TelstraClear Case Study

Transcription

1 Clarity Case Study TelstraClear Case Study Helping Virtual ISPs offer differentiated and innovative products through Clarity Marketplace, a flexible customer self-fulfilment, account management and service provisioning solution.

2 The once technology dominated telecoms industry is having to look at new business models in order to reduce risk, increase responsiveness, focus on core capabilities, and leverage those capabilities as components of offerings by other corporations. Tony Kalcina Executive Director Clarity A Global Perspective Around the world, the telecoms industry is reacting to simultaneous drivers for c h a n g e f r om m a n y directions, explains Tony Kalcina, Executive Director, Clarity. Many are technological; s om e thing th a t th e Tony Kalcina Executive Director Clarity telecoms industry has a lot of practice in responding to. Increasingly, however, the once technology dominated telecoms industry is having to look at new business models in order to reduce risk, increase responsiveness, focus on core capabilities, and leverage those capabilities as components of offerings by other corporations. Two factors are dominating the business drivers for change: Managed services Service providers are reducing their capital and operational costs by outsourcing components of their business Vertical segmentation Many players in the industry are aligning to NetCo, OpCo or Retail Service Provider layers ; the days where the owner of the ducts and cables is the sole provider of the service to the end-user are numbered As the industry accommodates these two drivers, TelstraClear is setting an example by incorporating both into their supply of services to Virtual ISPs. TelstraClear s Vision TelstraClear helps retailers in New Zealand deliver ISP services and their own value-add offerings without them having to own network infrastructure. TelstraClear s innovative Virtual ISP (VISP), model lets the retailer create a product portfolio for target segments and react to market changes without the overhead of IT and network development. It allows TelstraClear to focus on operational efficiencies in the network while

3 the VISP manages the marketing, bundling and selling of TelstraClear capacity. The VISP model is not new, but TelstraClear has a unique angle to it. Key to maintaining the agility of the TelstraClear model is the consolidation of customer self-service, account management, order management and product catalog into one system, owned by TelstraClear but exposed directly to the VISP. Each VISP designs their own products without being weighed down by the inertia of maintaining their own systems. The resulting ecosystem, of which TelstraClear is at the heart, reacts to change and opportunities faster and more efficiently. New network capabilities provided by TelstraClear are exposed into a product hierarchy. VISPs configure their own products and bundles using the network capabilities and their own value-add and pricing differentiation tuned to their targeted segment. This is a classical win-win; the VISP differentiates towards their market and TelstraClear is able to sell its network and ISP capabilities, indirectly, to a far wider demographic. David Clarke General Manager Commercial Development TelstraClear Wholesale The VISP Concept Achieving the Vision TelstraClear needed a platform to enable them to streamline delivery of their wholesale services to retailers in New Zealand. An end-to-end turnkey solution was essential for retailers, allowing them to sell products without owning network or systems for the delivery of ISP services. The solution had to allow the rapid registration of new VISPs so they can start offering products to the market within short timeframes, typically within weeks from signing with TelstraClear.

4 Cl arity s innovative solution has hel ped TelstraClear deliver on its vision for the VISP eco-system, and prove to the industry that a win-win exists in the new business models being introduced around the world, says Raymond O Brien, Head of Wholesale at TelstraClear. Raymond O Brien Head of Wholesale TelstraClear The joint work by TelstraClear and Clarity can be seen as an example of how the right technical solution to a problem can be the essential enabler for a business vision. To achieve this, the system would also have to provide a customer self-service interface, an account management interface for customer service representatives (CSRs) to administer customer accounts, customer sign-up screens, driven by an integrated catalog, and methods for tracking the orders and providing feedback to the end-user/customer. Finally, TelstraClear required the system to be provided as an outsourced capability, allowing them to focus on the technology aspects of the product supply-chain. Realisation TelstraClear produced an RFP, of which Clarity s Product and Customer Management Suite was the only suitable candidate by a large degree. Other responses tended to be based on the assumption that the system is maintained by the customer facing organisation; and did not model a sophisticated virtual hierarchy in the supply-chain, from network provider to retail service provider to customer. In fact, it is the hierarchical nature of Clarity s solution which is essential to TelstraClear. TelstraClear defines a hierarchy of accounts, products and pricing models that inherit from each other. This perfectly aligns to the hierarchical nature of the supply-chain, from Clarity s managed service supply through TelstraClear s technology products to a hierarchy of VISPs providing value-added differentiation. Accounts, Products, Bundles and Rating

