From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Mon Nov 6 18:18:24 1995 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.1/NSCS-1.0S) id SAA02667; Mon, 6 Nov 1995 18:18:24 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 18:18:24 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick A. Townson) Message-Id: <199511062318.SAA02667@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: telecom-recent Subject: Killer Application Myth From mmurdock@digital.net Mon Nov 6 17:49:00 1995 Return-Path: Received: from ddi.digital.net by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.1/NSCS-1.0S) id RAA01262; Mon, 6 Nov 1995 17:48:59 -0500 (EST) Received: from MMURDOCK (pm5_14.digital.net [204.215.227.80]) by ddi.digital.net (8.6.11/8.6.9) with SMTP id RAA22359 for ; Mon, 6 Nov 1995 17:47:47 -0500 Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 17:47:47 -0500 Message-Id: <199511062247.RAA22359@ddi.digital.net> X-Sender: mmurdock@digital.net X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 1.4.4 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu From: Mike Murdock (by way of mmurdock@digital.net (M Murdock)) Subject: The Killer Application Myth Status: R The Killer Application Myth With the continuing increase in competition in all telephony markets the basic transport of a telephone call has become a commodity. Major players in the long distance market are down to shaving pennies to differentiate their rates. As a result, most of the marketing campaigns are now focusing on intangible service aspects such as quality, customer service, future technology, and customer loyalty. The local loop has traditionally been a protected monopoly. As the prices of cellular services decline, and with the impending introduction of "micro-cellular" PCS services and other alternate service providers, competition for local dial tone will inevitably heat up. This increase in competition at all levels is forcing Service Providers to look for other means to distinguish their services from the competition. Most turn to providing "Enhanced Services" such as Voice Mail, Voice Dialing, and Single Number Service in order to generate additional revenue and customer loyalty. Most of these Enhanced Services require the provider to make a significant investment in an integrated Enhanced Services Platform upon which multiple services can easily be trialed and deployed. In order to justify the cost of these platforms the providers are searching for the "Killer Application". That is, the single application which will generate so much additional usage that it will offset the cost of installing the Enhanced Services Platform. The Killer Application is a myth. Many Service Providers, in trials, have deployed numerous enhanced services and received nothing more than a modest response from users. These services include Voice Activated Dialing, Pager Notification, Single Number Service, Short Message Service, and others. Customers have shied away from these offerings for several reasons. Most find the services difficult to use, particularly when DTMF input is required. In order to make the Enhanced Service appeal to the broadest market, many of these services have been endowed with seemingly endless features, options, and menus. This not only makes the service confusing but leaves the customer with the feeling that they are paying for too many features they do not use. The major reason, however, for the lack luster response to these services is basic human nature. People are intrinsically resistant to change, and in particular, resistant to any service which requires they change their behavior significantly. Each of us use telephony services in a different manner, and have unique telephony requirements. Before these enhanced services will be widely accepted they must resolve the above stated impediments. This means providing the user with the ability to customize the service to their specific requirements, using a natural human interface, your voice. The "Killer Application" is individual choice with a natural voice interface. For one individual the "killer application" may be voice mail with pager notification, for another it might be a Single Number Service with Fax Store and Forward, and for another Voice Activated Dialing with Call Screening. At any point the customer may decide they need to add Conference Calling to their feature set. If the customer is required to call a service representative to order this additional feature it is unlikely they will ever take this step. If, however, the customer can simply speak "Add Feature" and "Conference" and the Enhanced Service Platform automatically adds this feature to the customers current feature list, it is more likely that the service will be ordered and used. This is the concept of "Mass Customization" detailed by Alvin Toffler in his book The Third Wave. The ability for the consumer to easily customize their service to meet their individual telecommunications needs. This requires that the service provider have both a broad range of features and a natural human interface which is consistent throughout each of those features. Service Providers can no longer afford to look at each feature as an individual application. They must provide a broad range of features which when implemented are integrated with the existing features the customer is using. That is, the individual applications are simply features of a much larger service, which a customer can easily tailor to their specific needs at any time and as frequently as required. The ability for the individual services to be automatically integrated with the customers existing services is crucial to reducing the complexity of the service. For instance when a customer sets up a personal dialing directory for their Voice Activated Dialing service, and later adds Conference Calling, the new service should use the existing dialing directory. This would permit the customer to set up a conference call by speaking the name of the conferencees as they would if they were dialing them individually. Additionally, the services should always use a common human interface. Switching between Voice and DTMF input, or even between a female and male voice for different features is both confusing and frustrating. Customers have a natural distaste for dealing with computer voice systems. Much consideration should be placed in the "scripting" to ensure that the conversation is as natural as possible. Customers don't want a computer to annoy them with phrases like "Invalid option selection, please try again". Its not natural. They would much prefer a system which responded "Pardon me, I didn't understand what you said". The DTMF pad is a poor interface. Not only is the DTMF pad difficult to use (especially with a cellular phone while driving), but more importantly it is not a natural interface. Voice commands are. The improvements in recent years in voice recognition technology are sufficient to provide a much more interactive voice interface. Customers are willing to "suspend disbelief" and overlook their aversion to dealing with computer systems when the system has a more natural "conversation" with them. In order for customers to generate the additional revenues which providers are searching for, the services offered must provide value, and not simply features. Value is derived from the services ability to simplify a customers communications needs while providing enhanced services. The mythical killer application is not an application at all but a variety of features providing individual choice and flexibility, a natural easy to use human interface, and seamless integrated capabilities. Existing enhanced service applications will continue to find limited success until the user can build there own "killer application". --------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Mike Murdock, (mmurdock@digital.net) Director of Business Development Precision Systems, Inc. A leading provider of interactive 11800 30th Court N. enhanced services systems and software St. Petersburg, Fl. 33716 to the telecommunications market. Phone: 1-813-572-9300 --------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) Copyright 1995 Precision Systems Inc.