About PCCW
They hold interests in media, telecommunications, IT solutions, property development and investment, and in other areas of business. PCCW is a majority stakeholder in HKT Trust and HKT Limited, one of Hong Kong's leading telecommunications service providers and operators of fixed-line, broadband, mobile communication, and media entertainment services.
The Problem
Most telecom operations were being handled through legacy methods: mainly via on-prem hardware and outdated technology. This mode of operating made the business environment volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA), as described by PCCW Global. It required manual rollout of hardware and software when new services, products, or updates were released.
PCCW was looking towards modern technological solutions to revamp this model of service, by hosting solutions on the cloud rather than on-premises and using technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to improve service delivery.
The purpose of this project was to design and develop a cloud-based application for telecom operators where application had to enable them to create and deploy products, service customers, manager orders, and handle customer support, all from a single application.
The Approach Towards a Solution
The approach to selecting the design and features of the product was carried out with two key stakeholders in mind: the backend users of the application, who were personnel within the organization (product managers, store agents, and service support agents), and front-end store users who are customers buying the products from the telecom company. The application was to be implemented to:
Reduce product selection & check-out time for front-end store users and thus improve NPS (Net Promoter Score) & CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores.
Deliver features and functionalities to help the personnel within the organization - product managers, store agents, and service support agents, improve BAU efficiency.
Enable these backend users of the application to reduce the time taken to create products & service definitions and to simplify approval workflows that involved approving, activating, and deactivating products.
Reduce the time taken for customer issue resolutions on phone support and increase resolution percentage while reducing escalation rates.
Challenges Faced in the Process
The primary challenges that were identified were in the reception of the application by the personnel within the organization and in terms of preliminary data gathering -
The primary challenges that were identified were in the reception of the application by the personnel within the organization and in terms of preliminary data gathering -
The project demanded intense data gathering and analysis.
The process of gathering and analyzing data could end up consuming enormous amounts of time and push back the release date.
Charting Desired Outcomes
The organization was looking to:
Reduce the time taken to create products & service definitions by 20%.
Reduce the time taken for approval by 15% by simplifying product approval, activation, and deactivation workflows
Reduce product selection & check-out time for store users by 25%.
Improve NPS (Net Promoter Score) scores from existing 35 to 60.
Improve CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores from existing 62 to 75..
Reduce the time taken for customer issue resolutions on phone support by 25% (from 4 minutes to 3 minutes).
Increase ticket resolution percentage without escalation rate from existing 60% to 75%.
Charting Desired Outcomes
An agile and dynamic process was followed in completing the project.
The first step involved creating guidelines for the information architecture in order to ensure the product delivered features and functionalities that were most needed by the stakeholders. Introductory workshops and informational discussions followed by weekly calls were set up to establish transparency and to move forward with the assurance that the stakeholders' requirements were being met.
After immersive workshops and discussions, the information architecture was finalized through an amalgamation of the ideas and perspectives of everyone involved. The following functionalities were deemed necessary:
Enabling product managers to create commercial offers.
Enabling store agents to help customers with purchases.
Improving the resolution efficiency of customer queries serviced by servicing agents.
Product designer - Mandar KshirsagarUI
Hong Kong
Technology
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