WHITEPAPER

HOW TELECOM OPERATORS

CAN DEPLOY BPM FOR
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

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Content
Telecom operators face significant challenges in terms of escalating customer expectations and
threats from Over the Top (OTT) competitors. Business as usual is simply no longer an option for
those who wish to survive. The current and anticipated challenges demand a focus on quality,
speed and agility. New business models may be required and the effective deployment of
Business Process Management (BPM) can enable improved performance.

I. Introduction.....................................................................................3

II. Industry Overview ...................................................................... 4

III. Creating Value with BPM ........................................................ 6

IV. A Blueprint for change ............................................................. 8

V. Summary ......................................................................................10

VI. About ProcessMaker.................................................................12

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Introduction
The world of telecommunications is changing at This paper begins with an overview of the chal-
whirlwind speed. While the current rate of change lenges faced by operators in the telecommunica-
is not entirely a novel phenomenon -- today’s tions sector with special reference to the increas-
data-hungry customers with increasingly powerful ing role of OTT competitors, the falling growth
smart devices and mounting competitive threats rate of operators, and the key forces that will
from Over The Top (OTT) competitors such as likely drive change. Next, the crucial role of BPM
Skype and Netflix continue to encroach on the will be outlined with specific reference to BPM as
turf of traditional telecom operators. Major indus- a key enabler of improved customer experience
try studies by leading consulting firms such as and also a primary vehicle of lower costs. Then,
IBM, Ernst-Young, and Roland point to a common tactical guidance on the deployment of BPM to
set of challenges including customer experience meet challenges will be outlined in a blueprint for
management, cost reduction, and business mod- change. Finally, the key concepts and takeaways
el reinvention. Yet, the central role in business will be summarized.
process management (BPM) in meeting challenges
head-on has not yet been fully grasped by many
telecom operators.

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Industry Overview
The telecommunications industry continues to face Three years later, several similar themes
mounting disruption from non-traditional competi- were echoed in a 2015 Ernst Young study:
tors and regulatory uncertainty continues to un-
settle the industry. Over The Top (OTT) competitors 1) OTTs are the leading drivers of changing
such as Skype, Netflix, and Facebook are driving demand scenarios.
fundamental change in terms of demand scenarios 2) Service levels and personalization can
according to industry observers. The regulatory en- be deployed to drive customer-centricity.
vironment remains uncertain with spectrum release 3) The interplay of people and processes can
frameworks, net neutrality, and data privacy legis- be used to boost agility levels.
lation is seen as particularly problematic. Network 4) In-market consolidation may be a key factor.
quality remains a critical success factor and a point 5) Digital services have the potential to
of differentiation and in one survey, 68% of respon- transform the revenue mix by 2020.
dents cited customer experience management as
the top strategic priority for their organization, and
82% ranked it as one of the top-three consider- The influence of OTT competitors should not be
ations over the next three years. underestimated. The number of Skype subscrib-
ers has grown from 25 million in 2010 to over 300
million in 2015 with a significant impact on the de-
Some of the key challenges have been relatively mand for voice services from traditional operators.
constant during the past few years. In 2012, a The number of Facebook subscribers has skyrock-
study by Roland Berger encouraged telecom eted from 650 million in 2013 to over 1.5 billion by
operators to pay close attention to the the end of 2015 with a noteworthy influence on the
following five levers: demand for text messaging. The number of Netflix
subscribers has more than doubled since 2013, ex-
1) Personalization of service ecosystem and ceeding 75 million members with a striking impact
the customer experience. on operator revenues.
2) Staunch defense of relationships with
end customers. The combined impact of OTT services cannot be
3) Cost-efficient broadband network build-up. underestimated either. Simply consider the po-
4) The realignment and radical streamlining tential disruption to telecom operators implicit in
of operating models. the statistics in Figure 1 below. The impact of this
5) The financial resources to drive digital external threat is such that telecom operators will
need to modify their pricing plans and explore new
business models.

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Progressively more demanding customers will no study states, “Realizing opportunities, however,
longer tolerate dropped calls and slow connection requires operators to think in new ways about
speeds. They will demand improved service levels, ecosystems, marketing, and technology.”⁴ Operators
responsiveness, and personalization — or take their have historically engaged in traditional functional
business elsewhere. As digital services in areas thinking, where the focus on the organization chart
such as TV and cloud take on growing importance and emerging technology have trumped in creat-
over the next few years, the ability of operators to ing value for customers. Progressive operators will
effectively introduce new products/services will recognize that creating both customer and share-
become increasingly crucial. holder value is now the order of the day — and that
can best be done by taking a customer-centered,
While predicting what the industry might look like business-process-based view of the enterprise. The
in a few years continues to be challenging, the operators that can best deploy Business Process
importance of engaging in new ways of thinking Management (BPM) may well gain competitive
by telecom operators is clear. As the Ernst Young advantage.

