Case Study KPNI: Huawei OSS/BSS Implementation

Transcription

1 Case Study KPNI: Huawei OSS/BSS Implementation Prepared by Julian Morrison & Ewa Romaniuk On behalf of Huawei January 2012 PYRAMID RESEARCH JANUARY 2012 CASE STUDY HUAWEI

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. KPN INTERNATIONAL A BUSINESS UNIT DEDICATED TO PAN-COUNTRY MOBILE EXCELLENCE... 3 II. FUTURE GROWTH OF THE KPNI MODEL REQUIRED GREATER COST CONTROL AND FLEXIBILITY... 5 III. MAGNUM OSS/BSS THE SWEET TASTE OF SUCCESS... 6 IV NEW HORIZONS FOR KPNI... 7 LIST OF FIGURES Exhibit 1: Mobile subscriptions in Germany by operator: 2007A 2016E Exhibit 2: Examples of the MVNO/MNO relationship Exhibit 3: Magnum supports KPNI s multibrand and multicountry portfolio Exhibit 4: Global MVNO subscriptions by region: 2007A 2016E PYRAMID RESEARCH JANUARY 2012 CASE STUDY HUAWEI 2

3 Subscriptions I. KPN International A business unit dedicated to pan-country mobile excellence As the incumbent in the Netherlands, KPN employs more than 30,000 people across both its domestic and international business lines and in 2010 generated revenue of 13.4bn from a total customer base in excess of 42m customers. Outside of its domestic market, KPN serves customers in France, Germany (E-Plus), Belgium (BASE) and Spain. Serving more than 20m customers alone in Germany, E-Plus and its sub brands are recognized as market leaders, and their success has been seen by many as an example of MVNO excellence from both a multicultural proposition and market execution perspective. Exhibit 1: Mobile subscriptions in Germany by operator: 2007A 2016E 45,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 T-Mobile Vodafone E-Plus O2 5, Source: Pyramid Research All of KPN s non-domestic operations are managed by KPN International (KPNI), a wholly owned unit within KPN dedicated to the management of more than 100 MVNOs across Europe. It manages both wholesale and retail relationships with the balance tipping slightly in favor of the former. While KPNI acts independently in its pursuit of its overarching goal to focus on attaining market excellence through its MVNO brands across Europe, the unit benefits from its parent company in multiple ways: KPNI has the backing of a solid balance sheet KPN was the first mobile operator to market with an end-to-end IT outsourcing, which provides cost-effective solutions across the KPNI portfolio PYRAMID RESEARCH JANUARY 2012 CASE STUDY HUAWEI 3

4 KPN has honed a smart follower tactic over the years, which provides clear alignment with the MVNO business in terms of delivering solutions that maximize the price performance ratio a critical factor given that approximately 60% of KPN s total customer base consists of prepaid subscribers The MVNO proposition is one that is predicated upon cost control and the delivery of a service that is typically both more targeted to a specific segment and more cost-effective to the end user than the mobile network operator (MNO) services in the market. This element of cost and cost control is dictated to a large extent by the business employed by the MVNO. As Exhibit 2 demonstrates, the extent of an MVNO s operational involvement in the provision of the communications service in turn dictates its relationship with the MNO and its cost base for the provision of MVNO services. Exhibit 2: Examples of the MVNO/MNO relationship The operational focus is based on the technical profile of the MVNO and on how far the MVNO integrates into the network of its host partner MSC BSC/RNC GGSN HLR CGF BSS SGSN Radio Access & Transmission Switching & Network Elements Content & Applications CRM & Billing Marketing & Branding Sales Channel Mobile Network Operator Mobile Network Operator Mobile Network Operator Mobile Network Operator MNO Affinity Partner Service Provider Enhanced Service Provider Hybrid Full MVNO 8 Source: Pyramid Research As can be seen, the business model deployed can range from a lighter approach (as an affinity partner only focused on marketing, branding and distribution of SIM cards) to a full MVNO, which has complete control of all operations outside of the MNO network. Most MVNOs opt for a lighter approach, given the lower barriers to market entry and speed of deployment. With this option, the MVNO becomes concentrated operationally on the front end with the following cost and revenue implications: PYRAMID RESEARCH JANUARY 2012 CASE STUDY HUAWEI 4

5 MVNO leases the operation support systems of the MNO instead of investing in its own billing and CRM The MVNO does not own the customer s international mobile subscriber identity or customer number and even the SIM card is owned by the MNO (it may be branded by the MVNO) The MVNO does not receive any incoming termination revenue Conversely, greater operational involvement leads to an enhanced ability to control costs. These costs are typically measured by two metrics: Cost per gross addition (CPGA): Typically focused on the device, channel and marketing costs Cash cost per user (CCPU): Prinicipally airtime wholesale costs While the success of MVNOs is typically seen in their ability to target a niche or gain massmarket adoption, it is in fact their ability to manage costs and the MNO relationship that are the key variables. II. Future growth of the KPNI model required greater cost control and flexibility Like other successful MVNO platforms, KPNI managed to keep tight control of its IT cost base during its geographic expansion. It managed to do this through its outsourcing agreements, although it began to experience certain operational challenges as well as questions around the feasibility of future expansion. In 2009, senior management at KPNI decided that change was needed and decided to implement an improved IT operation and maintenance platform to achieve greater efficiencies and future growth. It specifically wanted to address: The misalignment between the centralized IT organization and the fact that each local IT network was in fact maintained separately Slow reaction speeds in terms of launching new brands and new tariff introductions, especially roaming charges Further reduction of its IT overheads Future growth also implied a flexibility of solution that would: Be built upon a single platform that could serve KPNI s existing and future aspirations Not require significant customization for implementation across the KPNI network of countries An easy to manage end-to-end solution with a single vendor, allowing for smooth integration, testing and after-deployment updates To summarize, a solution with a robust core but with the ability for minimal customization depending upon the market would allow KPNI to achieve its aforementioned goals. PYRAMID RESEARCH JANUARY 2012 CASE STUDY HUAWEI 5

