There’s more to a KPI than meets the eye

What is a KPI? Short for Key Performance Indicator, it’s a measurable parameter that indicates how successful a process or operation—or sometimes a whole business—is.

People often think of a KPI as being a flat number. A fixed level that you have to be either above, or below, or within a set margin of. Or sometimes it can be the frequency that a particular target is achieved. The actual definition depends on what is actually being quantified or measured by the KPI.

But for me a KPI is far more than this. A KPI for me can be an eye-opener, or even a door opener. It is the key that opens the door and lets us and our customers explore exactly what’s happening in so many aspects of our work.

When we introduce new KPIs, I feel we are actually inventing something helpful to our customers. It’s more than just a feature, and beyond just a capability. It’s a way to help them to improve—to become better at what they do.

Our KPIs relate directly to what the customer is actually experiencing, and how happy he or she will be with what is happening on the network they subscribe to. For example by monitoring the distribution of device types in particular cells and sectors, decisions can be made about powering down radios to save energy. And by checking whether devices are dropping calls more when they are in moving vehicles than when they are stationary. Identifying holes in network coverage is obviously crucial, but less visible is protecting the experience of international subscribers roaming away from their home networks as these are a profitable source of revenue.

Presenting feedback on the KPIs to the operator in a meaningful way is also an important part of the equation, so we have taken as much effort in providing our customers with a rich dashboard that correlates different dimensions of the subscriber experience with factors such as geographical location and handset capability.

We take our KPIs very seriously. How important are they to you?