Benefits Automatic Configuration Automatic Verification Customer Care Subscriber Self Care

In the past, mobile operator customer care organizations were faced with the considerable challenge of having to provide top notch customer care while not having the ability to see or control the configuration of the phone they had to support. This challenge was compounded by being dependent upon the reports and descriptions of subscribers who may not even know their own phone number much less what their IMEI, APN, firmware version or MMS settings. Fortunately things are different now. With the advent of OMA-DM and applications such as InnoPath's Configuration Verification based on it, network operator customer care capabilities are expanded and accelerated.

Earlier device management solutions, built upon OMA-CP, were well intended and useful for many applications, but in the end some of the issues associated with early device management protocols, such as a lack of extensibility or adaptability to future requirements, became obvious. Mobile operators are increasingly turning to OMA-DM.

Solutions such as Configuration Verification, built on OMA-DM, can read as well as write configurations, unlike CP based solutions, which can only write settings. While it may have been adequate in the past to “fire and forget” or send stateless configuration settings over the air and hope for the best, experience has shown that the ability to read and confirm configurations over the air adds considerably to the overall utility of any configuration management solution intended for mobile operators. The session based communications used by Configuration Verification helps close the loop and confirms new settings and execution of device management commands.

Automatic Configuration

Operators need to be able to make a phone work as soon as one of their SIMs is inserted. Automatic Device Detection and other techniques are part of the equation, but once the device is detected it is still of little use until it is fully configured. In the past, OMA-CP based solutions would send a configuration SMS to the device and hope that all went well. Now, with OMA-DM based solutions, the operator can push settings to the handset and then complete the device management session by verifying that the desired settings have been made.

Automatic Verification

In many markets consumers may buy phones configured for a different network or perhaps for no network at all. A friend may give a phone to a subscriber on a different network. Ebay, brokers and other sources add to the confusion. With Automatic Verification, the operator is able to ping the handset and check settings such as APN and MMS. Should the observed values differ from expected values, the device management server can push and later verify correct configurations to the device.

Impact on Customer Care

Many mobile subscribers will have trouble telling you the make and model of phone they have. Some may even have trouble telling you their phone number. Considering the difficulty that many have with supplying such basic information, it is clear that support organizations would find it useful to be able to integrate packages like Configuration Verification to gather data about the device such as make, mode, firmware version etc., perhaps even pre-populating CRM system screens before the subscriber even talks to the CSR. Not only would this save time, but it would also improve accuracy and reduce frustration on the part of the subscriber, who may not be very familiar with the handset. CSRs would not have to depend on subscribers to walk through complex menu systems in order to read out confusing settings; they could pull up the information directly from the handset and push corrections out as well. This is much faster than manually reading off settings to the subscriber and certainly less error prone.

Subscriber Self Care

InnoPath offers a Customer Self Care Portal, an easy to use extension of MDM that provides mobile operators with the ability to extend the power of mobile device management to the web. This means that subscribers are able to use Configuration Verification, letting the server read, and, if necessary, correct settings on their phones, with no waiting on hold. This provides considerable savings for the mobile operator while increasing satisfaction for the subscriber who is empowered to fix his or her own phone.

For more on configuration verification, please see our Configuration Verification and Device Troubleshooting piece.