6 III. Magnum OSS/BSS The sweet taste of success Given the above challenges and requirements, it is understandable that KPNI gave the name Magnum to their preferred solution from Huawei. Across Europe, Magnum is recognized as the name of a hugely popular ice cream that is provided in a limited number of varieties, which are then adjusted depending upon the market where they are sold. Despite a sweet tasting ending for both KPNI and Huawei, the genesis of the Magnum implementation spanned 2009 and most of Following initial meetings in the first half of 2009, KPNI undertook preliminary screening of viable solutions to the business challenges outlined, including workshops and reference checks, to create a short list. Between March and July 2010, KPNI entered into formal negotiations around the final project scope and pricing, with Huawei receiving the formal go-head in July Thanks to Huawei s extensive experience and track record, Magnum first launched in Spain just four months later in November Magnum is a cloud-based integrated OSS/BSS system consisting of a software platform and customer service functionalities (including implementation and technical service). Additional infrastructure (servers) are provided by Getronics, an ICT services company owned by KPN. While MVNOs outsource all operations to reduce cost, Magnum focuses on the reduction of cost through the enhanced utilization of resources across KPNI s multibrand and multicountry portfolio. Exhibit 3: Magnum supports KPNI s multibrand and multicountry portfolio Source: Pyramid Research Huawei was able to offer a true one vendor solution to KPNI by providing integrated BSS system and M2M functionality in addition to a voice and packet core elements. The one size fits all platform was designed to be implemented with the appropriate country variations, resulting in minor differences among individual country deployments. PYRAMID RESEARCH JANUARY 2012 CASE STUDY HUAWEI 6

7 The provisioning of a service across geographic and brand borders required close communication between KPNI, the individual country teams and the Huawei teams to ensure that the centralized service would indeed provide the promised functionality. Furthermore, a total of six migration environments were created to provide training, the ability to test across KPNI and Huawei as well as an emulation environment, which provided the final live test conditions prior to full migration. In addition to offering a cost-effective, feature-rich, end-to-end solution that only a few vendors in the world can claim, Huawei proved to KPNI throughout the process that they were not only a solution provider but also a partner in the future growth of KPNI s MVNO business. This true partnership model was demonstrated on numerous occasions: Huawei dedicated significant resources to understanding KPNI s business from both a product and overall strategy viewpoint. This involved talking to key stakeholders across the product lines as well as marketing to ensure that everyone was on the same page from a strategic and technical point of view. Huawei demonstrated their commitment to overcoming any cultural and language barriers across the KPNI footprint by ensuring that there were two project managers assigned to each initiative. With one local project manager liaising regularly with the client, the second project manager would focus on relaying information to the Chinese team, ensuring that both sides received promptly the required detail in local language. Although local language contacts were utilized to facilitate project management, there were also events organized such as evening meals and football matches, where both sides had the opportunity to get to know their respective counterparts. Project-specific obstacles in the form of data security and legacy vendor management were also handled adroitly by both sides, ensuring a smooth migration path and deployment of the new platform. Data security legislation within the EU requires a permit to be issued when data from within the Union needs to move outside of it. It was therefore decided that a three-level support model would be introduced so that only the most complicated cases (Level 3) would be handled by Huawei engineers in China, with the rest dealt with by the Huawei team in the Netherlands. Furthermore, both sides spent significant time negotiating with country-level former vendors, to ensure that migration occurred not only quickly but without loss of critical data and functionality. IV. New horizons for KPNI Having set a goal to become the pan-european platform of choice in Europe, KPNI started the migration to the new system in Spain and then introduced Magnum to France, Belgium and Germany at a rate of one brand migration every six weeks. In addition to assuring these existing revenue streams in a more cost-effective manner, KPNI is now setting its sights on other EU markets both directly and now as a mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE), ensuring new revenue streams for the business. It can set about these plans with enhanced business planning capabilities, given that go-to-market timing is now a more manageable four months, instead of six, with significantly fewer partner relationships that need to be considered. In addition to being able to deploy an MVNO service more rapidly, KPNI learned a number of important internal communication lessons during the implementation process with Huawei. Given the off-the-shelf nature of the Huawei OSS/BSS solution, stakeholders across the business were engaged at a very early stage to ensure that the new systems would provide adequate PYRAMID RESEARCH JANUARY 2012 CASE STUDY HUAWEI 7

8 Subscriptions functionality irrespective of geography. This engagement ensured that the opportunities as well as restrictions were understood at the very beginning of the process and provided for a more proactive way for KPNI to work with its various business units, which is something that will continue to take place in the future. With both internal and external benefits achieved, KPNI can look to address the opportunities we expect to see in the next five years in Western Europe s vibrant MVNO market, as seen in Exhibit 4. Exhibit 4: Global MVNO subscriptions by region: 2007A 2016E 120, ,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20, Asia Pacific Central Eastern Europe LATAM Africa & Middle East Western Europe North America Source: Pyramid Research PYRAMID RESEARCH JANUARY 2012 CASE STUDY HUAWEI 8