Supporting the Rapid Evolution to Full-Service Provider

Regulatory Changes, Market Drivers, Product Convergence, Emerging Technologies and Partner Relationships have individually and collectively influenced cable service providers over the last several years, fundamentally altering the industry. The Telecom industry now provides a full array of broadband services including video, high-speed data and both retail and wholesale voice services including wireless. The rate of change has increased due to competition, consolidation, major physical plant upgrades and the rollout of new services.

In addition, these factors are putting a great deal of pressure on cable operators:

• New services are rapidly being introduced to chase new revenue streams. These include enhanced High-Speed Data, Digital Video, Digital Video Recorders, Video On-demand, Voice Service - including Circuit Switched, VoIP and now Wireless - and an array of new advanced services like Interactive Television.

• The customer's experience in dealing with a cable provider has become a critical initiative for cable companies. Customer acquisition and retention strategies now take top priority. The future growth of the cable industry relies upon the ability to retain profitable customers and attract new ones by increasing their distribution channels.

• During a merger, a company's leadership and operations organizations are occupied by critical strategic and operational decisions - at the same time, they are striving to insulate the company's existing customer base from potential service impacts when absorbing merged assets, services and organizations into core operations.

NPS delivers an extensive set of business experience relating to all aspects of the industry, offering various solutions and capabilities to help cable operators address their business demands and technology requirements. The firm partners with cable operators to deliver leading edge solutions in the areas of Strategic Consulting and Architecture, Customer Relationship Management, Order Management and Provisioning, Network Operations, and Billing and Management. By leveraging its Program Management and Quality Management Process Offerings, the firm works with clients to deliver complex projects. In addition, NPS remains in the forefront of working with cable operators to develop and deploy new products and services such as wireless and interactive television.

Leveraging its expertise in the market, NPS can help develop the detailed requirements and architectural changes needed to support this evolution in the industry. By carefully analyzing an operator's existing back-end system, operational procedures and current infrastructure, the firm can prepare the operator for the many changes and challenges to come.