Dallas, TX November 5, 2007 – The TM Forum announced today the release of its first business benchmarking industry report entitled “Growth Strategies: Getting the Balance Right.” The report, co-produced by the Forum and industry analyst firm OSS Observer, gives the telecom and cable industries an unbiased look at the rapidly changing market landscape, and highlights the need for service providers to pursue a mixture of short-term and long-term revenue growth strategies.
The report combines key analysis of data gathered by the TM Forum Business Benchmarking Program with OSS Observer's revenue and subscriber growth expectations through 2011.
According to Toni Graham, who head’s the Forum’s Business Benchmarking initiative, “One of the key takeaways from the report is that many of the old guidelines for success are changing. Traditional call revenue is continuing to plummet, and while mobile revenues are still growing, average revenue per user is declining. This means that getting the investment balance right is essential.”
Some additional key findings in the report include:
• CSPs need to drive revenue growth around interactive and content based services - hardware and software investment key to this long-term strategy
• Business Benchmarking data shows little difference in customer retention between postpay and prepay business models
• Developing countries can grow mobile penetration above 30% by accepting extremely low revenues per user - but they must continue to crunch costs to make this approach work
• Residential Broadband and Enterprise Services promise double-digit growth through 2011 - wireline CSPs must exploit these sectors to drive revenue
Martin Creaner, president of the TM Forum added, “The Forum’s job is provide tools necessary to help service providers improve their operational effectiveness.
Our benchmarking program gives the global industry a unique tool to pinpoint best practices and compare business performance to their peers globally.”
The business benchmarking program is free to participating members and includes participation from more than 35 major service providers from around the world. To obtain a free copy of the report, visit http://www.tmforum.org/browse.aspx?catID=4846
Note: If you are an industry analyst interested in learning more about how you can collaborate on future reports, or if you are a service provider interested in participating in the benchmarking program, please contact Toni Graham at tgraham@tmforum.org
About the TM Forum
With over 630 members in 65 countries, the TM Forum is the world’s leading trade association focused on management of information, communications and entertainment services. The Forum provides leadership, strategic guidance and practical solutions to improve the way that services are created, delivered, assured and charged. Members include the majority of the world’s service providers, network operators, software suppliers, equipment suppliers and systems integrators.
The Forum currently facilitates over 80 technical programs and provides extensive training, conferencing and information services to its members. Through its initiatives to help providers move to 21st century ‘lean’ processes, the Forum helps its members automate business processes by deploying operational systems that will work seamlessly across various parts of the service delivery chain. The organization provides industry benchmarks, guidebooks, process and software frameworks and specific ‘plug and play’ standards. These give service providers the direction and specific roadmaps to achieve much greater business efficiency and operational flexibility.
For further information regarding the TM Forum, related programs such as the Prosspero initiative and its Management World conferences, please visit www.tmforum.org
About TM Forum Business Benchmarking
The TM Forum Business Benchmarking Program provides accurate and relevant comparative data as a tool to aid effective decision making in the areas of strategic planning, budgeting and program selection. The program comprises 2 key initiatives: TM Forum's Operational Performance Benchmarking Study and Reports and TM Forum's Billing Performance Benchmarking Survey and Report
Media Contact:
Juliet Shavit
TM Forum
+1 215-504-4272