Issues with New Service Development Process in a Telecommunication Service Provider

Abstract

The research addresses the issues of an existing New Service Development (NSD) process, which is based on the waterfall method at an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Malaysia. In this particular ISP, account managers and pre-sales personnel respond to the corporate customers’ requirements as and when needed. Not all requirements can be met with existing services. Some requires customization and new service development may reach up to a year which is way beyond the customers’ deadline. Therefore, this research aims at gauging the issues with the existing NSD process flow by investigating the relevance of the existing method to cater the current market demand including the evolution of technology. The research was conducted using qualitative method. Account managers and pre-sales personnel were interviewed to understand the issues they face with the existing NSD process flow. The semi-structured interview responses were analysed according to themes deduced from the interview transcripts. The main issues highlighted by the interviewees were high dependencies on technology and delivery partners resulting in high out-payment as well as low profit margin and long process for service readiness. All the interviewees agreed that the existing NSD process flow needs to be improvised to cater for the ever-changing market trends. In this research, the interviewees provided suggestions on improvements to the NSD process. In conclusion, the improved NSD process could essentially lead to an efficient service development process and hence facilitating the ISP's competitiveness in the industry world.