too many technology changes if you already have a e-learning infrastructure in
place. Moreover m-learning scores on the time value of money concept as well as by
shifting the training time to the leisure times of the learner more working hours will count
as productive.
14. There are also various problems associated with ROI like the cost savings that reflect
that value—increased productivity, a shorter learning curve, improved retention, and
Business Plan 74
greater satisfaction—are difficult to measure. The ROI calculation in the normal scenario
never takes into account the time value associated with money. The amount of risk
associated with a particular e-learning project or investment.
15. There are 2 more parameters on which the ROI depends a) Efficiency b) Speed
When compared to class room training m-learning scores well on both the parameters.
16. M-learning also considers the fact about the learner’s skill level, but classroom events
assume a single target skill level. This might be case in point that m-learning is for all skill
levels.
Business Plan 75
ANNEXURE 1
1.
Business Plan 76
Annexure 2
1. BSS
Business Plan 77
2. NMS
3. eTOM Level 0 process
Business Plan 78
4. eTOM Level 1 processes
5. GSM operators business model
Business Plan
Strateg
79
6. CDMA biz model
7. Content Players in market in various segments
Business Plan 80
8. Market Share of Telecom players in the GSM market
9.
Business Plan 81
10.
Players in the fray
TCS
• TCS had a net revenue of Rs 18,685 crore in FY '06-07. Strong international demand and
increasing number of large customers had a positive impact on its profitability.
• The telecom division is the 2nd largest contributor to the revenues of the company; it contributed
16% of the total revenue, Rs 3,006 crore. In terms of growth, telecom has grown by around 50%.
• The majority of the telecom revenues came from international clients, and telecom services saw
excellent growth in Europe.
• It is well positioned as trusted leaders in managing large and complex outsourcing engagements.
The flexible global network delivery model across geographies, proven methodologies, vast project
execution experience and centers-of-excellence (CoEs), labs and R&D capabilities in niche
technology areas differentiate it from competition
• Added 218 customers and closed 12 deals of more than $50 mn
will be reaching the peak of the telecom value chain and will take off.. We would maintain our position in the
international and domestic markets with special focus on the next generation solutions. TCS is fully geared
to meet the demands with adequate business and technical domain expertise.
TCS foresees opportunities in areas like IP and broadband networks, next generation mobile services, IT/IS
operations and BPO. Some of the focus areas for us would be SOA enablement, service and product
portfolio management, NGN/IP migration, product engineering and conformance testing, broadband, VAS
and mobility applications.
Business Plan 82
• Focus areas for FY '06-07 —
o long-term SI contracts
o IP transformation
o assurance and BPO services
o continuous innovation in mobile applications for enterprise productivity as well as
broadband applications
o
• Factors that contributed the growth of this division—
o transformation engagements in the OSS/BSS space across geographies
o Developed platform for integrating more than 45 applications for a Telecom major in
Europe
o SOA-based solution for Pre-Pay point of sale was implemented for an Indian telecom
service provider
o Selected by a North American telecom major to provide end-to-end F&A services.
o A North African service provider selected TCS for the implementation of order
management, inventory, and provisioning of voice and data services providing an
opportunity to expand its footprint in the MEA region.
o A leading T&M company selected TCS for a mission critical engagement for providing
WiMax solution.
o It helped a leading service provider to set up its 21st Century Network (21CN) test factory.
o Growth in communications and network solutions has come from network management,
IMS, NGN transformation, broadband applications, assurance services, BPO and COTS
implementations in the OSS/BSS space.
o TCS was also selected by the one of the largest mobile phone manufacturers to develop a
B2B retail portal platform for a leading US wireless company
• Future Growth areas—
o Convergence and wireless broadband
o Focus on technologies such as WiMAX
o IP enablement for operators globally.
Wipro
• Its the largest third-party telecom R&D services company in the world.
• For FY '06-07 the revenue from its telecom business, that includes telecom software and network
integration services, stands at Rs 3,471 crore. This indicates a 24% growth over the previous fiscal.
The telecom business has contributed 23% to the overall revenue of Wipro.
• The revenue from network integration services is Rs 1,028 crore, which combines network
consultancy design and integration, network management services, and network security services.
• The telecom software revenue is Rs 2,443 crore, which combines revenues from system
integration and software, telecom software products, and embedded telecom software among
others.
• Wipro has realigned its telecom business units to combine product engineering solutions and
telecom service providers to form telecom and product engineering solutions vertical. This vertical
will focus on both telecom service providers and telecom equipment and device vendors.
• It will provide R&D support for product engineering, software services in niche areas like IPTV,
mobile TV and set top boxes, OSS/BSS system integration and enterprise networking
• Wipro's telecom software revenue is mainly from North America, Europe and Japan while its
networking solutions, network management, and security revenue is predominantly from the Indian
market. In FY '06-07.
• Continuing its aggressive mode, Wipro has made many strategic tie-ups and acquisitions last year.
June last year, Wipro acquired Saraware Oy, a 21 years old company in Finland, specializing in
telecom systems.
• Its client list includes 8 of the top 10 equipment manufacturers, and 10 of the top 15 communication
service providers globally.
Business Plan 83
• 99% of its telecom solutions and SI business for both equipment manufactures and service
providers comes from outside India.
• Focus areas for the FY 06-07—

