Global Operator Data Integrity Management (DIM) Benchmarking Survey Prepared by Ari Banerjee Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading.

Transcription

1 Global Operator Data Integrity Management (DIM) Benchmarking Survey 2011 Prepared by Ari Banerjee Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading On behalf of

2 A Note From John Brooks, Vice President Product Management, Subex Welcome to the results of the Subex Global Operator Data Integrity Management (DIM) Benchmarking Survey This independent survey was carried out for us by Heavy Reading. The objective of the survey was to find out what are the key challenges that service providers are facing in the areas of data quality and data integrity management. This report serves as the first authoritative view into these vital but unglamorous areas of service provider operations, which service providers can use to benchmark their processes against their peers. The survey findings are based on responses from 141 respondents from 95 operators around the world. A few highlights of the findings are shown below: Six out of every 10 operators globally experience up to 30 percent order fallouts. The main reasons for high order fallout are too many manual steps and also too many siloed processes and process views. The majority of operators still feel more than 20 percent of their inventory data is out of sync with the network Approximately 50 percent of operators still use ad hoc manual audits to keep inventory data in sync with the network. The report shows trends and results across geographies, with results for five major regions: North America, Europe, South America, Asia/Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. It takes into consideration the fact that results vary across the globe, as operators and their demands are specific to their own region. On average, North America emerges as a region that uses maximum automation in processes, while Asia/Pacific shows maximum synchronization between network and inventory data. I hope you find the survey results interesting and useful. To obtain more copies of this report, please visit our website at: If you want to find out how these problem areas can be addressed individually or collectively through our solutions, please us at info@subex.com Regards, John Brooks Vice President Product Management, Subex 2

3 Table Of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SURVEY FINDINGS 2.1 Longer New Service Setup Time Time to Launch New Services 2.2 High Order Fallout Rate: The Achilles Heel for Most CSPs Percentage of Order Fallout 2.3 Streamlined & Automated D&R: A Key Ingredient of Service Fulfillment Extent to Which Inventory Data Is In Sync Approaches Used to Detect if Network & Inventory Are In Sync CONCLUSION

4 Executive Summary For communications service providers (CSPs) trying to improve process efficiency and reduce operational and capital expenditure, a data integrity management program is essential. Automation, efficiency, time to market and customer experience are all critical yardsticks with which operators judge their own success and performance. Clean data quality across processes plays a central role in helping operators inject efficiency into their overall OSS/BSS processes. Service providers across the industry invest billions of dollars in their network infrastructures and billions more in their Operations Support Systems (OSSs) and Business Support Systems (BSSs). However, the actual connections between the network and supporting OSSs/BSSs are not automated or updated or simply poorly connected, leading to significant, process-affecting data integrity problems. All of these issues have major costs for operators. Subex and Heavy Reading conducted an in-depth global survey of 141 respondents from 95 unique operators around the world, on behalf of Subex. The survey highlights the problems operators are facing with their data quality and data integrity. The respondents are key decision makers in their organizations. Key problem areas highlighted in this survey include: Lack of integration and automation Lack of consistent interfaces and systems Mismatch of inventory data with the network Challenges in managing multiple vendors' equipment Lack of efficient resource optimization mechanisms This survey also looks at CSPs' wish list for future offerings, their planned areas of investment around OSS/BSS which they cannot obtain at present 4

5 Survey Findings Longer New Service Setup Time Longer new service setup time means delayed time to market for services, which translates into delayed cash cycles. In the communications market, first movers have a distinct advantage. Delay in service launch and delivery process can cause millions of dollars in damage for operators. Inefficient processes, lack of clean data tend to slow down service setup and provisioning times. Today, when we see OTT (over the top) players such as Google launching services in a matter of days, taking weeks to set up services in OSS platforms should be cause of concern for most CSPs. Figure 1 illustrates the time that respondents believe it takes their company to set up new services in their service fulfillment stacks. Almost 40 percent of operators globally believe that it takes them more than three weeks to set up new services in the service fulfillment stack. CSPs need to pay close attention to this and work with leading OSS vendors to minimize this inefficiency. Figure 1: Time to Launch New Services How long does it typically take your company to set up new services in the service fulfillment stack (order management, service activation, network inventory, configuration)? Less than 1 week 1 week to 3 weeks 9.09% 15.15% 23.61% 22.22% 36.11% 36.36% 44.44% 48.48% 56.2% 3 weeks to 5 weeks 5 weeks to 8 weeks 8 weeks to 12 weeks More than 12 weeks % 11.11% % 3.03% 11.11% 18.75% 5.56% 6.06% 9.09% 6.25% 11.11% 12.12% 11.11% 18.18% 6.25% 27.27% North America Europe Asia/Pacific South America Middle East/Africa 5

