Amdocs – Managed Services winner 2015

Amdocs Order to Activation (O2A) Managed Services – using innovation to create superior customer experiences and achieve dramatically improvements in operational efficiency

About the Customer:–
A leading North American telecommunications network, this Tier 2 service provider prides itself on its delivery of superior customer service and the use of industry-leading innovations to drive it.

The Challenge:–
It started with seemingly great news: the new services and packages that the service provider was able to launch into the market after implementing system and processes modernization were enthusiastically received by its customers. However, end users’ demand for these was so high that unfortunately, the service provider was struggling to fulfill them: the company had been using (traditional) manual methods of operation, which required a significant number of agents, and also lacked end-to-end accountability across the order management process, which was having a negative impact on its efficiency. The high volume of stuck/pending orders (order backlog was approximately 6,900 in the first month) and order cancellations caused by newly-implemented business processes and systems became a point of real concern for the company. So the service provider turned to Amdocs Order-to-Activation (O2A) Managed Services for assistance in addressing the cancellations and stuck orders it was experiencing.

Amdocs O2A Managed Services – an innovative approach for resolving ordering issues and a unique platform to deliver results:–

The Amdocs O2A service team first took responsibility for the entire order management process, and quickly realized the need to redefine business processes. The Amdocs O2A team implemented its Value Process Operations (VPO) approach which is centered on an innovative technology platform with registered patents that harnesses proactive methodologies and processes to prioritize, categorize and address order issues and reduce backlog.
The uniqueness of this innovative platform lies in its use of analytics, automation at different levels, data collection and reconciliation methods, and processes which together enable early identification of the issue’s root cause, deep analysis and remediation. Crucially, this all takes place before customers even become aware that there is a problem. This innovative combination includes two registered process-related patents (patents numbers can be provided upon request) and an additional five which are pending registration.
The two registered patents relate respectively to “System, method, and computer program for automatically remediating fallouts in an ordering system of a consumer telecommunications network – automation” and “System, method, and computer program for aggregating fallouts from all systems of the service provider and putting them into one repository”.
This solution is in sharp contrast to the traditional one being employed by service providers which involves hundreds, or even thousands, of agents manually identifying and addressing issues. This not only prolongs issue resolution, but also significantly increases operating expenditure and negatively impacts quality of service to customers. No other player in the telecommunications market today uses this degree of order-to activation focused processes, methodologies and best practices.
Using the value process operations approach, the Amdocs O2A managed services team was able to consistently align processes and operations to meet the stringent service level agreements (SLA) set by the service provider. For example, one SLA related to how fast P1 (i.e. critical) issues were resolved. Amdocs O2A services handled 97% of P1 issues within 24 hours with a success rate of 99%. Amdocs O2A services team also performed data analysis on pending orders to identify the reason that each was being help up, and sanitized the system (i.e. analyzing orders and keeping only one order for the same service open to avoid order overlap).
The innovative technology platform enabled Amdocs O2A services to put auto-resolvers into place to automatically address order issues, thereby reducing the scale of manual intervention. This not only helped increase efficiency, but also minimized errors. (See results in the next section).
The O2A services team liaised effectively with various development and business operations teams to prioritize and address even third-party issues, and worked closely with relevant teams (both internally and externally) to ensure the smooth and rapid resolution of their root cause.
Key Business Results Delivered

• Daily order backlog was reduced by over 65% within 4 to 5 weeks, and was reduced from approximately 6,900 in the first month to approximately 150 today.
• 97% of P1 issues were handled within 24 hours with a success rate of 99%, consistently meeting SLAs
• Over 99% successful order flow-through
• Dramatic reduction in the backlog of remedy tickets, from approximately 700 to approximately 100
• Over 99% successful order flow-through
• 87% of priority 1 issues now handled within 8 hours
• Increased automation level to 78%, with a 91% success rate
• Consistently met customer experience metrics set by the customer.

Why is this so innovative in the managed services world?
In the case study outlined above, Amdocs O2A Managed Services combined two types of innovation which no other player in the telecommunications industry currently adopts:

1. Value Process Operations (VPO) model. This adopts a customer-centric approach to business process operations because it enables the service provider to identify the customer behind each order. By streamlining and unifying disparate systems, Amdocs VPO approach delivers end-to-end visibility across systems and processes. This is critical because there are a lot of separate systems, processes and organizations involved in the order-to-activation process, and the lack of end-to-end visibility of ownership for these silo’ed parts can easily result in inefficiencies. Amdocs’ model is accountable for business key performance indicators (KPIs), ensuring transparency and measurability to keep track of business objectives and achievements.
2. Technology-based platform: This platform is made up of unique methodologies, best practices and intellectual property (see details above of two already-registered patents, and five pending registration) to replace the need for manual work to proactively prevent and efficiently resolve order issues. This platform is system agnostic and can therefore work with both Amdocs and third-party systems. It delivers a high level view of business and operations, allowing service providers to take the correct next steps to achieve business key performance indicators. It ismade up of several modules, each of which focuses separately on analytics, automation, data transparency and accessibility, data reconciliation and order streamlining.
   Amdocs O2A Managed Services has consistently met customer experience metrics set by the customer. As a result, the leading service provider recently expanded its contract with Amdocs to 5 years, as well as its scope (to now include management of third-party order issues)