o Wipro had significant OSS/BSS system integration wins in India.
o Consolidated its dominance in the telecom equipment business, and grew in mobile and
consumer business which is a significant differentiator.
o Combine all round growth in TSP, leverage IT, BPO and network competence, and
incubated telecom professional services
• Factors for growth of the division—
o Entered into a joint venture with Motorola to deliver managed services for telecom
operators.
o Signed a licensing and development agreement with British Telecom (BT) to jointly
develop an advanced mobile/remote workforce management system called 'mPower'.
o Oracle and Wipro came together to deliver Oracle Communications Operations Support
Systems addressed at the IPTV industry.
o InfoVista and Wipro expanded partnership to support the growing carrier Ethernet market.
o Wipro Infotech also acquired 3D Networks and Planet PSG, which has a strong presence
in business communications, convergence, and voice integration
• Future growth areas—
o moving towards a collaborative core (partnerships)
o observing a trend of consolidation with lot of mergers and acquisitions taking place
o To further penetrate geographically, Wipro is leveraging its strength of Wipro Infotech's
presence in the Apac.
o heavily investing in four competency groups which focus on OSS/BSS, service delivery
platform, network testing, and network solutions
INFOSYS
• Revenue from services in the communications segment, for Infosys, stands at Rs 2,681 crore for
FY 2006-07-a whopping 71% growth over previous fiscal's telecom revenue of Rs 1,566 crore.
• The telecom segment contributes 19.3% to the overall revenue of Infosys, becoming one of the
highest revenue generators for the company. In the previous fiscal it was 16.5% of overall revenue
• Infosys continues to look West rather than the domestic market. It has increased its footprint in
North America and continental Europe. Among the 40-odd customers, Infosys has 15 original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and over 25 non-OEM telecom companies.
• The elite clientele boasts of 7 of the top 10 communication service providers worldwide, 5 of the top
6 North American telecom companies, 4 of the top 6 European telcos, a leading Asia-Pacific telco,
3 major cable operators, and 2 major ISPs. British Telecom and Telstra are two key clients the
company has officially announced its partnership with.
• Growth areas in FY 06-07
o Infosys enabled British Telecom (BT) launch rate-adaptive broadband speeds of up to
8Mbps on a national basis
o Infosys leveraged its Global Delivery Model to deliver quality software and developed an
operations support system (OSS) for a down-stream rate adaptive ADSL technology,
instead of fixed rate technology
o
• There are three main families of solutions that Infosys offers to the communications services
clients.
o The first of these is called 'Concept-to-Market' solutions, which includes a
comprehensive set of processes or solutions related to business process
redesign, product development lifecycle and value added services.
o The second family of solutions is called 'Lead-to-Cash' that addresses the
process cycle from getting a lead to an order, then billing, and finally getting the
cash (revenue).
o The third family of products is what it calls 'Trouble-to-Repair' under which
Infosys offers 'scenario based customer service' which covers the cycle of
customer service from the point when a trouble is reported by a client's customer
to the repair point
Business Plan 84
• Focus areas
o It is broadening its service offerings
o Moving on from just a technology implementer to a business transformation partner
o assisting telcos in the entire lifecycle from concept to market
o To go deeper into the cable and wireless segments
o To take up large transformation projects.
o enable all three-wireline, wireless and cable companies, to leverage the concept of IP
multimedia subsystem or a converged platform for voice, data and video.
o Mobile TV, IPTV, VoIP, are the other areas the company is looking to provide services to.
o To be a complete end-to-end partner who can lead a client's entire transformational
program; right from conceptualizing and executing the change.
Tech Mahindra
• Tech Mahindra had a spectacular year posting a whopping 136% growth as compared to the
previous year. It deepened its relationships with key customers and secured the largest deal in the
history of the Indian IT industry by signing a five-year $1 bn deal with the BT Group. Meanwhile, it
added 21 customers.
• The company generated Rs2,929 crore in revenue from services during 2006-07.
• Tech Mahindra earns about 75% of its total revenue from professional IT services that can also be
handled by rival IT services companies. The other 25% of its revenue comes from higher-margin
project services
• 75% of Tech Mahindra’s total revenue of Rs897 crore in the quarter ended 30 September came
from Europe with UK-based BT PLC, a key client and a stake holder, contributing 64% of its total
revenue. North America is Tech Mahindra’s second-largest market for the company, accounting for
19% of the company’s total revenue.
• It has been rated 3rd Largest BSS System Integrators in the world and 5th largest overall BSS
company in the world - Gartner
o DigiSoft.tv , provider of IPTV Solutions to the global market, and Tech Mahindra
Limited , enetered into partenership to bring advanced IPTV service management
and delivery to the global market.
o for growth in Scandinavia and Israel it is following a strategy of acquisitions and
developing its own development centres.
o Tech Mahindra is looking for an acquisition in the telecommunication sector to acquire
more expertise in product engineering, application development, or IT.
o won a multi year deal to assist a leading technology company to provide managed
services of legacy applications involving application support and maintenance to a tier
1 US communications service provider.
o Moving towards high end, high value added services such as managed platforms and
consulting
o Expansion of services portfolio in growth areas of BPO, Remote Infrastructure

