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Customer centricity:
Creating the digital experience

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Customer centricity: Creating the digital experience

Report author: Page 4 The big picture

Annie Turner
Senior Director, Research & Media
aturner@tmforum.org
Page 6 Section 1
Managing Editor:
Dawn Bushaus How digital are customers’ interactions with telcos?
dbushaus@tmforum.org

Editor, Digital Content: Page 11 Section 2

Arti Mehta
amehta@tmforum.org How communication service providers are responding to the demand for better
Content Delivery and Program Manager: customer engagement
Paul Davis
pdavis@tmforum.org
Page 15 Section 3
Content Delivery Coordinator:
Joia Tulloch Communication service providers’ pain points and success stories
jtulloch@tmforum.org

Research & Media Sales Manager:

Mark Bridges
Page 22 Section 4
mbridges@tmforum.org Make it happen: Strategies for gaining operational benefits while improving
Director, Solutions Marketing: customer centricity
Charlotte Lewis
clewis@tmforum.org

Vice President, Content, Research & Media:

Page 26 Sponsored feature
Aaron Richard Earl Boasman Amdocs
aboasman@tmforum.org

Advisor:
Mark Newman
Chief Analyst, TM Forum
mnewman@tmforum.org

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3
The big picture

4

The staggering success of customer-centric, platform-
based digital businesses is a resounding endorsement
of what customers value – speed, convenience,
simplicity and great prices. Platforms let you do what
you want, when you want, and the experience is
predictable and consistent.
This is why the world’s five largest companies by market
capitalization and the top five most valuable brands
globally (according to BrandZ Top 100 Global Brands
2017) are platform-based. Google, Apple, Microsoft,
Amazon and Facebook take the top places in this year’s
ranking and combined are worth 25 percent of the total
value of the Top 100.
No wonder that for most communications service
providers (CSPs), striving for customer centricity is the
primary reason for digital transformation. In TM Forum’s
inaugural Digital Transformation Tracker, published this
month, two-thirds of 185 survey respondents described
it as a ‘very important’ driver.
Yet CSPs are struggling, and although they’ve talked
about initiatives such as omnichannel for years,
progress is slow. Overall, Net Promoter Scores for
communications services are among the lowest from
any sector. The reasons for this are well understood,
but one thing is for sure: This equation needs to
change.
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
Unhappy customers + high costs = unsustainable
business
Read this report to find out:
n How digital are customers’ interactions with telcos?
n Which channels do customers prefer?
n Why is there an imbalance of cost allocation regarding
customer service?
n How do customers feel about the service they are
getting from CSPs?
n How widely are various tools, from customer journeys
to cloud marketing, being used?
n How are omnichannel, apps and other more
established initiatives faring?
n What’s the role for technologies like artificial
intelligence?
n What are CSPs’ major pain points and successes?
n What are other potential benefits of transforming to
become more customer-centric?
5
SECTION 1

How digital are customers’

interactions with telcos?

6
 Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience

The short answer for most is not digital enough.

From their dealings with platform-based companies,
customers know how ‘good’ experiences look and
feel. From Alibaba to Uber, customers’ appreciation
of simplicity, speed, convenience and the best prices
has fueled the fastest-growing and most valuable
businesses in history.

On the other hand, laden with legacy systems and a

very different cultural heritage, telecoms’ widespread
struggle to meet customers’ expectations is reflected
in the sector’s poor Net Promoter Scores (see table on
right).

Too often, communications service providers (CSPs)

incur the highest customer care costs for the lowest-
spending customers. This is because telcos tend to
position digital channels as a cheaper way of dealing
with younger and low-spending customers, totally
misjudging – and therefore failing to meet – the
expectations of the high-end market.

Source: Satmetrix

“Too often communications service providers incur the highest

customer care costs for the lowest-spending customers.”

7
 Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience

Going digital According to the Capgemini survey, 62 percent of high-

Last year a survey by Capgemini of more than 5,700
consumers of mobile services across nine countries –
Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway,
Spain, Sweden, the UK and US – found that perceptions
about CSPs using digital technologies to improve
customer experience is spread remarkably evenly across
the age groups. Taken with the other findings, clearly they
are not doing enough.
spenders – which it defined as spending more than $75 a
month on mobile products and services – are willing to shift
Percentage of respondents who agree that their current service provider has used digital
technologies to improve customer experience
% of respondents who agree tht their current service provider
has used digital technologies to improve customer experience

[Research from TM Forum’s new Digital Transformation 38% 37% 39%

36% 36% 35% 36%
Tracker found CSPs in North America are the most
advanced with digital transformation with all respondents
saying they are already deriving benefits. Western Europe
was the second most, tied almost exactly with the Middle
16-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
East. Hence Capgemini’s research looked at advanced
N = 5776, the total number of consumers surveyed
markets regarding CSPs’ transformation.]
Source: Capgemini Consulting - Survey of 5,776 mobile consumers in France, Belgium, Germany, UK,
Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Norway and US conducted in January and February 2016

Stores – what are they good for?

Interestingly, only 8 percent of the 5,700 people Capgemini surveyed thought it essential for mobile operators to
have stores. This shift to preferring self-service and care from assisted channels is a profound change in preferences
that has happened over the last five years or so: As recently as 2013, research by Teletech found that 72 percent of
telecom consumers preferred to speak to a person when interacting with their communications provider.

