A PROJECT REPORT
ON
Enhancing Customer Experience to Address Business Imperatives through efficient TOMS
FOR
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Dr. Tripti Dhote
Faculty (Marketing)
TOWARDS PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF
MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTARTION IN TELECOM MANAGEMENT
SUBMITTED BY
ABHISHEK PARDESHI
MANOJ MOHITE
SATHYA IYER
SHAILENDRA SHANKAR
RICHA BHATIA
Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management
Pune 412115
MBA TM (Batch 2011-13)
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CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that project titled
Enhancing Customer Experience to address Business Imperatives through efficient TOMS
Is a bonafide work carried out by
ABHISHEK PARDESHI
MANOJ MOHITE
SATHYA IYER
SHAILENDRA SHANKAR
RICHA BHATIA
Under the guidance of
Dr. Tripti Dhote
Faculty (Marketing)
Towards the partial fulfillment of
Master of Business Administration in Telecom Management
(MBA -TM)
_________________ _________________
Director Project Guide
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
“All I'm armed with is research.”
-- Mike Wallace
The 10 month research project as a part of curriculum at SITM lays a strong foundation
for aspiring managers like us not only by imparting quality, world class education but
also giving us an opportunity to get appropriate and worldwide exposure before we take
the actual step in.
We would like to express our gratitude to all those who gave us the knowledge and all
required support to complete this report.
We are deeply indebted to our mentor Dr. Tripti Dhote whose help, stimulating
suggestions, knowledge, experience and encouragement helped us in all the times of
study and analysis of the project in the pre and post research period.
We would like to thank respected Director Sir Prof. Sunil Patil, Dy. Director Sir Prof.
Prasanna Kulkarni and all the faculty members of SITM for sharing their extensive
knowledge and expertise to equip us with the knowledge and skills to take on the
research.
We would also like to thank Corporate Executives of Infosys, IBM, Amdocs and Tech
Mahindra, without whose valuable inputs this report was almost impossible.
03.01.2013
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ABSTRACT
The telecom sector is the ‘sunrise industry’ for India and faces intense competition due
to existence of many players. As we know ‘Customer is the King’ and there is hyper
competition between the CSP to serve this King. It’s high time for CSPs to differentiate
themselves and stop competing in terms of price and moves on to provide better quality
of service and enhanced customer experience.
In this project we are looking at the best practices that are being adopted and followed
by TOMS provider to develop Telecom order management solution. We are also
recommending a business framework that Telco’s should adopt while developing and
implementing TOMS. This framework will help Telcos to launch products with less turn-
around time, less time to market, less revenue leakage, better visibility of processes and
expenditure.
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Contents
Title of the Project ........................................................................................................... 9
Objectives ..................................................................................................................... 10
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 11
Chapter- 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 13
1.1 Relevance and justification: ................................................................................. 14
1.1.1 Telecom Order management Solutions a CSP perspective: ............................. 14
1.1.2 The Business Imperatives to be addressed: ..................................................... 15
1.1.3 TOMS provider perspective: ............................................................................. 16
1.1.4 CEM: ................................................................................................................. 18
1.1.5 LEVERAGE ORDER MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE:........................................................................................................... 20
1.2 LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 22
1.3 Case Studies: ...................................................................................................... 29
1.3.1 Bharti Airtel -Comverse ..................................................................................... 29
1.3.2 TELEFONICA ................................................................................................... 30
1.3.3 VODAFONE TIBCO .......................................................................................... 30
Chapter-2: Research Methodology ............................................................................... 33
2.1 Data Source: ........................................................................................................ 34
2.2 Research Approach: ............................................................................................ 35
2.3 Research Instrument: .......................................................................................... 36
2.3.1 Questionnaire: .................................................................................................. 36
2.4 Sampling Plan: ..................................................................................................... 37
2.5 Contact Method: .................................................................................................. 37
Chapter-3: Limitation of the Research ........................................................................... 39
Chapter-4: Analysis and Findings ................................................................................. 42
4.1 What are 3 most efficient capabilities provided by your TOMS? .......................... 43
Finding & Inferences: ................................................................................................. 43
4.2. What KPIs are considered while designing TOMS? ........................................... 44
Findings and Inferences: ........................................................................................... 44
4.3 Which standardizations does your TOMS adhere to? .......................................... 45
Findings and Inferences: ........................................................................................... 45
4.4 Which process of TOMS are major contributing factor which can hamper CEM? 46
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Findings and Inferences: ........................................................................................... 46
4.5 How is your organization coping up with the rapidly changing technology i.e. from 2G,3G to 4G in terms of TOMS? ............................................................................... 47
Findings and Inferences: ........................................................................................... 47
4.6 .After implementation of TOMS for a telco, what have been the changes in the following parameters? ................................................................................................ 48
Findings and Inferences: ........................................................................................... 48
4.7 What are the challenges faced by TOMS providers? .......................................... 49
Findings and Inferences: ........................................................................................... 49
4.8. Name few of your clients .................................................................................... 50
4.9 Whether CRM is pre-integrated/in-built with your TOMS?If yes,then which CRM?................................................................................................................................... 50
Findings and Inferences: ........................................................................................... 50
Chapter -5: Recommendations ..................................................................................... 52
Framework for developing TOMS to enhance Customer Experience for CSPs: ........ 53
5.1 CE Framework ..................................................................................................... 53
5.1.1 Defining CE:...................................................................................................... 53
5.1.2 Measuring CE: .................................................................................................. 54
5.1.3 Improving CE: ................................................................................................... 54
5.2 ‘TOMS Three Phase framework’ to improve CE: ................................................. 56
5.2.1 Blueprinting: ...................................................................................................... 56
5.2.2 Value Analysis: ................................................................................................. 57
5.2.3 Realization: ....................................................................................................... 58
References…………………………………………………………………………………..61
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List of Figures
Figure 1 : Layers of CE ................................................................................................. 18
