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Search in theTelecommunication IndustryAn essential ingredient in converging markets

A business white paperby FAST Search Best PracticesMike Brady, Andrew Seit and Silvija Seres


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2006 FAST SBP1

Search in the Telecommunication Industry

IntroductionTelecommunications companies are facing the

most intense tr ansformat ion in t heir history, due

to str ong market convergence caused by digitali-

zation of content , growth of online services and

entr ance of non t raditional competitors. They

race t o find new business models tha t will main-

tain and protect existing customer relationships

in a world where competit ion is coming from all

directions: a city government rolling out of dis-

count ed WIFI, a cable operat or offering of voice

products, or Mobile Virtual Network Operators

(MVNOs) in every imaginable niche cat egory.

The ability to identify, test and launch profitableservices in t he industr ys converging landscape

will determine who will win in the market .

This paper highlights the immediate and str ate-

gic benefits sear ch technology can bring to a busi-

ness competing in the telecom industry. Deliver-

ing the right information, to the r ight person at

the right time is the essence to driving produc-

tivity and profitability. The pr ofits can come in

the form of delivering more personalized product

offerings to customers on a mobile device, ena-

bling next gener at ion IPTV and VOD services orimproving the back office efficiency of existing

conten t and document management systems.

Search gives the most agile players a chance to

disrupt their r espective market s, thr ough bett er

information and situational awareness, where

new insights about customers and markets move

business decisions to real-time.

Search is not simple a technology for r etr ieving

informat ion on your PC or mobile phone. This

paper present s examples of new business applica-

tions and revenue models that exploit a core

search capability to deliver significant advantage

into a competitive market. It further out lines the

benefits of how a single integrated search plat-

form can reduce complexity through commonal-

ities and deliver a lean operating environment for

value crea tion sitt ing across existing valuabledata and content.

Search is a mission critical technology for t he de-

livery of value-added services for top-line growth

and bottom-line savings. Telecommunicationcompan ies that embrace search as a tool for dif-

ferent iating their business will recognize signifi-

cant profit improvement today and long-term

competit ive advantages in the future.

Enter SearchThis is the beginning of the Age of Search.

Search and search-derivat ive applications are be-

coming t he de-facto way of ret rieving informat ion

across different sources, customer bases and or-ganisational un its. In this digital world, where a

growing number of companies admit t hat they

are highly successful in informat ion creat ion, but

far less so at its ret rieval, search enables infor-

mat ion providers to complement their existing

content tools with a system t hat gathers, proc-

esses and distr ibutes the r ight informat ion to

right people at the right time.

Advanced sear ch tools have become t he best way

to define one's digita l front window, highlight-

ing the information that businesses want to bring

forward, for internal and external users alike. In

this sense, search is at th e hear t of helping opera-

tors characterise who they are and what they do.

Indeed, there are m any examples where search is

at t he core of new business models and at t he

base of new operat ional efficiencies.

The list below is a sampling of capabilities a ro-

bust search technology can enable:

Search, Navigation and Discovery (Across De-

vices)

Alert and Notification (Across Devices)

User Gr oup Profiling and Personalizat ion

Merchandising and Recommendation Engines

Semantic Analysis

Business In telligence

Search is a the heart of helping enter-

prises characterise who they are andwhat they do.

Search is an exciting technology that hasa surprising number of strategic advan-

tages for telecom operators.


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Offensive Content Filter

Data Cleansing.

Brand Tr acking and Monitoring

IP Policing

IT H elpdesk

Active Collaborative Workspace

Image Detection, Alert, Filter and T race

Speech Detection, Alert, Filter and Trace

Adaptive Information Warehouse

Search is an exciting t echnology that has a sur-

prising number of strategic advantages for tele-

com operators. Search is becoming a mainstream

tool in this space, after a dozen or so inspiring

success stories from ear ly-adopting operators tha t

have integrated search technology and transac-

tional based applicat ions to drive major new reve-

nue streams and new business.

