The expanding B/OSS software firm is bringing its unique take on the configure, price, quote process to the global communications service provider market.
As the communications service provider space becomes increasingly crowded and competitive, retaining customers and reducing churn are paramount to business success. With so many options, it’s crucial to provide the best possible experience by offering the end-user the tools they need to get the personalized service they want when they want it.
Software leader Etiya – which specializes in catalog driven BSS/OSS systems, telco and social CRM and big data analytics solutions —is bringing its cutting-edge take on the burdensome CPQ process to the global market with an emphasis on customization.
Founded in 2004, the company has recently established Etiya International to expand its reach and appointed Chun-Ling Woon as the group chief executive officer. Through various internationally recognized awards – especially the coveted TM Forum Customer Centricity-Service Provider award during the industry association’s annual convention held every June in Nice, France – Etiya shows its proficiency in catalog driven BSS/OSS and telco CRM.
“Unlike other vendors, we are specifically focused on the telecom space rather than other verticals,” Woon told RCR Wireless News. “Our domain is telecom. Our capabilities and products are proven in very large, Tier One carrier environments.” CPQ today, at best, is rudimentary. Mostly there is a pre-selected decision support for the consumer with attractive images at the configuration process. There are no interfaces to the back-end systems that actually do the configuration of a complex/bundled telco offer. Without a back-end service catalog and order management integration, today’s telco CPQ is merely a pretty front-end service with no or limited automation. In this regard, no automation means long provisioning times, thus revenue loss and longer time-to-market. Moreover, multi-sided business models with partner/supplier onboarding need to be taken into consideration and need to be supported. Now we are talking about the future!
The idea is to create a seamless experience, but on the CSP’s back-end, the layers of complexity make that a difficult process that Woon called “a big headache. The time from when you order to when you get your service is very lengthy. In complex orders, you don’t even know when you’ll get it, unless they pre-provision it, which is a very expensive proposition.”
Etiya products allow for catalog driven order management, coupled with a centralized product catalog, to facilitate unified order capture with a single point of contact. Etiya provides the capability to serve all business lines—retail, wholesale and enterprise—and simplifies the CPQ process. “In the current telco environment, CPQ is a new form of personalization,” Woon said. “Consumers can self-serve by picking and choosing the things that they want: choosing what you want, using it when you want it and paying for what you use.”
Etiya’s software product Telaura Suite is set to gain even more power with a planned October CPQ addition, and to integrate BSS/OSS platforms to provide a consistent, cross-channel experience. CSPs gain a real-time view of the customer, products and network resources – thus, realize personalized cross-sells and up-sells to the right customer at the right time through the right channels. These actions are the results of events or rules where right customer profiles are identified and are managed through specialized components in order to ensure customer experience, customer satisfaction and increase in sales.
Taken as a whole, Etiya products provide a smart system with specialized components that the competitive edge requires to create the brand synonymous with a high quality customer experience, personalized and business value. Central to Etiya’s value proposition is enabling clients to decrease time-to-market; providing customers with on-demand services creates a positive user experience and increases loyalty.
“It’s about agility, it’s about efficiency and time-to-market,” Woon said. “CSPs can get products out faster because CSPs are not designing the offer, the customers are. CSPs become a warehouse for customers to come in and choose what they want.”