Figure 2: Frost & Sullivan Research .............................................................................. 20 Figure 3: Infosys TOMS framework ............................................................................... 22 Figure 4: Order Fallout Management Views .................................................................. 23 Figure -5: Order Management Processes ..................................................................... 27 Figure -6: Frost & Sullivan Research 2009 .................................................................... 27
Figure -7: Order Management Flow .............................................................................. 28 Figure 10: Dimension along which CE is to be measured ............................................. 55 Figure 11: TOMS 3 phase implementation Framework ................................................. 56 Figure 12: Value analysis example a gift from business centric to customer centric approach ....................................................................................................................... 57 Figure 13: Steps in Value Analysis ................................................................................ 58 Figure 14: Steps in Realization ..................................................................................... 59
Figure 15: Example of business process analysis ......................................................... 60
List of Tables
Table 1: Capabilities provided by TOMS provider ......................................................... 43 Table 2: KPIs considered for TOMS .............................................................................. 44 Table 3: Standardizations followed while Designing TOMS .......................................... 45
Table 4: Processes in TOMS which hamper CE ........................................................... 46 Table 5: How TOMS coping-up with technology advancements ................................... 47
Table 6: Improvements observed at Telco side ............................................................. 48 Table 7: Challenges faced by TOMS provider ............................................................... 49
Table 8: Clients ............................................................................................................. 50 Table 9: CRM pre-integration ........................................................................................ 50
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Nomenclature & Abbreviations
3G Third-generation wireless cellular standard
4G Fourth-generation wireless cellular standard
ARPU Average revenue per user
B2B Business to Business
CE Customer experience/Consumer experience
CEM Customer Experience Management
CRM Customer Relationship Management
CSP Communication Service Provider
CXM Customer Experience Improvement
eTOM Enhanced Telecom Operations Map
IT Information Technology
KPI Key performance indicator
NGOSS New Generation operating system and software
OM Order Management
SID Shared Information Data
SOA Service Oriented Architecture
TAM Telecom Applications Map
TechM Tech Mahindra
TOMS Telecom Order Management Solution
TRAI Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
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Title of the Project
“Enhancing Customer Experience to address Business imperatives through efficient Telecom Order Management Solutions”
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Objectives
The objectives of the project are:
i. To understand and evaluate best practices in Customer Experience governance using TOMS and building a business case for Telco’s
ii. To Build a Framework for Telco’s to provide enhanced customer experience and to provide better visibility of the processes and rationalize expenditure in TOMS
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Executive Summary
The basic objective of this research was to understand and evaluate best practices in Customer Experience governance using TOMS and building a business case for Telco’s and to Build a Framework for Telco’s to provide enhanced customer experience and to provide better visibility of the processes and rationalize expenditure in TOMS.
Basically a market research was done with leading TOMS provider and analysis was done to understand the best practices in TOMS to provide enhanced customer experience. Based upon the research done and after identifying the best practices we were able to develop a framework for Telco’s and create a business case for the same.
The research helped us to understand the basic capabilities TOMS provider provide in TOMS; processes important to TOMS provider which hampers the CE the most in TOMS; challenges faced by the TOMS with evolving technology, reducing product life cycle; KPIs used by TOMS provider to evaluate CE; how is TOMS helping Telco’s to provide customers with enhanced CE; standard TOMS provider follow while developing TOMS.
Finally the research is concluded with a framework which can be used by Telco’s to provide Enhanced CE to address various business imperatives like increasing commoditization, decreasing ARPU, decreasing market share, etc. This could be done with efficient TOMS.
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Chapter- 1:
INTRODUCTION
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1.1 Relevance and justification:
1.1.1 Telecom Order management Solutions a CSP perspective:
Communications service providers around the world are migrating from a product- centric approach towards a more customer-centric approach. They are beginning to focus on using what they know about the customer to present products and services that are not only highly relevant to the individual customer, but also timely in nature. Tomorrow's market winners will be able to deliver an experience that is cross-channel by design, allowing customers to shop or buy seamlessly and consistently across multiple channels. The success of a company in delivering a customer-centric, cross-channel experience depends on their ability to align their business processes across multiple internal operational silos, and collaborate with multiple enterprises, from content providers to supply chain partners to selling partners. End-to-end order management (OM) systems are important investments because of the impact of ordering on a company's operations. Inefficient OM systems lead to an
i. Increased order fallout rate, ii. Slower time to market and iii. Inferior customer experience.
From offer creation, matching offers to customers, order capture and order generation, through fulfillment across different channels and customer touch points to internal and external fulfillment points, OM sits at the heart of service providers' transition to customer-centricity.OM solutions must go beyond the current technical or functional approach, and support a customer-centric approach As ordering systems have evolved from dealing with single products to multiple, converged products, the focus has been first on operations. But as competition becomes increasingly intense, operational efficiency is no longer sufficient. To excel in a world of competitive choices, service providers need to foster deep customer relationships, and that means a different type of ordering process that regardless of customer type, purchase channel and desired products, puts the customer at the center. Next-gen OM solutions alone need tube able to leverage everything the service provider knows in order to recommend the right products to the customer. Only then can it provide complete and transparent visibility to the customer regarding the status of the delivery of that order. Communications service providers' OM systems are based on three fundamental building blocks:
i. Sales OM, ii. Service fulfillment OM and iii. B2B collaboration OM.
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In order for vendors to be able to provide end-to-end OM systems, it is critical for their solutions to successfully bridge the gap among the three building blocks.
i. Sales OM solutions coordinate all processes associated with securing the customer's order from order capture until the order contract has been signed (for more complex enterprise orders). The sales OM solution automates the order capture process for various sales channels. It also has embedded workflow that routes the service order to the different departments that need to complete a particular task for that order contract. Retail lines of business will require more sophisticated OM solutions that integrate decisioning capabilities to present personalized offers for cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, resulting in higher-order conversion rates and truly seamless experience from lead to cash.
ii. Service fulfillment OM solutions coordinate the many operations and
network related workflow tasks necessary to fulfill a customer service order. Provisioning OM has greater synergies with other network-facing OSSs. Critical tasks performed by service fulfillment OM solutions involve order decomposition and brokering, routing orders to locations, design and assign network circuits, network activation, etc.
iii. Supply-chain B2B OM solutions revolve around gaining real-time visibility into orders across divisions and supply networks, streamlining and lowering the cost of customer order fulfillment processes and accessing up-to-date product and inventory availability. Managing the workforce and technicians required to activate services, tracking inter-carrier service orders and number portability requests also must be handled by these OM systems.