However, outside these markets, and for a sizeable chunk of people in them, stores and/or call centers are
important, for cultural and many other reasons.

8
 Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience

to a digital-only operator. That is, operators that exclusively Telcos with high NPS scores [in the US and 8 European countries] have a high
use digital channels (online, apps, chat, etc.) to interact with proportion of customers interacting digitally
consumers and offer competitive data plans.
Consumer of High-NPS Telcos
Overall, 58 percent of respondents are willing to switch 80% Consumer of Low-NPS Telcos
over to a digital-only operator, Capgemini found. Plus, 44
70%
percent of respondents said they would be willing to switch
to Google, Facebook or Apple, should they offer mobile
services in future.
42%
What’s in a number? 38%
Respondents’ dissatisfaction with their communications 30% 30%
providers is reflected in the fact that half the CSPs 25%
21%
concerned have zero or negative NPS. 17%

7% 6% 6%
“High-NPS telcos garnered an average revenue growth Website & Physical Call Center Website & Physical Call Center
of 33 percent over 2012-14 whereas the low-NPS telcos Mobile App Stores Mobile app Stores
suffered a revenue decline of -7 percent on average
over the same period,” Capgemini’s report concludes.
“Our research shows that mobile operators enjoy a high Consumer channels for purchasing Consumer channels for accessing
mobile products and services customer service and support
NPS when consumers perceive that they use digital
technologies – such as mobile apps, web and social media
NPS = Net Promoter Score
– for enhancing the customer experience.”
Source: Capgemini, Unlocking Customer Satisfaction: Why Digital Holds the Key for Telcos, 2016
The positive correlation between NPS and consumers’
use of digital channels for making purchases and
customer support are shown clearly in the graphic right.

Nor does dissatisfaction with some types of CSPs appear

to be higher, according to the new TM Forum Digital
Transformation Tracker. During summer 2017, the

9

Forum surveyed 185 executives from 93 unique CSPs
operating in 64 countries and found no clear patterns
for the types of CSPs that had good or bad NPS.
Operators in developed markets were no more likely to
have a positive NPS than emerging market operators,
and the same was true for fixed versus mobile operators
and incumbents versus newer players. In other words,
no type of CSP appears to be at a major advantage or
disadvantage – digital channels can impact all kinds of
providers’ scores, as we explore in Sections 3 and 4.
Counting the cost
Venkat Krishnan, Competitive Strategy, Optus, published
findings of his own analysis in August. He observes that
although that many operators are “driving a mobile-
centric digital experience which is further enhanced by
using historical and real-time data to make intelligent
product recommendations and simplify customer help
options,” some are not.
His analysis of indirect costs, such as marketing,
personnel and corporate costs, suggests that low-cost
operators like Amaysim and TPG Telecom in Australia,
which offer fixed broadband (TPG is also planning to
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
become that country’s fourth mobile operator), have a
cost structure of 12 to 18 percent of their total sales.
This rises to mid to high 20s for ‘full customer service’
operators like Spark (formerly New Zealand Telecom,
which in its 2016 results disclosed that only 10 percent
of its customers use the online channel).
The operator with the lowest costs cited by Krishnan is
Iliad, which among other things is parent company of
Free in France. The company reported revenues grew
7.3 percent year-on-year to €2.46 billion in the first six Watch Arumugavelu’s keynote here
months of 2017. Net profit shot up by 22 percent to We look at CSPs’ efforts to improve
€233 million, and Free Mobile has gained 18.7 percent customer engagement in the next
of the French market since its launch in 2012, including section.
a 0.5 percent rise in between April and June. Its success
is down to innovative, simple products and low costs
and prices.
Verizon’s Senior Vice President and Chief Information
Officer, Shankar Arumugavelu, acknowledged, “We
[telcos] are not being fast enough to capitalize on the
digitization that we championed,” during his keynote
at TM Forum Live! in May. He urged CSPs to simplify
process and policies, digitize analog processes, and “to
obsess over the customer experience.”
10
SECTION 2

How communications service

providers are responding to the
demand for better customer
engagement

11
 Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience

Most telcos are still striving to move operationally,

1. Products- 2. Services- 3. Customer- 4.Platform-based
culturally and from a business point of view from being based based centric businesses
services-based to customer-centric, according to TM
Forum’s and third-party research. Overall, progress is
slow. CSPs’ progress on customer engagement initiatives

Communications service providers (CSPs) have been 100% Completed

Implementing
developing social media channels for commerce and
Planning or considering
care, mapping customer journeys and implementing
omnichannel engagement for several years. Yet when 80%

we surveyed 185 individuals from 93 operators for our

inaugural Digital Transformation Tracker, we found
60%
that a quarter to a third of respondents are only now
planning or considering these initiatives (see graphic
right).
40%

