Having recently joined ServiceNow from Vodafone Business Group (VBG), I know that the telecom sector, like so many others, is under huge pressure right now.
In a highly competitive market, businesses are striving to maintain excellent customer service levels whilst dealing with reduced revenues—a dynamic made more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a ServiceNow customer at VBG, I faced the challenges firsthand. I also experienced how the Now Platform can help overcome them. At VBG, we increased customer satisfaction by 20 points and almost halved the cost-to-serve ratio in just 18 months.
My positive experience is the key reason I wanted to join ServiceNow. I’m now working directly with leaders across the sector on their digital transformation strategies, helping them achieve similar results.
The telecom challenge
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, telecom businesses collectively pledged no job losses—an admirable move, but one that as we come out of the pandemic puts costs under more pressure than ever. Add to this major investments in technologies such as 5G, and it becomes clear that keeping operational costs down is vital.
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Another issue is that telecom businesses are fast moving and operationally complex, meaning silos quickly spring up and consistency can be difficult to achieve.
These silos are costly and slow the business down. Firms are now looking to digital transformation and streamlined workflows to solve the issue and deliver a direct, joined up, and proactive experience for every customer.
Connecting the entire telecom operation
ServiceNow has developed a new suite of purpose-built workflow solutions and interfaces, built on the Now Platform, which address the telecom sector’s unique needs.
The Telecommunications Service Management and Telecommunications Network Performance Management apps enable businesses to deliver exceptional service by breaking down silos and bringing the customer and the network together on a single platform.
This allows telecom providers to transform customer experiences, and the employee experience of the contact centre employees and network operations teams. As a result, telecommunications operators will be able to achieve higher growth and margins from network technology investments while reducing operational costs across the business.
From reactive to proactive
These new apps enable operators to pivot from reactive to proactive service, offering features to ensure telecom businesses can anticipate and respond quickly to issues, incidents, and customer queries.
- End-to-end telecommunications service workflows enable providers to manage network and customer-initiated changes and issues across services, automate issue resolution, and keep customers informed using whatever channel they prefer.
- TMForum open API-based OSS integrations and event correlation capabilities help providers quickly identify network issues and any resulting impacts on customers and the network for faster resolution.
- eBonding allows providers to offer a direct connection for their enterprise customers, delivering a superior experience at a significantly reduced cost.
A strategic partnership to accelerate change
From my experience running large programmes within telecom businesses, what makes these new ServiceNow apps even more powerful is our strategic go-to- market partnership with Accenture.
Accenture will help drive digital transformation, building new solutions on the Now Platform, such as intelligent service assurance, that will transform how telecoms operate. Working with Accenture means we can widen our reach and deliver apps to more global telecom firms, accelerating powerful digital transformation and delivering great results.
Even though this is a challenging time for telecom businesses, it’s also a perfect time for them to be ambitious and focus on the future. The current crisis has only emphasised the need for flexibility and efficiency in service and operations going forward. With the help of the Now Platform and our experienced team, these firms can ride the wave of telecom change, eliminate silos, and create seamless customer experiences.