Quality boosts the customer experience

unite: Why does quality matter in today’s communications industry?

Deepti: operators tell us clearly that their focus is on enhancing the end user experience in a rapidly evolving telecommunications market. The highest quality customer experience is expected and absolutely essential in enabling operators to reliably offer innovative features and services to their customers.

Cost and efficiency are also key focus areas for operators. Quality is critical here too because high quality products, solutions and services can lower costs and drive efficiency gains.

unite: What lessons can Nokia Siemens Networks learn from Motorola’s quality practices?

Deepti: I was very excited to join Nokia Siemens Networks from Motorola to embark on this journey of further raising the bar on quality and am pleased with how quality throughout the organization is being emphasized by the CEO and executive board. The willingness and desire of our people to implement top quality is unrivalled – the degree and level of commitment that I see is really pleasing.

Together we are a stronger industry player, with ever expanding opportunities to leverage best practices from both companies, to establish Nokia Siemens Networks quality as a differentiator in the market. The pioneering quality journey and lessons learnt at Motorola are excellent complements to further accelerate the quality focus and culture of Nokia Siemens Networks. An example is having a quality voice on the leadership table. There are also other key practices in the areas of customer quality management, defect prevention, quality maturity, and appropriate use of six sigma, which we are scaling up at Nokia Siemens Networks.

Our intention is to continue to use best practices from both companies to strengthen our quality capabilities and to develop innovative quality tools.

unite: On this topic of innovation, how important is quality to innovation and innovation to quality?

Deepti: Innovation without quality is not viable. Quite simply, we will not capture the value from our innovations if quality is not embedded within our offering, from our R&D activity right through to our delivery execution. Reliability and quality are critical at every stage to help operators achieve their mission of enhancing the end user experience.

We also need innovation in quality techniques. Quality models and the way we test things must improve and change to keep pace. An example of this is our software development and end-to-end verification processes. Operators depend upon getting new features very quickly, so we have switched from the conventional model of sequential software development. We now use techniques based on faster, iterative development of components in parallel.

We are also measuring quality in a more innovative way. We have introduced Customer Perceived Value (CPV) which goes beyond traditional customer satisfaction metrics by taking into account operators’ strategic trends, competitors’ information, future innovations and the business drivers of operators’ value profile. It is a much more holistic measure that gives us a better view of the operator experience of our products and services. It will help to drive quality improvements as well as our overall strategy. CPV is an advanced quality measure that will provide us a competitive edge to better meet and exceed operators’ growing expectations.

unite: With the right tools and processes in place, what else do you need to do to bring about quality improvements?

Deepti: An important part of the Nokia Siemens Networks quality journey is developing a partnering relationship with our customers, jointly working with them to achieve and exceed their expectations – to delight them. For us, quality is simply about putting the operator at the center of everything we do, not only in technology and services, but also in our behavior. Putting quality into practice every day is being achieved through three principles that sum up quality the Nokia Siemens Networks way. These principles along with the aspiration of our talented people to be the best-in-class is forming the unique foundation of Nokia Siemens Networks’ quality DNA.

‘Customer First’ We encourage employees to adopt ‘outside in’ thinking and focus on the needs of the operator, rather than looking inwards at ourselves. It implies carrying the voice of the operator inside the organization to collaborate across functions. Ensuring that the impact on the operator is understood fully and that we are delivering high quality products, services and solutions to maximize the investments operators are making with us.

‘Execution Excellence’ is about doing it right the first time - proactive quality through early detection and containment.

‘I Own Quality’ This is how every Nokia Siemens Networks employee takes personal responsibility on a daily basis for their actions and decision making to achieve high quality.

Our quality culture is maturing. We are determined to achieve the goal of delighting operators and making quality a key differentiator for Nokia Siemens Networks in the marketplace.