We will look in at some examples of how deployments

are playing out, and where the pain points and 20%
successes are with these more established initiatives in
Section 3.
0%
These options have now been joined by a range of
others to help CSPs serve customers better and faster
while operating more efficiently. They rely on more
Social media channels for commerce Omnichannel engagement Cloud marketing/ integrated digital
advanced technologies such as predictive analytics & care experiences
Design-led thinking
along with machine learning and artificial intelligence Analyzing customer journeys/ Personalization/ predictive analytics
mapping them Ecosystem partnering for enhanced
(AI), including virtual agents and chatbots. They are digital services Machine learning/ artificial
largely in the early stages of deployment, and the terms Mobile app-centric customer
lifecycle management Virtual agents/ chatbots for
intelligence

are bandied about without much explanation of exactly engagement

OTT services for new revenue
what they mean. This is our take, in brief. streams Source: Digital Transformation Tracker, TM Forum, September 2017
*‘Don’t know’ and ‘not applicable’ were also options in the survey question for
each of the initiatives listed above, hence not all the findings add up to 100%

12

Virtual agents or chatbots
These are computer programs that conduct
human-like conversations with people either
through speech (using natural language
processing – think Cortana, Siri or Alexa) or in
writing (instant messaging in pop-up boxes on
screen). Their scope can be governed by policies
or by artificial intelligence (AI), which means they
learn from outcomes and can make their own
decisions about what actions to take (within set
parameters) without human intervention (see
Machine learning and AI below).
Voice-control will be an increasingly popular
way for customers to interact with companies,
and telcos are aware of this. Erik Meijer at
Group Innovation, Deutsche Telekom, says his
company is working with Amazon to integrate
Alexa into its smart home platform Qivicon so
that its Magenta SmartHome offer can be voice-
controlled via Amazon’s Echo device.
Also, in April, Deutsche Telekom and Orange
teamed up to build an AI platform and a virtual
assistant interface to respond to voice and text.
No doubt as they mature they will become the
most popular way of communicating with CSPs.
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
A key element of successful chatbots in
customer-facing roles will be how seamless
the transition from bot to human assistance is
when the situation becomes too complex for the
chatbot to handle. Like chatbots themselves, it’s
still a new, if exciting, area.
Cloud marketing
This is the marketing of third-party products
and services as an integrated part of customers’
digital experiences, such as when they are
using social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
The idea is that customers will welcome the
information if it is timely and helpful, rather than
view it as intrusive advertising.
Predictive analytics
By collecting and analyzing data from many
sources about customers, their behavior and
preferences, predictive analytics can make highly
educated guesses about what someone might
want to do next or what to recommend. The
more complete the view of the customer, the
more likely they are to be accurate.
Predictive analytics could greatly speed up
resolving issues or directing customers to what
13

they want – perhaps before customers even
knows that they want it. This could range from a
more suitable data package to a piece of music.
Machine learning and AI
Although the two are often spoken of as though
they are the same thing, they are not. Machine
learning is a particular approach to, and the
most common implementation of, AI. The
concept is that machines (software and devices)
can learn from data and situations (how different
people react to data in different context, for
example), which they use to refine their ‘thinking’
constantly and respond ‘intelligently’ to a
situation, without human intervention.
How AI could dynamically shape applications’
responses to customers, based on the real-time
understanding of their sentiment is of particular
interest. A proof-of-concept Catalyst project,
called Sentimental applications, has been set
“How AI could shape applications’ responses to customers, based on the
real-time understanding of their sentiment is of particular interest.”
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
up to look at potential engagement methods
to improve first call resolution rates, including
automated topic detection and categorization
(fewer clicks), and interactive ‘whiteboard’
sessions between parties. It is championed by
Bell Canada, with Amdocs, BeyondVerbal, CallVU
and Microsoft participating.
“This Catalyst looks at how to enrich the agent’s
experience and provide them user-centric
capability in different contexts, such as where a
customer is in two channels at the same time,”
says Tom Hedarian, User Experience Architect,
Bell Canada.
He cites the example of a customer using the
phone for research while talking to staff in a
store. “This Catalyst drives home the sentiment
and scoring of assisted aspects going into
process management,” he adds.
14
SECTION 3

Communication service
providers’ pain points and
success stories

15

Wherever communications service providers (CSPs) are
on their journeys toward customer centricity, the key
question is: How do you know if you’re winning? This can
be a mighty hard question to answer for many reasons –
not least because there are so many moving parts.
Social channels for ecommerce and care
Although CSPs have made the most progress in setting
up social channels and ecommerce, only a fifth of
respondents to TM Forum’s Digital Transformation
Tracker (DTT) survey have actually completed the task
(see infographic and also page 12).
of CSP respondents have set up social
20% media and ecommerce channels
34% are implementing them
30% are thinking about it
Source: TM Forum, 2017
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
It is possible that the more savvy operators still in the
planning phase could leapfrog some that started ahead of
them by making cloud marketing an integral part of their
social media strategies.
Analyzing and mapping customer journeys
Almost half of respondents to the DTT survey said they
are implementing customer journeys, but more than
a quarter said they’re only thinking about it. This is
surprising given how customers’ behavior has changed:
We hop between different channels, depending on what
we want to do, when, and how. For many people, the days
of buying as a linear process are long gone.
Operators need to map and build customer journeys
faster to streamline processes and to make better,
immediate use of the data collected from all the
touchpoints. The urgency was driven home by analyst
Nancee Ruzicka in our recent Quick Insights report,
Journey to the core of customer centricity, which was
published in June and is free to download.
16
 Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience

60 percent of CSP less than 20 percent less than 10 percent deliver less than 10 percent
respondents are analyzing maintain accurate personalized content or tools are implementing
and mapping customer customer profiles [digital that give marketing some analytics and machine
journeys identities] control of content learning to help

It cites a separate TM Forum survey of 100 customer
experience professionals across the Americas during
the spring which found that very few operators are
implementing personalization or using analytics and
machine learning (see graphic above).
Omnichannel – still ominously difficult
Customer journeys and omnichannel are closely linked.
Omnichannel is generally taken to mean that customers
can move between all available channels at will and
pick up where they left off each time, although in fact
this is not necessarily desirable. The combination of
omnichannel and customer journeys should be a
powerful one, with one informing the other, for example,
helping to improve processes.
Many operators have pushed to become multi-
play providers – that is, offer combinations
of bundled mobile, fixed broadband and
telephony, and TV services.
CSPs are partnering with content companies like
Netflix, Spotify and Deezer.
CSPs grapple with SIM fragmentation as SIM
formats and offers multiply.
CSPs segment their customer bases, for
instance, recognizing many customers’
preference for digital channels.

Omnichannel has become ever more complex, though, as:

CSPs have become central players in the

traditional pay-TV market, mainly offering
managed services over their own DSL, fiber or
CATV network.

17
 Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience

Using the customer lifecycle to assess digitalization opportunities

Does it work yet?
Just how tough it is to do all that integration is
demonstrated by Telefónica Global, which is widely
acknowledged is one of the most digitally advanced
telecoms groups. Speaking to an invited audience
at TM Forum Live! 2017 in May, Phil Jordan, the
company’s outgoing Group CIO1, said, “We’ve looked
at every process in our business in every one of the
20 countries we operate in and asked ourselves two
questions:

n Is it automated and to what extent?

n Is it in the right channel and in real time?

“We’ve mapped every process in our business…and

looked at every channel and how it engages with which
customers, from assisted channels to self-assisted. We’ve
mapped all our operations against it to find out what
works without intervention,” (see graphic right).

“The bigger the bubble, the higher the number of

interactions with the customer, and color-coding shows Source: Telefónica
the level of satisfaction,” Jordan explained.

He added, “More importantly for care and sales, where

we still have a low level of automation across all the lines
of business – I’m talking about fixed, mobile, TV, quad-
play and value-add services – we still have too many
processes that customers don’t like, such as how to deal
with technical problems.”

Mr. Jordan will be joining the UK retail group Sainsbury’s in January 2018
1

18

Omnichannel is not enabling everything on all
channels
Jordan stressed that CSPs should not necessarily strive
for every process be in the top right quadrant of the
diagram, or in a non-assisted channel. This view is
echoed by Rigas Parathyras, Senior Manager, Digital
Architecture, with Liberty Global, which is the world’s
largest international cable company providing quad-play
services in 12 countries.
“When we rolled out a [omnichannel enablement]
platform [in 2015], our first priority was consistency, to
ensure that customers’ data is shared across all channels
and products,” he explains. “It depends on the criticality
and use case how fast we update the data across all
systems, achieving different levels of consistency for
different products and channels.”
Now things have moved on, and Liberty Global is not
focusing so much on seamless journeys and channel
hopping but on creating “magic moments,” according to
Parathyras. “Instead of optimizing every single touchpoint
and journey, we are focusing to optimize specific key
touchpoints in the customers’ lifecycle that would make a
big impact on users’ experience.”
He adds, “It’s not about the difficulty involved in making
everything seamless, but sometimes we don’t want to.
For example, if you use a digital channel, you get better
prices and are treated differently, and that’s an incentive,
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
to reward customers. By optimizing specific touchpoints
and promoting certain channels, we form our channel
strategy.”
Apps for self-service and self-care
Forty-one percent of respondents to the Forum’s DTT
survey said they are in the process of implementing
mobile apps for self-care and self-service, but again,
almost a third are still just at the planning stage.
Telcos have poor track record when it comes to apps,
and this still feels like an area where operators are
experimenting.
For example, Parathyras says: “We have developed new
digital services via apps for self service, entertainment
and connectivity. We consciously developed different
apps for them to serve different customers’ needs.
Initially we promoted the apps as services on top of
our traditional services. It was a response to people’s
demand for new ways of interacting with us.
“Now we are looking into segments where we may want
to promote a digital-only way of interacting with our
brand. For example a digital savvy segment of people
with more digital lifestyles and habits may not need the
traditional TV but only use TV through an app. We have
not blocked their access to call centers, but we don’t
promote contacting them. Instead we promote the self-
service app as the main means of service.”
19

