Communication service providers should turn to order management as a service to resolve escalating order management challenges, provide a consistent customer experience across channels, improve order negotiation and configuration, offer faster time-to-launch and comply with emerging variable investment requirements.

1. • Cognizant 20-20 Insights
Innovative, Cloud-Based Order
Management Solutions Lead to
Enhanced Profitability
Executive Summary forms of content delivery and interaction. New
innovations are creating inter-industry relation-
To contend with increasing product and service
ships among communications players and the
complexity, communication service providers
Internet, media, entertainment, information
(CSPs) must once and for all resolve escalating
services and technology sectors, creating chaos
order management challenges that threaten to
and forcing transformation.
undermine the sanctity of their core business
operations. Fortunately, a new wave of process CSPs have been at the center of globaliza-
and technology innovation has arrived that aligns tion and virtualization. Fiber/data is enabling a
and integrates order management requirements connected world, while wireless networks are
with emerging IT solutions and delivery models. allowing work to be performed anywhere. CSPs
This new approach creates a foundation have introduced new technologies and services
that promises to not only streamline order that allow knowledge work of all forms to migrate
management activities but also provide a launch to different locations worldwide. This is enabling
pad for improved top- and bottom-line perfor- people and processes to come together in a virtu-
mance, as well as customer satisfaction. alized world, resulting in greater inter- and intra-
organizational collaboration and productivity.
This approach will provide a more integrated
customer experience across channels, improve CSPs have positioned themselves to lead the
order negotiation and configuration, offer cloud services revolution. Examples include
faster time-to-launch and comply with emerging Verizon’s acquisition of Terremark1 and Century-
variable investment requirements. It will also Link’s acquisition of Savvis.2 These initiatives are
enable smarter and more automated business changing the business model for CSPs by creating
processes to support fallout management. more value-added services, supported by a wider
array of software and information partners. These
The Changing CSP Space initiatives will also change how individuals and
CSPs have reached a turning point. Today, the corporations collaborate and perform work in the
CSP value chain extends from infrastructure new globalized and virtualized world (see sidebar,
management and service provisioning, to new next page).
cognizant 20-20 insights | september 2011

2. Embracing the Future of Work
Four irreversible and interconnected forces are value levers that reveal how to build and deploy
forever reshaping the workplace, creating new next-generation solutions and improve operation-
challenges and business opportunities. These al performance (see Figure 1). Each of these value
future-of-work forces are: levers offers a path to new levels of performance
within a future-of-work context. It’s time for CSPs
• Globalization: Knowledge work of all forms is to look internally to fully utilize these enablers/
migrating to locations worldwide, where talent forces to improve business performance and
is abundant and costs are acceptable. internal operations.
• Virtualization: This includes not just
One area where the future of work is emerging
technology virtualization but people and
is within order management. CSPs are facing
process virtualization, as well, resulting in
decreasing market share due to delayed product
more collaborative and productive ways of
launches and poor product rollout. These new
working.
products and services are more complicated and
• The rise of millennials: New social and oper- require more coordination to support product
ating norms are emerging in the enterprise as launches, as well as resolve customer questions.
a new mindset inspired by digitally savvy and Antiquated systems are difficult to maintain,
always connected workers dictates changes in and low order flow-through, along with high
how and where work is conducted. exception levels, are escalating the costs for
• New technologies: The proliferating cloud order management.
is enabling new social, mobile and advanced
Systems are also not designed to address process
analytics technologies to support new ways
flexibility. As a result, IT and business operations
for work to be performed inside the enterprise
remain disconnected, creating slow and inef-
and with partners and customers.
ficient responses, resulting in greater order
These four forces are driving opportunities for exception volume, high average handle times and
disruptive value creation. Decision-makers across more manual touches per order.
industries are exploring new avenues to adapt
The challenges and opportunities presented by
and capitalize on these trends. We have built a
the four future-of-work forces are causing orga-
Value Creation Framework to assess operational
nizations, including CSPs, to rethink how, where
challenges and uncover business opportunities.
and by whom work should be conducted.
This “diamond” framework contains four key
Value Levers for Disruptive Creation
Virtualization
Shift CapEx from
context to core.
Effectiveness Innovation
Improve quality, Building Creating new
Stronger
control, customer Businesses revenue
satisfaction. streams.
Efficiency
Eliminate waste,
streamline processes.
Figure 1
cognizant 20-20 insights 2

