Report

Operational Service
Blueprint & GAP
Analysis
RADCOM

Submitted By:
Karan Mathur 242007
Table of Contents

Executive Summary.....2
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Company Overview ....................................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Support and Project Paths............................................................................................................. 5
METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................................... 6
2.1 Universe of Study .......................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 Locale of Study .............................................................................................................................. 6
2.3 Sample Size/Technique ................................................................................................................. 6
2.4 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................. 7
LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................... 8
ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................................... 11
CONCLUSION..13
APPENDIX 1A QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................................................................................. 15
APPENDIX 2A REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 16

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Service blueprint is a way to visually explain and map the system supporting a service. Through

literature review, this report addresses the core of Service Blueprinting by analysing the

organization RADCOM and trying the figure the GAP Model. It also tries to analyse the

overall customer satisfaction level by making use of a Questionnaire and circulating it among

the customers. It also discusses the Blueprint components and the applications of Service

Blueprints.

There has been a significant change in the content of the blueprint, which now includes more

information on the customer experiences. A potential for improvement of the service blueprint

can be found to be its communicative properties, now being very complex and with missing

information hierarchy.

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 INTRODUCTION

Company Overview

RADCOM has served communication service providers for over 25 years, partnering with them

to help manage the complexity of delivering a high-quality customer experience, effectively

preventing and troubleshooting problems, and assuring high revenue return.

Founded in 1991

Traded on NASDAQ as RDCM since 1997

Patented, first-to-market, disruptive vProbe technology

Experienced engineering, innovative R&D DNA

200+ industry experts with vast CSP understanding

Global offices, worldwide customer base

RADCOM offers a service assurance and customer experience management (CEM) solution

for virtual, hybrid, and physical networks. RADCOMs software-based NFV ready assurance

enables CSPs (communication service providers) to optimize subscribers user experience,

maintain\delivery of high-quality network services, significantly decrease expenditure

associated with traditional physical probe-based deployments, and future-proof their assurance

with a fully virtualized solution. RADCOMs MaveriQ is a cost-efficient] software-based

solution that offers an immediate revolutionary change in the sizeable costs associated with

traditional physical probe-based deployments.

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The world's largest service providers and telecommunications operators use RADCOM's

Service Assurance solutions

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Support and Project Paths

RADCOM provides Projects and Post Sale life cycle activities

Both groups are involved in the transition period and lead by projects

Different escalation process for each of the processes

Projects Post Sale

Planning On-going support
Development Health check and system
Deployment monitoring
Training Preventive maintenance
New features Patches and SW updates
ATP

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 METHODOGY

This part describes the methodology for the pilot study done on RADCOM. First, the use of

pilot study data in pretesting questionnaires, the characteristics of the study sample and the

methodology are discussed

Universe of the Study

India is currently the worlds second-largest telecommunications market and has registered

strong growth in the past decade and half. The deregulation of foreign direct investment (FDI)

norms has made the sector one of the fastest growing and a top five employment opportunity

generator in the country.

This study is conducted by keeping the Telecom Industry in mind. It comprises of various

operators and vendors which provide services, software and infrastructure in the

communication technology.

Locale of the Study

This report is based on the GAP Analysis of RADCOM and also covers the Operational

Support Blueprint. The questionnaire was prepared after keeping the above criteria in mind and

was answered by few employees of the customer TCL, currently in Pune.

Sample Size

The sample size is an important feature of any study in which the goal is to make inferences

about a population from a sample. In practice, the sample size used in a study is determined

based on the expense of data collection, and the need to have sufficient statistical power.

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However, due to approval constraints, in this study, sample is limited to one organization and

the sample size is 24.

Data Collection

Primary research consists of a collection of original primary data collected by the researcher.

It is often undertaken after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by reviewing

secondary research or by analysing previously collected primary data.

Secondary research involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research rather

than primary research, where data is collected from, for example, research subjects or

experiments.

The research used in this study is primary research which has been accomplished using

questionnaire (attached in the Appendix). The questionnaire consists of both open-ended and

closed-ended questions.

For closed-ended questions, the following response scales have been used:

Dichotomous, where the respondent has two options

Continuous, where the respondent is presented with a continuous scale

The administrative mode used for the questionnaire was computerized, where the items were

presented to the respondents on the computer via e-mail.

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 LITERATURE REVIEW

Berry (1995), in somewhat broader terms, also has a strategic viewpoint about CRM.

He stresses that attracting new customers should be viewed only as an intermediate step

in the marketing process. Developing closer relationship with these customers and

turning them into loyal ones are equally important aspects of marketing. Thus, he

proposed relationship marketing as attracting, maintaining, and in multi-service

organizations enhancing customer relationships. Berrys notion of customer

relationship management resembles that of other scholars studying services

marketing.