As we move from voice to data , data t o conten t,

the ability to efficient ly search and deliver r ele-

vance informat ion or content to the right personat t he right t ime sets the pace and tempo of busi-

ness and leads the industry with this advantage.

In fact, Gartner has already identified this

informat ion access technology as t he single

most importan t technology tha t strings acrossbusiness to derived relevant insight and create

significant value from our valuable data.

Extensible Technologies forExtensible BusinessesIn the telecommunications industry, good archi-

tectural principles and deep understanding of

established frameworks (e.g. eTO M, OMA) have

always been critical to successful integrat ion and

insertion of new infrastructure capabilities.

Enterpr ise-wide coordinat ion with common goals

across Business and IT is crucial in such an en-

deavour. There are typically many concurrentactivities where documents, content s and knowl-

edge are generated. T he diversity and parallel

A high-end search platform supports andconnects all of these needs from a singleinstallation, in a scalable and uniformmanner.


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activities often open for replicat ion of efforts and

documents. A clean searchable collaborat ive envi-

ronment does not only bring productivity up butalso reduces replication and unnecessary spillage

of resources.

There are m any affected

groups, and diverging inter-

ests need to be negotiated. In

the illustra tion below, we pre-

sent an example operator en-

terprise where some func-

tional groups are identified.

For each of these groups, spe-

cific activities and business

requirements need to be de-

fined and analysed, and ulti-

mat ely supported th rough appropriate t echnical

solutions and a high-end search platform sup-

ports and connects all of these needs from a sin-

gle installation, in a scalable and uniform man-

ner.

Architecturally speaking, the search platform

introduces a layer of operating environment

across the current enterprises depository of

structured, unstructured and real-time data. It

provides an intelligent and efficient means ofsearch, analysis and retr ieval of relevant conten t

from all data depositories. From a business per-

spective, new derivative business applications

leveraging this platforms real-time search and

alert ing capabilities can be rapidly deployed.

A common search plat form for operat ors is not

about replacing the current infrastructure. It is

about getting a better return on past infrastruc-

tur e investments, better infrastructure re-use and

higher levels of abstraction that create value in

delivering new business applications from past

investments. It also enables real-time capabilities

based on a scalable solution on top of the a lready

existing expensive infrast ructure. This is an evo-

lutionar y approach to acquisition and un locking

of revenue streams through search platforms.

From Traditional Search toIntelligent SearchEnd users across many industries have a deep

seated, but wrong, assumption that t he tr adi-tional keyword sear ch solutions, like a

Google.com, will provide t he idea l customer ex-

perience. The reality is that finding information,

and acting on it intelligently, demands increas-ingly sophisticated and innovat ive strategies. This

has been the case for at least four years.

A tr aditional sear ch approach t ypically implies

long latency from t he t ime the dat a is modified

until t he modification is reflected in the search-

able index. This means that the search engine

does not handle dynamic data and may not be

sufficient for processing rea l-time informat ion.

New search t echnology removes th is limitat ion by

ensuring the informa tion is made searchable in

seconds or even sub-seconds. In the new search

world, the system takes this functionality fur ther

by integrat ing the real-time filter engine thatmatches information against pre-defined queries

as it becomes available. This real-time filter en-

gine then alert s end-users to the new content in-

tegrat ed into the system.

New search addresses information re tr ieval by

providing more relevant results to user queries.

This is achieved by:

Relevant search understanding inaccurat equeries and returning the most relevant results

for any user and any query. When possible, a di-

rect answer should be provided for a search when

it is determined that the informa tion found will

exactly meet t he intent ion of the request. Lever-

aging gram mat ical tools, spell checking, proper

name detection and synonyms is needed to ex-

press a more correct query. Results are efficient ly

In the new search world, the systemtakes this functionality further by integrat-ing the real-time filter engine that matchesinformation against pre-defined queriesas it becomes available.


