Revenue assurance controls and requirement leadership, support and analysis
A leading communications and cable provider is in the process of migrating to a contemporary OSS/BSS infrastructure and wants to ensure that these systems satisfy the needs of the customer's desired revenue assurance requirements and capabilities. XD3 was engaged to manage and staff a joint XD3/customer team to collect, analyze, and review revenue assurance and quality control audit information from the customer in order to fully understand customer's direction in terms of approaches, controls, and metrics for corporate and regional level operations. XD3's deliverable was designed to provide detail analysis and documentation that the current and future measures around revenue assurance and quality control audits are supported in the future state OSS/BSS architecture and during the transition period. Impacts were identified and presented to both IT and Operations where current and future state needs were not met and incorporated into the longer term strategy for deployment.
The scope of XD3's analysis was to gather detailed requirements around currently existing revenue assurance and quality control audit measures, compile, evaluate, assess and present those requirements to IT from a corporate perspective while providing recommendations on areas with limited focus. The engagement included residential products; voice, internet and cable. A summary of the objectives were:
Current and future high-level RA functional requirements and capabilities will be reviewed, consolidated, and documented.
To the extent they are available or can be developed in the timeframe of this project, RA interface/data requirements will be specified at the data element level.
The focus of this project is the order to cash process flow across major residential product lines; voice, high speed internet and cable
Based on the documented RA functional requirements, provide the customer with a list of potential impacts to individual OSS/BSS systems. The list will be based on the documented RA capabilities, requirements and plans made known to the project team during the analysis.
Based on our interviews and work product, we determined that customer's origin through growth by acquisition and "close to customer" focus drives the culture and activities of the organization. Although our focus was only to be a corporate assessment, we found that in order to understand the working of the organization, regional level sessions were required to effectively summate our recommendations. Being a decentralized conglomerate where regional expertise is necessary to provide successful service quality management and billing assurance based on the current multiple BSS and OSS architecture. With the BSS centralized end state strategy underway, a cultural change will be necessary to have a successful implementation and satisfied internal customers.
XD3 completed a detailed review of the customer's corporate level revenue and quality assurance initiatives across the order to cash process for its three major residential products; voice, high speed internet and cable. Our extensive interview process provided us a cross-function organizational viewpoint and made possible a multi-tiered assessment of customer's internal decentralized and regional structure. Through these numerous sessions and the data and documentation we received we were able to formulate key findings that drove our recommendations.
XD3's analysis also resulted in the identification of multiple "home grown" IS subsystems that support revenue and quality assurance across its core residential products. Our reviews indicate that although the corporate focus has shifted to centralized applications to support assurance and quality exception management, regional personnel still utilize their own internal applications to support region specific and/or it supports the overall work order accuracy and billing verification activities.
Growth plan and product roadmap
$1B IT Services Company had experienced a slowdown in the Telecom Market. Their formerly strong Billing and Customer Care position was continuing to erode in the marketplace. They needed to determine how to re-ignite their business by extending their traditional strengths (both products and professional services) into Next Gen solutions.
XD3 evaluated the client's position in the marketplace. We evaluated industry trends, analyzed the competitive landscape, and conducted extensive interviews with key executives. XD3 defined a specific set of opportunities for the Company to leverage its existing assets and capabilities into new and emerging market needs. Recommendations also included lowering costs such as a lower cost approach to product maintenance and discontinuance of non-performing product assets. For the product-based offerings, XD3 developed a product roadmap that allowed the company to provide incremental, but high-value improvements while keeping the lid on a relatively small R&D budget. A cost benefits analysis was provided for each recommendation. XD3 also developed a high level marketing plan to roll out the new offerings.
The Company was able to implement most of the recommendations by using their R&D budget more effectively (rather than increasing spending). Revenue growth returned, particularly fueled by growth in Next Gen opportunities.
Wireless OSS product acquisition evaluation/due diligence
A company operating a BSS/OSS service bureau for wireless service providers found its existing billing/OSS product suite outdated from both a functional capability and an architecture perspective. Its current solution could not address the emerging wireless data services or 3G billing. The company needed to make a "build or buy" decision between an internal development effort and an external acquisition of a new wireless BSS/OSS product.