As observed by Sheth and Parvatiyar (1995), developing customer relationships has

historical antecedents going back into the pre-industrial era. Much of it was due to direct

interaction between producers of agricultural products and their consumers. Similarly,

artisans often developed customized products for each customer. Such direct interaction

led to relational bonding between the producer and the consumer. It was only after

industrial eras mass production society and the advent of middlemen that there were

less frequent interactions between producers and consumers leading to transactions

oriented marketing. The production and consumption functions got separated leading

to marketing functions being performed by the middlemen. And middlemen are in

general oriented towards economic aspects of buying since the largest cost is often the

cost of goods sold.

It is widely accepted that the traditional problem-solving approach involving, rational

decision making to the study of consumer choice may not be suitable for all situations,

or is at least incomplete understand choice . Limited information search and

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 evaluation of alternatives led to a situation in which consumer choice is also driven by

hedonic considerations (Dhar and Wertenbroch,2000)

Kingman-Brundage expressed that The design of a service blueprint should meet two

criteria: economy and symmetry (Kingman-Brundage, 1988, p. 33). Bitner et al. (2007)

explained that the goal of the service blueprint is to capture the entire customer service

experience from the customers point of view. These statements express very different

intentions for developing a service blueprint, and illustrate some questions to be

discussed in this article: What is the purpose of making a service blueprint? How is the

service blueprint used today compared to when the tool was developed? Is there a

potential for further development of the service blueprint? By searching for answers to

these questions the article aims at exploring the persistent qualities and future potential

of the service blueprint.

Spraragen and Chan (2008) tried to visualize the information in the blueprint in a

more graphic sense than what was done before, and found that pictorial representations

best captured the meanings they wanted to express. They used icons and charts, and

differentiated between emotional states by facial expressions on the icons, how close

(physically) the icons were placed and the sizes of elements.

Shimomura et al. (2009) criticized the original blueprint for the lack of design relevant

information. They argued that the blueprint (with its flowchart style diagram

framework) did not give enough information about the customer, and customers with

different points of view. Also, they criticized the insufficient normative notation. They

felt that the meanings of symbols were often ambiguous and inconsistent.

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 ANALYSIS

The data gathered through the use of the questions in the questionnaire aims to highlight the

GAPs existing in the organization from an employees and customers perspective.

Before looking at the GAPs, below is the Support Blueprint highlighting the workflow:

CUSTOMER PERCEPTIONS

o The quality of the end result is not at par with the customer expectations as the

customer expects revenue/billing data accuracy

o SLA agreement is often not adhered as per the documentation

o Focus is more on new technology and customers rather that retaining old

customers

SUPPORT DESIGN

o CRM is not well managed and transition phase to new CRM software

o Technical Documentation/KB articles not well managed

o Lack Testing Skills as there is no LAB Setup

o RMA process lacks coordination

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 SERVICE DELIVERY

o There is no handshake between different hierarchies due to distance among

the offices, i.e. Israel(HQ), India, USA, Singapore

o The training curriculum is not documented well and lacks quality

o Lack of motivation among employees due to no future growth opportunities

EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION

o SNOW Ticketing Tool and E-Mails are used alternatively causing confusion

o RCA does not satisfy the customer and delayed in many cases

o Hotline service remains down approximately 50% of the time

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 CONCLUSION

No customer is using the system approximately once a month. This is an area

RADCOM should look into to increase the usage and customer loyalty/trust.

The results of the questionnaire shown below clearly indicate that there is a delay in

providing solution to the customer which is unacceptable in todays competitive

environment.

RADCOM is not having a good word of mouth as the score is very low of further

recommendations. This means that customers are not overall happy with the services

provided to them.

Usage
16

14

12

10

0
Daily Once/Twice a Week Once a Month Do not Use

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 APPENDIX

Questionnaire

1) How often do you typically use the system?

2) Are you satisfied with how the Engineer handled your query?

3) Was the solution/answer delivered in a timely manner?

4) Did the Engineer communicate in a clear manner?

5) Did you feel confident in your Engineers ability to help you?

6) Did your Engineer make you feel like a valued customer?

7) Was the Engineer professional & courteous?

8) How likely are you to recommend our company?

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 REFERENCES

https://www.radcom.com/
Berry, L.L. (1995), Relationship marketing of services: growing interests, emerging
perspectives, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol.23, No.4, pp.236-
45
Storbacka, Kaj (2000), Customer Profitability: Analysis and Design Issues, in
Handbook of Relationship Marketing,Jagdish N. Sheth and Atul Parvatiyar, Eds.,
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 565-586
Dhar, Ravi and Klaus Wertenbroach92006), Consumer choice between hedonic and
utilitarian goods, Journal of consumer research ,37 (Feb.), pp.60-71

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