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ranked using flexible rank profiles, proximity

analysis, customizable rank tuning and connec-

tivity informat ion from t he ent ire index.

Universal search a single, flexible search plat -form that improves real-time access to actionable

informat ion. It is a brilliant alter native to the

high costs and inefficiency associated with using

mult iple applicat ion-specific search and ret rieval

products across the enterpr ise. It allows a wide

range of activities to be executed within a single

search and ret rieval architecture and pr esents a

single, powerful alternative to the common prac-

tice of implement ing separate search functions

for databases and applications, enterprise infor-

mat ion search, Inter net search and eBusiness.

3-D scalability the core architecture is de-signed to be infinitely scalable along three axes:

number of users, volume of data and freshness of

data. No mat ter how fast the informa tion volume

grows, search scales to support millions of simul-

taneous users submitting t housands of queries

per second searching ter abytes of data, while

still delivering sub-second r esponses. Real-time

indexing and alerting features allow operators to

use high-speed search as the foundat ion of a wide

range of applicat ions.

Building a Search RoadmapWhat does it t ake to provide consistent ly superior

search resultsthose that connect t he searcher

to the r ight informat ion in t he shortest possible

timeunder infinitely variable circumstances,

expert ise, and objectives?

Primarily, it r equires a well-conceived and well-

executed opera tional framework of process,

analysis, and delivery. A platform should blend

mut ually reinforcing technologies such as Natu ra l

Language Processing and other sophisticated lin-

guistic tools into a streamlined, multi-

dimensional environment. It can thus capitalize

on the strengths and neut ralizes the weaknesses

of each. The result is a highly accurate, compre-

hensive capability that connects users to the in-

format ion they seek, even when theyre not sure

what theyre looking for or how to ask for it .

Search technology can impact m any part s of a

te lecom opera tors business. A well thought outsearch r oadmap should include evolut ionary ac-

quisition str ategy that will allow for exploiting

immediate opportunities such as selling more

personalization conten t over a mobile device,

while planning ahead for next genera tion services

such as social networking and IPTV search capa-

A well thought out search roadmapshould include evolutionary acquisitionstrategy that will allow for exploiting imme-diate opportunities, while planning aheadfor next generation services.


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2006 FAST SBP5


bilities. In parallel, the search roadmap should

address internal, back-office needs around con-

tent management , customer service and businessintelligence, to name a few. A coordinat ed effort

which minimizes overlaps and duplication while

exploiting the commonality is necessary to focus

effort on value creat ion and not on development

and deployment of mult iple stovepipes across the

company.

An evolutionary acquisition of capabilities allows

an alignment to the mar ket tr iggers and business

requirements; it also provides a sound framework

for a roadmap that provides different domain ca-

pabilities on top of the common platform.

This type of flexible architecture will be a critical

component for success in the converging t elecom-

munications industry.

One of the cornerstones of a competitive stra tegyis the ability to rapidly insert, deploy and extract services

and applications. Capital investment should pay

back, many times over. But , as solut ions get de-

ployed, the challenges of furt her development of

new featur es, support of requirements changes

and t he continuous maintenance of the solution,

through upgrades or upkeep, come into play.

When in-house stovepipes are developed and de-

ployed, home-built or one-off solutions quicklyshow their expensive side: the sustenance is eco-

nomically unattractive for a rich strategic plat-

form.

A clear business driven t echnology roadmap, syn-

chronized across business functions and executed

in an evolutionary acquisition and deployment

manner , has been proven t o deliver t he best re-

sults. An evolutionary technology roadmap (figure

below) supports a business driven strategy that

ties together t he t hree basic questions of When,

Why and How.

This platform approach accelerates acquisition of

new capabilities and provides recurring improve-

ments to the system.