6 Survey Findings High Order Fallout Rate: The Achilles Heel for Most CSPs On average, more than 60 percent of respondents from all regions of the world suffer from order fallout ranging from 10 percent to 35 percent. Such order failures can typically result in spiraling support costs. Let us look at a pretty straightforward support cost impact scenario for a complex, high-value IP service: Order fallout requiring engineer time = ~$60-$75 per incident Truck rolls as a result of incomplete provisioning = ~$150 per incident Ongoing support resulting in customer calls = ~$12 per incident Therefore, for 1 million orders per year, with a rough estimate of 25 percent order fallout rate, the following holds: An estimated 40 percent of order fallout will result in engineer intervention = $75 x 100,000 = $7.5 million 10 percent of provisioning errors lead to truck rolls = $150 x 25,000 = $3.75 million 40 percent of users have ongoing minor problems = $12 x 400,000 = $4.8 million Figure 2 illustrates the percentage of order fallout that CSPs currently experience across all five regions. Too many manual steps in the service fulfillment process, lack of business process consistency and lack of integration are identified as the main reasons for order fallout, according to respondents from all five regions. Figure 2: Percentage of Order Fallout What percentage of order fallout does your company currently experience? Less than 5% 25% 36.4% 36.4% 42.3% 55.6% 1 to 2 2 to 35% 35% to 45% More than 45% 1.4% 1.4% 6.3% 9.1% 9.1% 16.9% 18.8% 38% 36.4% 44.4% % North America Europe Asia/Pacific South America Middle East/Africa 6

7 Survey Findings Streamlined & Automated D&R: A Key Ingredient of Service Fulfillment CSPs spend an inordinate amount of time, money, and effort attempting to maintain an accurate account of their physical and logical network resources. Many CSPs employ multiple inventory systems with varying levels of accuracy, and conduct audit and accounting exercises to reconcile differences between the network "as designed," "as built," and "as is." CSPs source, collect, and cleanse data that contains information about location, configuration, deployment, and the use of network equipment, so that the CSP can efficiently activate and provision services. Despite this, a typical Tier 1 CSP operates with up to 25 percent of its network assets and components stranded either lost or deployed erroneously. Stranded assets have been one of the more pervasive problems in the industry. There are two kinds of stranded assets: lost assets and underutilized assets. Lost assets are fully functioning assets that cannot be found, or assets of which the company is unaware. Underutilized assets can be deployed, but are either underused or recorded incorrectly. This is a glaring example of operational inefficiency that has forced CSPs to seek discovery and reconciliation (D&R) solutions to solve data accuracy problems. D&R finds stranded assets, both physical and logical, and matches them with existing databases of records, identifying and reconciling discrepancies. D&R has a multiplier effect across a range of OSS. Network use increases, capital expenditure (capex) and operational expenditure (opex) are reduced, the provisioning process becomes more efficient, planning is better and overall asset management improves. Figure 3 illustrates the extent to which respondents believe their company's inventory data is in sync with the network "as is." Almost 70 percent of respondents believe that their inventory data is out of sync with the network by more than 10 percent. More than half of European respondents are 80 percent to 90 percent in sync higher than respondents from other regions. On average, South America and Middle East/Africa show a propensity for higher mismatch than other zones. Figure 3: Figure 3: Extent to Which Inventory Data Is In Sync What is your best estimate of the extent to which your company's inventory data is in sync with the network 'as-is'? 10 in-sync 9 to 95% in-sync 8 to 9 in-sync 2.9% 12.5% 9.1% 11.1% 18.8% 24.2% 18.6% 31.4% 33.3% 45.5% 51.5% 7 to 8 in-sync 6 to 7 in-sync 5 to 6 in-sync Less than 5 in-sync 18.6% 14.3% 3% 11.1% 12.5% 4.3% 11.1% 6.3% 2.9% 3% 9.1% North America Europe Asia/Pacific South America Middle East/Africa 25% 25% 33.3% 7

