Faster notifications on order progress: Wideband Delivery update

Publisher:
Telstra Wholesale
Name:
Faster notifications on order progress: Wideband Delivery update
Copyright Date:
29/03/2024
Copyrighted By:
Telstra Wholesale
Family Friendly:
Yes
Language:
English
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Faster notifications on order progress: Wideband Delivery update


fibre in the hole

Telstra Wholesale is focused on the ongoing task of improving delivery for our wideband customers.

While we continue to work on simplifying the way we work, we have built significant momentum on our Wideband improvement program over the first few months of 2020 and we reached several milestones for improving outcomes for our customers. Here is a quick update.

Communications

Our most exciting new development is the launch of Order Status eMail Notifications on order progress. Customers can now receive real time updates via email on the progress of their order. These notifications will help service providers keep their end customers informed and save time by removing the need to manually check the portal for the latest information.

After successfully trialling Order Status email Notifications with 11 customers and receiving positive feedback. We opened up the capability to all Telstra Wholesale customers who utilise wideband products like Ethernet Access or Managed Lease Line and use our Quote 2 Activate tool (Q2A). So far over 75% of our customers have taken up this capability. Shortly we will be releasing the first enhancements to these notifications, including the number one thing you (our customers) asked for Customer reference numbers. Additional improvements will include clearer formatting and the addition of Provisional Date Range.

Our team (Service Managers and Order 2 Activate specialists) are keen to work with our customers to set notifications up. Please take the opportunity to talk with them about how you can get involved.

Enhancing the DOA process

We are taking a ‘continuous improvement’ approach to ‘dead on arrival’ faults. We completed our aim of putting in place the systems to help route customer problems to the best-placed team within Telstra to solve the issue.

While we are on-track with delivering this enhancement, we believe we can still improve the system’s performance and increase the benefits to customers. We are now examining how we can continue to make the process better and we will be working closely with customers to get their input.

More accurate commitment dates and quotes

Our current provisioning target dates are based on standard provisioning time, this method is no longer accurate enough and can result in changes to the target dates we provide. We know this makes it hard for customers to manage relationships with end-customers, so we are now using a dynamic analysis process to provide a more accurate estimated date.

Using periodic data modelling, we can see how long it takes to build a Wideband service based on product, geography, scope. By applying this data modelling to commitment date timing, we expect to see improvements in our on time delivery performance.

Initial results have been are encouraging with the initial sample of orders achieving a 5% improvement in on time delivery.

Another frustration among customers is the frequency of updates to our initial quotes. We will be implementing a solution to automate data collection and quote production, help improve the accuracy of the upfront quote and work towards reducing the number of subsequent changes.

Providing more accurate site details

Our customers have told us that they enjoy our Q2A quoting and planning tool, which enables site look-up and a ‘traffic light’ system for showing whether a site is connected with fibre.

However, their feedback showed our list of ‘green’ connected sites was sometimes inaccurate and occasionally showed green when in fact more work was needed to connect the site.

This is important for our customers as more work can mean more build cost.

To help ease the problem we have:

  • Reviewed every location on the list
  • Where there is fibre to site with spare capacity, it will be on the green list
  • At other locations, fibre will be assessed
  • And we introduced a “Green Guarantee”
     

The Green Guarantee backs up our green list. If Q2A says the site is green but more work is actually required, we will cover a Special Linkage Charge (SLC) cost of up to $50k. (This is focussed on the SLC, so Commercial Works & Fee for Service are not included.) We hope this move will help earn back trust in the Q2A tool.

What’s next for Wideband?

As noted above, order notifications are now available for all Wideband customers.

We are also working on launching new, consolidated order reports. We are in the process of establishing new capability and seeking customer feedback on their requirements. Consolidated reports will provide our service managers with a better view of the service performance and help them solve customer issues much quicker.

We wouldn’t have been able to make such good progress without the time and feedback provided by customers. We workshop every two months with a selected group of five customers to share our updates and get feedback. Customer participation in trials is also vital for getting these enhancements right.

Thanks to the involvement of customers, we continue to prioritise the areas that matter most to their business and we are excited about bringing substantial improvements to Wideband delivery in the coming months.

Anthony Churchward
The Author Anthony Churchward

Anthony Churchward is Service Delivery, Senior Consultant, at Telstra Wholesale, where he has been helping customers set up and improve their service delivery to end users for over 20 years.

See all of Anthony Churchward's posts


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