Continual improvement and optimization of existing
business and operations processes are essential to the bottom line for every
service provider, and can have significant impact on the top line as well.
Well-defined and optimal processes are critical to every aspect of providing
products and services to customers and subscribers, and existing operations
are typically fraught with inefficient, outdated or sub-optimal processes in
all areas of operations.
Aricent offers consulting services for assessing and
evaluating existing processes and provides recommendations for significant
improvements in process optimization – including the introduction of new
tools or replacement/enhancement of existing systems.
Experience is essential to providing optimal business
and operations processes. Aricent consultants have decades of experience in
all relevant technology and process areas, along with the expertise in
current tools for documenting and modeling processes. This experience
includes eTOM and ITIL process recommendations and most Business Process
Modeling (BPM) tools. Through its global experience, Aricent offers a unique
capability and value for documenting, modeling and managing process changes
in all types of operating environments.
Aricent can provide a variety of services to meet a
service provider’s needs, even customized to the particular technology or
service. Although there are many similarities among service providers
worldwide, each operator has a unique history and operational challenges
within a particular market, and possibly within a country or local service
area. Aricent’s approach and
methodology accommodate these requirements and address the specific problems
and objectives established by a service provider.
A typical service engagement consists of distinct
activities and deliverables, each of which is well defined and targeted for
the organization’s requirements and objectives. The depth and breadth of the
engagement is defined by the service provider, and can range from just a few
weeks for a rapid or targeted assessment to months for a comprehensive
business and operations process and system evaluation with specific change
recommendations.
Aricent can also provide full Business Process Modeling
(BPM) assistance, with the expertise and tools to fully model and document
existing processes. This BPM assistance gives service providers with a
standardized representation of the processes, and an effective way of
managing change and evaluating process impact when new products or
introduced, or IT systems are retired or decommissioned. The speed and
accuracy of process change is greatly enhanced through the use of BPM tools.
Although the specific steps can be adjusted for the
engagement, the typical phases of a project are as follows:
Discover –
Aricent provides subject matter experts in specific process and system areas
to evaluate existing information, including documentation, live interviews,
observation of process execution and all other means of gathering relevant
information. All potential process and system issues are captured as “gaps”
against the optimal processes and all supporting information is collected
against the process steps. As
an option, the “as-is” process flows can be documented for an immediate
benefit for creating current, accurate processes.
Analyze –
The full set of gaps are evaluated against the processes, analyzed to
determine different types of issues including “Quick Hits” – problems that
can be solved quickly and independently, “Process Fixes” – issues that can
be improved or eliminated by changing the existing process, and “Complex
Issues” – those problems that are possibly a combination of process and
system issues or perhaps related to the technology and offered services.
Industry metrics are also gathered and introduced in this phase to provide
comparison for the analysis and serve as a benchmark for what is average,
what is best-in-class, and what is optimal.
Recommend –
Experienced SMEs with 20+ years of experience are involved in the recommend
step to offer the best insights and guidance for applying the analysis to
different available options for rectifying the gaps. Recommendations are
provided in the context of high-level plans and Return on Investment
evaluations to allow the service provider to quickly decide and act on the
most valuable activities, minimize the time and maximize the return.
Transition – Although typically an optional phase of
our business and operations process evaluation, Aricent is expert in
providing the consulting and expertise required to implement the
recommendations – in many cases providing the service provider with an
option to gain maximum value from Aricent resources with minimal impact to
existing operations.
While Aricent does not provide products in support of
this service offering, several industry standard modeling tools and
templates are used that are valuable in the ongoing support and evolution of
processes and systems. A variety of tools can be used according to the
service provider preference, and the service can adapt to corporate
guidelines and tool recommendations.