How To Solve 4 Really Tough Siebel Application Challenges ebook

an aMind Solutions
Telecom eBook
www.aMindSolutions.com
How to Solve 4
Really Tough Siebel
Application Challenges

aMind Solutions Telecom eBook
How to Solve 4 Really Tough Siebel Application Challenges
2
Introduction
Siebel is a really powerful CRM platform. That’s why it’s used by many of the largest Telecommunications
companies around the world. And that’s why you’re still using it to manage some of your most important
and often complex business processes. But… Siebel can be notoriously slow and difficult even for your
best experts to develop and deliver new applications.
We’ve heard from many of you that what you really want is to:
• Run Siebel processes much faster
• Introduce new products and offers more quickly
• Extend Siebel processes to other channels. Your customers, partners and field-based sales and
services staff
• Make it easier to build and manage applications
In the following pages we’ll quickly describe 4 common Siebel challenges and then showcase 4 real
world, in-production, examples of how we solved those challenges for 4 well-known Telecommunications
companies and how you can too…

3
Problem 1:
Order Management
Performance
At the core of every Telecommunications Company is your Call Center. And at the core of that Call
Center is your Siebel CRM system and the underlying Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) processes and
the supporting Enterprise Product Catalog. Processing new customer orders, or modifying an existing
customer’s services, typically requires a call center agent to launch a Siebel application, flip through
dozens of screens, gather information from multiple systems, oh and all the while reducing call times and
achieving customer satisfaction goals. Yeah right…
Here’s the Problem:
• Call Center staff spend too much time in slow, cumbersome order capture process in Siebel
• Siebel Order Management performance is at the core of all Siebel apps – SFA, call center, partners,
retail, etc., so inefficient order processing drags everything down
• Siebel Configurator, while powerful, is slow and cumbersome to use
• Move, Add, Change, Delete (MACD) processes in Siebel can be really slow and no amount of tuning
has made them work efficiently
• Call Center agent efficiency is low, processes are error prone and the system overall is cumbersome
to work with
High agent turnover, coupled with the complexity of the applications requires extensive training, further
increasing costs.
Sound Familiar?
That’s the challenge that Global Village Telecom, a rapidly growing fixed and satellite carrier in Brazil was
facing. Turn the page to learn how they solved their order management performance challenges.

4
Order Management
Solution & Case Study
After conducting a thorough analysis of potential options,
GVT concluded the aMind Web Framework provided the
only viable solution to enable both the process optimization
(reduced call handle times) and the multi-channel
capabilities it needed.
Results:
• All products are configured at the same time on a
single consolidated screen enabling the user to move
back and forth between products and services at any
time while maintaining great performance
• Updated rolled-up pricing is available on that same
screen, avoiding round trips to multiple quote and
order screens
• Adding optional products and services can be done
directly from the configuration screen
• Long-running operations are performed in the
background; no need for users to wait
• Caching in the aMind Web Framework eliminated many
repeated database access steps
Success Metrics
90% reduction in order
screens!
50% improvement in offer
configuration steps
50% decrease in average
system response times
40% reduction in overall call
center training requirements
Related Case Study
“The system is simple and fully integrated with Siebel
8.1. The user performs only 6 steps to provision a sales
order and the orders automatically flow through to our
billing/provisioning systems, eliminating duplicate data
entry.”
GVT
Download

5
Problem 2:
New Product
Introductions
The Telecommunications market is one of the most dynamic when it comes to market conditions driving
the need to quickly change prices, or deliver new offerings. Telecom Marketing teams unfortunately often
have their hands tied by antiquated and highly complex pricing, provisioning and billing systems that
more often than not require highly skilled application developers to write complex programs to stitch
together bundled offers.
And telecom services aren’t simple products to configure and change, as many factors such as tariffs,
service availability, and distribution channel constraints can affect and influence offerings. And that doesn’t
begin to address the monumentally complex challenge of configuring, pricing and bundling ‘triple-play’
offers managed and provisioned by completely different infrastructure and systems! And many times one
or more of those triple play products may be sourced from a partner, or marketed by yet other partners. It
doesn’t get much more complex.
When did the 3 Ps of Marketing, Pricing, Packaging and Promotion, change from being an administrative
task taking a few days by marketers, to a multi-month complex systems programming project for
overworked Siebel IT departments? There has to be a better way…
And for Level 3 Communications, a global Tier 1 Internet Service Provider, there was a better way. Turn the
page to learn how they solved their new their product introduction challenges.

