The South African telecommunications industry is in for a few uncomfortable, but wholly necessary, changes over the next few months.
Firstly, there is the long-awaited and much-debated arrival of the second network operator (SNO), rival to fixed-line operator Telkom, which is expected to happen towards the end of this year.
Hot-on-the-heels of this development is likely to come legislation pertaining to competition, which has been obligatory for some time already in other parts of the world. This will probably include a requirement for both fixed-line and mobile telecom operators to offer their customers full number portability (NP) - that is the porting of existing numbers onto new carrier networks, upon the request of a customer - as a completely mandatory prerequisite for their continued operation.
So says Mark Ehmke, managing director of Staffware in SA.
"Realistically, the local telecommunications industry, including both fixed-line and mobile network operators, must realise that, in order to remain attractive to both existing and potential customers, number portability is a must," Ehmke says.
"This impending NP legislation is a double-edged sword for the telecom operators - because it enables customers to shop around for the best deal, thereby providing both an opportunity and threat for the operators - some will lose market share through customers switching away from them, while of course, others will gain new customers," he admits.
According to Ehmke, in order to offer number portability successfully, telecom operators will need to ensure the systems they utilise to process NP are streamlined, automated and extremely efficient.
"Even in the UK, where Oftel regulations mandated NP in the telecom industry over two years ago, consumer research shows that it is still not easy for mobile customers to switch operator and retain the same number," Ehmke explains.
"Difficulties seem to be focused on installation problems and delays, and the amount of time and effort required," he adds.
NP can be one of four different types:
. Local number portability, where a customer changes their network service provider without changing their geographic location.
. Geographic number portability, where the same change is made across a country, or a regional boundary.
. Mobile number portability, where the same portability is offered for cellular phone numbers.
. Service number portability, where a different service is provided to the same number.
"NP also implies the possible involvement of numerous operators," Ehmke explains. "These are the donor operator, which is losing a number to its competitor; the receiver operator which is receiving that number, and then the other fixed-line and mobile operators in the industry who must be made aware of the port," he says.
"NP is an issue which also by its very nature affects not only the telecom network itself; but a host of other business units such as operations, IT, marketing and the call centre as well."
According to Ehmke, there are four important reasons why telecom operators need to consider employing a process management platform when instituting NP.
"NP is a complex process both at the technical and administrative levels, requiring complex management features, the flexibility to change when necessary and mission-critical support," he says.
"NP also demands heavy integration with the existing IT infrastructure, including factors such as network layer activation, and integration with the existing customer relationship management (CRM) and billing system.
"On a positive note, the management of the NP process provides telecom operators with a great opportunity to analyse and manage customer churn, from the triggering of alerts, to finding patterns in the evolution of that churn, to the tracking of potential competition," he continues.
"Last but not least, the imminent NP regulations will require demanding timeframes and extreme flexibility to change, requiring a Rapid Application Development (RAD) approach to systems design and implementation," he says.
"While on the surface, and certainly from the customer`s perspective, NP seems like a simple, painless process, in reality it isn`t - as is clear from the above reasons, it is actually a complicated process, especially from a systems perspective.
"And let`s face it, the donor operators don`t have much motivation to invest huge back- and front-office resources into providing this service - yet they are caught between the `devil and the deep blue sea` - since legislation will force them to do so.
"In the light of the above reasons, the telecom operators will need to review, streamline and improve the control of their business processes involved in providing NP, in order to achieve legislative service level agreements (SLAs); and to ensure their internal business processes are as cost-effective and efficient as possible."
Clearly, business process management (BPM) is the answer to the problem of providing an efficient NP service in the telecom industry.
Ehmke maintains that fully automated, Straight-Through-Processing (STP) BPM, which essentially entails the employment of software which automates, manages and streamlines business processes with no human intervention required, is what is required in the NP context.
"STP BPM will not only increase the speed of delivering new services to customers, but will also ensure factors such as prompt billing and revenue collection, adherence to SLAs, improvement of process reliability, efficient integration with business units such as CRM and call centres; not to mention ensuring RAD and, above all, compliance with telecom industry regulations and legislation regarding NP, are handled effectively and efficiently," he remarks.
STP BPM has already been employed with great success not only in the UK, but also in numerous other countries around the world where NP is now mandatory.
"These include global telecom operators such as Airtel Connect, Vodafone and Telefonica," Ehmke concludes.
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