Research and publications

The App Frenzy—Just a Short-Lived Fad?
The staggering growth of the smartphone applications (apps) market in the past four years has fundamentally changed the way in which people access and consume content, but native apps might be a short-lived fad. They may be fundamentally challenged by the advent of HTML5—a platform that addresses several significant drawbacks in the native app customer experience.
[more]

Managing Outsourced Call Centers: Getting the Payment Model Right
How do you get better customer service out of your call centers without micromanaging their business? Take a fresh look at how you compensate your call center providers.
[more]

A Viable Future Model for the Internet
The Internet underpins a significant portion of all economic activity around the world today. How can future change bring benefits to all parties?
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More communications & high tech publications

Crystal Ball 2012
13 December 2011 — Connected Planet
Once again Alex Liu identifies trends and predictions that are likely to have the biggest impact in the new year for the communications and high tech industry.
By Alex Liu
[Read article]

The Sports Market
The global sports industry is worth up to $620 billion today, and with growth that is faster than global GDP, its long-term prospects appear strong.
[more]

The Wireless Battle for Small Business Customers
19 September 2011 — Connected Planet
Though all major U.S. carriers have begun to intensify and revamp their tactical efforts, the battle for small business customers is far from over.
By Reuben Chaudhury, Alicia Covaleda and Roi Ross
[more]

The Smart Meter Mandate
EU regulations are leading national authorities to deploy smart meters. What are the implications for telecoms and data service providers?
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IT in the Telecom Industry
As IT becomes a more vital part of the telecommunications industry, costs and complexity are also rising. Telecom companies today must strive to make IT a driver of value.
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Outsourced Call Centers: Friend or Foe?
13 July 2011 — Connected Planet
Companies need to pull back and let call center suppliers run their businesses while ensuring that suppliers deliver high-quality service.
By Alex Liu, Rashid Ahmed and Raghu Viswanathan
[more]

Do Readers Dream of Electronic Books?
More people today are downloading e-books, a trend that will only accelerate in the next decade and undoubtedly change the publishing value chain.
[more]

Flex It, smart It, Mine It: Delivering Greater Value in Field Service
14 March 2011 — Connected Planet
Operators must re-vamp their views of field service delivery if they want to get out of the customer satisfaction abyss and take advantage of new revenue streams.
By Leslie Parker
[more]

Crystal Ball 2011
23 December 2010 — Connected Planet
This third annual Crystal Ball perspective reviews last year's predictions and looks ahead at 2011 and further industry turmoil in the tech and telecom sector.
By Alex Liu
[more]

Open Source Readiness: Is Your Company at Risk?
2 December 2010 — Connected Planet
Open Source software is being adopted across all areas of the enterprise and service provider IT stacks. However, most decision makers are unaware of this adoption and its impact on their organization.
By David Brown, Sid Dayal, Andrew Williams
[more]

10 Facts That Will Shape the Global Business Environment
In this series, A.T. Kearney’s Martin Walker explores several of the most pressing issues facing business leaders as they plan for the future. [more]

New neighbors, new threats — an all-cloud mobile future?
11 August 2010 — Connected Planet Online
The battle continues: Device manufacturers, Web services players and traditional telcos are expanding their product and services footprint to occupy key customer control points.
By Bernhard Kickenweiz [more]

Internet Value Chain Economics
There remains a low level of understanding of how the Internet economy works. This must change as the Internet continues to grow. [more]

Pulling the Capex Lever
How much a company spends and what it should be spent is a fundamental question that must be answered in a radically different way. [more]

Telecom: Facing the Global Crisis
The telecommunication industry has fared comparatively well during the economic crisis. But with changes imminent, telecom firms cannot afford to rest on their laurels. [more]

National Broadband: De-bottlenecking or Doubling Down?
7 June 2010 — Connected Planet
Here are five basic logic disconnects about the global debate around government-initiated super-fast broadband—to help focus on problem-solving versus pure posturing.
By Alex Liu
[more]