6
Product Introduction
Level 3 Communications, one of only six Tier 1 Internet
Services Providers in the world, set out to implement fully
integrated end-to-end business support systems (BSS)
and operational support systems (OSS) to optimize their
product introduction process. Having successfully acquired
10 companies over the span of a few years, Level 3, using
the aMind Web Framework, integrated all of the company’s
products into a single, integrated offering, consolidating
multiple IT systems, reducing operational costs, and
streamlining new product introductions and offers.
Results:
• Launch new bundles in days vs. months
• All products were implemented into a framework
model within Siebel, merging overlapping products
into one simplified offering model
• Created standard definitions for complex bundles
enabling rapid packaging and rollout of new product
offerings
• Streamlined product introduction process through a
two-phase Sales and Order Management configuration
process, significantly reducing complexity and adding
pricing and delivery flexibility
• Dramatically reduced the time, cost and staff required
to plan, price, configure and then introduce new
products and offers by making product introductions
an administrative task for Marketing and Operations vs.
a complex programming project for IT
• Reduced time to market for new product introductions
from 4 months to 2 weeks, with no direct IT
involvement required
Success Metrics
85% improvement in cost
and time to market for new
product introductions!
95% reduction in quoting
time for new customers
40% decrease in product
configuration and order error
rates
Lower long term cost of
ownership and better
management of IT resources
Related Case Study
“Engaging aMind has been the best decision we made
in deploying our networks order entry solution.”
Level 3
Download

7
Problem 3:
Multi-Channel
Deployment
One of the more exciting aspects of marketing and selling Telecommunication services is the array of
channels through which those services can be marketed and sold. Beyond the call center there are
business and technology partners, eCommerce websites providing self-service and most recently, mobile
sales teams. And while selling through multiple channels may be exciting for Marketing and Sales
executives, it can be down right frightening for the IT team who need to make it work. Siebel is a very
powerful CRM system, but extending Siebel order management processes beyond a Telecommunication
Company’s call center has proven to require some serious heavy lifting that has tripped up some of the
best and cost them dearly in time, money and sometimes even careers.
At the heart of the problem is the need to orchestrate multiple information sources and processes.
Product Catalog, pricing, and ordering processes, typically in Siebel, then need to interoperate seamlessly
with billing, customer information systems and serviceability platforms. And we’re no longer dealing in
a world of data records, multi-channel deployment now also needs to incorporate imagery, maps, even
video, media that Siebel doesn’t do well.
Then once you orchestrate the systems you need to publish not just the data, but that actual Siebel
processes out to those channels be it your self-service website, partner portals, retail stores and yes now
even mobile devices.
Is it even possible?
As a matter of fact it is for many aMind customers including Swisscom, the leading telecom service
provider in Switzerland. Turn the page to learn more about how Swisscom went multi-channel and made
an entire country happy.

8
Multi-Channel Deployment
Swisscom, Switzerland’s telecommunications leader, set
out to establish a multi-channel ordering application for
their “New-Stack for Fiber” transformational IT program.
Swisscom started with its web channel to provide a critical
enabler to reach its strategic goals of providing superior
customer service, reducing operational costs, and increasing
sales through widespread adoption of the new fiber-based
products. The specific challenges Swisscom planned to
address were centered on its customers; namely to increase
user performance and to improve the user experience on its
customer service and Swisscom Shop e-commerce websites.
Based on the significant and measurable success of the
initial e-Commerce deployment, Swisscom extended the
same aMind developed order management processes
to their 110 corporate retail stores enabling Swisscom
customers, partners, call center and retail staff to all work in
the same highly optimized, extended application.
Results:
• Delivered a common, consistent order experience
across e-Commerce, self-service, call center and mobile
devices in retail stores
• Produced major improvements in user-perceived
performance, especially for bundled product offerings
• Ability to support advanced order types (e.g. copper to
fiber and bundles) across channels
• Improved performance optimization through parallel
Siebel product configurators (VoIP, Internet, TV);
asynchronous pre-loading, pricing, eligibility check,
bundle discounts, and self-installation equipment
options
Success Metrics
85% improvement in order
process navigation and
interaction by customers!
80% reduction in end-to-end
order capture time from 10 to
2 minutes
50% improvement in system
response time through
background processing
90% reduction in database
interactions eliminating data
access delays
Related Case Study
Swisscom
Download
“The solution aMind designed is Fast-designed for
customer-perceived performance; Cool-allowing fully
customized user experience and customer attractive
design; and Flexible-enabling business agility.”