1.1.2 The Business Imperatives to be addressed:
According to Gartner Group, about 2 to 5 percent of all services delivered by the world's largest telecom providers are unbilled because of inefficient or misaligned processes. Despite significant investments in new and upgraded solutions, order-to-cash processes remain inefficient. In a hyper-competitive communications market, service providers' business objectives are focused on critical business priorities, summarized as follows:
i. Increasing revenue and profitability; decreasing churn: Operators will look to launch a massive new set of offers, products and enabling technologies for more revenue streams. Personalization and rapid service delivery continue tube high on the priority list and are forcing providers to be more imaginative about how they bundle their products and services and explore new areas forsakes growth. In this context, the ability to intelligently cross-sell and up-sell to an existing customer base will be critical to this growth.
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ii. Deliver contextual offers: Personalized offers based on customer preferences, transaction volumes, social networks and preferences, etc., require a real-time decisioning engine as an integral part of an OM solution. A unified solution can help service providers make 1:1 contextual offers to every customer, improving acceptance rates, and improve fulfillment rates via straight-through processing.
iii. Reducing OPEX and limiting system complexity: To simplify enhancement and operational cost to support the change in demand, providers want to consolidate disparate BSS/OSS systems and eliminate the custom approach to provide core capabilities.
iv. Improving supply-chain B2B process management: Service providers' requirements revolve around gaining real-time visibility into orders across divisions and supply networks, streamlining and lowering the cost of order fulfillment processes and accessing up-to-date product and inventory availability.
v. Providing seamless cross-channel ordering: Next-gen OM solutions need to be able to handle cross-channel orders seamlessly and manage orders that start at one channel and complete at another, regardless if the channel is owned by the service provider. This functionality is critical for service providers that are dealing with well-informed, tech-savvy consumers that navigate across different channels and make purchases that involve numerous interactions across multiple channels and touch points. With the introduction of wireless and social channels, this has become progressively more complex, with shopping channels no longer restricted to just Web, stores and contact centers. However, many of these objectives cannot be met by operators because of fragmented and inefficient OM systems.
1.1.3 TOMS provider perspective: Critical process inefficiencies that operators suffer and that can be traced back to fragmented OM systems:
i. Bottlenecks around offer design and implementation: Service providers suffer from fragmented design processes across organizations and systems. This is compounded by the complexity of convergent services, creating inefficiency in the overall design process. It is very time-consuming to test new offers, as it is dependent on manual processes and needs coordination across disparate systems and organizations. Lack of reusability of existing workflows means that for every new offer, new orchestration plans must be created from scratch.
ii. Long order cycle time: Lack of end-to-end vision across the OM chain results in complexity in process management, inaccurate fulfillment time estimates and inability to effectively deal with in-flight orders. Lack of accurate data with regard to subscribers, service and resources means that providers have tremendous difficultly in creating complete and accurate orders, resulting in high order fallout. Common problems as a result of this include
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the inability of providers to decompose orders and provide orchestration plans for complex service bundles and lack of end-to-end visibility of the order delivery process. Manual processes or home grown systems with scalability issues will not be able to adequately handle the demand for services.
iii. Complex order configuration leading to margin erosion: Order configuration and quote generation rely on disconnected tools and time-consuming, error prone manual order entry without proper validation. This leads to a high number of order rejections, lost margins and decreased customer satisfaction.
iv. Lack of modern ordering system impedes introduction of selling models to drive new revenue: Service providers want to embrace new business models to increase market presence and drive new revenue. The most common new business model initiative is to expand into new sales channels, including new partner channels and customer self-service. However, limitations in their OM systems prohibit the use of these new channels.
v. Personalized approach to enterprise customers: Enterprise clients represent service providers' highest value customers due to the customization and complexity of their orders and strict service-level agreements (SLAs). Key performance indicators such as roundtrip provisioning timeframe, percent of rejected orders, account and service count mismatch between billing and provisioning systems are directly tied to SLAs that service providers must meet in order to avoid financial penalties.
Next-Gen OMS From a technology standpoint, next-gen end-to-end OM solutions should be able to tailor cross-sell and up-sell offers to each customer, perform multi-channel quote and capture, be proficient in dealing with complex order fulfillment process and build on a core communications foundation framework. Centralized product catalog encompasses product and service and resource information that must be closely aligned with this end-to-end OM solution. Automated, intelligent exception handling is a critical aspect that can be handled effectively by next-gen, BPM-based OM solutions. It helps orders to maintain conformance with their dependencies and exception rules, which helps minimize provisioning errors and eliminate inconsistencies. OM systems should have the capability to build a knowledge base of common exceptions and create auto resolution mechanisms that quickly resolve exceptions without customer impact. Proactive order monitoring and auto-resolve capabilities help service providers increase efficiency and reduce support costs. Service providers already have existing legacy BSS/OSS systems in their environment. Other key functionalities that next-gen OM solutions should be able to handle are:
Provide integration with supply-chain processes
Provide service-specific templates
Support automated flow-through provisioning as well as manual events
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Allow real-time order visibility
Have close alignment with business intelligence and reporting tools
Atomic transaction support and ability to handle in-transit order changes
Have a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) for order entry/negotiation
Integrate with centralized, dynamic product catalog as the control point to increase flexibility and optimize product offerings
Provide responsive interaction using fine-grained load balancing
1.1.4 CEM:
The TM Forum defines customer experience or consumer experience as, “The result of the sum of observations, perceptions, thoughts and feelings arising from interactions
and relationships between customers and their service provider(s).”