Telecommunication: Measuring Quality of Service
As more services and providers are available to consumers, quality is becoming a major factor. [more]

SaaS: Managing the Anti-IT Application
SaaS applications are emerging as a major tool for reducing IT costs, but successful deployment only happens when SaaS is tied into an overarching strategy. [more]

Is there a cloud at the end of the telco pipe?
5 April 2010 — Connected Planet Online
For all the talk of telcos trying to get a higher share of chief information officers’ wallets, there is little to show in one of the hottest recent trends: software as a service or cloud computing.
By Augusto Morais [more]

Crystal Ball 2.0: Crazy Ideas for 2010
14 December 2009 — Telephony Online
Alex Liu, A.T. Kearney partner and lead for Americas Communications & High Tech, reviews the results of his 2009 predictions and makes a few new ones for 2010, commenting that "The future is getting less cloudy." [more] || [MORE A.T. KEARNEY CONTRIBUTIONS TO TELEPHONY ONLINE]

1 + 1 = 1: Network Sharing
European mobile network operators face an uncertain future, as the revenues from mobile phone minutes converge with the cost of production. [more]

Managing Mobile Costs:
Operational Excellence in the Mobile Communications Industry
A three-phased, integrated cost management approach can identify a 15 to 20 percent efficiency gap in operational costs. [more]

Why Go Green?
How sustainability can benefit mobile telecommunications, despite consumer disinterest. [more]

Middle East Media on the Move
Across much of the world, the media sector is facing unprecedented challenges. Newspaper readership is on the decline. Advertising revenues and consumer spending have been hit hard by the recession. [more]

Gauging Mobile Performance
The mobile industry remains attractive in terms of earnings, but operators are beginning to see a changing and more competitive environment. [more]

Connect the Dots
Success in telecommunications requires managing your businesses as a portfolio of assets and future options and making clear choices about where to compete. [more]

Telecom: Time to Lose the Bunker Mentality?
The current financial panic is largely taking place minus a major industry player - telecom. But this bunker mentality can't prevail. Alex Liu offers a few predictions about the changing landscape. [more]

Is Telecom Prepared for the Rapidly Gathering Storm?
A hurricane is bearing down on the telecom industry as three distinct forces—portalization, stickiness and convergence—come together to reshape the landscape. Companies that want to do more than survive this gale should move now to protect their "beachfront property." [more]

Simplify or Drown: Fighting the Rising Tide of Telecom Complexity
Telecom carriers can turn back the rising tide of complexity with a simplified organizational structure that will reduce costs, increase revenues and improve the customer experience. [more]

Tailor-Made for Success: Turning Customization into a competitive advantage
With a widely cited statistic showing 60 to 80 percent of final buying decisions made in stores, the fight for the consumer's eye is shifting from the TV and computer screens to the shelves. [more]

Mobile Operators: Tired of Margin Pressures?
A.T. Kearney's European and Global Cost Benchmarking can serve as a starting point to manage costs, improve operations and develop a cost-conscious culture. [more]

Transformation 2.0: Turning the Change Process Inside Out
The stuff kids use to "talk" to their friends—wikis, blogs and forums—is now helping companies give voice to every person in the organization. [more]

Failure to Launch: Why Some Spin-Offs Can't Leave the Nest
Wish that spin-off would leave the nest once and for all and fly on its own? Tough love for a spin-off is a proven approach that can save years of heartache. [more]

Call Centers Can Be Profit Centers
Your customer contact center is more important to your customer relationships than you think, especially if you know which calls to keep and which calls to outsource. [more]

Hitting Back: Strategic Responses to Low-Cost Rivals
January 2008 — Strategy & Leadership
The way to beat low-cost competitors that have the potential to become serious competitors is to identify and deal with them early, before they get a foothold in a market.
By Jim Morehouse, Bob O'Meara, Christian Hagen and Todd Huseby [more]

Research & publications archive