New survey reveals that telecom marketers starting to take the lead in defining new products

Published 24th September 2008

Yet only a small percentage of products make it from concept to launch

Redwood City, California – September 23rd, 2008 – A new survey carried out amongst marketing, business and product managers at communication service providers in both established and emerging markets, has highlighted that the launch and design of new products is now a marketing-driven process for a majority of operators.

The survey was commissioned by Ceon, a leading provider of product lifecycle management software for operators, and revealed that product design is no longer just a technology-centric activity that has historically been led by development and operations teams. For 51% of operators, product creation and development is now led by the marketers. This is evidence that telecommunications operators are beginning to adopt more market-responsive approaches to defining products that have many variations, are introduced more quickly, have shorter ‘shelf-life’, and more importantly, are lifestyle linked.

The survey also revealed that a large proportion of product ideas do not make it from the drawing board to ‘market-ready’ products. For two thirds of operators (66%), less than half of all new product ideas are eventually launched and delivered to market. Only 4% of operators are able to convert 75% or more of their new product ideas into fully fledged marketable offers. For those ideas that make it to market, the survey further revealed that one third of respondent operators were taking 18 weeks or more to get the product idea from concept to market delivery.

Yogen Patel VP Product Management and Marketing at Ceon comments: “The survey reflects that the days of ‘one size fits all’, no longer apply. The findings clearly reflect a much needed culture shift towards more creativity, as marketers and not technicians, now lead the charge to best determine how to meet the market’s needs through delivering creative bundles and convergent offers.”

He adds: “What’s perhaps more telling from these findings is that a relatively low proportion of products are actually making their way from concept to delivery, and even for these products, the lead time to get to market is long. There clearly is considerable room for improvement in terms of the processes and tools being used for product creation, product management and product delivery. Operators need to ensure that they have the right systems in place - such as integrated product lifecycle and product catalogue management software - to be able to quickly define and launch a variety of differentiated products. With competition intensifying between operators, it will be those that are most responsive, flexible and streamlined in their processes that will ultimately win new customers and retain the loyalty of their subscribers.“