Management
o Created a joint venture in partnership with Motorola known as CanvasM to deliver

targeted solutions in the form of Value Added Services
o Acquired iPolicy Networks, a network security product company to complement our

strong Security Practice
Subex
• Subex technologies earned a revenue of 340 crore in FY ’06-07. Which is a growth of 87% over its
previous year revenue
Business Plan 85
• It is a leading global provider of Operations Support Systems (OSS) solutions for telecom operators
and continues to win major Tier-1 OSS contracts in North America.
• It also unveiled a new version of its industry-leading Revenue Operations Center (ROC) and is
launching new products in its Revenue Maximization and Fulfillment and Assurance business lines.
o Subex announced the launch of OptimaTM 4.6, which is a new version of its Route
Optimization system
o Romtelecom selected Subex Rocware™ solutions to form the core of a Revenue
Operations Center
o The company had closed seven new customer deals within one of the fastest-growing
BSS/OSS markets of Latin America.
o Last year Subex secured 21 new North American OSS deals.
11.
PEST Analysis of telecom software scenario
CHANGE NATURE OF IMPACT

TYPE CHANGE IMPLICATION
1.Govt. has established s/w parks & sez for rapid growth of
s/w services LEADING TO
POLITICAL 2. Representation of s/w heads in cii has contributed to CONSUMER
more favors for sector DISTRUST
3. Tax holiday has been given to this sector
4. Stable govt at the centre helps economy.
5. To meet the regulatory standards of govt telcos require
s/w.
1. Lot of educated manpower

SOCIAL 2. Connectivity is now a necessity
3.Half of India’s population is below 30 yrs. & they have
more disposable income
4. Internet has removed the barriers of diversity
5. m-learning and e- learning are now facilitating learning
6. Internet helps connectivity as commuting is becoming a
problem for big cities.
1.Business is now conducted on the net

2. home economy is doing well along with telecom and s/w
ECONOMIC sectors
3. to lower cost of ownership and operation telecos requires
s/w expertise
4. international investment in s/w and telcos in India is
increasing
5. Telecom is the basis of infrastructure for all industries.
6. S/w can help telcos. to prevent revenue leakage.
7. Connectivity is required to manage globally distributed
workforce.
8. S/w can help the telcos. to stablise the trade cycle
9. Increase in jobs has increased per capita spending on
Business Plan 86
telecom.
1. Convergence services are the need of the hour