“The discipline, methodology and/ or process used to comprehensively manage a customer’s cross channel exposure, interaction and transaction with a company, product, brand or service is called Customer Experience
Management.” Customer Experience
Management (CEM) has, over the last 6-8 years, become a major talking point in the Telecom industry, as well as a number of other industries, including Financial Services, Retail and even the Public Sector. The widespread focus that CEM has received in Telecom from both the Communication Service Provider (CSP) and vendor communities is, however, far from being homogeneous. For some, CEM is a software/ technology-based solution; for others, it is a business concept that is more about an organizational transformation process; for others it is a re-invigoration (or, an extension) of CRM; and, for others, it is a passing vendor-driven fad which will no doubt be superseded by another fad sooner or later. By and large, however, the industry seems to understand what CSP meant to do for CSPs.CEM is
Figure 1 : Layers of CE
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meant to: drive a greater level of customer-focus; engender operational efficiencies; generate new revenue streams; and help maximize profits. In the short term it is evident that, beyond creating a CEM strategy that aligns to corporate, CSPs are looking to apply CEM to both operational (process) oriented issues to seek efficiency gains and to revenue oriented opportunities, including ARPU maximization and cross/up-selling of multiple services. In the mid/ long term, CSPs are looking to tackle more strategic challenges and opportunities. CEM is typically aligned to highly strategic objectives, including Churn Reduction and Quality (of service) Improvement. This provides strong indications that most CSPs aim to drive revenue through CEM. This expectation aligns with the belief that CEM is integral to the long term survival of CSPs. Nonetheless, CSPs are also focused on the fact that CEM can help drive down operational costs – though this is seen as a mid/ longer term objective, signaling that rationalization of process is only possible once an individual CSP has amassed sufficient experience to reap the benefits of efficiency. Yet, when outlining short and mid/ longer term development plans for CEM, most CSPs focus the short term on process improvement and other operational aspects. This may give an insight into a perceived time lag between effort and payback. CSPs will require support to gain this experience; the starting point will be in determining how to best leverage the full capabilities available through existing CEM implementations from other organizations. CEM’s barriers (in relation to adoption, implementation and rollout – as well as benefit realization) are related to the classic functional silos that CSPs are structured in relation to. There are often competing objectives and misaligned measures of performance between different departments, which creates friction. Organizationally, this issue manifests itself horizontally and vertically (i.e. between departments and from Executive to Operational leadership). This is a major development area and one in which CSPs can work alongside vendors that have strong consulting capabilities to capitalize on best practices – even from other industries where CEM has been deployed. Despite the challenges and – as noted before – CEM initiatives have flourished. These initiatives tend to be set up through the backing of a clear business plan, business case and roadmap, with associated milestones and KPIs. Many of these dedicated CEM initiatives are still in their infancy, to be found in the first 3 stages of development:
i. Strategy, ii. Design and iii. Implementation.
In fact, some of these initiatives have literally gone live in the last 12 months. As such, initiatives are typically still focused on certain domains, having prioritized where the impact will be greater. Typically, these areas are front-end (customer-facing) domains, particularly Customer Service (Contact Centre), Service Activation and Billing. Frost & Sullivan survey 2009 conclusion on important processes which hampers customer experience are as follows:
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Figure 2: Frost & Sullivan Research
1.1.5 LEVERAGE ORDER MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE THE CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE:
Communications Service Providers (CSPs) must fulfill orders on time and provide efficient and cost-effective customer service. In addition, they need robust order handling systems to ensure competitiveness. Infosys’ experts propose an integrated approach to help CSPs address the challenges of order fallout management. A structured methodology to resolve fallout issues reduces customer churn, enhances satisfaction and improves the customer experience.
Customer satisfaction is increasingly contingent upon the customer experience at each interaction, and a pivotal point is the ordering process. Companies that strive to deliver a superior customer experience are doomed to fail if that process is slow and inefficient, hinders customer decision making, or proves to be unreliable. The right order management software can not only eliminate negative experiences, but also enable your organization to successfully use the favorable customer experience as a differentiator in a crowded and competitive marketplace. Customer experience is important, especially in tough times. The world economy is showing early signs of recovery, but businesses remain cautious given the continued uncertainty in the timing and speed of the recovery. The past few quarters have been extremely tough on companies across industries as revenues fell sharply, leading to
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intense competition for every customer. The challenges companies faced in retaining every customer have served as a reminder of the importance of the customer experience, especially in a recession. With significant cuts in R & D outlays and competitors willing to outdo each other in price and cost cuts, there is an opportunity for companies to differentiate on customer experience.
Delivering a superior customer experience in a downturn is also important to build the mind share that can lead to accelerated growth in the upturn. The ordering process is crucial to improve the customer experience, but is often ignored. Many companies attempting to offer a superior customer experience tend to focus on marketing and sales activities leading up to the purchase and on service activities after the purchase. Improving the ordering process to deliver a perfect order can support the marketing message and eliminate unnecessary order inquiries and service requests, resulting in significantly improved customer experience.
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1.2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Solutions and research for Order Management for telecom companies and its relevance in Customer Experience Management has been carried out by companies like Infosys, Huawei, Nokia Siemens, Frost and Sullivan etc.
A robust order management system is imperative for successful provisioning of services. An efficient order fallout management system ensures that order failures are detected and corrected early for prompt provisioning of customer service. Order fallout occurs due to non-scalable systems, incomplete processes or inconsistent data. Fallouts result in customer churn, degradation of service offerings and a diminished customer experience. Order fallout management is a complex system involving multiple components.
A typical framework for Order Fallout Management System can be shown as follows:
Figure 3: Infosys TOMS framework
Infosys has proposed an integrated approach to improve the order fallout process. Different views are applied to address the issues in order fallout management since
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stakeholders have diverse perspectives to resolve fallout issues. For instance, the senior management may focus on increased cash flow at minimal cost while Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) need a reliable system to provide efficient customer service, irrespective of cost. A consolidated view enables CSPs to develop effective solutions for issues related to order fallout.
Five perspectives/ views were proposed that must be considered before implementing a new order fallout management system or modifying an existing system:
Process view
System view
People view
Data view
Cost view
Figure 4: Order Fallout Management Views
i. Process View: The process view focuses on the processes to be applied to different types of fallout. A comparison with existing processes or a new process helps resolve issues more efficiently. CSPs must identify, define and
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review the processes to resolve order fallout issues. The processes must include:
Proper methods to identify criticality of fallouts, i.e., orders requiring immediate resolution versus orders that are due at later date. Processes must be defined for stringent monitoring, tracking and resolution of exceptions.
