Customer Service, Operations and Planning (Telecommunications and ICT)

The principles involved in understanding customers’ expectations and the retention of customers by effective relationship management will be explored. This includes understanding customer experience today both off-line and online. The concept of customer relationship management (CRM) will be introduced and successful exploitation of CRM systems is considered. A framework for the customer management strategy will be developed and applied to the 21st century customer. The importance of effective communication with the customer will be investigated, with particular reference to the role of social networks. 


The newly created subject of service science, which covers the systematic approach to developing, launching and delivering services, will be extensively explored through the use of case studies and academic research. Specific areas covered include the science of systems thinking, the analysis of business processes, the range of process architectures and operational models. You'll be encouraged to explore a number of case studies and to apply the principles of service science management to contemporary examples in the telecommunications business. 


This set of lectures will address the whole range of identification and management of risk in today’s businesses and service environment. Specifically, you'll investigate what constitutes risk and the how this differs from hazardous situations. The whole question of tolerability of risk will then be explored, using case studies as well as contemporary examples. You'll address the difficult area of how risk and cost need to be traded and how this is managed. The techniques for analysing risk and the required levels of mitigation will then be explained. Finally, you'll learn to apply risk identification and assessment to the development of business cases for telecommunications services. 


This lecture will explore the way that a service provider organises the management of field operations providing customer service. The topic covers both the cost and quality trade-offs as well as the analysis of how to maximise the efficiency of the technician work force in the 
field. The principles of operational support systems are also introduced, covering the required functionality for a telecommunications network service provider and their interconnection with other systems within the Telco’s organisation. You'll also learn about the practical situations and how these are managed by today’s service providers through consideration of real-life examples.

All aspects of the planning role within a telecommunications business will be covered by this lecture. In particular, the roles of strategic, long-term, medium-term and short-term planning and forecasting will be described. You'll learn how the planning of network capacity and equipment and systems deployment is linked into the business planning process of the Telco, and in particular how the capital expenditure (capex) budget is built.

This set of lectures will cover the range of project management tools and techniques currently in use across businesses. Through the use of case studies and practical examples you'll be introduced to the concepts of measuring success, managing relations with the various stakeholders, scheduling and programme monitoring techniques. Finally, the use of earned value as a way of managing large projects will be presented. Although the techniques considered are generic, you'll be able to apply them specifically to the contemporary telecommunications situations.

The global aspects of the telecommunications and ICT business today will be explored. The role of international standards in its various forms will be described, together with the characteristics of proprietary standards. You'll be introduced to the various forms of global telecommunications markets, including the multinational customers, international public services, and foreign-domestic business. A number of case studies of recent global alliances and joint ventures will be examined and the principle lessons extracted.

The importance of sales for any company and its relationship to marketing and customer service will be described. The particular challenges facing today’s Telco’s will then be outlined.

The range of cyber threats to today’s telecommunications network operators are described. Some of the ways to minimise the threat of such attacks will be considered, together with examples of techniques for dealing with them.