The Management Network Group, a management consulting services group with roots in the telco market, is expanding its presence in the cable industry.

The company’s recently launched Digital Service Assurance package is built around the idea that as cable operators move into the multi-service market they will need to do a lot more back office integration work and expand their retail presence. The Retail Force segment of the package is designed to increase distribution efficiency for digital services such as high-speed data, video, VoIP and wireless.

“Historically, cable has been under distributed in the retail environment,” said Bill Opet, principal and vice president of TMNG's Cable Practice. “When they look at their competition, one of the important parts is the number of points of sale.”

To that end, the company has teamed with National Instore Services. As part of the package, TMNG will offer the consulting and professional services while National Instore offers consultants in the retail locations advising on how to improve sales and efficiencies. That model will become increasingly important as cable operators move into the wireless market, Opet said.

“Entering wireless is going to be challenging,” he said. “At least at the outset, the cable companies will not have complete control of the user experience because they’re using the Sprint network.”

Going forward, though, he sees cable operators having some advantage because of their existing relationships with content providers.

“More important, they’ve got insight into what type of content their market wants. This plays right to their core competencies.”