Well-defined methods to allocate work across different regions and types of order fallout. Proper definition of work centers enables allocation of work to the work center with the right skills and knowledge to handle the issue.
Efficient communication methods such as chat queues and bridges to enable interaction between various teams to promptly resolve common issues and reduce communication overheads
Work centers with the ability to manually orders in triage situations
Efficient feedback mechanisms to solicit feedback from various stakeholders including CSRs
Processes for the product management team to incorporate literature on new product bundle offers into the system
Processes for development, maintenance, deployment, and release management
Escalation procedures for various scenarios ii. People View: The people view equips the fallout management team with the
right set of skills and equipment to handle order fallouts efficiently. It encompasses all people aspects, including how teams must be aligned along knowledge proficiency, aspirations and limitations, to utilize their strengths in the fallout handling process. The people view point can be gained by -
Setting up integrated teams to enable the support team to collaborate with the application development team for prompt and accurate exception management
Defining different levels of skills in order fallout to rectify orders depending on the complexity of exceptions. It optimizes work assignment to Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to avoid cherry-picking by specialists.
Identifying and deploying training mechanisms to create knowledge-enabled CSRs for increased customer satisfaction and efficient order entry. It also reduces inconsistent order entries in the system.
Identifying the training needs of all stakeholders iii. Cost View: Adopting the cost view requires enhanced focus since it affects
the overall profitability and success of an organization. A fallout management system must be implemented at a reasonable/ optimal cost. The tangible and intangible benefits must be considered while comparing the cost options of an implementation. For example, a particular order fallout improvement strategy may not be cost-effective but may yield long-term benefits to the organization. Management of order fallout is more expensive in the later stages of the order flow cycle.
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Implementation steps for the cost view:
Opt for right shoring to reduce the IT cost of fallout management
Identify and train Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams to handle repetitive order exceptions. The teams can comprise resources with a lower skill set to minimize costs.
Identify an expert team for tool generation to roll out quality tools promptly and reduce the cost of order fallouts.
Rules-based tools may be used when it is known that a bug will exist until the next release. Tools help detect, diagnose and resolve system, application and data issues promptly.
iv. System View: The system view helps build a mature system that can address the technical demands and the complex application landscape of IT organizations. It enables improvements in the overall order management system to enhance the order flow-through rate. The system view facilitates enhancements, technology upgrades and automation of processes, and improves reporting for better decision making.
The system view enables -
Unified dashboard systems – Tier 1 through Tier 4 teams for customer service must have a unified view of applications to reduce Average Handling time (AHT) and promptly resolve issues.
Intelligent automated systems – An intelligent system can automatically resolve repetitive exceptions. It can take fallouts from a provisioning system, automatically correct errors, and resubmit the order to the provisioning system for flow-through, eliminating the need for manual intervention. Infosys’ automated processes helped a CSP improve order processing and save US$ 3 million in a year.
Rules-based engine – A sophisticated rules-based engine enables the system to address order fallout.
Structured approach – Preventive design and analysis of fallout can be achieved during system development with a structured approach.
Prioritization – Automation of common functions across work centers provides real-time information on work load and work distribution. It enables managers to prioritize work queues.
This integrated view to fallout management has been claimed to improved flow through rate by 6% and increase average on-time delivery by 2%.
A study conducted by Frost and Sullivan on Customer Experience Management found that the primary drivers for CEM adoption today relate to:
Churn reduction
Quality (of service)Improvement
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Other drivers included:
Process improvement;
Competitive differentiation and
Ability to harness higher quality data.
Although CSPs will almost universally speak of the ultimate impact of CEM on corporate profitability through its potential impact on both key levers, Revenue and Cost, they will typically assert that in the short term, the focus is on Revenue Growth/ Enhancement. The Cost Reduction potential of CEM is also widely acknowledged and, while objectives like Churn Reduction would certainly also affect costs, CSPs think this second type of benefit is most likely to be realized in the middle to long term. This view is based on the notion that operational effectiveness – through CEM’s impact on processes – can only be gained through experience and today, as stated earlier in this paper, CEM initiatives are still in their early stages of development. Other important drivers for CEM adoption are linked to issues such as competitive differentiation, which are largely seen as being motivated by increasingly saturated and competitive markets, where price, coverage and standard quality (will)no longer suffice. The next stage of competitive evolution, say CSPs, relates to the ability to understand customers at a micro-segment (extended to the individual) level. This level of insight would enable CSPs to both target customers with completely customized offers and enable them to manage their relationships through a detailed understanding of personal needs, preferences and expectations.
The key areas that are in-focus for CEM programs today are front- end, related directly to the customer, including
Customer activation
Customer behavior
Customer interaction
Customer retention
Customer Service initiatives
Improved monitoring
Network fault management
Service provisioning
These areas clearly relate to the drivers for adoption (i.e. the objectives for having a CEM initiative): churn reduction and quality (of service) improvement
Order management process in telecom industry is comprised of a number of sub-processes. The best available documentation of these processes is provided in Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM). Although processes related to order management are well dispersed in the eTOM framework, yet fulfillment under operations covers almost ninety percent of order management processes. Following is an overview of critical order management processes’ mapping with respect to Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) framework:
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Figure -5: Order Management Processes
Figure -6: Frost & Sullivan Research 2009
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From the above survey Frost & Sullivan concluded that important processes for CEM
from operator’s point of view are:
Customer Response Management
Sales Activation and Order Handling
Service Assurance
Service Quality Management
Provisioning
Billing
Contact Center
Campaign Marketing
The typical order management flow in OSS/BSS system is as follows:
Market Product
& Customer
Service
Resource
Supplier/Partner
Customer Interface Management
SellingOrder Handling
Service Configuration & Activation
Resource Provisioning
Customer contacts
Call Center
Sales
Request Clarification
Request
Clarification
Response Proposal
Offered
Order
Confirmed
Feasibility Request
Feasibility Assesment
Order Processing Requested
Design
Solution
Request
Design
Solution
Response
Service
Order
Initiated
Service
Activated
Order
Completition
Notification
Complete
Order
Resource
Reservation
Requested Resource
Reservation
Confirmed
Work
Order
Initiated Resource
Provisioning
Completed
Resource
Activation
RequestedResource
Activated
Figure -7: Order Management Flow
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1.3 Case Studies:
1.3.1 Bharti Airtel -Comverse
i. Problem statement.
