The demands of modern business and the highly competitive nature of the corporate environment dictate that any business wishing to succeed in their respective market needs to be available on an international level at all times. These demands mean that superior business communication should be a primary concern of corporations in modern day business. Technology is advancing at a rapid pace and has created an opportunity for businesses, or branches, worldwide to work together as if they were located in the same office building. Satellite communications have thus become a necessary feature in most offices as they allow communication between locations around the globe without compromising on call quality or speed.

Why satellite communications?
Satellite telecoms communication and global roaming is possible by voice and data services. An ISP is set up with a satellite communications space segment, carrier class telecoms network and internet backbone which is sent to a satellite telecoms network. Because of the use of satellites and hosted services, communication is possible from any location in the world, no matter how remote. Satellite communication technology is the key to successful business communication and the ability of a company to provide efficient service to their clients.

Satellite telecoms solutions provide a robust service that is reliable and secure. It is imperative for a successful business to avoid bad communication technology and inefficient telecoms services at all costs. When a business is attempting to run a thriving and successful corporate venture, bad communication, slow connections, lost emails, bad sound quality on calls and lost connections are problems which will propel a business into loss instead of success. Satellite communications allow a business peace of mind regarding their communication abilities as satellite technology is dependable and robust without being expensive.

Features of satellite communications for business
Global roaming solutions and satellite communication allow employees access to corporate resources, to send emails and to browse the internet whilst being able to communicate via high quality, voice compression technology, no matter where they are situated on the globe.

Call costs are lowered through calls being charged at local rates as the large broadband network makes connecting people simple and effective. Quality is not compromised because the connection is low cost – the reliable and high speed alternative to fibre networks provides seamless and reliable data carrying.

Due to the use of broadband through a satellite communications network, businesses save money in their communication costs. Fixed line technology is costly to run and even more expensive to maintain. Service fees can be staggering whilst line rental and call costs only add to the mountain of expenses. Using a broadband connection for communication allows companies to save huge amounts of money due to the simple services which accompany satellite communications.

Most satellite telecoms operators and service providers will include a free 24-hour help desk service for any problems a client may experience. Because the communication systems are so easy to set up and maintain, they rarely require a technician to be called in to fix any problems. The system is easily scalable, allowing clients to add and subtract lines as they wish without needing to pay a callout fee for a technician to add or subtract the required lines.

For any business competing in a worldwide market, location need not be a problem any longer. Thanks to the internet and satellite technology, satellite telecoms allows businesses access to high quality communication whilst cutting costs and providing a range of features to make communication even simpler. User-friendly interfaces, connection anywhere in the world, dependable and robust gateways and dedicated technical support systems are all features illustrating why satellite communications and global roaming is the future of business communications.

Telecom industry to boost sales with Business Intelligence :

Telecom industries are faced with the huge challenges of ever changing market conditions. They therefore need information to anticipate these Changes and quickly make informed Smart decisions.
Decision-making in the telecom industry today demands high-quality intelligence. This is where business intelligence (BI) solutions play their critical role.

Any business can be successful only if the sales end is strong.
The same holds good for telecom industry, especially with telecom service providers.
Here with telecom service providers Business intelligence plays a large role in making profit because it deals with large amount of customer data .
Hence getting this customer data in a useful format is “Business intelligence”.

As mentioned previously for any business to be successful sales plays a very prominent role and sales always is supported by strong marketing practices.

Well next question would be how is this possible?

Some of the focus areas are:

· Providing strong marketing support.

· Sales Analysis

· Improving customer loyalty services.

· Building customer retention models.

1.Providing strong marketing support:

To give a good marketing support it is necessary to understand the market well. Having a good strategy is the foundation for a strong marketing.

Two basic Strategies, which can be pursued, are:

. General strategy
. Customer strategy

General strategy

Companies here comes up with a product, which is common, and try marketing to the masses. Advertising plays a major role here. Even though this has been a major practice, profit margin out of this has been very low, because individual needs of the customers are not taken into account.

Customer strategy

Basically understanding the customer needs and tailoring to their individual needs have overcome the disadvantages in general strategy. Thus business intelligence plays a major role here by analyzing the customers that optimize profits by nurturing value added customer relationships.

Thus strong customer relationships are attained by customer centricity: Customers drive business, thus understanding the customers plays a very important role.

· Customers’ requirements
· Customers’ expectations.
· Customers’ changing behavior pattern

Thus by understanding the above points it is possible to build a strong customer strategy model.

