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The Plan-to-Provision Process: The Hidden Opportunity
First a definition: Plan-to-Provision is the set of business processes that involves the construction of a service-ready platform that is able to support that service, including new network (physical and logical), servers and content policy. It commences with market-driven planning and ends with the commissioning of a live network. Service providers invest upwards of $300 billion USD annually with a vast percentage of that on network and network-related capital spending1. But this is only about one-quarter of the annual amount spent on its sister cost area, operating expenses. So my first response to the "center stage" comment is that since the slice of the infrastructure investment pie is smaller, it naturally means that Plan-to-Provision is going to get less attention. But what about the downstream impact of that capital investment on operations? Next we take a look at what I’ll call the law of large numbers. The number of transactions involved in the order-to-cash process is tremendous. In the early days of DSL, we saw cases where for every service order taken, there were 5 customer transactions, 12 process hand-offs, 14 systems involved, and 13 different personnel. Wow! This area was desperate for process improvement; and improved it has, with many Telcordia customers now achieving 99% flow-through rates for DSL! In contrast, the number of people involved in planning and engineering is far fewer, and the number of engineering work orders they generate is significantly smaller. For a Tier 1 service provider, there could be 10 million service order requests compared with 100,000 work orders - a ratio of 100 to 1. But what about the cost surrounding an individual work order compared with a service order: 100 to 1? Lastly, I will make the claim that folks in the Plan-to-Provision arena stay under the radar when it comes to executive visibility. The work that they do is complex; it takes a lot of "brain power" to accomplish. The tools they use, likewise, manipulate complex equations and rely on detailed network diagrams. Home-grown tools developed to meet specific needs are used by a few specialists. The area is not easily understood by others, and the ability to fully automate their operations is relatively limited. But what is the true business impact of inefficient planning and engineering on the bottom line? Plan-to-Provision Underpins all Other Operations When you build a house, the substructure gets very little visibility; in fact, after the house is complete, you can’t even see it, unless you go crawling around in the basement or the attic. But as we all know, that substructure is critical to the integrity of the whole entity. Where builders cut corners, the price is paid dearly, sooner or later: routine maintenance becomes more troublesome, extensions hit unexpected delays, and the whole is put in jeopardy from one-off disasters. Every service provider process relies on a network built with both integrity and visibility. Once dirt is placed over buried cable, that substructure could be lost forever, unless accurate records are kept of its location and attributes. The competitive and financially-driven mandates of today require this visibility. And the influence of the substructure on downstream costs and customer experience is widespread:
Of essence is not only using that $300bn in the most efficient way, but managing the entire process so that all of these downstream operations can run smoothly and efficiently. Add to this the loss in revenue resulting from a network that takes too long to build and too long to light up. This is truly the law of large numbers, magnified to the nth degree. Assessing the Value It’s relatively straightforward to measure the value of order-to-cash process efficiency: flow-through rates, time-to-revenue, on-time delivery rates. Measuring Plan-to-Provision efficiency seems more elusive. But in fact, at Telcordia we have worked with CSPs worldwide to improve this operational area and have achieved benchmarks that include:
Transforming Plan-to-Provision So what is the order of magnitude of the results that can be achieved when the spotlight is focused on Plan-to-Provision? Telcordia has worked to transform the Plan-to-Provision process for a service provider with a focus on the access network. The geospatial solution generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost savings in just three months of operation and identified millions of dollars in network assets that were simply not listed on their paper records. For an area that is low on the list for attention-getting, I hope that I’ve made the case for bringing it into the spotlight. Service providers who have made the jump to next-generation Plan-to-Provision systems and processes are now ahead of the curve, reaping the benefits of efficient processes that enable efficiency in all other operations that rely on accurate and accessible network information. I will not diminish the reality - getting there is a process in itself. Essential ingredients include excellent project planning and management, tools that are flexible and scalable, and data migration techniques that are able to convert and clean up along the way. But it is achievable. Some choose to start with existing networks by eliminating paper records and streamlining current engineering and construction processes. Others choose to attack new network builds such as FTTH and get it right from the start. And providers new to the game approach the entire process with a clean slate that is motivated by simplicity and efficiency. The Last Word "Plan-to-Provision" has the potential to give service providers a solid foundation for strong business performance that will last long into the future. It requires foresight to recognize the potential, a willingness to address the challenges head-on, and the tenacity to stay focused. But by uncovering the hidden opportunity in the plan-to-provision process, the impact on business performance can be truly amazing! For more information, please contact Adan Pope, Chief Strategy Officer, Telcordia at apope@telcordia.com or download a new white paper, Plan to Provision Erects a Business Foundation, and visit our website. Read Adan Pope's Billing & OSS World Elementively Speaking Blog. 1. OSS Observer Communications Service Provider Market Review, August 2008. |
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