Airtel is largest Service provider in India & they needed single Enterprise wide billing system to support the acceleration of its post-paid mobile business i.e. they had decentralized billing system.
ii. Challenges faced :
To integrate a cohesive approach that accords with state mandated centralization regulation. Another challenge was to ensure the operator’s long term self-sufficiency by building a model that would not rely on third party
iii. Solution and implementation:
Implementation of billing & order management system and high quality customer service was a relatively straight forward element of a solution. Airtel has deployed Comverse Keenan billing & order management system to ensure high customer service &products, the operator is known for.
Team from Comverse Keenan worked with Airtel team play an important role in coordinating numerous other strategic initiative, such as developing standard operating procedure, enhancing business process to optimize efficiency, providing best practice recommendations on revenue assurance & creating and implementing an overall architectural framework for its billing & order management infrastructure that will scale to support Airtel’s rapid growth over the coming years.
iv. Benefits after implementation:
Comverse Keenan has made numerous enhancements to Airtel operation.
Rating timeliness increased by 90%
Zero billing delay environment
Quick order time : 60% reduction from 12minutes to less than 5minutes to provision an order by streamlining online data management & reducing level of communication required
Operational intelligence : Reduced the number of daily reports from 1300 hard copy to just 83
Improved cash flow & resource utilization
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1.3.2 TELEFONICA
i. Problem statement:
Customers were having difficulty activating or upgrading broadband service
Technical call centre was receiving an increasing number of calls
Increased level of field support for minor problem
Increasing OPEX due to increase in customers support services
ii. Solution and implementation :
Complete solution for broadband services deployment& support: motive self-service motive customer service manager and motive home device manager
Automated self-help tool with virtual assistance for activation support& maintenance of broadband service with guided resolution of common technical problems
Deliver broadband service intelligence to help desk personnel related to PC and CPE configuration issue
iii. Benefits after implementation
Incoming call coming to call centre reduced to 60%
Faster first-call resolution of customer problem by help desk agent
Faster deployment complex services including triple play & fixed mobile services
Improved ARPU & measurable OPEX
Easier management of CPE
1.3.3 VODAFONE TIBCO
I. Problem statement:
After merger between Vodafone Australia and Hutchinson 3GAustrailia facing challenge of providing adequate scalability for future.
In fast growing business, maintaining top notch customer service for increasing customer base requires smooth interaction between existing system & the scalability to ensure fast response times under any load.
ii. Solution and implementation :
TIBCO Business Event manages real time service provisioning layer to agreed service level
TIBCO Active Matrix Business works integrates over 20application and network system using network adapters.
TIBCO Rendezvous manages communication between VHA’s technical order management system and other system
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TIBCO Enterprise messaging service provides core enterprise messaging and throttling layer.
TIBCO administrator allows for end to end monitoring and management of the solution.
iii. Benefits after implementation
VHA’s new platform offer full redundancy and availability
After 3’s launch of highly anticipated Smartphone, activation volume increased, Business Event comfortably handles the spike order traffic.
Future application can tap into VHA’s backend services using service oriented architecture standards.
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Chapter-2: Research
Methodology
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2.1 Data Source:
In this project the data used was both primary data as well as secondary data and conclusions & recommendations to the problem statement were made using the same data.
Primary data: primary data was collected from four corporate people from 4 TOMS provider: Infosys, IBM, Amdocs, TechM. A common questionnaire was made consisting of open-ended questions for each of the stated entity and data was collected
Secondary Data: Secondary data was used for qualitative research for formulating the questionnaire and listing down the parameters for achieving the objective stated. Secondary data was obtained through various Telecom news websites, CSP websites, TOMS provider website and many other telecom journals
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2.2 Research Approach:
Figure 8: Research Approach
Define the research problem
Determining the data requirement
Prepare the questionaire
Finding out the concern people to fill the
questionanire
Acquiring Information
Compilation & Processing of Data Collected
Interpretation of Result
Preparation of Result
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2.3 Research Instrument:
Questionnaire was used as research instrument. Questionnaire were prepared by qualitative research
2.3.1 Questionnaire:
Q.1: What are 3 most efficient capabilities provided by your TOMS?
Q.2: What KPIs are considered while designing TOMS?
Q.3: Which standardizations does your TOMS adhere to?
Q.4: Which process of TOMS are major contributing factor which can hamper CEM?
Q.5: How is your organization coping up with the rapidly changing technology i.e. from 2G,3G to 4G in terms of TOMS?
Q.6: After implementation of TOMS for a telco, what have been the changes in the following parameters?
Q.7: What are the challenges faced by TOMS providers?
Q.8: Name few of your clients
Q.9: Whether CRM is pre-integrated/in-built with your TOMS?If yes,then which CRM?
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2.4 Sampling Plan:
Target population: All TOMS provider
Sample Size: 4 TOMS provider:
Infosys , IBM, Tech Mahindra, Amdocs
Sampling Technique: middle management level executives were selected, 1 each from the above 4 TOMS provider
2.5 Contact Method:
Personal Methods were employed in order to collect data from them. A appointment was set and interview were carried out in person and through telephone
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Chapter-3: Limitation of
the Research
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Every research work is bound to be effected by certain limitation and this one is not
an exception. The information and data received from the respondents depends upon
their understanding and knowledge. If the data and information collected is not accurate
or true then it can affect the analysis and results. In that case the interpreted results can
differ from actual result and condition. Besides of this there are other factors also that
may affect the outcome of research-
Company representatives were hesitant to share and answer some of the
critical questions asked
The above limitation led to assumptions to be made by ourself .
At times, the persons who gave appointment did not have enough time to
answer all the questions of the questionnaire
At times, the data gathered from the companies was not satisfactory.
Company representatives were sometimes afraid of disclosing the required
information taking us as their competitor
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Chapter-4: Analysis and
Findings
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4.1 What are 3 most efficient capabilities provided by your TOMS?
