How to speed and improve quote-to-cash in communication services

Problem: These crucial initial steps have remained virtually unchanged for decades. Prospects call a human sales agent to discuss company needs. The sales rep pulls data from internal systems and may offer a ballpark quote, but that quote is very approximate, subject to major changes (more on that in the touchpoint below). Thus, right from the start, prospects — who, both as businesspeople and consumers, have grown accustomed to easy self-service quotes and encyclopedic product information — are subjected to an antiquated process that puts the CSP in a poor light.

Solution: To remain competitive, CSPs must shift from sales-rep-driven quoting to self-service, providing instant quotes and offering products and services in near-real-time. This will require AI- and ML-enabled processes. The product catalog should be federated and intent-based. In the complex world of B2B provisioning, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all pricing, and the product catalog must allow for this and for dynamic bundling. Going forward, CSPs cannot make seat-of-the-pants, last-minute decisions on how to price product offerings. Rather, there must be a layer of consistency to ensure bundles are appropriately priced and offered. One of our clients is achieving this through a federated catalog, which combines wireless and wireline product and service offerings. 

Benefits: A self-service product selection, configuration and quote process not only dramatically reduces overall Q2C time, but also improves the customer experience by meeting their expectations, getting the relationship off on the right foot.

Problem: Simply put, speed is a major problem with the traditional model. After accessing internal data to create a quote, the sales rep runs that quote through appropriate channels for approval, which typically entails changes. When the quote is finalized and approved, it’s emailed to the prospect. Our CSP clients tell us the typical time lapse between initial call and quote delivery is five to 15 days. To today’s professionals, that’s an eternity. 

Solution: CSPs should pull as many variables as possible into a single database that can be instantly and intelligently searched in self-service mode. For services and locations on the CSP’s own network, this is a straightforward project. In cases where the CSP must purchase services from other providers’ networks, APIs must connect to those providers to ascertain their prices, after which algorithms determine the appropriate end-customer price. 

Benefit: Just as speed is the problem, so it is the benefit. The goal is to reduce the sales cycle, which may take up to six months in some regions. It’s axiomatic that closing quicker is better. As CSPs embrace the digital future, those that can present a quote instantly will capture significant business from slower competitors; a rapid quote is a must-have for today’s business customers due to dynamically changing market conditions.

Problem: Today, the period between an initial quote and the beginning of the provisioning phase typically takes one to three weeks for an existing CSP client, and even longer for new clients. Much of this time is devoted to checking the client’s creditworthiness, negotiating and finalizing the contract. One of our CSP clients tells us contracting includes over 200 “fallout” scenarios. Most of these are handled manually, often on a case-by-case basis. Naturally, this step is quicker when an existing client is renewing — much of the spadework has already been done. 

Solution: All possible scenarios populate a database, after which algorithms model various scenarios. With the applicable data in place, a straightforward dashboard replaces the laborious manual examination by a contracting agent. That dashboard features a series of colored indicators. For example, green means there are no impediments, yellow indicates areas requiring further investigation and red signals a serious issue. 

Benefits: Automating this post-quote/order process can reduce it to near-real-time. This phase can shrink to one or two days for existing clients with the help of 100% digital contracting and automated compliance and credit checks.

Problem: After placing an order, customers face a relatively long period of radio silence while their case bounces around inside the CSP, as noted in previous touchpoints. Clients seeking updates must call their sales rep, who must in turn go to various departments to grab the necessary information. That simply won’t do in today’s world, in which consumers and businesses are accustomed to order transparency and frequent status updates. CSPs risk losing business as customers second-guess orders or suffer buyer’s remorse.

Solution: We are implementing real-time notification for our CSP clients. Through APIs, customers are updated at each step of the process (through URL, email or text) as their order moves from contact to quote to acceptance to provisioning.

Benefits: When they receive reassuring notifications on the status of their project, customers are less likely to bail and seek another provider. Additionally, automation frees sales reps to devote their time to new business and other tasks with a higher value-add.

Problem: The sheer number of vendors and associated legacy systems makes provisioning a tangled web of logistics and manual labor for CSPs. Simply laying a last-mile wire may involve dozens of calls and emails to suppliers as inventories and schedules are checked, bids made and accepted, etc. It’s not uncommon for a large-scale project to require two to six months in this phase.

Solution: As with the order-status touchpoint, the solution here revolves around letting the CSP’s systems communicate with vendor systems through APIs, a process dubbed zero-touch partnering. We’re helping some of our CSP clients do exactly this. Vendors provide APIs that allow the CSP to look into their systems to see if and when the vendor has all specified equipment. With this data quickly available, a manager gets the all-clear to provide an accurate estimated time for fulfilling the order with a high level of confidence.

Benefits: It’s important to note that the provisioning process, even when automated, is marked by a certain level of unpredictability — weather and natural disasters made pinpoint precision impossible even before the pandemic. Nevertheless, a few of our CSP clients expect to realize a 50% reduction in provisioning time, from three months to one and a half, by enabling just moderate levels of zero-touch partnering.

Problem: In a word, the problem is accuracy. As all CSPs have learned, it’s a challenge to get billing right with a new order, often because upstream changes aren’t factored into the statement delivered to the customer. As it stands today, these inaccuracies lead to flurries of phone calls demanding customer service time and rework in multiple departments.

Solution. AI and ML can do a lot to minimize billing inaccuracies for both new customers and renewals. For multinational organizations, varying taxes and fees are a major source of mistakes, and AI systems properly populated with data can eliminate problems here. Intelligent systems also ensure that any changes made via self-service are factored into statements.

Benefits: Billing errors lead to upset customers and frazzled customer service reps; streamlining this area helps a CSP on several fronts. Intelligent billing systems have the added benefit of offering promotions based on a customer’s history and enabling one-click renewal.