The boldest move of all?
VEON, formerly known as Vimplecom, operates in 12
diverse markets. It has gone to the other extreme and
will offer just one app to its 239 million customers, with
minor modifications and in the local languages. VEON
is its new platform, from which it will launch a universal
platform-based approach across its markets, from Italy
to Bangladesh, with Russia as the single largest one. Its
underlying telco assets will continue in the countries
under their familar brands.
This is a bold and hugely ambitious move. As Scott
McKenzie, Director, Strategic Partnerships, VEON, notes,
“Even so-called emerging markets are maturing and
there is a desperate need for innovation in telecoms,
but a lack of total commitment to being truly digital – no
one else is burning their bridges behind them on the
digital transformation journey.”
He adds that the app is still evolving and will offer zero-
rated voice and chat, which means that “even if you’ve
used up your credit/data allowance you can continue to
communicate freely. That’s why our tagline is: ‘Be truly free’.”
“[There is] a lack of total commitment to being truly digital – no one else is
burning their bridges behind them on the digital transformation journey.”
Scott McKenzie, Director, Strategic Partners, VEON
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
McKenzie also points out that in most of the markets
VEON operates in, “GAFA [Google, Apple, Facebook and
Amazon] have not achieved the domination they have
in the West and that there is a lot of no-man’s land
between them and the likes of Tencent, Alibaba and
Weibo further east.”
It’s all about the data
Instead of looking to new services and partnerships as
revenue streams in the short-term, VEON is using its
centralized app to generate large-scale data analytics
right across its user base to enable better, closer
relationships with customers.
The company has already signed up content partners
like drinks company Red Bull, Deezer, Vivendi and
Studio+, and Mastercard as a payments partner.
McKenzie confirms that some revenue-sharing
agreements are live and that in the longer term, it
expects them to become a major source of growth.
How do you know if you’re winning?
You use a digital maturity model to measure your success.
20
 Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience

Telefónica Global built its own. TM Forum’s Digital Maturity Model

“I can see each part of the customer journey, whether

DIMENSIONS
the process is automated or not, and if the interactions
are in real time and use the right mix of channels,”
CULTURE, PEOPLE,
Jordan explained. “This is very useful: I can show the CUSTOMER STRATEGY TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS ORGANIZATION
CEO how we are moving the business and exploiting
capabilities. CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT
BRAND
MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS
AGILE CHANGE
MANAGEMENT CULTURE

AUTOMATED
ECOSYSTEM CONNECTED LEADERSHIP &
“When we plan based on this, it’s not so much about CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT THINGS
RESOURCE
GOVERNANCE
MANAGEMENT
technology as policy, process change, business change,
INTEGRATED ORGANISATIONAL
CUSTOMER INSIGHTS FINANCE &
changing the customer’s expectations and behavior. DATA & ANALYSIS SERVICE DESIGN & TALENT

SUB-DIMENSIONS
& BEHAVIOR INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT
We’ve been through the process of analyzing our
REAL-TIME
CUSTOMER TRUST MARKET & DELIVERY WORKFORCE
business and we can categorize and characterize our & PERCEPTION CUSTOMER GOVERNANCE
INSIGHTS AND
ENABLEMENT
ANALYTICS
company based on real time, automated flows.”
PORTFOLIO, SMART AND
IDEATION & NETWORK ADAPTIVE
INNOVATION PROCESS
Jordan acknowledges that his company’s model is
STAKEHOLDER STANDARDS AND
narrower than TM Forum’s Digital Maturity Model (DMM) MANAGEMENT
SECURITY GOVERNANCE
AUTOMATION
which was launched in June. Its aim is to provide a ready-
STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY
made, but flexible model that is relevant to all CSPs, no MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE
matter where they are or where they want to get to. It
was built on contributions from CSPs, their technology
CRITERIA

+ 175 specific digital criteria to test your organizational maturity

suppliers, business consultants and others.

The first iteration of the DMM has five dimensions, 17 Source: TM Forum, 2017
sub-dimensions more than 175 specific digital criteria
to map against from all CSP departments, not just the
C-suite, to gain an accurate assessment. The DMM is
freely available to all TM Forum members, and the next
iteration will be published in the fall.

21
SECTION 4

Make it happen: Strategies for

gaining operational benefits
while improving customer
centricity

22

There are many opportunities to greatly improve
operations while striving to become more customer-
centric. Here are some suggestions communications
service providers (CSPs) can take to score quick wins.
Think digital
According to our new research in the Digital
Transformation Tracker, gleaned from 185 global
CSP executives, two of the most important drivers
for digital transformation are better customer
relationships and cost savings, respectively. They
often go hand in hand: Delivering a strong digital
(online) experience for customers is at the heart
of building stronger customer relationships
generally, and the more customers use online
channels, the greater the opportunity to cut costs
through automation, using emerging technologies
we looked at in Section 2.
Make it simple
One of the greatest problems telcos struggle with
is having thousands of products and services,
as each variation, bundle and promotion is
typically set up as a new one. Erik Meijer at
Group Innovation, Deutsche Telekom, is a
passionate advocate of simplification, from
ensuring processes are joined up and efficient
to presenting customers with clear choices,
prices and services that are easy to understand
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
and consume. “We design things to do what
they say on the packaging,” he says. Much of
the company’s technology innovation is done
in Germany and ‘exported’ to other markets,
including the US.
The group’s ‘Uncarrier’ strategy certainly seems
to be working: T-Mobile is outperforming the
moribund American telecoms market, having
grown its revenue and customer base for 13
successive quarters. It just exceeded its own
and market expectations by adding 1.3 million
subscribers in the second quarter of this year and
has raised its forecasts for the year.
Act like an OTT
Although it remains to be seen if VEON’s
ambitious plan to become a digital, customer-
centric business will pay off, its move to become
a platform-based business, fast, while still having
to deal with legacy systems is inspiring. Scott
McKenzie, Director, Strategic Partnerships, VEON,
explains that although the company is looking at
massive disruption over the long term to achieve
its digital goals, it is “using an abstraction layer so
we can rapidly innovate on the customer service
layer, and integrate partners quickly and effectively,
just like the GAFA [Google, Apple, Facebook and
Amazon] companies can.”
23
 Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience

Abstraction, metadata and standardized APIs
(see panel below) are key to the transformation,
along with the company investing $1 billion on
moving its BSS into the cloud to gain agility and
halve IT costs. TM Forum’s report, Cloud BSS: The
migration begins, based on primary research is
free for members to download. It was undertaken
by TM Forum’s Chief Analyst Mark Newman and
published earlier this year. Non-members can
download the executive summary from here.
Build self-help communities
Some companies have been very successful by
building communities where customers help each
other. Examples include: mobile virtual network
operator GiffGaff “the mobile network run by you”
in the UK; Telstra’s Crowdsupport Forum, “where
customers answer questions and share ideas
about our products and services”; and MyOptus,
in Australia.
Move payments online
In June 2016, Australia’s MVNO Amaysim (which
runs on Optus’ 4G network and can be accessed
via Facebook) claimed the percentage of
customers paying online had increased from 68
percent in 2012 to 83 percent. The golden rule
is make it quick and easy, because it’s a cheaper,
faster way to get money flowing in.
Adopt micropayments
Micropayments are potentially great sources of
revenue for CSPs. Meijer from Deutsche Telekom,
says that his company, which has 13 operating

Standardized APIs are critical to being digital
Open APIs are used extensively by every digital business, without
exception because they allow unparalleled speed and scale in the rollout
of services. They can bring all kinds of information, individuals, companies
and other organizations together at unprecedented speed for purposes
limited only by imagination. These interfaces enable the platform business
model as well as other collaborative models.
TM Forum’s growing suite of Open APIs (40+ currently) have been
designed and evolved by our members to help them stand up and launch
services, including through partnerships, faster. To this end, many of
the world’s largest CSPs and equipment vendors have signed up to the
Open API Manifesto, pledging to deploy and support the Open APIs
commercially.
The CSPs include Axiata, Bharti Airtel, BT, China Mobile, China Unicom,
NTT-Group, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone. The APIs have already been
implemented commercially in 14 markets, which will grow to 26 by the end
of 2017. Recent work has focused on providing APIs for every step of the
customer lifecycle in the era of virtualization.