Infosys IBM Amdocs Tech Mahindra
• Bulk Ordering • Zero Touch Ordering • Single Click Enablement
• Multichannel Order Entry and Faster T2M • Order Visibility • Ability to provide contextual promotions
• Streamlining the order-to-cash cycle • Centralized Product and Services Catalog • Preconfigured service provider-specific Best Practices
• Processes designed to deliver optimal operational efficiency • Scalable architecture to support future transformations • Component level customization needs
Table 1: Capabilities provided by TOMS provider
Finding & Inferences:
It was observed that from the analysis that most of the TOMS provider were offering the capabilities which were concentrated on the following:
• Faster Time to Market
• Efficient Service Delivery and Fulfillment
• Scalable Architecture for providing bundled services
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4.2. What KPIs are considered while designing TOMS?
Infosys IBM Amdocs Tech Mahindra
• Potential Service Disruptions • Estimated Time for restoration of service • Estimated Time to complete a new service installation
• Volume of orders processed per month • Order Distribution by state for the current month • Average Duration for Order Handling for the day
• Accuracy of Order Fulfillment • Effective Time for resolution of trouble tickets • Time for provisioning of a service
• Customer Satisfaction Index • Delivery of Service on-time • Fault Resolution within stipulated SLAs
Table 2: KPIs considered for TOMS
Findings and Inferences:
From the survey it was analyzed and concluded that most commonly used KPIs for designing TOMS by TOMS provider are as follows:
• Service Provisioning and Activation Time •Mean Time to Resolution
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4.3 Which standardizations does your TOMS adhere to?
Infosys IBM Amdocs Tech Mahindra
• NGOSS • eTOM • SOA • TAM • SID
• NGOSS • eTOM • SOA • TAM • SID
• NGOSS • eTOM • SOA
• NGOSS • eTOM • SOA
Table 3: Standardizations followed while Designing TOMS
Findings and Inferences:
From the survey it was analyzed and concluded that most commonly used Industry standards that TOMS provider refer to for designing TOMS are as follows:
• NGOSS • eTOM • SOA
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4.4 Which process of TOMS are major contributing factor which can hamper
CEM?
Infosys IBM Amdocs Tech Mahindra
• Order Fallout • Delayed Provisioning • Improper Billing
• Order Errors and Fallout • Customer Response Management • Improper Billing
• Order Errors and Fallout • Customer Service Management • Faults in Billing
• Order Errors and Fallout • Processing Behavior • Faults in Billing
Table 4: Processes in TOMS which hamper CE
Findings and Inferences:
From the survey it was observed that most common process that hamper customer experience are:
• Order Errors and Fallout • Customer Response Management • Improper Billing
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4.5 How is your organization coping up with the rapidly changing technology i.e.
from 2G,3G to 4G in terms of TOMS?
Infosys IBM Amdocs Tech Mahindra
SOA Compliance makes our product agile and scalable which makes the up-gradation easier
IBM's SDPE helps to manage the catalog of products and add the products efficienly
Amdocs Service Management Suite -Single Platform to manage the entire service portfolio lifecycle
End-to-End System Integration and Implementation of Orcale based B/OSS
Table 5: How TOMS coping-up with technology advancements
Findings and Inferences:
From the survey it was analyzed that most TOMS provider use following procedure and standard to overcome the challenge of rapidly changing technology:
SOA Compliance
end-to-end integration
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4.6 .After implementation of TOMS for a telco, what have been the changes in the
following parameters?
i) On-Time Service Delivery
ii) Revenue Leakage
iii) Cost Reduction
iv) Order Fall Out Rate Reduction
Infosys IBM Amdocs Tech Mahindra
i)On-Time Service Delivery:71% over 6 months iii)Cost Reduction:18-20% reduction in maintenance costs
i)On-Time Service Delivery:45-60% ii) Revenue Leakage: Reduced by 30-40% iii)Cost Reduction: Reduced by 40% iv)Order Fall Out Rate Reduction:20%
The facts were not closed
The facts were not closed
Table 6: Improvements observed at Telco side
Findings and Inferences:
From the analysis it was observed that CSPs were looking at following parameters and so TOMS provider had provided for same by providing corresponding capability
The most important parameters considered are:
Cost Reduction and Revenue Leakage reduction
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4.7 What are the challenges faced by TOMS providers?
Infosys IBM Amdocs Tech Mahindra
• Getting CSP to operate outside traditional silos • Being able to customize for each CSP • Enabling CSPs to benefit fully from CEM
• CSPs expect the changes to be implemented instantaneously • Fundamentally lacking a long term view that is broken down into bite-size chunks • Getting pinned down as another CRM initiative
•Dealing with the conflicting agendas of the CIO, CTO, CFO, etc. • Hype about CEM means CSPs expect immediate results, which are not always feasible • CSPs expect to sell incompatible product bundles
•Localization of services • Bundling/unbundling of services is complex to implement and manage • Frequent new product, services and tariff introductions with less implementation time provided by business
Table 7: Challenges faced by TOMS provider
Findings and Inferences:
Major challenges faced by TOMS provider are:
• CSPs expect the changes to be implemented instantaneously • Bundling/unbundling of services is complex to implement and manage • Shrinking lifecycle of Products and Services
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4.8. Name few of your clients
Infosys IBM Amdocs Tech Mahindra
• British Telecom • Airtel • Idea
• Vodafone • DataCom
• BritishTelecom • Zain • Nawras Telecom
Table 8: Clients
4.9 Whether CRM is pre-integrated/in-built with your TOMS?If yes,then which
CRM?
Infosys IBM Amdocs Tech Mahindra
Yes; Siebel CRM No Yes;In-house Yes;Oracle
Table 9: CRM pre-integration
Findings and Inferences:
For efficient performance and to reduce the complexity of managing diverse systems, CRM and TOMS are integrated in most of the cases.
