Automation is transforming the telco industry by streamlining processes and freeing up precious resources. There are two approaches currently being taken by CSPs: ‘all-or-nothing’ or incremental. But which approach offers the greatest benefits… and the least risk?
There’s no doubt that automation can bring – and is already bringing – significant benefits to the telco industry, particularly as maturing AI technologies lie in wait on the horizon. However, CSPs are under pressure to remain competitive, offer differentiated services, and to reduce costs while boosting revenue.
There is a strong temptation to live in the ‘here and now’ and seek maximum gains as quickly as possible. The thought process is: “We need to automate everything right now to gain the fastest ROI.”
However, this can lead to the perception that automation is an ‘all-or-nothing’ game, forcing operators and service providers to implement large transformational projects that employee legions of consultants and engineers. In turn, this can bring risk, uncertainty, and disruption.
Transformational automation projects come with significant risk
However, as we have seen in the past with huge CRM or ERP transformations, this approach can quickly lead to disasters that can lead to huge additional and unexpected expense to correct, as well as reputational damage.
An all-or-nothing approach is a significant move that can be risky, disruptive, and prohibitive as it’s based around an ‘as is’ approach – what happens if technology systems need replacing, business strategy changes, or the company is merged or acquired? It would mean that every automated process may need to undergo a further disruptive transformational change.
A less risky, more pragmatic approach is to adopt an incremental strategy. Starting small, by focusing on an activity, sub-process, or process, and then adopting an iterative approach is much less daunting and threatens less risk and business disruption.
For example, automating a tedious, time-consuming, error-prone manual process – such as data entry, order processing, or password resets – not only boosts efficiency and accuracy, but also removes process bottlenecks, while freeing up resources that can be re-focused on more strategic functions.
Automation by discrete process fragments, blocks, and functions
Consider which discrete activities that are currently being handled manually would bring the greatest immediate benefit – or, just as importantly, remove a major bottleneck – if they were automated. Automation of just a single activity or event can provide instant benefits. In turn, each discrete automation can then be linked together – at your own speed – to bring further, additive benefits.
However, automation can also be applied to more complex processes or at a domain level – but, again, it doesn’t need to be enterprise-wide. Take Customer Experience (CX), often a source of pain for telecoms, as it incorporates multiple discrete activities.
From a CSP’s perspective, customer experience can be broken down into individual activities or sub-processes, each of which can be automated incrementally, or in parallel at the microlevel.
The CX journey is supported by multiple sub-processes, or chains of events. For example, Order Capture – which must be multichannel and omnichannel in today’s consumer environment – incorporates discrete sub-processes, which might include inventory, pricing, delivery options, alternative choices, and so on.
Each of these discrete activities can be automated individually, on a ‘pick and mix’ basis, or across the entire customer journey domain (a more complex approach, but one that offers significant benefits if successful).
In time, each individual automated process fragment, process block, or event can be combined to create even further benefits. This iterative approach can be applied anywhere within any telco domain, sub-process, or process.
It not only reduces risk, but it also enables flexibility, as each process fragment can be reused, optimised, or replaced and integrated at any point in the future without any disruption to adjacent sub-processes or activities.
Any process can be automated: Don’t wait for ‘perfection’
An incremental, iterative approach also means that each automation activity or event can be honed and optimised, bringing constant improvement. Importantly, each discrete automation can be fed into other discrete automations within a broader process – which is also likely to impact adjacent or cross-over processes – to bring benefits that become more than the sum of the individual parts.
Put simply, it’s a fallacy that processes must be perfect before automation – in fact, it’s the opposite: automation can be applied at any point to optimise ‘imperfect’ processes.
An incremental approach is also more likely to gain organisational traction and buy-in. An organisation-wide approach can lead to resistance among users, as it completely disrupts daily operations – a piecemeal approach is more likely to gain user buy-in as they see the incremental but immediate benefits each automation brings. In turn, this can lead to user demand for further automation, as opposed to resistance against sudden, across-the-board change.
The answer to the question: “An incremental or all-or-nothing approach to automation”, is in fact: “It doesn’t matter”. However, an incremental approach reduces risk and disruption, while offering automation – at your own speed – that is flexible, future-proof, less risky, less disruptive, and that brings instant benefits.
To find out more about how We Are CORTEX can help on your automation journey – regardless of stage or strategy – download our latest paper by clicking here.