24

companies from Albania to the US (T-Mobile),
is focused on what he calls micro-moments,
borrowing from Google. Google reckons those
moments globally could be worth more than
$1 trillion, and CSPs are the obvious choice to
handle the micropayments involved in impulse
transactions.
Re-evaluate retail outlets
First consider how much you really need them to
compete, taking into account different cultures
and expectations in different markets, and which
segments you want to target. Second, if you
need them to compete, then make sure there is
not a huge gap between the in-store and online
experience – they should look and feel like part of
the same company.
Having said that, each store serves a constituency
of users, whether it’s in Oxford Street in Central
London, or in the poorer part of Bangalore. They
are a big chance to provide an experience that
fits the demographic. Also, people tend to go to
stores when there’s something new – stores are
the best places to show them off, allowing people
to touch and feel them, not just look.
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
Automate as many of the mundane tasks as you
can so that staff can spend time with customers,
listening to them and finding them the most
suitable deal.
Cut costs with care
Gain cost savings from the business, not the
technology. There is very much a push back on
the idea of transformation being an IT cost-saving
exercise. We are not doing it to make us leaner,
but to make our customers’ experience better.”
He gave the example that while people in many
countries like the speed and convenience of
automated top-ups, in Latin America, Telefónica’s
customers prefer to go to the shop at the end of
their street. Over time, this behavior is likely to
change, but having the capacity to do something
should not mean trying to force it onto customers
– that results in dissatisfaction and churn.
Adopt the TM Forum Digital Maturity Model
25
SPONSORED FEATURE
How an Intelligent Chatbot can
Revolutionize the Virtual Agent Experience
By: Roni Dvir, Amdocs Digital, Intelligence and BSS
The Experience Expectations of Digital
Consumers Are Evolving
With today’s customers becoming more and more
digital in their mindset, behaviors, and expectations,
the state of customer engagement is at an inflection
point. These customers have become extremely
knowledgeable about product and purchasing options,
as well as competitive offerings. They are less tolerant
of impersonal and irrelevant experiences, expect
on-demand engagements and support, and are
more self-sufficient, often preferring self-sufficiency.
Furthermore, they have recently started shifting away
from social broadcasting to more personal messaging.
In fact, messaging has become the preferred, even
de-facto mode of communication for more than just
the Y and Z generations. To illustrate, the combined
user base of the top four chat apps is larger than the
combined user base of the top four social networks,
with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger at a billion
monthly active users each, and WeChat at nearly 850
million.
To complicate matters further, digital disruptors
such as Facebook, Uber, and Lending Club are
introducing new customer engagement paradigms and
transforming the relationships between businesses
and their customers.
Accordingly, maintaining relevance with this new breed
of digital consumer, offering the kind of experiences
that they expect, and engaging with them in a way that
addresses their well-informed, independent, and very
digital lifestyle requires a new approach and a lot of
intelligence.
Service Providers Are Turning to Bots to
Innovate Digital Customer Engagement
According to Gartner, by 2020, 85% of customer
interactions will be managed without human
intervention. Furthermore, by 2022, 72% of customer
interactions will involve an emerging technology such
as machine-learning, up from 11% in 2017.
Accordingly, this combination of growing self-
sufficiency of the digital consumer, together with
the increasing domination of mobile messaging and
several technology breakthroughs, is reigning in the
rise of the chatbot for customer engagement.
In addition, other trends that are providing the tailwind
for the bot revolution include:
App fatigue: Most consumers are overwhelmed with
apps, and have developed a very strong reluctance
to downloading and trying new apps, preferring to
converse on the messenger apps they’re already on.
26
Support from tech giants: For companies such as
Facebook, Microsoft, and others – supporting chatbots
had become a long-term strategic initiative. Within one
year of Facebook’s announcement of its Messenger
chatbot framework in 2016, over 100,000 chatbots
have been released. And, the market for messenger
bots has grown to well over one billion people.
There are also internal forces at play – driving service
providers to seek out a solution that will help them
resolve multiple competing forces. These include:
providing consistent experiences and processes
despite the growing explosion of channels; driving
efficiency and reducing costs via increased first contact
resolution and shortened ticket cycles, but without
impacting CSAT and NPS; and achieving a balanced
approach between the self-service and human-assisted
engagements, while raising the bar on customer
experience.
Why Functional Chatbots Are Not Enough
The move towards consumers seeking (and service
providers offering) more and more engagements
through virtual agents, i.e. chatbots, is well underway.
Today, the most widespread chatbots are those
that are used to answer simple questions, including
basic product information or high-level support
SPONSORED FEATURE
How an Intelligent Chatbot can
Revolutionize the Virtual Agent Experience
requests. These are ‘rule-based’ chatbots, which are
programmed for pre-defined commands that are
specific to the processes related to the request at
hand. Accordingly, while adequately functional, this
kind of chatbot can ultimately wind up bringing the
opposite result from that which both the consumer
and the service provider are seeking, since the chatbot
is not prepared to handle such dynamic dialogues.
Service providers who want to add chatbots to their
customer engagement arsenal, with the kind of
capabilities that live up to the customer experience
promise, would need to overcome the following
strategic challenges. Namely:
Meeting the expectations of digital consumers
for personalized conversations: The kind of simple
engagements that is prevalent with chatbots today
does not account for the digital consumer’s need
for personalized and contextual conversations that
address their specific needs, their own unique journey
with the brand, and what kind of support would be
best suited for them.
Overcoming the chasm that exists between
virtual and live agents: Chatbots need to be able to
both handle much more of the types of content that
traditionally only live agents can handle; and, just as
importantly, they need to be seamlessly integrated
with channels handled by live agents, with a smooth
handoff, when needed, that is transparent to the
customer.
Making sure that chatbots don’t miss out on care-
to-commerce opportunities: Service providers who
leverage chatbots for simple support information-
driven interactions will be is missing out on unique
revenue generating opportunities. For, if the chatbot
was ‘intelligent’ and could ‘know’ what each customer
likes, needs, and wants – and could make the most
relevant and timely marketing offer to address
their needs, the service provider could then make a
significant impact on the top line.
Ensuring that the chatbot ‘understands’ the
telecom-specific intents of customers: A chatbot
that lacks industry domain knowledge and telecom-
specific intents will not be able to accurately and fully
understand what the customer wants and needs. Nor,
would the chatbot be able to effectively address and
resolve.
Integrating the chatbot with mission critical
business systems: Integration with systems such as
Billing, Order Management, CRM, and more – is critical
for accessing and leveraging a full, 360 customer
profile. Without knowing what customers have
purchased in the past and what their historical and
current usage patterns are, the chatbot will not be able
to provide the most relevant information and support.
27
Ensuring that the bot continually learns from every
engagement is critical for making sure that forthcoming
customer interactions and experiences are more finely
attuned to each individual customer, and delivered
with greater accuracy.
Amdocs SmartBot: An Intelligent Bot Solution
The first bot that is intelligence driven, re-designed and
integrated for the communication and media industry.
This is an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine
learning-based bot that enables digital service
providers (DSPs) to provide customer care, sales and
marketing engagements and transform how they
deliver highly personalized, contextual, self-service
interactions with customers.
Amdocs SmartBot is telco-centric, channel agnostic
and includes:
A core SmartBot application with business logic
and API integration, to identify the incoming stream
of text or voice from customers and submit the
contents to the intent engine to identify the context.
The application leverages built-in business logic to
resolve issues, provide transactional support, and
proactively and contextually engage with the customer.
Furthermore, when needed – the SmartBot will hand-
over the engagement to a live agent in the engagement
center in a way that is seamless and transparent to
customers.
SPONSORED FEATURE

How an Intelligent Chatbot can

Revolutionize the Virtual Agent Experience

Integrated Natural Language Processing (NLP)

engines through the partnerships we have in place
with Microsoft on LUIS and IBM on Watson, as well as
with other industry leading NLP solution providers. NLP
capabilities include sentiment analysis, tone analysis
(voice), and vision (images and video), enabling the
SmartBot to understand and converse with customers
in an intuitive, human-like way.

