In the survey, 80 percent of the respondents indicated that further order-to-cash process improvements were necessary in order to attain competitive differentiation and better financial results. The results of the survey, which include responses from more than 40 wireline, cable and wireless operators throughout Europe and North America, highlight many recent improvements in order-to-cash processes made in the last two years.
Despite these improvements, most acknowledge there is still work that can be done to fully optimise the order lifecycle management process.
The Order Management Challenge
35 percent of participants surveyed indicated that IT systems complexity was a major obstacle in achieving order-to-cash efficiencies, while 30 percent indicated that the difficulties of customising legacy systems was a major obstacle. Notably, 83 percent identified benefits that would accrue “if further improvements in the efficiency of the order-to-cash process were possible.” In terms of those identified most frequently, 19 of those surveyed cited improved cash flow, better service, increased customer satisfaction, and revenue growth as the benefits made possible when the obstacles to order management optimisation can be removed.
“As operators jumpstart their market expansion plans, faster time-to-market is seen as crucial, especially as the pressure intensifies to introduce new services and tariffs,” said John Maclean, EMEA marketing director, Vitria. “As a result, any barriers need to be removed speedily. Large operators in particular recognise that integration of all order management tasks is not at the level it should be and that much more needs to done.”
Best-of-Breed Solutions Preferred – Standards Essential
Analysys uncovered that just one out of five operators had invested in end-to- end pre-integrated systems implementations to address order management. Leveraging business process and application integration tools may provide these operators with enhanced flexibility at lower total cost. An increase in the awareness and adoption of standards is another trend uncovered by the survey. Approximately 60 percent of large and medium sized operators are tracking and analysing standards, such as the eTOM framework from the TeleManagement Forum (TMF), for ways to create value in order management. Anecdotal evidence suggests operators are looking for working examples of these standards incorporated into packaged applications before committing to one approach.
BPI Approach Validated
The Analysys study reaffirmed the value of business process integration. Switzerland-based sunrise Telecom uses Vitria:BusinessWare to automate the provisioning process for its mobile offerings to meet their own aggressive service-level agreements with their customers. Today, the majority of new customers are activated within 15 minutes of placing an order. In many cases, customers are activated in less than one minute. Chris Lines, EAI manager at sunrise, said, “Vitria gives us the visibility and agility to maximise company growth and customer retention.”
Vitria’s John Maclean added, “Order management has a direct impact on corporate cash flow. Despite two years of improving order-to-cash processes, there is still much more that can be done. Further integration of order management and upgrading to more flexible integration methods will bring telecom back-office processes in line with customer demand and innovation.”
The Vitria:BusinessWare(TM) platform and Vitria:OrderAccelerator(TM), a solution tailored for communications service providers that streamlines and automates mission-critical order-to-cash business processes. These products allow operators to abstract processes above the application level to flexibly manage automated work flows and make changes to support new products and services. Vitria:BusinessWare also supports the preferred strategy of system augmentation because it leverages and enhances the
functionality of existing systems infrastructure. Furthermore, Vitria:OrderAccelerator is based on TMF standards.
About Analysys
Analysys provides strategy and management consultancy, information services and start-up support throughout the telecommunications, IT and media sector. Its grasp of market dynamics, coupled with creativity, rigor and renowned objectivity, enables Analysys to consistently exceed the high levels of quality and innovation that its clients expect. The company has over 130 staff in offices in Cambridge (UK), London, Glasgow, Madrid,
Milan, Paris, San Francisco and Washington D.C., and works with associates in Auckland, Melbourne and Vancouver.
About Vitria
Vitria Technology, Inc., a leading provider of award-winning business process integration products and solutions, combines technology leadership with industry expertise in healthcare and insurance, financial services, telecommunications and manufacturing to dramatically improve strategic business processes across systems, people and trading partners. With 16 offices around the world, Vitria’s customer base includes blue chip companies such as AT&T, Bell Canada, Bell South, The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, BP, BT, DaimlerChrysler Bank, Generali, Nissan, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, PacifiCare Health Systems, Reynolds & Reynolds, Royal Bank of Canada, Schneider Logistics, Sprint, Trane, and the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
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