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Creating Value with BPM

Improving customer experience, reducing operating By taking a customer-centric, process-based

costs, reinventing the enterprise, introducing new view of business, telecom operators will be better
business models, executing network expansion, equipped to do the following:
and responding to customer inquiries and com-
plaints all have one common element — the need 1. Ramp up their efforts to improve customer
for cross-functional collaboration. A traditional, experience
department view of business can stand in the way 2. Identify the root causes of churn and reduce it
of optimizing performance improvement. What’s 3. Develop cost-efficient ways to expand and
needed is a customer-centered, process-based operate their network
view of the organization. In this view, what dom- 4. Explore the realignment of operating models
inates management attention is the flow of work 5. Accelerate digital transformations
as it crosses departmental boundaries in creating
value for both customers and shareholders. Some of the other benefits of BPM that operators
can realize include:
When an organization adopts a customer-centered,
process-based view of business, it significant- • Faster — Automated provisioning and
ly increases its chances of improving customer fulfillment processes
experience — as value for customers is created • Cheaper — Integration of disparate systems
primarily through a company’s cross-functional • More compliant — This allows telecom
business processes. At the same time, as the orga- companies to automate the manual
nization compresses the time to deliver services, it processes in regulatory compliance
automatically drives out cost from its operations. • Happier customers — Improve ad-hoc
Instead of focusing exclusively on actual to bud- exception handling
get comparisons, a process-based framework will
introduce critical to quality metrics for operators Gartner has recognized several Telecom operators
in terms of timeliness and completeness — things as organizations that “have demonstrated excel-
that really matter to customers. Instead of simply lence in leveraging BPM, both as a management
measuring “churn”, a process-based framework will and technology discipline, to realize cost savings
encourage operators to identify the root cause of drive continuous growth and achieve customer
churn and work to reduce it. excellence.”⁵ In a nutshell, operators in the tele-
communications sector can deploy BPM to enable
improves customer experience and also drive
lower costs.

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A Blueprint for Change

The most successful organizations em-

phasize three factors in launching BPM.
First, they work at the senior leadership
team level to establish a common vocab-
ulary around enterprise processes. Sec-
ond, they select a proof of concept project
that is easy to execute and promises to
deliver real results quickly. Lastly, they
select a large, end-to-end process for
improvement that will improve the organi-
zation’s chances of achieving its strategic
objectives.

• What is our current performance for these

Process-based change needs to be-
large processes?
gin with a common understanding of the land-
• Which of these large processes need to be
scape. Figure 2 below outlines one illustration of
improved upon the most for us to achieve our
an enterprise-level process model that can be
strategic goals?
instrumental in shifting management attention to
• Which IT systems may need to be upgraded to
what matters to customers and from the bases of
improve the performance of these processes?
cross-functional collaboration, as well as perfor-
mance improvement. Such a schematic depicts
Once the leadership team has agreed on a
the major value-creating processes for a typical
common vocabulary around enterprise processes,
telecom operator.
the typical next step is to select a small, but
visible project. To demonstrate proof of concept,
Dialogue around this type of high-level model can
the team chooses a project that is believed to be
trigger members of the leadership team to ask
easy to execute, yet provides the prospect of sig-
and answer the following questions:
nificant performance gains. Processing employee
expenses reports (depicted in Figure 3 below), new
• To what extent are we measuring the
hire onboarding, and accounts payable processing
timeliness and quality of our services to
are typical examples of process improvement at
our customers?
this level.
• Which departments need to collaborate to
deliver value in these end-to-end processes?

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Once the proof of concept project has produced observable results and board-based buy-in has
been obtained for BPM deployment, the organization can then select a large, end-to-end process
for improvement that will enable the organization in achieving its strategic objectives.

Typical examples of end-to-end processes selected for process automation include:

• Network Build: From plan to close-out

• Procurement: From request to receipt
• Customer complaints: From complaint
to resolution
• Recruitment: From requisition to onboard
• New Customer Onboarding
• New Service Onboarding or Service
Modification Request
• Defective Equipment Replacement
• Change Order Requests

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Summary

This paper began with an overview of the challenges faced by operators in the telecommunications sec-
tor with a focus on increasing customer expectations, the growing threat from OTT competitors, and the
key forces that will likely drive change. Next, the crucial role of BPM was outlined with specific reference
to BPM as a key enabler of improved customer experience, and also a primary vehicle for achieving lower
costs. Then, tactical guidance on the deployment of BPM to meet challenges was provided with specific
reference to the importance of having a common vocabulary around process management, selecting a
Proof of Concept project, and progressing to the application of BPM on a large end-to-end process.

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About ProcessMaker

ProcessMaker is low-code BPM and workflow network spread across 35 countries on

software. ProcessMaker makes it easy for five continents. Hundreds of commercial
business analysts to collaborate with IT customers, including many Fortune 100
to automate complex business processes companies, rely on ProcessMaker to digitally
connecting people and existing company systems. transform their core business processes
Headquartered in Durham, North Carolina in enabling faster decision making, improved
the United States, ProcessMaker has a partner compliance, and better performance.

Find out how we can elevate your business today. Request a Free Demo

Learn more at processmaker.com +1.919.289.1377

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