C A R O L I N E G A B R I E L , R E T H I N K T E C H N O L O G Y R E S E A R C H

M A R C H 4 2 0 1 5

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The impact of the Release Program

Agenda

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Aims of Release Program

Feedback from active users on its success

How uses Program, and for what?

Do the documents directly address barriers to adoption?

Role of Releases in operator confidence

Release Program aims

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Five releases, many working groups, large numbers of downloads

Aims – more than library or general interest

Increase confidence, provide real world support, accelerate uptake

How is it doing?

Survey of Release users

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• Rethink and SCF: survey of Release users

• Aim: assess impact of documents on those who downloaded

• 80% had direct responsibilility for small cell plans

• Average no of documents: 6

15

428

15

15

4

Key decision maker (deployment andpurchasing)

Input to strategy process/businessplanning for small cells

Member of small cell planning ordeployment team

Member of broader RAN planning ordeployment team

Consultant or technical adviser

General interest in small cells

Level of value

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For the respondents’ personal roles:

77% useful or very useful

8% said fundamental to a critical decision

45% - support critical business or technical decisions

23

54

19

4

Extremely useful Useful Quite useful Not useful

Areas of interest

Spread of interest but focus on real world deployment issues

oBest practice

oCase studies

oBusiness cases

oDeployment guidelines

oNetwork architecture

81

54 54

46 46

42

35

19

15

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

cit

ing

as

key

in

tere

st

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How the documents are used

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Range of uses of documents

Input to various processes and aspects of small cell decisions

Many operators still at overall strategy stage

Moving to specific decisions

65

54

31

27

23

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Business or technical?

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Highest value ratings on technical documents

Almost 80% found documents valuable for technical decisions

However, different weighting when move to specific barriers ...

47

79

33

40

21

44

13 0 22

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Business decision Technical decision Overcomingdeployment issues

% o

f r

es

po

nd

en

ts

Valuable or very valuable Fairly valuable Not valuable

Key aim: lower barriers

Nine top barriers to deployment. Identified by survey of 59 operators

In each case, Releases were helpful to 60% to 90%+.

Directly solved an architecture problem for 25%

Business case, standards – highest overall

Sites, standards – highest ‘very helpful’ ratings

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25

10 10 105 5 5 5 5

20

30 3035 45

55

35

25

15

35

55

45 35

45

15

45

40

40

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Directly solved problem Very helpful Helpful

Building confidence

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Commitment to deployment timescale key indicator of confidence

Shift since June 2014

63% have window under 12 months, up from 57% 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Time to deployagreed

6-12 months 12-24 months 24-36 months

% o

f o

pe

ra

tor

s

2015 2014

Are Releases a factor?

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Complex decision process

Long ticklists

Few want to move first

14%

29%

43%

14%

Fundamental to a critical decision

Supported critical business decision

Supported critical technical decision

Supported both types of criticaldecision

Key contribution

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Key role of Release Program to help operators commit:

Shared body of knowledge and experience

Best practice and case studies

Avoid reinventing wheel eg on business case

‘How-to’ guides in complex technical areas