Architectural ConsiderationsIn order to control the costs and risks associated

with cont inuous system evolution, some pr inciples

must be implement ed in constructing a search

strategy:

Priorit ize simplificat ion and developing man-

ageable interfaces above bringing forward ear ly

functionality. The principle is that building and

integrat ing functionality that is not m atur e willbe expensive and divert attention from producing

One of the cornerstones of a competitivestrategy is the ability to rapidly insert, de-ploy and extract services and applica-tions.


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sound solutions.

Use of a common search and alerting platformapproach whenever possible to exploit economies

of scale, and leverage on common knowledge pool

of best practices.

Evolutionary acquisition of capabilities, rather

than building new ones from scratch, in order to

tr ansfer more of the maintenance burden onto

vendors. This mainly applies to discret e func-

tions/modules that can be purchased and inte-

grated into the current search platform t o extend

its functionality.

System integrat ion effectiveness, where end-to-end performance of the search-based applications

or der ivat ives is crit ical to customer satisfaction.

The number of interfaces and resultant call flows

must be simplified, result ing in a common look

and feel.

Move toward n-tier architectures, which prom-

ise to increase transparency and r e-use by treat -

ing the enterprise's IT systems as a whole, rather

than a series of stovepipes.

Aim to minimize the total cost of ownership,

rat her than the up-front acquisition cost, whenprocuring new systems.

ConclusionsTechnology driven convergence is changing t he

business models of stakeholders across a myriad

of industr ies. With convergence of wired and

wireless services into a common IP world, digital

content (music, picture, games, documents, maps

etc) is replacing the traditional sources of reve-

nue growth. Disrupt ive applications such as VOIP(voice or video over IP) and t he churn bat tle have

globally eroded the revenue streams and acceler-

ated the value migrat ion int o other n ew business

models. The many years of stable billing relat ion-

ships with customers, previously considered im-

penetrable for others, are n ow being fundamen-

tally put to the test.

With t he catalytic effect of convergence, players

across the telecommunications value chain are

struggling between holding on to their old reve-

nues while preparing themselves for a rapidlychanging market place. The ability to identify,

test and implement products and services to cre-

ate new value fast enough to re-captur e t he value

lost due to emerging competition, changes inregulation, influences in t he market will deter-

mine who remains viable in the long-term.

The new value is primarily to be extracted from

data conten t services, and the first step t o

unleashing it is by making this content easily ac-

cessible to consumers. No single technology can

provide more benefits to an operator than search.

The return on investment in a world class search

strategy is measured along two axes: improve-

ments in opera ting efficiency and increases in

revenue, and agile te lecom players show persua-

sive examples of both. It has given t hem a single

integrat ed platform across th e whole informat ion

space, a lean operating environment for value

creation across existing valuable content. It has

provided them with t ools for disruption of their

respective markets, through improved content

services and better informat ion and situat ion

awareness, using insights about customers and

mar kets to move business decisions to real-time.

As Google cont inues to grow from a small star t-

up in the Silicon Valley to the most recent addi-tion t o Standar d & Poors 500 Index, financial

markets will have to reward operat ors that em-

brace search as part of their business DNA.

Search is not a t echnology to be t aken light ly, but

rat her a t echnology tha t enables a business to

operate with greater flexibility and profitability,

now and into the future.


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About FAST SBP (Search Best Practices)SBP consulting is a highly focused transfer of

search knowledge and experience from FAST to itsprospects and customers. SBP workshops aim tohelp enterprises realize the full potential of search,by creating optimal strategic, functional andtechnical roadmaps, delivered in the form ofbusiness model, solution and architecture designs.

For any feedback or questions related to this paper,please contact us at [email protected]

FASTwww.fastsearch.com

[email protected]

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2006 Fast Search & Transfer ASA.

All rights reserved. Fast Search & Transfer, FAST, FAST ESP, and all other relatedlogos and product names are either registered trademarks or trademarks of FastSearch & Transfer ASA in Norway, the United States and/or other countries. Allother company, product, and service names are the property of their respectiveholders and may be registered trademarks or trademarks in the United States and/or other countries.

SWP.018.B.02.070106

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