TECHNOLOGICAL 2.new services require platform development
3. Faster development & release of products from
telcos. require s/w
4. Implementation of m – commerce requires help
from s/w
5. to capitalise on 3 g service’s revenue telcos need to
evolve fast with their services
6. India is now developing into a R&D hub for telecom
s/w.
7. Expertise of Indian s/w firms is required for IP
enablement for various foreign telcos.
12.
Market Risk Analysis
13.
Business Plan 87
Software product Software service
1. have the potential for higher 1. have more stable and continuous
profitability, but business and
2. require higher investments and 2. easier growth path, but
3. are more prone to business 3. higher marginal costs and
fluctuations 4. slower growth potential
Many good companies try to capitalize on both domains to expand their revenue base. So I
suggest we go for a balance between the two approaches.
Synergies between Software Products and Services
How Services support How Products support

Products: Services:
1. Services can close the deal 1. Services can be more effective
2. Services strengthen lock-in 2. Higher margins for services
3. Services create additional revenue 3. Increased lock-in for services
4. Services provide on-going customer 4. Entry barrier for competition
feedback 5. More revenue
5. Service activities can provide new
leads and initiate repeat sales
Characterizing Software Product vs. Service – based Business

Models
Software Product Software Service
Companies Companies
Product �Well-defined releases and � Modular product structure
development release � Target platforms and interfaces
cycle better known
� Product decisions critical � Configuration mgmt
� Configuration mgmt (if several
versions of product are offered)
Customer � Understanding different � Serve all needs optimally
relationship customer � Shorter feedback cycle
types � Customer and domain
� Focus on generic features knowledge
� Ability to make decisions
� Product and technology
excellence
� Manage partners
Skillbase � Product mgmt � Service orientation
� project mgmt � Communication skills
� Technological competencies � Customer domain knowledge
Business Plan 88
14. Business model Template
Business Plan 89
15. SaaS pricing
In this case, the vendor “breaks even” with SaaS after three years. Up until this point, the vendor
generates more revenue with a perpetual license and maintenance fees. After three years, the
vendor nets more revenue with SaaS.
16. Factors influencing software pricing:
• Large one-time development costs, low marginal costs

• Networking Effects
• Lock-in
• Commoditization of the offering
In most industries, price competition eventually leads to price structures that are based on
manufacturing costs. In software, manufacturing is almost free and differentiation can be more
easily maintained
Cost based pricing is not necessarily the right pricing strategy
Most companies understand pricing models and strategies rather poorly
Currently used pricing strategies:
• Reference pricing: prices are set based on competitors’ price levels
• Cost-based pricing: prices are set based on development and delivery costs
• Ability to pay: prices for deals are set based on estimates of knowledge of customers’ paying
ability or budget
• Value-based pricing: prices are set based on the value the offering provides to the customer
Pricing Strategies Characterized
Reference pricing: prices are set based on competitors’ price levels

• Relevant when competitors’ products are relatively similar
Business Plan 90
• Leads to price deterioration
Cost-based pricing: prices are set based on development and delivery costs
• Appropriate when differentiation is difficult to reach
• Provides a basis for long-term, viable business
Ability to pay: prices for deals are set based on estimates of
• Knowledge of customers’ paying ability or budget
• Specific customer information allows maximum profit from each deal
Value-based pricing: prices are set based on the value the offering provides to the customer
• Appropriate when the offering can be differentiated from competitors’ offering
• Customers with limited risk-taking ability may initially prefer this strategy
• Customers may be unwilling to share profits in the long run
17. An ETL Process
18. OLAP reporting
Business Plan 91
19. Data mining
20. Mobility solutions
Business Plan 92
21. Mediation
Business Plan 93
22. EAI
23. Saas Architecture
ACTORS INTERESTS
SI: system integrators

VAR: value added resellers
Business Plan 94
The SaaS Business Model—Addressing the Long Tail
By lowering the entry barrier for entry we can increase the currently addressable market manifolds. This is
the business model of SaaS. For lowering the entry barrier, the SaaS model prescribes lowering of total cost
of ownership of equipments by the customers and paying just for the service.
24. ONLINE TELECOM MANAGER
• Online Telecom Manager (OTM) delivers web-based bill presentment and self-service telecom
management tools on a proven operator platform.
• Online Telecom Manager enables operators to broaden their enterprise managed services portfolio
with reporting and analysis tools.
FEATURES
• Asset inventory of subscriptions and devices.
• Online bill presentment at all levels of the enterprise organisation, from telecom managers down to
end-users.
• Financial analysis across the enterprise organisation, regardless of the number of offices or
countries the company is represented in.
• Split billing allows for separated and automated cost allocation of private vs. business spend or
allocating cost against projects.
• Service Level Agreement monitoring between enterprises and the operator as well as between
telecom managers and end-users.
Business Plan 95
• Flexible integration with operator portals and billing infrastructure.
OPERATOR BENEFITS
• Service differentiator. Online Telecom Manager supports enterprise requirements for relevant
telecom management tools.
• Revenue opportunity. Online Telecom Manager enhances the operators’ Managed Services
offering, this higher level of service can lead to new revenue streams.
• Churn reduction. In-depth insight into enterprise telecom usage will help to offer the right services
and price plans to customers, this will strengthen the relationship and reduce churn.
• Fast service deployment. Online Telecom Manager can be operational within 3 months.
• Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). We can offer a complete outsourced solution, with no
upfront investment.
• Decrease operational costs. Online Telecom Manager enables moving from a paper bill to an
electronic invoice saving handling cost. It also reduces help desk costs by providing self service
support to end-users for billing enquiries and dispute resolution.
BENEFITS TO ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS
• Comprehensive understanding of telecom usage and spend. Automated management reports