3. These new ways of conducting business are having The complexities of order management will
an impact on how and where work is performed. continue to increase. As new business models
In the future, more collaborative and virtual ways emerge and services expand, CSPs must be flexible
of working will emerge that create new opera- enough to respond quickly to deliver new product
tional efficiencies by reducing manually intensive bundles for customers and do so with utmost
processes. This will help organizations achieve efficiency. The ultimate goal is
greater levels of business performance by elimi- to implement a fully automated
nating order fallout. order management process.
The complexities of
However, typical implemen- order management will
We have developed a new approach to improving tations result in numerous continue to increase.
order management, called OMaaS, or Order manual steps and exceptions,
Management as a Service. This approach incor- which are costly to the orga-
As new business
porates new methodologies that align business nization. Fallout often leads models emerge and
requirements and emerging IT solutions and to manual exception handling, services expand,
delivery models in an integrated solution that thus negatively impacting the
streamlines and increases the effectiveness of ROI of a new product introduc-
CSPs must be flexible
the entire order management process. With this tion. enough to respond
approach, we are already providing our clients
with a more integrated customer experience Changing business models
quickly to deliver new
across channels, as well as improved order negoti- and increased complexity of product bundles for
ation and configuration and faster time-to-launch. products and services can customers and do so
In sum, OMaaS meets CSPs’ variable investment lead to higher fallout rates.
requirements, while delivering smarter and more As business grows and order
with utmost efficiency.
automated business processes to support fallout volume increases, the fallout
management (see Figure 2). volume typically increases, as well. CSPs must find
a way for order management to support higher
Future of Work Impact on order volumes (and revenue levels) without the
Order Management corresponding linear growth in headcount to
CSPs are looking to streamline order management support these volumes. At the same time, they
processes to support new ways of conducting need to improve business outcomes, reducing
business that maximize operational agility and both capital and operating expenditures.
profitability. CSPs must deliver a positive, well-
Meeting CSPs’ need for enhancing order
coordinated service for customers or risk losing
management processes will not be easy. Only
them to competitors. They must be both effective
so much progress can be made from operation-
and reliable in delivering excellent service and
al improvements that combine higher levels of
connectivity across all stages of the operation.
automation and knowledge workers. Although
Where OMaaS Helps
BUSINESS ATTRIBUTE CURRENT STATE FUTURE STATE
Revenue Limited retention and cross- Enhanced retention and cross-selling
selling capabilities capabilities
Customer experience Manual, opaque, fragmented Transparent, integrated
across channels
Flexibility Limited opportunity Real-time order negotiation and
configuration
Speed of product launch 9-12 months Faster time-to-launch
Investment High Variable
Business operations and Manual, inefficient Smart, automated
fallout management
Figure 2
cognizant 20-20 insights 3

4. OMaaS Supports Initiatives to Enhance Profitability
Vendor Partnership / Sourcing Model
OMaaS
Merged IT (Delivery with
& Business Business-
Business Oriented SLAs)
Operations
Traditional
Services
Staff
Augmentation
Stabilize Support Streamline Enhance
Profitability
OM Evolution / Product Maturity
Figure 3
CSPs can streamline work and make agents more • Reporting and analytics: Improving man-
productive, there is a law of diminishing returns. agement decisions and process optimization
Significant and ongoing process improvements through real-time data.
require a new approach to aligning agents and
systems in a way that will drive greater efficien-
• Strategic partner relationships: Creating
incentives for us to coinnovate with clients,
cies as volumes grow. thereby increasing productivity, reducing
workforce requirements and sharing
The future of order management is already here.
end-to-end accountability through business-
With OMaaS, we can help CSPs drive tangible
oriented service level agreements (SLAs).
benefits by standardizing processes, virtualizing
service delivery and converting capital invest-
ments to operational expenses, which reduces
upfront and full lifecycle costs (see Figure 3).
Align Business, IT and
OMaaS weaves together traditional IT delivery
Delivery with Innovative
with business services (consulting and BPO) to
create a new vendor partnership and sourcing Commercial Models
model. The intent is to solve order management
problems through a low-initial-investment, vari-
able-cost model. The key principles are:
Align business, Consulting
• End-to-end order flow accountability: Ensur- IT and delivery
ing flow-through improvements, automation to drive IT BPO
and manual handling, where required. common goals Integrated
Solution Creation
• Operational efficiency and effectiveness: Con-
tinued process improvements and relentless
pursuit to remove manual work through auto- Business Process Utility
mation. Innovative Integrated Technology Fabric
commercial
• Coordination and execution: Achieving models Multi-Faceted Pricing
higher levels of process improvements and Shared Strategic Vision
automation through close coordination among
consulting, IT and BPO to identify optimal
adjustments and execute the changes quickly
(see Figure 4). Figure 4
cognizant 20-20 insights 4