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Chapter -5:
Recommendations
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Framework for developing TOMS to enhance Customer Experience for CSPs:
5.1 CE Framework
For Developing a TOMS to enhance customer experience we need to understand how CE is hampered with respect to TOMS. It can be done by following steps:
Figure 9: CE framework
5.1.1 Defining CE:
To generate the largest impact, customer experience improvement should be an enterprise-wide initiative closely aligned to a service provider’s business goals. For instance, the customer experience objectives of a low cost basic services operator are likely to be very different from those of a multi-service operator. Many CSPs struggle with developing a common organization-wide definition of customer experience, which is the first step towards undertaking a customer experience improvement program. In the absence of an organization-wide definition of customer experience, different departments in a telecom organization, such as marketing, network and customer service, often create their own definitions based on a blinkered view of organizational
1. Defining CE
2. Measuring CE
3. Improving CE
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goals. This leads to a lopsided treatment of customer experience improvement initiatives. As a result, initiatives that require significant investments but do not deliver meaningful customer experience improvements are often prioritized over others that are more impactful.
5.1.2 Measuring CE:
Traditionally, customer experience has been measured by touchpoint surveys, single metric approaches such as NPS, or surveys commissioned by 3rd party market research firms such as JD Power and Nielsen. While these approaches provide broad directional feedback, they do not account for other feedback sources such as behavioral data about consumers or information scattered in the online world including social networks, Twitter, and blogs. Moreover, there is a rich treasure trove of information embedded in interaction records such as emails, call recordings and chat transcripts, which can provide rich insights into customer perception. An inability to tap these myriad sources of customer feedback can lead to a flawed assessment of the current state of customer experience and the required actions for improvement.
5.1.3 Improving CE:
Given the heightened CSP interest in customer experience today, assorted products with diverse capabilities ranging from ‘network decongestion’ to ‘contact centre productivity enhancement’, are being labelled as tools for customer service improvement. This presents a real challenge for CSPs as they need to break through the clutter of available products and determine which of these best meet their business objectives. The challenges in executing an effective customer improvement program are two-fold:
Identification - determining the initiatives that uniquely improve customer experience
Prioritization - selecting and focusing on those initiatives that will have the greatest impact on customer experience
Today, most CSPs lack a holistic approach to defining, measuring, and improving customer experience, which reduces the overall impact of a customer experience improvement program.
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The above procedure can be done along 6 Dimensions w.r.t TOMS as follows:
Figure 8: Dimension along which CE is to be measured
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5.2 ‘TOMS Three Phase framework’ to improve CE:
The three phases are detailed below.
Figure 9: TOMS 3 phase implementation Framework
5.2.1 Blueprinting:
The objective of the Blueprinting phase is to document the link between processes, KPIs and dimensions in order to provide the base for calculating the CXM impact of initiatives in the Value Analysis phase. The Blueprinting phase involves the following activities
Create Business Process Flow Catalogue. Catalogue all process flows in the service provider organization to understand the customer lifecycle and interactions w.r.t TOMS
Create Process KPI Catalogue. Catalogue all process KPIs.
Assign Weightages to Process KPIs. Determine the relative importance of all KPIs associated with a process, based on the impact of the KPI on achieving process objectives.
Blueprinting –
• Mapping process flows, KPIs and dimensions
Value Analysis –
• Assessing and prioritizing CXM initiatives based on customer experience impact
Realization –
• Implementing prioritized initiatives with special emphasis on user journeys
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Analyze CXM Dimensions. Determine the relative importance of dimensions in meeting organizational CXM objectives, through customer surveys and stakeholder discussions.
Map CXM Dimensions to Process Flows. Create a CXM Dimension-to-Process-Flow map to calculate the overall impact of a customer experience improvement initiative
5.2.2 Value Analysis:
In this phase, CXM initiatives are evaluated and prioritized. Typically in a telecom company initiatives are evaluated and selected based on a financial business case. The rigour of the business case may vary but cost, revenue and savings are usually the key determinants in the decision making process.
Figure 10: Value analysis example a gift from business centric to customer centric approach
In the Value Analysis phase, the CXM initiatives are prioritized based on their customer experience impact. The CXM impact of an initiative is calculated in the following manner
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Figure 11: Steps in Value Analysis
5.2.3 Realization:
The CXM initiatives that are prioritized based on the Blueprinting and Value Analysis phases are implemented in the Realization phase
Step 4 -
Calculate the weighted score across dimensions (using the weightages assigned to the dimensions in the Blueprinting phase)
Step 3 -
Aggregate the scores for all processes mapped to a dimension (using the CXM Dimension-to-Process-Flow map prepared in the Blueprinting phase)
Step 2 -
Calculate the weighted score of KPI improvement for each process impacted by the initiative (using the weightages assigned to KPIs in the Blueprinting phase)
Step 1 -
List the percentage improvement in all KPIs impacted by the initiative
Research Project: Enhancing CE to address Business Imperatives through Efficient TOMS
S y m b i o s i s I n s t i t u t e o f T e l e c o m M a n a g e m e n t
Page 59
Figure 12: Steps in Realization
As an example, consider the launch of an e-commerce capability to augment the existing sales channels of a CSP. The first step would be to evaluate the impact of this new capability on existing marketing and fulfillment processes and the changes required if orders are placed online versus over-the-counter. This is followed by the identification and development of use cases that enable the CSP to maximize its return from the investment. The use cases can be further categorized into those that directly impact consumers such as ordering workflow and those that are system driven such as activation of services based on the plan selected by a consumer. A visual map of the use cases with direct consumer impact should highlight the customer touchpoints required to deliver a best in class user experience. This allows the implementation team to focus on the business requirements related to the highlighted touchpoints.
The Business Process Analysis phase is followed by the regular stages in the implementation lifecycle, as in the case of any technology program, until the initiatives are transitioned to operations
Step 1
• Business Process Analysis phase
• Business Process Impact Analysis
• Use Case Development
• Business Requirements Gathering
Step 2 • Transition phase
Step 3 • Operation phase
Research Project: Enhancing CE to address Business Imperatives through Efficient TOMS
S y m b i o s i s I n s t i t u t e o f T e l e c o m M a n a g e m e n t
Page 60
Figure 13: Example of business process analysis
Research Project: Enhancing CE to address Business Imperatives through Efficient TOMS
S y m b i o s i s I n s t i t u t e o f T e l e c o m M a n a g e m e n t
Page 61
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