provide an instant summary overview of individual, departmental or company spend of all telecom-
services (mobile voice & data, fixed line, RAS etc).
• Optimisation of telecom services. In-depth understanding of actual telecom usage of the

organisation helps to optimise telecom services; e.g. employees can use the most suitable telecom
products and services based on their profile. In addition it supports telecom innovation by
monitoring uptake and cost.
• Productivity Improvement. Telecom managers and cost centre managers are equipped with
relevant tools to effectively control their complete telecommunications fleet.
• Split Billing. The web-based tool allows all telecom users to automate the allocation of telecom
cost for personal or business use or against projects
25. TOTAL TELECOM MANAGEMENT
• Total Telecom Management (TTM) solution helps you to save telecom costs and manage
your telecom resources more effectively regardless of the number of operators or end-
users involved.
• Total Telecom Management solution places the responsibility for managing cost at the
end user level, the intuitive and user-friendly tool allows the end user to allocate telecom
spend to cost centres or project codes and personal vs. business calls. This leads to
increased cost awareness and lower telecom spend.
• Total Telecom Management is a web-based user-friendly Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

This model offers customers competitive advantages by means of a scalable and
comprehensive solution that can be implemented quickly and without initial investments.
No special software or interference from IT is needed.
Business Plan 96
BENEFITS OF TOTAL TELECOM MANAGEMENT
• Centralised telecom management. Automated management reports provide an instant

summary overview of individual, departmental or company spend of all telecom-services
(mobile voice & data, fixed line etc).
• Easy policy implementation and enforcement. The service makes implementing and
enforcing corporate policies centrally and automatically easy.
• Operator independent. The tool is designed to support very large groups of mobile
users across multiple operators.
• Telecom innovation made easy. Total Telecom Management offers the right telecom
usage information for your business case (e.g. VOIP). After implementation system
monitors your innovations with automated reports on uptake and cost.
• Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). We can offer a complete solution, with no upfront
investment and a payback period.
• Subscription advice. Analysis of your actual telecom spends offers you to the right
insights for procurement and offers tailor-made advise for changing subscriptions.
• Tax compliance (VAT/private usage). Legal requirements in some countries require

companies to be able to accurately account for personal phone usage for VAT purposes.
We can offer a service that works quickly and efficiently to ensure your organisation is tax
compliant.
26. Open source in telecom
Traditionally, telcos developed their own proprietary platforms and APIs, which have failed to
attract large developer communities. Hence the development of new services has progressed
slowly. Now, with competition from the internet world, carriers are under a lot of pressure to
create new services and to launch them to market quickly.
Choosing a platform that is open, standardized and an active community of users and developers
ensures that it will stay around for a long time and it lowers service development costs.An open
and standardized platform is also beneficial to independent software vendors, who will find it
easier to sell their applications to several operators.
Openness may also bring benefits to another important player in the communication ecosystem
of the future, namely the end user.
We can also model our offerings according to the open source platforms such as—
GNU Bayonne is a customizable telecommunications application server that can be used for a
variety of telecom applications such as interactive voice response systems and telephone system
administration tools. It facilitates the creation of telecom applications that can be directly
integrated with traditional scripting languages and tools commonly found on free software
platforms such as Linux. It also offers a wide degree of telephony hardware support and a
modular architecture through plug-ins.
27. Mashups in a business environment
Business Plan 97
Mashups can have a big role in the business environment specially in telecom software sector
because it addresses the following problems like end-user desire for personalised information
services, addressing information overload issues, and the need for technology integration.
It is becoming more straightforward for end-users to create mashup services regardless of their
technical skill level by using a Application Programming Interface (API). This provides a simple
way to implement mashups and new consumers can create a mashup easily. With all APIs
available, enterprises can easily build applications that are cheaper, more reusable and more
maintainable. The web 2.0 is all about the personalisation of information. In that context,
mashups can grow faster since every mashup can offer new features from existing websites. This
approach also solves the problem of information overload as the users themselves organise the
information without bothering the company.
Architecture of Mashup Application
The architecture of Mashup web applications is always composed of three parts:

- The content provider: it is the source of the data. Data is made available using an API and
different Web-protocols such as RSS, REST, and Web Service
- The Mashup site: is the web application which provides the new service using different data
sources that are not owned by it.
- The client web browser: is the user interface of the Mashup. In a web-application, the content
can be mashed by the client web browsers using client side web language for example
JavaScript
28. 4 P’s of Marketing
Business Plan 98
Product 1. OSS/BSS for telecom operators.
2. Testing services for OEM’s.
3. Service delivery platform for TSP.
4. Trouble ticket management
5. Migration services
6. Consulting
Product 1. At par with the competitors in the s/w development area
Quality 2. Better in the embedded development as we have expertise in it
Product 1. End-to-end services to small service providers.
variety 2. Specialised OSS services for TSP.
3. SaaS based services for Telco 2.0.
Brand Name Bosch is a big brand but its services division is still unknown, while its
competitors like tech Mahindra and TCS have been around for a long time in
this domain.
Services Consulting, System integration, Migration
Value based To capture customers in the small TSP segment, we have to price our
Pricing offering according to their perceived value
Competitive To gain orders from large TSPs we need to price our offerings at par with our
competitors
Loss Leader By offering a very discounted price we can gain newer customers in the small
TSP segment, the losses that we face in the deal can be compensated in our
future deals with the company ie. Razor-Blade business model. Seeing the
trend of consolidation in the industry, it is inevitable that the small players will be
acquired by large players. Thus, we can charge a premium when we have to
integrate such products to the OSS of the acquiring firm.
Volume By bundling our products for the small and large TSP we can help these firms to
discounts & chose right set of products at right prices. This way we can also push customers
wholesale to buy more products.
pricing
We can service the customers by having some of our staff on site but
Direct Sales primarily we will follow offshore delivery model with a globally distributed
work force.
We can hire agents to bring us business so that we can concentrate on our
Agent sales competencies. The agent commission will be decided according to the number
of deals we finalise.
Public Our sales team will be in constant look out for customers to whom we can
relations provide service.
They would also keep in touch with the existing buyers by sending
Business Plan 99
information brochures, so that we can get an opportunity of system rebuy,
service or upgrade.
Referral scheme: We could also offer the existing customers attractive
discounts and cash backs if they refer our products to their customers (in
the same value chain)
Sales By bundling our products in such a way that we can offer our less selling
Promotion functionalities with our important and most selling applications, at a suitable
price.
29. Segmentation Strategies.
Business strategies of the telecommunication software vendors

According to Henry Mintzberg “The breadth of a firm’s operations is seen as one component of its strategy to gain
competitive advantage”, i.e. we can analyze an organizations’ strategic types based on breadth as a competitive
dimension. The basic classification according to this dimension is to narrow/niche strategies and wide/broad strategies.
Also in our analysis, the breadth of operations plays an important role. Determining whether companies deploy niche or
broad scopes allows identifying the current positions and likely actions of the OSS/BSS software vendors. With the aim
of observing the breadth of operations, the current offering of the software is reflected against the segmentation of the
market. The OSS/BSS vendor may provide software for only one or several segments and, accordingly, deploy niche or
platform (i.e. broad) strategy.
The segmentation, provided on top of the eTOM framework, is also able to reveal two new types of strategies, which lie
somewhere between niche and broad strategies. We hypothesize that in the OSS/BSS market there would be vendors
specializing in one vertical process group (e.g. billing) and in one horizontal layer (e.g. resource management). Such
specializing is likely in the telecommunication software industry, where large parts of CSPs processes may
be common between companies, resulting in outsourcing opportunity of the software development, and where for
historical reasons the focus on software development has been close to the network interface. A notion of vertical and
layer strategies enable a deeper analysis of the current strategies and may also expose important factors regarding the
horizontalization of the market.
Business Plan 100

