Capacity management is crucial for satellite operators with multi-site operations says, Ahsun Murad, president of Optimal Satcom in an interview with SatellitePro. You have just signed an agreement with Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS). What is the nature and scope of the agreement? We are fortunate to have been selected by ABS to be a small […]
Capacity management is crucial for satellite operators with multi-site operations says, Ahsun Murad, president of Optimal Satcom in an interview with SatellitePro.
You have just signed an agreement with Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS). What is the nature and scope of the agreement?
We are fortunate to have been selected by ABS to be a small but important part of its strategic transformation from a regional satellite operator to one with a broad presence across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. We are providing ABS with a capacity management system based on ECM and Complan.
The system will be installed at several sites around the world, and used by ABS to manage its growing fleet of satellites. As part of the project, we are working closely with ABS personnel to transition from their legacy tools, spreadsheets and databases to an integrated ECM database, and to implement automated interfaces for some of their other systems. ECM is designed for multi-site operations and its system of networked and replicated databases will allow ABS personnel to work from anywhere and collaborate together as part of a single team with a unified workflow.
Why do you believe capacity management is so critical and who are the ideal clients?
Satellite capacity is an extremely valuable resource. Satellite operators have about 12-15 years to recover the cost of construction, launch, and operation cost of a satellite. For satellite service providers, leasing satellite capacity usually represents their single-largest cost by far. The first benefit of ECM is the efficient utilisation of this valuable satellite resource facilitated by providing functions to enable users to see their entire system usage, to easily identify unused resources, and to find capacity for new services. The second benefit of ECM comes from its increased operational efficiency. The implementation of an enterprise-level system such as ECM is a transformational step in an organisation it changes how the company operates internally, and how it interfaces with its customers and the increased operational efficiency from such a system has a significant impact on the companys bottomline.
What is your assessment of the commercial Satcom market over the next few years?
Our close working relationship with satellite operators, many of the largest satellite service providers, and large Satcom users within the U.S. Government gives us a unique perspective on the market. The industry has a number of satellites coming online over the next two to three years, systems such as YahSat, QatarSat, new Arabsat launches, and even non-conventional systems such as O3b and high-throughput Ka-Band satellites. These are in response to demand for capacity from emerging regions Africa and Asia as well as an extreme shortage of capacity in the Middle East, driven by the U.S. and NATO military presence. As the U.S. reduces its military footprint in Afghanistan, its use of military capacity is likely to go down. A slowdown in launch bookings as reported by the major satellite launch providers is also an early sign that the satellite industry is preparing for a surplus of capacity and responding by slowing down satellite construction.
It is likely that there may be a short-term excess of capacity in a couple of years, but a long-term surplus is unlikely. The experience in post-war Iraq has been that the net demand for satellite capacity continues to rise fueled by infrastructure reconstruction activities and increases in end-user consumption. A short-term excess of capacity would probably be good for the industry which has been running at unprecedented fill rates for the last few years. Sustained fill rates higher than about 80% are great for the bottomline, but result in reduced operational flexibility; reduced system reliability, as satellite operators lose their ability to provide backup capacity; and a disincentive towards customer support and value-added services.
The extremely high rates that some operators charge for premium capacity has also had a detrimental effect on service providers as they have to compete heavily for scarce satellite capacity in certain regions. This increases end-user costs and limits the ability to respond to customer needs. A short-term excess of satellite capacity coupled with strong underlying fundamentals that support a longer-term sustained growth in demand may be just what the satellite industry needs to make a course correction at this time.
What is Enterprise Capacity Manager?
The Enterprise Capacity Manager (ECM) is a software system designed for use by satellite operators, satellite service providers and other large users of satellite capacity. It integrates all the different functions that our customers need to perform in the operations of their satellite capacity management business presales proposal and quotation development, transmission engineering, operations, cost and revenue tracking, invoicing, customer support, and management reporting into a single system.
