RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

There are actually several different types of Industry Surveys ROCCO conducts. This page explains all kinds of Surveys and helps to explain our methodology and thinking behind these surveys.

ROCCO Industry Surveys

1. Research for the general public: Surveys and investigative work collecting feedback on Mobile subscribers International Roaming experience.

2. Research for Market Intelligence: Surveys and investigative work collecting feedback on the marketplace, its vendors, perspectives of the platers and outlook. More information about how we deliver these projects to be available soon. In this area we are just starting.

3. Research for Mobile Operators on Vendor Benchmarking: These surveys collect feedback from Operators on the Vendors they use in the Roaming and Interconnect Industry and how they are perceived to be performing. ROCCO highlights the leaders in each type of Survey we conduct and provides insights into how roaming and processes are evolving.

4. Research for Enterprise Operators on Vendor Benchmarking: These surveys collect feedback from Enterprises on the Vendors they use in the Roaming and Interconnect Industry and how they are perceived to be performing. ROCCO highlights the leaders in each type of Survey we conduct and provides insights into how roaming and processes are evolving.

5. Research for Mobile Operators on Wholesale Costs: Stimulated by cost reductions and the productivity of Operators (Roaming Regulation In Europe), these Surveys ask Operators to comment on Pricing for key products and services they buy, with a view to providing more transparency on wholesale costs.

 6. Research for Mobile Operators on Strategy Topics: Stimulated by Operator demand, Topics such as M2M and Roaming Regulation, LTE are covered.

7. Bespoke Research for Operators or Vendors: Stimulated by the requirements of our clients, we use our Research knowledge and experience to expedite their data requirements and set them on the right track to achieve their strategic goals. See also the ROCCO Insight Community. See www.roccostrategy.com for more information.

Research for Mobile Operators on Vendor Benchmarking

This programme of research was stimulated by a number of Operators and Enterprises responding to our Surveys with a simple question:

“Who are the most reliable Providers in the Market for Products and Services and how well do they perform?”

ROCCO made extensive study of these questions and found that no information was readily available to share with Operators. We then began to carefully consider how we could approach this question. And following discussions with Operators and Vendors alike and other industry professionals we began to design a programme of surveys looking in detail at the Performance, Leadership and Value that each of the Providers in the market brings to Operators.

Quite simply, we asked Operators to tell us, what is your perception of these providers. How do you perceive them to be performing, based not only on personal experience working with these vendors but how would you say their brand perceived or how do they perform against competition.

Our goal is to encourage competition in the wholesale market by enabling Operators to reach a better understanding of Vendor Performance.

The Surveys within our Vendor Benchmarking Research Programme are about the approximate Leadership and Performance KPIs which Operators value most highly.

Performance KPIS

  • Reliability
  • Customer Service
  • Technical Expertise
  • Reputation
  • Value for Money
  • Understanding of Interconnect
  • Offers excellent Value Added Services (VAS)
  • Quality of Service
  • Transparency
  • Flexibility

Leadership KPIS

  • Global Presence
  • Trusted
  • Industry Expertise
  • Innovative
  • Enabler
  • Dynamic
  • Courageous
  • Empowering
  • Customer Orientated
  • Inspiring
  • Simple to work with
  • Local Expertise

We also include a List of KPIS not shown here which are specific to the kind of Vendors who are providing the service. We also ask some simple questions… how well do you KNOW and how well do you RATE Vendors overall. Together all of these results allow us to understand the tier one providers on the market.

The surveys present all the relevant vendors and contain information about vendors and from the results ROCCO is able to determine market leaders in each category.

Surveys are conducted on:

  • Data Clearing Providers
  • Financial Clearing and Settlement Providers
  • IPX Network Providers
  • Roaming Management Systems Providers
  • Steering of Roaming Providers
  • A2P SMS Messaging Providers
  • SMS Firewall Providers
  • Sim Box Detection Providers
  • Fraud Prevention Providers

Naturally (but its still worth mentioning), ROCCO commits to maintain the data provided by Operators in the strictest of confidence and will never disclose the respondees of our surveys, nor indicate the company or country of the respondee. Actually we are bound by UK Data Protection laws not to disclose information of this kind.

Please see Our Confidentiality Mandate for more information.

Our Vendor Benchmarking Research Programme takes place annually all year round with the results published to Operators taking part in the surveys approximately 3 months after their publication.