Segmentation on the basis of eTOM model
The market scope strategy used by the vendors has yet another dimension: the extent of focus on telecommunications of
the vendor. In order to examine this, the vendors’ telecommunications industry focus is measured by calculating the share
of a vendor’s revenue from the telecommunications sector of its total revenue. The assumption is that in the latter phases
of software market evolution there should be more firms which focus less on the telecommunications industry, i.e. firms for
which the telecommunications industry is only a minor source of revenue. Based on the theories on market evolution,
market segmentation in
Figure 1 and the two dimensions, breadth of operation and focus on the telecommunication industry, it can be
hypothesized that OSS/BSS vendor might consider seven distinct business strategies. The hypothesized strategies are
described below. The first two strategies are both niche strategies and they are separated by the focus on
telecommunications.
1. Telecom specific niche strategy. This refers to the strategy of companies operating only on
the OSS/BSS market and concentrating only on one market segment. The companies deploying
such a niche strategy must possess distinct knowledge or strong customer relationships. Market
entry using a niche strategy seems to be usually connected with the introduction of a new
network technology (e.g. WiMAX) or middleware.
2. Cross-industry niche strategy. Some software market segments have common properties
with other industries. For example, sales or billing processes are generic enough to be supported
with similar software in telecommunications and other industries. A company thus might carry out
a cross-industry niche strategy, providing similar software also to other industries than the
telecom industry. As, however, the network interfaces remain telecom specific, market entry is
most feasible with this strategy close to the customer interface.
3. OSS/BSS platform strategy. This strategy is deployed by the vendors possessing broad
expertise on both telecom specific technologies and processes. These companies generally have
the resources to opt for wide breadth of operations. Such a vendor provides OSS products for
several segments, at least one of the vertical segments and/or one of the horizontal layers as
described above and in Figure . Vendors in this strategy class are the established firms in the
OSS/BSS market, e.g. network equipment providers, having their focus on telecommunication
industry.
4. Horizontal platform strategy. This strategy is deployed mainly by the software ICT
industry heavy-weights. Here, a software vendor has market presence through middleware
platform and pursues to expand to telecommunication specific segments. Usually, such
companies obtain missing pieces, knowledge on processes and interfaces, through mergers and
acquisitions. Within the past two year, more than two dozens of OSS firms have been acquired by
major generic software companies, including Oracle and IBM. The strategy class can be
characterized as having broad breadth of operations, but only small focus on telecommunications
industry.
5. Telecom specific vertical strategy. This refers to a strategy where the vendor provides
software in at least two market segments, but in only one of the vertical segments presented in
Figure 1. To be able to provide software for managing vertical processes (fulfillment, assurance
or billing), a vendor is required to have special knowledge on both, the particular processes and
the network interfaces related to this vertical. A company might, for example, offer mediation,
offline billing, real-time charging and interconnect billing software that integrates into a solution for
the billing vertical. This kind of a strategy is also typical for the established firms on the OSS/BSS
market.
6. Telecom specific layer strategy. This refers to a strategy focused on supplying software to
one of the horizontal layers (customer, service or network management). Established companies
would likely be close to the network management layer, whereas new entrants are likely to
appear close to the customer interface. The telecom-specificity of vendors operating with layer
strategy is two-folded: On one hand, strategy of providing software systems on network
management layer should be regarded as having high telecommunication focus. On the other,
Business Plan 101

the companies providing CRM software close to customer interface tend to be cross-industry
players.
7. Service providers. This class consists mainly of system integrators, which provide CSPs
with software consultation services, tailor-made software and integration of software products as
a service. A service provider benefits from being a generalist, knowing a little bit about a large
number of products. Therefore, service providers are considered to be present in several
segments and have less telecom focus. The Figure below depicts the two dimensions of our
strategy analysis and the seven business strategies for the telecommunication software vendors.
Referring to the aim of the article on whether horizontalisation exists in the telecommunication
software market, it is worth mentioning that there are three strategies with low focus on
telecommunication industry. The presence of the vendors operating in multiple industries should
be regarded as indication of cross-industry horizontalisation. This also has implications to the
lifecycle phase of the OSS/BSS market as elaborated above.
Framework for OSS/BSS vendor strategy analysis and strategies
Segmentation on the basis of the services that we provide for the various sectors in
telecom.
Business Plan 102