XD3 performed an analysis of the available high-level options. We quickly determined that a "buy" was necessary to meet time-to-market and functionality requirements for their embedded customers as well as available prospects. Once an asset acquisition target was determined, XD3 performed a complete business, functional and technical due diligence on the target product. We prepared a complete business case for the acquisition and for the migration of the Company's existing customers to the new product.
The Company successfully completed the asset acquisition and moved forward with a project to migrate their business to better support the evolution of the wireless industry into content and 3G billing.
Market expansion strategy
A leading telecommunications Operational Support System (OSS) provider was experiencing a drop in their core business due to industry downturn and the aging of many of their core products. They wanted to evaluate ways in which they could take advantage of new opportunities in the wireless and broadband areas - either through expanding existing capabilities or acquiring new capabilities. XD3 performed an initial strategic assessment of markets that overlapped the OSS area to determine if any should be considered as growth opportunities. We then performed an in-depth analysis of the mediation, provisioning, and billing markets and identified trends and opportunities. Our analysis included detailed research on existing vendors/service providers and their capabilities. XD3 produced specific recommendations regarding the expansion of existing assets and the opportunities for acquisitions of additional assets. The Company (XD3's client) was itself acquired before the recommendations could be fully evaluated or implemented. Of note, the asset recommended for acquisition by XD3 was, in fact, bought by a competitor of the Company within the next 6 months.
Broadband billing product evaluation/recommendation
A Latin American cable company was planning to expand their offering to include "triple play" services. To do so, they needed to replace their existing in-house IT support structure with new applications that could provide the flexibility necessary to support the new offerings. The Company wanted a thorough, independent evaluation of the best 3rd party products along with someone to manage the RFP evaluation process.
XD3 helped the Customer manage the Billing/OSS product evaluation process by determining the target vendors, evaluating responses to the RFP, developing a short-list of respondents based on the evaluation, and conducting finalist vendor reviews and demos of the finalists. After the detailed evaluation, XD3 made a final recommendation for both the vendor and the mode of delivery (outsourced vs. in-house) of the new Billing/OSS solution.
The Company accepted the recommendation and moved forward with a project to implement the new chosen solution.
Wireless content provider market positioning
An emerging wireless content enabler/provider with a compelling offering was having difficulty positioning them in a manner that clearly represented their value proposition to wireless carriers. The Company needed to better position itself with the wireless carriers as they expanded their use of premium content services.
XD3 provided an analysis of the trends in the Company's marketplace, as well as a benchmark analysis of potential competitors' marketing, sales and pricing approaches. Based on this analysis and an in-depth session with Company executives, a decision was reached on the best market positioning for the Company.
The Company moved forward with the recommended market positioning and has had continued success in both North America and Europe in selling to top tier wireless carriers.
Software assessment for buyout due diligence
One of the leading Buy-Out companies was engaged in a due diligence effort of a possible target acquisition. The targeted company provided data clearing and financial settlement services to both the wire line and the wireless communications industry, serving clients globally with operations in the US as well as Europe. XD3 was asked to audit the software deployed to provide the data clearing and financial settlement services, with particular emphasis on maturity, maintenance costs, and scalability. The scope of the audit included three separate software solutions operated out of three separate locations.
The nature of this due diligence - a 4 week assessment of 3 complex software solutions in three locations on two continents - demanded a broad, leveraged analysis.
XD3's software assessment methodology covers all of the important areas of the software, and focused on the key metrics associated with the audit area and audit topic. We visited each location, observed a demonstration of the software solution, gathered the metrics and discussed those metrics with the local operations teams.
Our methodology provides an integrated perspective of all the areas and topics important to the success of a software solution or product. Assessing all areas provides a complete picture not just of the internal profile of the software, but also its position with prospects and clients and with its competitors. However, the methodology also lends itself to specific analyses of hot spot" topics. For this assessment, for example, we placed particular emphasis on "Volume Increases" and "Extendibility of Functionality" to determine future growth options.
XD3 Software Solution Assessment Methodology
Among the other topics we covered were an analysis of functional "white spaces" (process steps either not covered or requiring significant manual involvement), time and complexity of implementing a new customer, an analysis of all recent outstanding or fixed reported incidents, and a review of the development and maintenance processes.
