Morristown, New Jersey—May 16, 2006 – The TeleManagement Forum announced today the general availability of the first round benchmarking results from its Business Transformation Benchmarking Program. Leading service providers from across North America, Europe and Asia participated in the benchmarking activity, providing one of the most comprehensive and international databases of service provider business performance metrics in the industry. Participants in the first round of data collection include: Bell Canada, BT, Telstra, TOT, TELUS, Belgacom, TDC, T-Systems, Starhub with others waiting to join in Round two.
"We believe this study has the potential not only to allow Telstra to successfully benchmark its performance against industry peers but ultimately result in identifying organizational improvement opportunities for our business," said Michael Lawrey, Head of Networks for Telstra Corporation.
Validating the TM Forum’s core theme of improving business effectiveness through transformed back office processes and systems, the benchmarking program revealed a strong interest among service providers to learn more about customer care best practices—with the most metrics completed by service providers in the categories touching on the customer experience. Specifically, the results suggest a strong correlation between customer self-service programs and cost savings.
”We are pleased at the number of service providers that have actively participated in the benchmarking program and the quality of the results we are seeing,” said Martin Creaner, CTO of the TM Forum. “The results of the benchmarking program also indicate a desire in the industry for operations and customer care to be more closely aligned – a trend the Forum noticed when it launched a number of technical programs this year on the customer experience,”
The preliminary benchmarking results indicate that the majority of service providers still rely heavily on the telephone and prefer customer care representatives to be the primary source for customer interaction despite the fact that this is the expensive option when compared to web-based self-service alternatives.
“'Continuous world-class service requires management feedback that only international benchmarking can provide” added Tim Short, Director of Technical Operations for France Telecom. ”Involvement in the TMF program will supply that extra dimension to ensure we continue to excel in our service to Customers”'
Benchmarking results are available for purchase to subscribers. Participants in the benchmarking study receive free access to the results. For more information about how to participate in the benchmarking program or to purchase a subscription, contact Joyce Pierce at jpearce@tmforum.org.
About the TeleManagement Forum
For more than 16 years, the TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum) has provided leadership, strategic guidance and practical solutions to improve the management and operation of information and communications services. Through its “Lean Operator” initiative and flagship New Generation Operations Systems and Software (NGOSS) program for developing, procuring and deploying operational and business support systems, the TM Forum creates collaboratively developed, industry standard solutions. These solutions, delivered through a set of guidelines and specifications, define the direction and specific roadmap to achieve business efficiency and operational flexibility – the hallmarks of the Lean Operator.
The TM Forum has 500 members in 60 countries, including incumbent and new-entrant service providers, equipment suppliers, software solution suppliers and systems integrators. For further information regarding the TM Forum, related programs and TeleManagement World, please visit www.tmforum.org.
Contact Information:
Media Contact, Europe:
Phil Rawcliffe
Liberty Communications
+44 (0)20 7751 4444
phil@libertycomms.com
Media Contact, USA:
Juliet Shavit
SmartMark Communications
+1 215-504-4272
jshavit@smartmarkusa.com
TM Forum Contact:
Monica Zlotogorski
TeleManagement Forum
+1 201 945 4959
monicaz@tmforum.org