Vendor Benchmarking Reports

Vendors contained in the reports will not be ranked according to their specific scores but in tiers. The tiers will take into account the KPIS mentioned above and review the overall averages scored by a Vendor:

Tier 1: Vendors who performed at an excellent level (4-5 out of 5)

Tier 2: Vendors who performed at a good level (3.5-4 out of 5)

Tier 3: Vendors who performed at a average level (3-3.5 out of 5)

We believe it is better for the industry for us to announce tiered results because of what the tiers represent. Within this new approach, there may be a number of outcomes we might see in the reports:

  • No Vendor has reached Tier 1 (this suggests a dis-satisfaction with the vendor solutions and the way the standard processes are performed. ROCCO may make more detailed analysis of the points of dissatisfaction, maybe new standards are needed or more detailed Research)
  • Only One Vendor has reached Tier 1 (there is a market leader, one Vendor is pleasing Operators, what can the market learn about their performance)
  • Several Vendors have reached Tier 1 (several leaders with similar results have impressed operators, what can the market learn about their performance)
  • All Vendors have reached Tier 1 (the market is happy with the performance of all Vendors – which informs ROCCO that further research may not be necessary in subsequent years)

Please note: our surveys are designed to treat all providers equally, thats why any provider with any number of customers can perform just as well or even better than a larger provider. The feedback of each respondee is telling the story of what they think… so if they all vote 5 out of 5 in our survey then the vendor will get a 5 out of 5… its very simple.

How we will communicate the Results:

On conclusion of the research and analysis of the data we will communicate this to the press.

The Executive Summary of the Report (20 pages) will be sent only to the Operators taking part in the Survey, with all participants of the survey getting a free copy and this will show the tiered performance.

Finally in our Strategic Analysis Report (100+ pages) we will show the tiered performance and the detailed performance of each vendor.

We include within our research the opportunity for Operators to make quotes about vendors which might be useful for Operators reviewing the Reports to understand better the specific feelings of Operators about a vendor.

We are constantly evolving and tuning the questions according to the feedback given by Operators. So we know from experience the most useful questions and feedback sought by Operators. If you have feedback for us you will always find the opportunity to share that within the surveys. Or by contacting us.

For more information about the surveys taking place within this programme today please see the Surveys page.

Surveys for Mobile Operators on Wholesale Roaming Cost / Market pricing

This programme of research was stimulated by a number of Operators responding to our Roaming Surveys with a simple question:

“Why is there so little transparency on Wholesale Costs?”

And…

“What are the Market Prices for Products and Services such as Diameter, DCH or IPX”.

ROCCO made extensive study of these questions and found that no information was readily available to share with Operators. We then began to carefully consider how we could approach this transparency question. And following discussions with Regulators, Anti Trust Lawyers and other industry professionals we began to design our new programme of surveys. ROCCO would never do anything which breaches the Anti-trust rules. On the contrary:

Our goal is to encourage competition in the wholesale market by enabling Operators to reach a better understanding of Price Trends.

The 10 Surveys within our Wholesale Market Cost Research Programme are about the approximate Wholesale Market Costs Operators pay for Roaming Products and Services. The surveys do not discuss specific vendors and contains no information about vendors or their pricing plans.

In these surveys we ask Operators to share approximate and recent Market Costs that they pay for Roaming Products and Services. These costs may have been obtained from market research their companies have conducted (from RFP) or any relevant data that they may know of. Clearly for our research the more accurate the pricing approximation they have the more accurate our results will be.

Any operator taking part in these surveys receives aggregated results (from all the operators who took part) containing the lowest and highest approximated market rates charged to Operators and the average rate for the service. They will also get details about all the variables in the pricing, the pricing models used, exceptions to the model, interesting facts from our survey and any other useful information we can gather. For every Survey Operators complete we will send them the appropriate data regarding the market price for that product or service.

ROCCO commits to maintain the data provided by Operators in the strictest of confidence and will never disclose the respondees of our surveys, nor indicate the company or country of the respondee. Please see Our Confidentiality Mandate for more information.

Any operator taking part in these surveys receives aggregated results (from all the operators who took part) containing the lowest and highest approximated market rates charged to Operators and the average rate for the service. They will also get details about all the variables in the pricing, the pricing models used, exceptions to the model, interesting facts from our survey and any other useful information we can gather. For every Survey Operators complete we will send them the appropriate data regarding the market price for that product or service. See our Survey Results Page for more information on how too purchase these surveys. Any Operator taking part in the surveys receives our Standard Survey Results free of charge for taking part in the survey.

Naturally (but its still worth mentioning), ROCCO commits to maintain the data provided by Operators in the strictest of confidence and will never disclose the respondees of our surveys, nor indicate the company or country of the respondee.

For more information about the surveys taking place within this programme today please see the Surveys page.

Surveys for Mobile Operators on Industry Hot Topics

Once in a while there’s a project which arrives on our desks where there is so little guidance for Operators on how to perform a process or know strategically how to deliver something that guidance is needed. Often these topics are not in the scope of Industry bodies and so there is little guidance.

e.g. Roaming Consumer eSIM, IoT Security, Roaming IoT.

Bespoke Surveys for Mobile Operators or Vendors

Operators and Vendors who value the data coming from surveys, the neutrality of ROCCO as a Research provider and unbiased provider of insights into the market may be interested in asking us to perform Surveys for them.

This year we performed our first Research programme for a client which resulted in their getting detailed Operator opinions on several matters of high importance to a new product launch. We designed a specific survey for them and performed interviews with various operators from different backgrounds. Operators give more insights into their thinking when confronted with a neutral interviewer and the client found the data they received from us very useful and it helped them to gain strategic intelligence and plan for the product launch.

Speak with us about how we can help you with your research needs.