Each of the three different software solutions effectively supported its business processes, with a few areas of identified improvements for each. Quality of the software was high in all three locations, as were the IT processes. Each solution had some room for linear growth, and we recommended that scalability tests be conducted to assess the ability for exponential growth, if that kind of volume growth was desired.
However, we also found that all solutions were decidedly custom applications, with a strong bias not to deploy COTS available functionality - even for areas such as reporting or workflow management. Custom shops do show a high degree of control over their incidences (which was true for all solutions here), but usually at a financial and functional cost. We recommended that this may be an area for future benefits.
Lastly, we recommended that there be a review of the strategy to maintain three separate code bases in three locations with three separate development and operations teams.
We delivered to our client a quick, yet nuanced assessment of three complex software solutions to provide valuable input into their decision whether or not to proceed with their investment into this target acquisition. Independent of the investment decision, we believe we also identified specific areas for future improvements to these solutions.
Requirements analysis and solution design for new VoIP service introduction
A major internet services, security, and communications provider decided to leverage several of its existing capabilities into a secure workflow-based ordering, provisioning, and telephone number (TN) inventory management service for VoIP providers and network service providers. This service is designed to streamline and automate the entire process and all interfaces between the TN user (such as a VoIP provider, or a network service providers), the TN provider (such as a traditional LEC), and the PSTN network databases (such as LIDB/CNAM, E911, NPAC, and the LEC databases). The new service was scoped to cover new TN assignments as well as ported TNs, and to manage the pre-order and order processes. The design team for this effort was highly complex and included multiple client teams (a product management team and two development teams in various locations), and teams from each of the various partners such as LEC, E911, etc.
XD3 was engaged in the first phase of the project to identify, define, and document the functional and technical requirements for the system. As a result of our requirements work, XD3 was retained to assist with the general and detailed design phases of the project, particularly to perform a software evaluation and requirements gap analysis of a third party workflow and order management software product to assess the fit for the designed solution.
For the requirements analysis, XD3 used its business process flow methodology as the mechanism to identify, validate, refine, and document system requirements. This methodology builds the high level business process flows, and then adds details about data flows and data validations. At this point, an accurate high level process/data view is established. We can directly develop the flow of the data elements, the logical data stores, and the specific and detailed requirements matrix.
The requirements analysis produced by XD3 enabled the company to provide the design team - in-house architecture and development teams as well as partner teams - with detailed requirements and system and business process specifications sufficient to support the technical design, development, and system integration efforts. The business process specifications delivered by XD3 also provided the company with internal and external organizational requirements to ensure that the service could be fully tested and implemented by the company, the VoIP providers, and the network providers.
As a result of XD3's work, the new TN provisioning service progressed smoothly from the design phase to the build phase in a challenging multi-partner environment. It helped set budgeting and time-to-market expectations for the new service.
Telecom ordering and billing for state governments
Several large multi-site state government customers of a large Telecom Carrier were looking to upgrade their networks to state of the art technology (MLPS). As part of the Request for Proposal for these services the customers required that the carrier supply a web portal for network monitoring and management, ordering, and billing. In looking for a solution among the carrier's inventory of systems, it was determined that a new set of systems should be deployed to support these customers. This solution would eventually lead to a capability that could then be marketed to other similar customers.
XD3 was engaged to assist in the implementation of the ordering and billing solution, including.
the creation of a detailed requirements document,
the configuration of the COTS solutions,
the design and implementation of the reporting solution,
the design and implementation of the interfaces with the carriers legacy environment, and
the production of an interim bill that could be sent to the customer as the new services are being turned up and while the new systems are still in development
XD3 resources took a lead role in defining and documenting the requirements. These sessions were held with a core group of carrier personnel, bringing in necessary specialists for special subjects (e.g., taxing, accounting). The output of this process was the following requirements documents: user, functional, and technical.
In addition to system functionality these documents included testing, operational, and performance requirements.
XD3 resources were then involved in determining how the COTS package should be configured to meet the requirements. In conjunction with the carrier, personnel from the COTS provider were involved in determining the optimal configuration based on the requirements.
XD3 also took the lead in determining the appropriate mechanisms for interfacing with the carrier's complex legacy environment, and for negotiating with the appropriate carrier resources to facilitate the necessary process and procedures to deploy the solution.
XD3 resources also took a lead in determining the approach for creating the appropriate outputs both for the customer and for carrier operations and revenue assurance. These outputs included bills, reports, and interface files.
