Last night, senior leaders and influencers across the telecom industry gathered at the Hudson Terrace in New York City for Light Reading’s annual Leading Lights Awards.  The awards program focuses on next-generation communications technology, applications, and services, and rewards the companies that have performed well over the past year. The panel of judges included Light Reading editors and Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research analysts.

Microsoft was awarded Best New Service or Application (Telecom) for the June 2011 launch of Office 365 with telecom operators. Office 365 is Microsoft’s next-generation productivity suite, available through more than 20 operators and hosters on four continents in June this year.

This award category focused on the company that has deployed a potentially market-leading, revenue-generating service or application that enhances the use of next-generation communications technology in the wireline network. Microsoft met the judges’ criteria for the way in which the company brought its flagship cloud service to market with operators around the world using the syndication model (whereby service provider partners can sell, bill, and support Office 365, bundled with their existing services and targeted at small and medium-sized businesses).

During the TMF Management World show in Dublin, Microsoft and Convergys are making further announcements on the partnership between the two companies on BSS solutions. Here we invite Morag Lucey, Global Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Convervgys to comment.

by Morag Lucey, Global Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Convergys

In today’s market, it takes a nimble and capable CRM product to truly address dynamic customer needs, coordinating quickly across channels and types of data to provide a positive care experience at peak efficiency. To assist service providers with their business transformation, Convergys and Microsoft introduce a comprehensive business support system (BSS) that improves billing processes, customer service, and time-to-market for new revenue-generating services. With the release of Convergys CRM powered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we are extending our recognized industry leadership and expertise in the communications and utilities industries to enable you, our customers, to provide a 360 degree, inclusive customer experience that will help reduce churn and quickly transform your sales agents into power sellers. Convergys CRM will help your business to market more effectively, improve productivity, and gain actionable insights to enhance the customer experience and your customer relationship marketing campaigns. The result is a winning combination for you and your customers.

During the TMF Management World show in Dublin, Microsoft and Convergys are making further announcements on the partnership between the two companies on BSS solutions. Here we invite Bob Lento, President of Global Information Management at Convervgys to comment.

by Bob Lento, President, Global Information Management at Convergys

We are pleased to announce the release of Convergys CRM powered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Over the last 10 years we’ve seen our customers add new products and services for their customers along with a more complex operating environment. So we teamed with Microsoft Dynamics CRM system, a wonderful platform with simplicity and low cost, and built in the unique capabilities to service our customers in the communications and utilities industries. We’ve taken the innovation and technology that Convergys has developed over the years, like shopping and ordering, quote management, subscriber management and added that into the intellectual properties developed by Microsoft and created a unique opportunity for our customers, our market and for our customers to service their customers across any channel, in real time, with the right information. This is a tremendous opportunity for Convergys to add value for our customers and we look forward to demonstrating its value in the coming years.

We’re just a week away from the CRM360 Virtual Summit on May 17^th, when business groups from around the world will digitally convene to learn how Microsoft Dynamics CRM can help them attract and retain customers, drive productivity and increase the bottom line.

For the telecom industry, client service is key, and Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM is designed to streamline logistics so businesses are able to focus on those crucial customer interactions. The summit is all about just that: learning ways to nurture existing customer relationships by improving internal processes, reducing administrative tasks, and free up employees to spend more time with customers.

At Tech Mahindra, we strive to provide innovative and valuable solutions and services for the telecom industry which is why we’re excited to announce our new Dynamics CRM lab in Noida, India, in partnership with Microsoft. This joint venture will enable telecoms to better understand the needs of their customers, and subsequently, serve those customers better by having a closer relationship with subscribers, driving cost efficiencies and achieving higher levels of profitability in a highly competitive environment. We hope this lab, the first of its kind in India, will help telecom companies across the globe with their customer relationship management needs.