constraints & bottlenecks in service provisioning

Would You Like to Provision Your B2B Customers Faster?

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Order to activation (O2A)

The entire process of traditional order-to-activation has become complex because of humongous increase in number of new services, applications and devices storming the ecosystem.

Bundling of voice, data, video-on-demand, gaming, location-based services, and enterprise integration with heterogeneous devices are opening fresh revenue streams, but at the same time are threatening customer satisfaction and customer retention. Prodapt, as a thought leader in the global telecom market, has come up with a capability for streamlining the O2A process for a customer provisioning system by removing its bottlenecks and constraints by reducing manual activity.

Prodapt is currently working with TIER1/TIER 2 customers based in North America for optimizing their customers’ O2A process for improved order management systems.

Order to activation is the end-to-end process which

starts with the capturing of the order and ends at billing of services offered. It goes

through the steps of service design, service activation

and verification.

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Why traditional O2A approach is not optimized?

52%

48%

52% YesNo

KPIs Are Not Measured in Real Time

Business Objectives Affected by O2A Process

O2A process impacts the CSPs’ bottom line as well as customer experience.

Improved Customer

Care82%

Improve OPEX

of Manual Handling67%

Revenue Leakage

Prevention

82%

No Single Point of View

Not measured in real time/near real time

Service providers agree that the end-to-end view of the O2A process is very important, but it remains very fragmented and complex.

CSPs have both more than five direct and indirect channels each involved in the O2A process as well as at

least five internal departments.

82%

High Level of Manual Touch

40%

Automation within the O2A process

0-20%

80 – 100%

Indicated only 0-20% of automation within the O2A process

28%

13%

Indicated only 80-100% of

automationLow levels of automation

High number of manual touch points

High level of error and faults

Negative impact on revenue and customer satisfaction

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“Known & unknown” constraints

FalloutHandli

ng

Cross Netwo

rk Orders

RevenueManageme

nt/Cost

ControlAdvance Infrastructur

e&

Technology

Custom Code

to Adapt to Change

Dependency

on Third-Party

Carrier NeedSolution

Unknown constraints: Solution needs to be identified

Known constraint: Solution requires innovation

FragileSyste

ms

Inaccurate

ProductCatalog

Dis-connected

Swivel-chair

Systems

LengthyInstallati

on

Known constraint: Solution requires additional expertise & action

OrderInaccura

cy

Delayed Due

Dates

DataQuality

Fragmented

Process

MultipleLegacy

Applications

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The attempts being made by telecom operators

O2A affects the key business objectives of every service provider today: revenue and customer satisfaction

Source : Ovum 2014

Eliminating manual componentsto improve efficiency and reduce errors

Replacing their legacy technology with hardware and software

Process optimization, in order to eliminate redundant sub processes

Every CSP has consciously attempted to improve its order-to-activate process. But the outcomes have been short of expectation, even disappointing.

Market Study

CSPs have been attempting to address the challenges in the O2A process for a long time now with a short-term view. Some of the ways that CSPs have tried to address the challenges by are as below

INEFFICIENT ORDER-TO-ACTIVATE CHAIN

As customers have become more demanding and services more complex, operators are discovering that the traditional approach to fulfilling subscriber orders isn’t good enough anymore.To enable product differentiation and gain the agility needed to succeed against competitors, the service providers need to implement an optimal waiting time & minimized activation time to address their lead-to-activate issues.

CustomerOrder

Configurationand Entry

FactoryOrder(s) Provision Activation

ValidateEnable

Customer

InvoiceCollectCash

ChannelWeb

Speech

Mail

Email

Chat

Kiosk

Customer

Sell/ Contract/AccountSetup

SalesProcess

This insight targets at CSPs who have inefficient O2A process which needs optimization in terms of end-to-end processing time and help them achieve

the fast time to market.