Interim bills were produced (in the same format that the new billing system would produce them) as the new services were being deployed, and the new billing and ordering system was not yet available. The customer was pleased with the results and was able to create the necessary interfaces to their applications to accept these bills. The carrier was able to use the interim billing data to seed the new system.
The new ordering and billing portal was deployed and is being used by the customer and carrier to continue the upgrade to the new network technology.
A second customer has requested a similar capability and the carrier is in the midst of creating the next generation of the ordering and billing portal that supports both the initial customer and the requirements of the next customer.
XD3 resources helped to ensure the success of the project, without having to add (find, hire) new permanent carrier staff while the project is being implemented. In this case, XD3 resources brought a unique mix of the skills with knowledge of: the ordering and billing requirements that customers and carriers require to support their functional and operational needs, the legacy carrier environments and how to be productive in navigating through those environments, and the COTS applications and how they can be creatively leveraged and configured to be meet requirements. XD3 has the functional knowledge, project management know-how, and creativity needed to successfully pull together a team to ensure successful projects.
Product implementation methodology for software products company
A telephony interconnection software and services provider was having difficulty keeping up with the success of its software product. The company is very customer focused and was enjoying "catastrophic" success winning sales for its software at major telecommunication providers in many countries. The catastrophe was that the professional services organization responsible for the customer implementations was ill equipped to match the pace of the product sales, creating time and cost issues. The company recognized that the breadth and pace of its success was not sustainable with its current implementation methodology and infrastructure. Rather than slow its pace of work with clients, the company decided to seek outside help to solve the problem.
XD3 was engaged to dramatically improve the tools and performance of the professional services organization, particularly in their approach to new customer implementations. We were asked to assess the company's various approaches to implementation projects, to distill the best elements from each into one standardized, cost effective approach, identify and fill any missing ingredients, and to propose a process through which this one standard approach became universally adopted - all the while assuring the continued high degree of customer service for which the company had become known in the industry.
The lack of a standardized implementation methodology is, of course, a problem. But, it provided XD3 with a trove of valuable inputs: A number of very capable implementation leaders who -through trial and error - had many lessons learned which they could share, and the multiple implementation plans and tools which they had developed to guide the different product implementation projects.
XD3 assessed the problem on three fronts:
One front was to perform detailed interviews with the company's implementation practitioners to determine common issues as well as common successes across several different implementations, some of which were completed and some of which were in flight.
Second, artifacts or deliverables from several different projects were gathered and reviewed to identify common deliverables and make recommendations regarding creation of deliverables templates that could and should be used by every implementation project.
Third, XD3 provided external input from successful methodologies to implement COTS solutions.
XD3 found a multitude of issues which needed to get addressed:
Loose transition from Sales to Implementation.
Incomplete Scope Definition with neither client nor project team.
Inconsistent (and sometimes missing) implementation project plans.
Lack of Change Control.
Minimal customer acceptance of interim deliverables.
Ad Hoc Acceptance Test.
Limited ability to share/reuse collateral from multiple projects.
No cross-pollination of experience among practitioners.
No structured lessons learned process.
No use of deliverables templates, even though the same or similar deliverables were produced on the various projects.
Sharing of implementation resources across multiple projects resulting in work scheduling conflicts and difficulty in establishing task priorities.
Not fully tested software releases rushed to the client project where the bugs caused havoc on schedules and budgets.
XD3 produced a detailed implementation project task plan comprised of dozens of major activities across six overlapping phases. Task durations, deliverables, and milestones were incorporated into the plan template, which can be used as starting point for each implementation and easily tailored to the specific client situation.
Associated with and fully cross-referenced to the project plan was an Implementation Handbook produced by XD3 that identifies over 40 deliverables templates that each project could use. The handbook also provided detailed explanations of each phase, activity, task and deliverable for an implementation project.
In addition, XD3 delivered a cascading process through which each new product implementation project would adopt the new standardized methodology, use its templates, and add to the inventory of implementation tools.
XD3 provided a repeatable and highly leveraged implementation project plan that enables consistent project delivery as well as an objective basis for providing implementation and enhancement estimates to the clients - implementing the product faster and at less cost to either company or client, maintaining high customer satisfaction.
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