This customer strategy model directly influences

· Product pricing / tariff plans

Product pricing plays a key role in pushing business, by understanding
the customers it possible to categorize them into different groups based on their needs . Thus pricing can be decided by striking a balance between customers group needs and profits to the company.
This can also be easily tested with help of business intelligence – by implementing the model for a trial period and comparing the sale figures it is possible to get the profit margin.
By business intelligence useful information can be provided to different departments for making the right decisions with in very little time thus analysis becomes easier and designing the product pricing(tariff plans)becomes efficient.

· Advertising plans

Advertising plays major role because major money is involved in this.
Thus channeling advertising according to customers is very important. Since it conveys the right message to right mass and this can be achieved by profiling the customer’s data and checking their behavior patters.

This can save lot a revenue, thus any saved revenue is profit for the company.

2. Sales Analysis

Analysis can be in terms of

· Customers
· Performance
· Revenue
· Volume
· Margin

This can be viewed in terms of reports or charts thus competitive plan can be developed .
By this analysis any strategic decision taken by management will be based on proof and not by just guessing and thus can also predict the performance of the company for the next quarter or so.

Improving customer loyalty services.

· Fraud control
· Call records
· Billing and other services

Fraud control

With Business intelligence it is possible to track the pattern of calls their duration etc thus any abnormalities in call pattern can be detected.
Thus timely intervention can reduce the loss to the company.

Call records

With Business intelligence it is possible to view call pattern and possible to understand their call history. Thus it becomes easy to get any records of particular customer or a group of customer with common call fashion.

Billing and other services

With Business intelligence it is possible to send e-bills to customer on related dates without any much manual intervention and get customer billing of web will also help customers view their own bills and analyze the same.

Thus by getting in more related services it is possible to get more customer satisfaction thus improving business.

Building customer retention models.

Customer retention is one of the major challenges faced in any industry.
In case of any business it is said that retaining a customer is always cheaper than getting a new customer.
Here with help of business intelligence it is possible to build certain customer retention models basically looking customer data and their call behaviors.
A well-designed customer retention model can reduce customer churn to greater extend .The positive impact of this can be huge ie a small increase in customer loyalty can deliver a large increase in profitability. Businees intelligence can also identify the behavior looking at the customer data and business analysts can say who are customers likely to leave and take the appropriate action in advance.

On a conclusion we can say that business intelligence if properly implemented and used in the telecom industry it can help in boosting the profits to greater extent.

Training for a marathon requires athletes to diligently condition their bodies to run 26.2 miles, which can be incredibly intimidating for some individuals. It begins with increasing your stamina and improving your efficiency by planning runs where your distance gradually increases in intervals, until you can reach your optimal goal: completing the marathon. By focusing on your stamina and efficiency, you are less likely to suffer injuries, burn out from fatigue and fail to complete the race.

Although not physically intimidating, choosing a TEM solution can be a straining and confusing process that requires similar discipline. Since Gartner coined the term telecom expense management (TEM) a few years ago, TEM solutions have gained considerable momentum, along with considerable complexity. This added complexity has led to growing frustrations in the marketplace because the fundamentals of a TEM solution are often being overlooked. Much like stamina and efficiency – the fundamental pillars of running a marathon – centralizing the management of telecom spend and utilizing electronic billing data are the distinguishing factors of a successful TEM solution and recent research supports this statement.

The findings from the 2008 Telecom Expense Management Benchmark Survey, conducted by Edge Research, revealed that successful companies using TEM adhere to the most fundamental aspect: centralization. The survey results were gathered from over 400 organizations, which showed that among those satisfied with their organization’s TEM solution, 88% centrally managed telecom spend. Furthermore, those that have centralized management of telecom spend are more likely to know their true network costs. The end result is that that the majority of companies that centralize spend indicated that they have attained TEM savings of greater than $1,000,000 and overall, are more satisfied with their TEM solution.

It is not guaranteed that all TEM solutions will accurately and efficiently process telecom billing data, that is why companies need to ‘go-the-extra- mile’ to ensure that the fundamentals of their selected TEM solution is continually adhering to best practices in processing that data. The ability to load complex billing data, from multiple sources and formats into the application is the zenith of a TEM solution. If the solution cannot process data, it is like entering a marathon with pair of worn out running shoes, which eventually, will lead to pain. According to the TEM survey, if this core competency is lacking, dissatisfaction is the end result.

There is no doubt that centralized management of telecom spend and receiving data electronically are integral parts in choosing a TEM solution. Having these fundamentals in place sets the stage for realizing the benefits of a total TEM solution that includes provisioning, inventory, invoice processing, and advanced analytics. Just like undergoing the proper training for a marathon, maintaining strong fundamentals regarding your TEM solution significantly increases the likelihood of success. It establishes a firm foundation for further process improvements that will have a direct impact on bottom line performance for your organization and will help you reach your TEM finish line.