30. Tools required for m-learning content development
Similar tools
Tools Description used in ESL
for e-learning
1. Used for recording, mixing, editing, and mastering —
Adobe
Adobe Audition it is the all-in-one toolset for professional audio
Audition
production
2. Windows CE Remote Display application
enables you to put a copy of your PDA screen Microsoft
CERDISP
on a computer monitor or light projector to NetMeeting
share it with other users
3. Magic SS a screen capture tool for PDAs Captivate
4. is a lightweight version of Adobe Flash Player, a
software application published by Adobe Systems.
Flashlite Flash
This version is intended for mobile phones and other
non-phone, portable electronic devices
5. Quizmaker provides a set of tools for creating highly
Articulate customized Flash-based quizzes, assessments and Articulate
Quizmaker surveys without the need for difficult programming Quizmaker
6. This tool can be used to make movies in various file

Adobe Adobe
formats this helps when we are making contents for
Presenter Presenter
various mobile devices.
7. It is a graphics editing program developed market
Adobe Adobe
leader for commercial bitmap and image
Photoshop Photoshop
manipulation
31.a Trends that fuel m-learning
Business Plan 103

31.b Spending on Data and voice in various markets
31. c Extraordinary range of new networks
Business Plan 104

31. d Next generation mobile technology trends
32. the context–aware information processing
Business Plan 105

33. M-learning architecture
Business Plan 106

34. The ADDIE model that we use for the e-learning course development can be also used for
development of courses for m-learning.
35. Development Process

The course development process at ESL can be described by the following figure—
Business Plan 107

36. Five product levels
1. Core benefits – facilitate learning on the move.
2. Basic or generic product – Fast and efficient learning.
3. Expected product – shorten the learning curve and increase ROI.
4. Augmented product – Web 2.0 features
5. Potential product – migrating from m-learning to m-KM.
37. Mapping the client buying cycle and our selling cycle
Client’s buying cycle
Business Plan 108

Our sales cycle
Business Plan 109

Internship Robert Bosch

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A Report on the

a) Business Plan for RBEI’s entry in Telecom Sector

M/s. Robert Bosch Engineering and Business

Symbiosis Centre for Information

Chapter 2: Analysis of Work Done

Project 1 – Business plan for Telecom Sector Software

Project 1 – Business plan for Telecom Sector Software

Project 1 – Business plan for Telecom Sector Software

E-Learning department (ESL)

Challenges for Handset Vendors

Challenges for Network Equipment Vendors

Challenges for Telecom service providers

Fundamentals Required (Technology and Methods)

OSS are generally divided into 3 domains

Refer annexure A-1

Present scenario of technology and methodology

Manage the customer account

Function #2 — OSSs/BSSs enable operators manage their service offerings

• Defines technical, legal and contractual specifications of service (SLA, regulatory)

Function #3 — OSSs/BSSs enable operators to manage their network

Ensures proper operations of equipment

Why is the OSS/BSS domain so challenging?

Network services are complicated

Project 2: Business plan for m-learning

i. The spending on content and services will dominate the m-learning

Target market identified

I. Top management, decision makers & sales personnel

Behavioral factors of the target market

Cost comparison between classroom training and m-learning

M-learning advantages for ESL

Background of the study

Chapter 2: Analysis of Work Done

Trends that support the need of OSS

CURRENT CHALLENGES IN VARIOUS SEGMENTS

Keeping abreast of evolving technology and Efficiency-increasing strategies including

Transforming operations, re-engineering business Comprehensive strategies to automate and

Therefore based on my research I concluded that

5. OSS (operation support systems)

Step 2: Study of technologies and standards

OSS are generally divided into 3 domains

4. BSS – Handles business operations and is customer centric, done by operations

Business Support System (BSS)

5. “Service” OSS - Handles service oriented OSS like Assurance

6. NMS – Handles management of network resources, done by network engineers.

Refer Appendix B-2

Industry standards / models

TMN’s Service Management / Network Management layers

2. The TMF Model

TMF eTOM model

Refer Appendix B-3

eTOM for Telco business processes

• Highest conceptual view of the business process framework

Refer Appendix B-4

• FAB” is still the core of the Operations area

Strategy, Infrastructure & Product

• SIP” encompasses strategy and lifecycle management processes in support of

 Uses GUI which guides order takers or customer-care representatives through

 Provisioning (Service Configuration, Network Provisioning and Activation)

 Involves specifying which pieces of equipment and network routes a given

 Maintains the status of communication equipment. Gives an in-use view of the

 Trouble Ticket Management

 Suggesting technicians based on skill sets/location.

Study of GSM business model