5 Once accounts have been modelled in the eco-system, a comprehensive account model allows sophisticated and differentiable pricing policy to be established and aligned to each layer in the hierarchy. The flexibility provided by this model would be wasted if it could not be exposed to the VISP themselves to build their own product portfolio. TelstraClear are able to present screens directly to the VISP allowing them to design products, group them into bundles, manage their life-cycle and manage customer accounts. As a product portfolio is built, TelstraClear presents order entry screens to the VISP, pre-integrated with a product catalog and workflow to provision the product. This is designed to embed into the VISP s portal with the minimum of effort. VISP Package and Bundle Specification Clarity s Product and Customer Management Suite addresses a full VISP requirement for Telstra Clear; from order entry to service activation, providing management visibility from system status through to the market success of products. VISP Branded Portal for the Customer

6 TelstraClear is currently managing 23 distinct virtual ISPs on the same platform, with each provider in their own white-label virtual sandbox, which ensures that there is no visibility or interaction between these distinct organisations. Success for TelstraClear System Core Application Layer Agent Integration Layer Centralised Marketplace Services Within only 3 months from project start, TelstraClear were selling on-net products via Clarity s Product and Customer Management Suite. This included deployment of network integration and control and management services. After a further 6 months, the system was integrated into TelstraClear s business systems and was able to manage the creation of off-net services in the Telecom New Zealand network through a business-to-business interface. TelstraClear Product Managers now create Products and Bundles in an intuitive UI in minutes or hours, rather than days or weeks. The platform encourages re-use of previously built services, bundles and rating plans to minimise re-work and leverage existing production-tested components. Parameters or aspects of existing products can be quickly modified and released as a new product version. Existing installed services can be upgraded to a new offering, with additional services being offered as part of a marketing up-sell. TelstraClear is currently managing 23 distinct virtual ISPs on the same platform, with each provider in their own white-label virtual sandbox, which ensures that there is no visibility or interaction between these distinct organisations.

7 There are over 300 distinct packages being managed by TelstraClear s implementation of Clarity s Product and Customer Management Suite, some of which have been created by TelstraClear, the rest created and managed by TelstraClear s retailing customers. These are based on (currently) 27 technical core products which are provided by TelstraClear. A core concept of the system is to provide the basic package components for sale to the retailers, who can re-combine and value-add as required by their distinct customer base. This empowers the retailer/customer while removing the administration burden from TelstraClear. The Future TelstraClear are leading the way in managing complex and changing retail service provider portfolios, providing them with an agile model for selling their network services to wider and more diverse markets. New network initiatives around the world, especially in national deployments of new technologies such as FttX and WiMAX, are also exploiting the Retailer Service Provider models, and could do well to emulate the approach taken by TelstraClear. The Product and Customer Management Suite is part of Clarity s Unified OSS. TelstraClear has illustrated how its unique virtualization of an account and product hierarchy can be applied in the increasingly layered telecoms industry where a NetCo provides connectivity to an OpCo and a ServCo provides services to a Retail Service Provider. As the telecoms industry moves from the traditional channels of selling to their customers directly, Clarity is embracing the new business models which include layers of value-added retailers into a supply-chain that includes an increasingly sophisticated layering between network and customer. There are over 300 distinct packages being managed by VISPs through the Clarity s Marketplace Suite, based on 27 technical core products provided by TelstraClear.

8 About TelstraClear TelstraClear is a voice and data company, providing innovative market leading products, services and customer focus to the business, government, wholesale and residential sectors. At the heart of TelstraClear's strategy is its focus on customers. TelstraClear understands that people have a choice so has to offer what people want. TelstraClear is constantly listening to their customers. While New Zealand has a passion for innovation and early adoption, people don't change for the fun of it. There has to be a reason. TelstraClear are in the business of providing that reason through superior products and services. TelstraClear have the best IP network in New Zealand, offer the market's best trans-tasman services and have a superb triple-play offer of voice, internet and digital TV services for residential customers in Wellington, Christchurch and Kapiti. Better still, TelstraClear have the backing of and are wholly owned by Telstra Corporation Limited, Australia s largest telecommunications Company. For further information on TelstraClear, visit About Clarity Clarity is a global provider that enables its customers to simplify their operations with an award winning unified telecommunications management solution. It enables Service Providers to reduce the cost and risk of operations and improve the customer experience across fixed, mobile, data and converged networks. CLARITY 15 BLUE STREET NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2060 AUSTRALIA TEL: FAX: The Clarity portfolio is used to build and manage network deployments; develop, sell and charge for innovative products; fulfil orders through to network activation; and assure the quality of customer services. The portfolio supports next generation and legacy networks and is pre-integrated to reduce the cost, time and risk to deploy and manage the solution. Clarity s solutions currently help operators around the world manage over 250 million subscribers. The product portfolio is network and service neutral, driven by templates and workflows that are rapidly configurable, allowing telecom companies to dramatically cut time to market for new services. Established in 1994, Clarity has offices throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. For more information, please visit us at Copyright Clarity International Pty Ltd (ACN ) 2010 All Rights Reserved CSNZ002