5. The OMaaS Approach Our Cognizant Business Consulting group
kicks off the process by taking a very data-
We developed the OMaaS methodology and have
centric approach to how a CSP can make order
created a foundation for delivering and managing
management improvements through a review of
CSP order management solutions in a more
all work items. Using specially designed IT tools,
responsive and cost-effective manner. We use
consultants analyze agent order handling and
a three-pronged approach, integrating a cross-
current business outcomes (e.g., order cancella-
competency team of IT, consulting and business
tion rates, multiple truck rolls), apply quantitative
process outsourcing (BPO) resources to align
risk assessments and develop fixes. These factors
business and IT with common goals.
Helping a Global CSP Bring Order to Order Management
A tier-one global CSP is leveraging our OMaaS identified, addressed and implemented quickly.
solution to streamline order management and This reduces the time to implement fixes from
generate new levels of business performance. weeks or months, to days or weeks (depending on
size and complexity).
In order to properly position incentives, our
multi-year agreement focused on aligning IT The process changes enabled by OMaaS are
and the business to drive common goals. We profoundly affecting the performance of the
were motivated to improve the process in order order management organization. The initial
to increase knowledge worker productivity and impact on the operation is as follows:
decrease head count. As part of the OMaaS
offering, we offered flexible pricing. For this
• Significantly reduced order cancellation rates,
resulting in millions of dollars of revenue gain.
particular project, our goals were to:
• Automated over 275,000 order exceptions
• Drive synergies across IT and the business. within the first three months of deployment.
• Align systems and processes toward reducing • Closed three cost centers and reduced
the effort of order management. headcount significantly.
• Align people by consolidating and partially or
• Projected total order management cost
fully automating work. savings of 30%.
Impact of the OMaaS Process • Rapidly increased automated volumes,
replacing manual work requirements (see
OMaaS provides a multifaceted value proposi-
Figure 5).
tion. Because members of the cross-competency
team are so closely aligned, solution fixes can be
As Automated Order Management Volumes Rise,
Manual Work Requirements Decline
Manual Work Volume Automation Volume
Volume
0 1 2 3 4
Time (Months)
Figure 5
cognizant 20-20 insights 5

