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New Customers (new + customer)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%

Selected Abstracts

Assessment of hidden and future customer needs in Finnish business-to-business companies

R & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2001
Hannu Kärkkäinen
The development of new products should be based on the needs expected to exist even several years ahead , at the moment of market introduction and during the whole lifecycle of the product. To develop successful new products in the toughening business environment, companies should be able to surpass customers' expectations and to assess emerging customer needs proactively. Early, thorough understanding of the customer's real needs, including the assessment of hidden and future customer needs and requirements, plays a very important role in the successful development of new products. The purpose of our paper is to study the assessment of new (hidden and future) customer needs for product development in Finnish business-to-business companies. We have carried out a survey in 93 Finnish business-to-business companies and SBUs to study their common problems in the assessment of unrecognized customer needs and potentially effective ways in clarifying new customer needs and dealing with important problems. On the basis of the results, we propose several possible ways to facilitate the assessment of unrecognized customer needs. [source]

SPC with Applications to Churn Management

QUALITY AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL, Issue 5 2004
Magnus Pettersson
Abstract The process of a customer replacing one provider of a service or merchandise for another is called a churn. In competitive business environments, such as telecommunications, insurance, banking, hotels and mail order, customers can easily leave one company,and they really do. Since the cost of recruiting new customers is higher than the cost of retaining them, it is crucial for companies in these trades to monitor their customer population in order to keep churn rates low. Statistical process control (SPC) methods are developed to cover the needs of monitoring industrial processes and intensive care patients. They are based on procedures where data are analysed automatically and on-line. When results indicate that the process is out of control, an alarm alerts an engineer or physician, who can take corrective action in order to get the process back under control. This paper discusses the use of SPC methods as a means to enhance precision in detecting increasing churn rates. We show that SPC methods can give market analysts a powerful tool for tracking customer movements and churn. An early warning system (EWS), based on the same ideas as used in process industries, will give foresight and a longer time to react against churn, hence providing an advantage over competitors. In the examples discussed in this paper we monitor usage in order to detect decreasing volumes that indicate churn. Data were extracted from internal databases, and analysed and reported on-line. We conclude that the potential improvement by using SPC methods in churn management is high. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Bringing High Technology to Market: Successful Strategies Employed in the Worldwide Software Industry

THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2006
Chris Easingwood
The launch stage can be critical for many new products, but particularly so for technology-intensive ones. This study examines this key stage in a high-tech sector: the worldwide computer software industry. Using a research instrument developed across a number of high-tech sectors, but adapted to the targeted sector, it describes a worldwide telephone-based survey of 300 organizations, resulting in 190 interviews, a response rate of 63%. It shows that five distinct and interpretable strategies are employed: (1) alliance strategy involves forming early strategic alliances as well as tactical alliances at the execution stage together with the development of unique distribution channels; (2) targeted low risk attempts to reduce the risk of adoption among identified segments by producing versions of the product specifically customized to the segments; (3) low-price original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is the only price-driven strategy and combines low price with channel building to OEMs who are looking for attractive price-to-performance ratios; (4) broadly based market preparation is an early-stage strategy that concentrates on educating the market vis-à-vis the technology and developing channels; and (5) niche-based technological superiority uses a technologically superior product to dominate a niche and corresponds closely to the chasm-crossing strategy expounded by Moore and others. Regarding superior product performance, successful software companies first of all engage in a broadly based preparation of the market but switch to a targeted strategy at the following stages of positioning and execution, built around superior technological performance and reduced risk. A somewhat different mix of strategies is adopted when the objective is superior market development, namely opening up new markets, reaching new customers, and developing new product platforms. Again the mix includes broadly based market preparation, this time along with alliances. This strategy is very much about working with partners. The broadly based market preparation strategy is key for both objectives, is long term in nature, and avoids narrowly defined niches. It seems that starting broad based and narrowing down, perhaps to a niche, only at a later stage when this is clearly the appropriate thing to do, pays dividends. [source]

Converged network common charging controller function

BELL LABS TECHNICAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2008
Xiang Yang Li
With the emergence of converged networks, circuit switched (CS), packet switched (PS), and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) domains and application servers (AS) are now merging to combine all kinds of services, business modes, and network architectures. This can cause chaos among various charging mechanisms within the networks. This paper presents a common charging controller function (CCCF) between the charging trigger function (CTF) of individual network elements (NEs) and the charging system. The CCCF operates with the common NE-independent charging control layer to serve various network elements in CS, PS, and IMS domains and application servers. It also simplifies NE-dependent CTFs for accounting metrics collection (AMC), regardless of whether the charging mechanisms are online or offline. The CCCF maintains a single charging characteristic database that stores the charging mechanism of each subscriber's service usage and forwards subscriber accounting data to the charging systems. By including the CCCF in networks, the IMS and pre-IMS charging systems for existing and new customers can be integrated without replacing deployed products, resulting in significant cost savings for telecommunications vendors and customers. © 2008 Alcatel-Lucent. [source]