9
Problem 4:
Enterprise
Product Catalog
If there’s one thing that operates at the core of every Telecommunication Company, it’s the system(s)
that manage the crown jewels, the company’s catalog of products. Unfortunately for the majority of
Telecommunications companies ‘catalog’ ends up being plural. With the continued expansion of product
lines (can you say Triple Play?) each product line typically brings along with it it’s own infrastructure,
provisioning and yes, it’s own product catalog.
Managing and synchronizing disparate catalogs by itself is a major challenge, but then extend that
formula another magnitude by including all of the different channels that those products need to be
configured and ordered through. Oh and don’t forget the other matrix of downstream billing, provisioning
and operational systems that also need to be updated and synchronized.
N catalogs x N APIs x N backend integrations = ?
It’s no wonder that it often takes months just to release a new product offering or bundle at many
Telecommunications companies today. Time to market flies out the window, partners get frustrated as
competitive offerings attract away prospects, and business is impacted as customers defect.
Time to get out your plumbing diagram?
While it may seem an impossible challenge, implementing an Enterprise Product Catalog is not only
possible but was just what was needed at Time Warner Cable. Turn the page to learn how they solved
their product catalog congestion.

10
Enterprise Product Catalog
Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable operator
in the United States, was struggling with a proliferation
of dispersed product catalogs that served the company’s
different ordering channels and supported a multitude of
channel-specific offers and promotions for TV, Internet,
home phone and wireless.
aMind’s Enterprise Product and Offer Catalog
implementation, provides a common interface on the
front end to consuming applications and provides an
enterprise offer catalog in Siebel for centralized and non-
duplicated maintenance. New products and offers can now
be introduced in a few days instead of months across all of
Time Warner Cable’s business channels.
Results:
• Rolled out to 31 Time Warner Cable divisions across
9 US regions to multiple sales, eCommerce, retail
and partner channels all operating against a single
Enterprise Product Catalog
• Consolidated 10 separate product line catalogs into
a single Enterprise Product Catalog while enabling
different offer code mappings for affiliates, eliminating
the possibility of duplicate offers
• Sales automation reduced operational costs by $30M
per year while providing a better customer experience
• Consolidation of offers reduced IT costs by over $15M
per year
• Opportunity for targeted offers drove 20% increase in
total orders
• Offer visibility across channels resulted in better sales
alignment
• An administrative task for Marketing and operations vs.
a complex programming project for IT
• Reduced time to market for new product introductions
from 4 months to 2 weeks, with no direct IT
involvement required
Success Metrics
20% increase in total orders
significantly increased
revenue
$45M reduction in combined
first year operational costs
Efficient offer management
aligned with Sales objectives
Reduced time to market from
4 months to 2 weeks
Related Case Study
Time
Warner
Cable
Download

11
Closing
In closing, we hope you found one or more of the Siebel challenges and solutions of interest and a
practical example of how Siebel really can be optimized and extended to add significant value to your
company and your customers.
As we’ve described in this eBook, we really understand Siebel… after all we helped build it! The founders
and members of the team at aMind actually developed the Order Management function that you’re likely
using in your Siebel instance today. Who better to understand how to optimize Siebel than the people
who helped develop it!
Our platforms are designed and proven to meet Telecommunication business scale and volumes.
Companies like Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Level 3, Swisscom, GVT and dozens of others process millions
of order transactions every day through the aMind Web Framework software.
It’s probably no surprise we’re a Gold Certified Oracle Siebel Consulting and Software Partner. We
specialize in Siebel and we’re really good at what we do. Ask our customers.
With Telecommunication customers from Europe to Asia Pacific to South America to North America and
the United States we’re a global business. We have no borders.
And just as we were able to help the Telecommunications companies described in this eBook, we’re here
to help you too.

Siebel. Optimized. Extended.
aMind Solutions is the leading provider of technology and services for
Oracle Siebel CRM solutions. By optimizing and extending Oracle Siebel,
aMind Solutions helps companies deliver a world-class, seamless customer
experience across all touch points – web, partner portal, contact center, point
of sale, retail, mobile, and more.
aMind Solutions
5000 Executive Parkway, Suite 495
San Ramon, CA 94583
1.925.804.6139
info@amindsolutions.com
www.aMindSolutions.com

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How To Solve 4 Really Tough Siebel Application Challenges ebook