6. are used to identify discrete areas of improve- framework. Work is ongoing to further improve the
ment, prioritized by risk attributes. This iterative cost efficiencies, scaling capabilities and market
approach allows the consulting team to coordinate benefits delivered by OMaaS. Because of the
and gauge impact and results on a daily basis. By managed services approach taken with OMaaS,
identifying process-based improvements, the team once order management process enhancements
is able to identify remedies are deployed, they are immediately available to
By identifying for the root causes of fallout
through real-time triage.
CSPs with minimal business disruption.
process-based Among the improvements we are working on are
Solving problems requires those that will improve cloud service delivery. In
improvements,
careful consideration by our view, CSPs must improve operational perfor-
the team is able to experienced consultants who mance by moving order management technology
identify remedies for understand the client’s pro- to predesigned, global solutions based on cloud
cesses in great depth; however, platforms. These new standardized platforms
the root causes of
some problem fixes are more (regardless of who owns the order management
fallout through real- difficult to create. In these application) will deliver faster time to market,
time triage. cases, or in parallel with iden- decrease capital expenses, reduce upfront costs
tifying potential solutions, the and improve scalability to meet capacity needs
team often turns to the CSP’s customer service and business continuity requirements. As a
agents, as well as our subject matter experts and result, CSPs can build scale, provide more flexible
domain consultants, for insights into these prob- capacity capabilities and support enhanced func-
lems and their potential fixes. tionality.
As improvement areas are identified, the team Preparing for the Future of
drives the requirements and provides recom- Order Management
mendations for automating the process. Doing so
Given the challenges associated with offering
requires a combination of operations and design
complex and varied services to customers, CSPs
expertise. Once recommendations have been
must ensure that they meet appropriate service
made, a review panel decides which fixes can be
levels. They also must address the business
implemented. Potential areas of automation are
needs of more frequent and dynamic changes to
divided into two components:
products and services so that they can support
operational and market demands. OMaaS deal
• Permanent fixes, which solve the root cause structures can allow for new strategic partners
of order fallout.
that embrace innovation and produce more
• Temporary fixes through scripting, which dynamic support for order management needs.
does not address the root cause of the fallout
but automates the fix, avoiding manual work. However, implementing new deal structures
requires preparation. Bridging the gap between
The review panel weighs the cost of manually the business and IT is key to determining the best
handling exceptions, as well as the impact on end path to order management maturity and overall
users and customers to create the final recom- productivity. CSPs must understand where they
mendations for fixes. Although automation does are in the process and follow the steps toward
not always resolve all instances of a problem, we order management optimization. They are:
target automation success rates of more than
90%. • Stabilize: Solidify the IT infrastructure and
minimize the massive amounts of business
Evolution of OMaaS operations support work, including manually
handled order fallout and other BPO work.
OMaaS moves order management solutions
beyond support and the streamlining of work • Support: IT systems and business operations
activities to a strategic plane. As business models support are in acceptable ranges but could be
continue to change, new contractual structures improved through optimized support models
and strategic partnerships allow integrated to handle increased volumes of order fallout.
business and IT teams to enhance profitability. In
addition, OMaaS continues to evolve to provide
• Streamline: It is necessary to support more
frequent and dynamic changes to products and
a more modular technology fabric, containing a services that provide ongoing and continuous
multiplicity of solutions within a single, flexible reengineering to ensure quality support.
cognizant 20-20 insights 6

7. These steps will set the foundation for extended mentation of new business models make it critical
options and flexibility for customers to develop for CSPs to meet these needs. Order management
the business models necessary to be successful. operations should create an organization with the
business flexibility and technology necessary to
Key questions to consider include: realize faster time to market, increase revenues,
• Do IT releases bring order flow to a stand- minimize operational expenses and ensure that
still? If so, your organization remains in the order management capacity increases faster than
stabilization phase. required headcount and other related expenses.
• Do you know how to structure your support Our recommendation is that executives take the
groups to handle fallout effectively? If not, you following steps:
are in the support phase.
• Ensure that your order management environ-
• Are you concerned about market rollout/ ment is stabilized.
expansion and increasing order volume? If
so, you are in the streamlining phase. • Identify the business model requirements to
support more frequent and dynamic changes
Successfully moving through these phases of in the environment.
order management evolution will position the
organization to better serve existing and future
• Streamline your operation and prepare to
incorporate a more flexible and commercial
customers while reducing expenses and delays in order management model.
product turn-up.
• Adopt an OMaaS business model to maximize
Next Steps the return of your order management process.
As new commercial models emerge, executives
can prepare their order management organiza-
tion for the future. Market pressures and the frag-
Footnotes
1
“Verizon Completes Terremark Acquisition,” Verizon press release, April 11, 2011,
http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2011/verizon-completes-terremark.html
2
“CenturyLink to Acquire Savvis for $40 per Share in Cash and Stock Transactions,” CenturyLink press
release, April 27, 2011, http://news.centurylink.com/index.php?s=43&item=2229
About the Author
Robert K. Pucci is the Chief Technology Officer for Cognizant’s Communications Business Unit,
advising customers on the recommended approach and solutions that provide the needed and desired
business value metrics (TCO, T2M, T2D and reduced Op-Ex) while enabling non-disruptive extensibility
to support future business initiatives and remain competitive. Robert has worked with major indepen-
dent software vendors and tools and middleware providers and has identified which providers enable
and contribute to true business value for CSPs. He can be reached at Robert.Pucci@cognizant.com.
cognizant 20-20 insights 7

8. About Cognizant
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process out-
sourcing services, dedicated to helping the world’s leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in
Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry
and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. With over 50
delivery centers worldwide and approximately 118,000 employees as of June 30, 2011, Cognizant is a member of the
NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing
and fastest growing companies in the world. Visit us online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on Twitter: Cognizant.
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