Hi David,

with service delivery , identity, etc - I have seen IDM (identity management) architectures being proposed as IDM servers connected to a CRM.  

The reason for raising this is that with cable and IP services that apply parental controls, secondary accounts (the family) and possibly guest type accesses, these (additional)  users can be added to front end of the system (the SDP), but they may never get recorded in the CRM - if the CRM's souce of truth is the billing  (account level) system.  The CRM may also not understand the issues around parental controls or the performance of the self care capabilities.

I mentioned guests here too as it seems a good idea for customer acquisition reasons that account holders or secondaries can add friends to the account base (easily). ie. A customer centric SDP should have the functionality that supports customer acquisition strategies.  

How critical is this difference between the front end and back end of an operator's system?  Depending on the services offered, it may be possible to have 10m account holders in the Billing , CRM, -  but in the front end of the IP services business there may be 2-3 times that number - How will we know these users are enjoying their experience?.

As for user behaviour I have noticed if a web (e.g. self care) page takes to long to load or doesnt look interesting - or even opens up with a form of questions, the user simply clicks the close tab - and moves on and the operator doesnt know why. So in my view - the relevance and productivity of the user transaction starts to reflect a satisfaction level.  I think we need some where in the system, something that detects the "wasted self care transaction" .

Is there a baseline CRM and trouble ticket data model we can work with?

This and the other discussions that have begun in this area seem to me to be ripe for contributions.  I invite you and other followers of this blog to consider creating one or more to begin the process that can lead to targeted project work to enhance the TM Forum product line, to the benefit of all.

I find it especially promising that the discussions are clustering around Customer Satisfaction--a key element in the Revenue Management Intiative's core theme.

Alan:

As for your question about the appropriate data model to work with, it would naturally derive from the Information Framework.  That being said, I have asked some of the experts on the content of that Framework to expound on what to expect when acting on that advice.  I know that several activities in upcoming Catalyst demonstrations at Management World 2011 in Dublin indicate the intention of leveraging the results of the Catalyst into contributions to appropriate areas of the Information Framework to futher enhance its utility in this area.