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Sub-systems involved in O2A

Lead Managem

ent System

Opportunities in Funnel

Quote- Purchas

e Order/B

Q

Order Management Sub-System

Provisioning

Sub-System

Activation

Sub-System

Revenue Managem

ent

L2Q - Lead to Quote Pre-billingO2A - Order to Activate

WHY PROVISIONING ALONE TAKES MORE TIME IN O2A PROCESS

20%

65%

15%

Percentage of average time spent in each system

TECHNO-FUNCTIONAL GLITCHES

NO STANDARD PROCESSMORE REDUNDANT STEPS


Provisioning “new” order: High-level process flow

Circuit ID team works on the circuit naming

Sales team submits qualified order

Connecting facility assignment team works on circuit design

Provisioning team submits service request to other carriers

Provisioning team acknowledges the FOC from other carriers

Testing team obtains “circuit status” from other carrier via voice auth

Technician works on cross connects installation

Incident/service request placed for “cross connects”

Assign & validate for IP requirement

Provisioningteam acknowledgesthe DLR from other carriers

Testing team validates CKT via loop test

Schedule for activation (hotcut)

Provisioning team acknowledges the provisioning completion from other carriers

Activation of data & voice products

Validate for assigned pricing

WT AT PT4 days 1 days 40 min.

WT AT PT10 days3 days 40 min.



WT AT PT1 days 6 days 15 min. 4 days 1 days




WT AT PT41 days3 days 30 min.

WT AT PT25 days3 days180 min.

WT AT PT29 days15 days60 min.


Process flows doesn’t involves other carriers Process flows involves other carriers

WT

AT

PT

AverageWaiting TimeAverageAssigned TimeAverageProcessing Time

FOC- Firm Order Confirmation; DLR- Design Layout Record

Prodapt’s Capability on Optimization

WT AT PT56 min.



Most time consuming process: Deep-dive analysis

Max. average time spent in each block in

provisioning systemCritical reasons

Success factors which reduce the delayBlock

name

Testing team validates circuit via loop test

Schedule for activation (hotcut)

Activation of data & voice products

WT41 days

AT PT3 days 30 min

WT29 days

AT PT15 days 60 min

WT25 days

AT PT4 days 180 min

Multiple circuits can't be tested at the same time – restriction in testingManual intervention required in loop testing

Dispatching technicians to fieldThird-party carrier dependencySynchronization of applications – system or automation failureManual testing on Ethernet productDelay in getting other carrier legsLimited automationMissing/incorrect info during design leading to reworkInventory data quality issue leading to fallout and rework

Scheduling based on third-party carrier availabilityTechnicians appointment calendarRobust application platformsCorrect product/service at first time

Effectively capturing the order with clean dataAuto identification of cross connect feasibilitySimplified product offeringEnrichment of missing parts of the order information from surrounding systems


Key takeaways: Success factors which reduce the delay

Overall processing time of O2A can be optimized by reducing the major time

spent in three highlighted blocks which add to the delay.

Major recommendations are below.

PhysicalScheduling• Effectively

managing technicians’ appointmentcalendar

• Completion in 1st truck roll

Third-Party CarrierAvailability

First-Touch OrderResolution

• Optimized scheduling based on third-party carrier availability for testing and followed by hotcut

• Uncompromising data accuracy during order capture process makes order fulfilment to complete on time as expected

Manual follow-up of orders falling into jeopardyData quality issue leading to fallout Number of manual touch pointsComplaint calls related to orderGoodwill adjustment paymentOrder cancellation rateOrder delay

Volume of orders handled in given timeframeNet promoter score increasesRight at first time completionOrder flow through rateCustomer satisfactionActivation lead time


Conclusion

Today's telecom industry is

shifting from market share acquisition to

customer satisfaction.

Operators are focused on how

to differentiate, target their

market segment, and

find better ways to

understand their

customers.

Operators stand to lose major

revenue if their order-to-activate

processes are not fast,

sophisticated, nimble and able to get the job done right the

first time.The vision of every operator should be highly automated O2A process more

than 70% to achieve the fast time to market.

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Johannesburg

New York

DallasTualatin

Amsterdam

London

THANK YOU!

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