8 Survey Findings This data obviously points to the critical need for automated D&R solution, which ideally should form an integral part of their service fulfillment stack. This data mismatch is profound, as 5 percent mismatch can result in millions of dollars of losses for operators. Figure 4 illustrates the approaches that CSPs currently use to detect if their network and inventory are in sync. Manual ad hoc audits and periodic report runs are the most popular methods used by operator respondents. Best practice of minimizing this mismatch is by using automated D&R. This survey clearly highlights the need for automated D&R solution in all the zones and OSS vendors need to create thought leadership around efficiency and opex gains which can be obtained via such an integrated solution. Figure 4: Approaches Used to Detect if Network & Inventory Are In Sync Which of the following approaches does your company currently use to detect if your network and inventory are in sync? (select all that apply) 2.8% 6.1%9.1% Nothing is done currently Periodic reports are run to detect mismatch 22.2% 18.8% 22.2% 44.4% 43.8% 57.6% 63.6% Manual ad-hoc audits 45.5% % 60.6% 55.6% Internally created discovery & reconcilliation process run in offline mode 18.8% 30.6% 42.4% 44.4% Automatic discovery & reconcillation process run by dedicated solution 9.1% 11.1% 6.3% 29.2% In-house scripts run at set intervals 25% 9.1% 22.2% 12.5% Other 1.4% 6.3% North America Europe Asia/Pacific South America Middle East/Africa 8

9 Conclusion CSPs are constantly on the lookout for operational excellence. The quality, accuracy, consistency and relevancy of data about the actual as is state of the network and services is essential for operations processes such as error-free provisioning, service design and activation, customer care, and capacity and network planning. Poor data integrity has been a longstanding problem in carrier environments that leads to inefficiencies and expensive manual re-work across the full range of operations such as provisioning and activation, service assurance, billing and capacity planning. Heavy Reading's in-depth survey highlights some critical benchmarks in the data integrity management space. It reflects the fact that CSPs across the globe actually do not have much of an investment in data integrity at present and there is a strong scope for improvement in this area. Poor data integrity is leading to increased order fallouts which has a substantial cost attached to it. Although many operators are now recognizing the need for a data integrity solution, we believe that with the entry of new technologies and higher complexities associated with it, data integrity management will considerably gain importance in their eyes. 9

10 About Subex Subex Limited is a leading global provider of Business Support Systems (BSS) that empowers communications service providers (CSPs) to achieve competitive advantage through Business Optimisation - thereby enabling them to improve their operational efficiency to deliver enhanced service experiences to subscribers. The company pioneered the concept of a Revenue Operations Cente (ROC ) a centralized approach that sustains profitable growth and financial health through coordinated operational control. Subex's product portfolio powers the ROC and its best-in-class solutions such as revenue assurance, fraud management, asset assurance, capacity management, data integrity management, credit risk management, cost management, route optimization and partner settlement. Subex also offers a scalable Managed Services program and has been the market leader in Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management for 2 years in a row according to Gartner (2010 & 2011). Subex has also been enjoying market leadership in Business Optimisation for five consecutive years according to Analysys Mason (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 & 2011). Business Optimisation includes fraud, revenue assurance, analytics, cost management and credit risk management. Subex has been awarded the Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award for 2012 along with Idea Cellular and 2011 along with Swisscom for fraud management. Subex has also been awarded the Global Market Share Leader in Financial Assurance 2012 by Frost & Sullivan. Subex's customers include 29 of top 50 operators* and 33 of the world s 50 biggest # telecommunications service providers worldwide. The company has more than 300 installations across 70 countries. *Total Telecom Top 500 Telecom Brands, 2013 # Forbes Global 2000 list, 2013 Subex Limited RMZ Ecoworld, Devarabisanahalli, Outer Ring Road, Bangalore India Phone: Fax: Subex Inc Airport Way, Suite 390 Broomfield, Colorado USA Phone: Fax: Subex (UK) Limited 3rd Floor, Finsbury Tower, Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8LZ UK Phone: Fax: Subex (Asia Pacific) Pte. Limited 175A, Bencoolen Street, #08-03 Burlington Square, Singapore Phone: Fax: Subex Limited All rights reserved. Although every endeavour has been made to ensure that the information contained within this document is up to date and accurate, Subex Limited cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracy or error in the information contained within this document Regional offices: Dubai Ipswich Sydney