Case Study

 

A Cloud-Based Self-Service Platform

Global telecommunications firm (company confidential)

A global telecom company envisioned a transformed customer experience. They collaborated with SDG to bring it to life.

Challenges

Legacy systems
Competitive market
Complex integrations
Multiple customer profiles

SDG Solutions

Business architecture
Technical architecture
System implementation
Agile project delivery

Disrupting an industry through transformed customer experience

The communications industry can be difficult for customers to navigate, and customer expectations for digital interactions are at an all-time high. One global telecommunications firm recognized the opportunity to transform the experience of their customers by bringing simplicity to complicated processes and interactions. To do this, they envisioned a world-class self-service digital experience platform for their commercial customers. The company’s leaders imagined a single commercial customer experience that still provided personalized interactions based on the unique mix of products and services each customer deployed.

In addition to an improved user experience, the company required highly performant integrations with a wide variety of legacy systems. While this was challenging enough, the company was also in the midst of a merger. The new solution needed to meet the business and technical needs of not one but two distinct enterprises with different offerings, architectures, processes, brands, and user experiences.

Collaborating to exceed expectations

Through close collaboration, the company and SDG created a self-service digital experience that exceeded both industry and customer expectations. SDG guided the project from planning through implementation.

The project kicked off with SDG and the company co-developing both the business architecture and the technical architecture. The team devised business cases, documented key capabilities, and identified constraints. Most importantly, SDG helped the company focus on the needs of its users. 

This collaborative effort resulted in an achievable agile sprint plan with supporting stories, a combined staffing plan for implementation, a target architecture for system implementation, and budget guidance for the duration of the project.

With business and technical architectures in place, the team began implementation, focusing on identity management, provisioning and management processes, and account management tools. At the same tine, SDG consultants partnered with the company on user experience design, initial portal theme implementation, and content production. The team achieved its goal of releasing to pilot users within 6 months, and initial users were thrilled with the product and experience.

    Goals for the solution

    • Enable commercial customers to access and manage their cloud environments.
    • Create visibility to real-time usage, performance, and availability monitoring.
    • Replace forms and emails with fully functional self-service online transactions to remain accessible 24×7, 365 days a year.
    • Connect user identities and credentials by integrating dozens of systems. 
    • Allow users to fully interact with the system’s capabilities using the device of their choice.
    • Deliver an engaging online experience that customers are delighted to use while reducing the cost of customer care.
    • Provide real-time views of services and information concerning accounts.
    • Equip customers to pay bills, place orders, view order history, change features, and upgrade services quickly and easily.
    • Supply users with online training, user guides, and system documentation.
    • Increase revenue by creating customer visibility to intelligent upsell and cross-sell opportunities for companion products and services.
    • Improve processes and reduce time required for pricing, configuration, and provisioning.

    SDG consultants played a variety of roles

     

    • Agile project delivery and management
    • Solution architecture and business analysis
    • Fully responsive user experience development
    • Identity management, authentication, and provisioning
    • System architecture and application development
    • Enterprise integration and data readiness
    • Quality assurance management and test execution
    • Consultation on long-term product management and operational strategies
    • Documentation and training

    A note on confidential case studies

    This customer preferred that we keep their identity confidential, so we haven’t named them in this case study. While we’re proud of our work on this project, SDG respects our customers’ wishes. 

    Image courtesy of Unsplash.