Library of telco-specific intents and business

processes, such as: view balance, make a payment,
suspend device, inquire early termination fees, in
addition to many more.

Pre-Integration with Amdocs CES, to provide a

single source of truth for customer data, product and
promotions and order management, which is critical
for ensuring consistent and personalized experiences.
Amdocs SmartBot also leverages aia, Amdocs’
intelligence platform, to inject intelligence into every
The Intelligent Chatbot Advantage
For service providers:
n Reduced cost to serve by increasing self-service
adoption rates, and decreasing average handling times;
n The ability to engage with the service provider on
their channel of choice; including text (Messenger,
Kik, Skype, Slack, SMS, etc.) and voice (IVR, Alexa, etc.)
channels
n Lowered response times to inquiries;

customer engagement, including NBO/NBA offers n Increased revenues by automatically and n Expedited resolutions to issues through proactive,

based on the customer profile, past behaviors, current
context, and in alignment with the organizations’
marketing and customer care objectives. The
integration with aia is a major differentiator in making
Amdocs SmartBot an industry leader in its predictive
capabilities and proactively delivering personalized
engagements as the customer’s context changes
throughout their journey.
intelligently identifying upsell/cross-sell opportunities
and providing relevant and personalized offers;
n Increased CSAT and NPS.
For consumers:
n A better customer experience with natural, human-
like conversations and a consistent experience
across all channels and for all topics;
intelligence-driven care.
Indeed, the bot revolution is here. But, only with
intelligence infused into every bot engagement, will
this revolution be a winning proposition for both
consumers and service providers.
To learn more contact us: intelligence@amdocs.com.

28

TM Forum toolkit for creating a digital customer experience
AGILE & VIRTUALIZED
TM FORUM DIGITAL MATURITY MODEL
The DMM is a ‘living’ maturity model and set
of metrics to help companies measure their
true digital maturity. Members can access a
guidebook as well as an Excel spreadsheet
containing the actual model. It is also
available as iOS app.
AGILE OSS/BSS TOOLKIT
This toolkit includes a complete blueprint
for a platform for managing a multi-vendor
hybrid/NFV infrastructure, which includes
open APIs, information models, best
practices and deployment guides.
ZOOM NFV USER STORIES SUITE
This suite of documents looks at end-to-
end management of hybrid environments
from the perspective of multiple teams
within a communications service provider’s
organization, such as business and operational
management, design and development.
OPEN & PARTNER EFFECTIVELY
OPEN APIs
TM Forum offers more than 40 APIs to manage
services end to end and throughout their
lifecycle in a multi-partner environment.
DIGITAL TRUST CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES STANDARD
This technical report outlines the key
requirements for digital trust and identifies the
top seven challenges to achieving it.
MONETIZING THE INTERNET OF
EVERYTHING GUIDE
This information guide describes a
standardized approach and a monetization
template for new, innovative services.
29
CUSTOMER CENTRICITY
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IMPLEMENTATION
SUITE
This set of tools consists of a guidebook,
hundreds of metrics, a maturity model,
lifecycle model, ROI model and more than 54
implementation use cases.
BIG DATA ANALYTICS SOLUTION SUITE
This set of tools includes a big data reference
model, a guidebook containing more than 65
use cases and 1700+ pre-defined metrics.
360 DEGREE VIEW OF A CUSTOMER
This guidebook offers a 360-degree view of a
customer and explains how to put customers
at the center of considerations and actions.
Customer centricity: Creating
the digital experience
RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS
eBOOKS
Platforms: How to join the revolution
Open APIs: Turning business strategy into reality
Omnichannel: Navigating new territory
TREND ANALYSIS
5G: Is platform the killer use case?
INSIGHTS RESEARCH
Cloud BSS: The migration begins
Digital transformation: Navigating the way to
success
QUICK INSIGHTS
Journey to the core of customer centricity
Customer experience: Why the quest never
ends
Robotic process automation: Rise of the
machines
SPONSORED FEATURE
FRAMEWORX 17
How an Intelligent Chatbot can
ADVANCES DIGITAL
Revolutionize the Virtual Agent Experience
TRANSFORMATION THROUGH
COLLABORATIVE R&D
Hundreds of individuals from a diverse range
of member companies have worked in TM
Forum’s unique collaborative environment to
deliver new features in TM Forum Frameworx™
17. The projects were all within the context
of the Digital Maturity Model, Open API
(Application Program Interface), Agile Business
& IT, Internet of Everything (IoE) and Customer
Centricity & Analytics programs, and the Smart
City Forum.
TM Forum Digital Maturity Model
We’ve brought together expertise and models
from leading communications service providers
(CSPs), consulting firms and solution providers
to create a ‘living’ maturity model and set of
metrics which helps companies measure their
true digital maturity. The TM Forum Digital
Maturity Model includes a guidebook as well
as an Excel spreadsheet containing the actual
model. It is also available as an iOS app.
Open API
TM Forum’s Open API collaborative team has
added 13 new API specifications to the portfolio
of Open APIs and a new Open API Map. This
brings the total number of Open APIs to 44.
The latest release includes:
n The first network management API, Resource
Function Activation and Configuration
Management API. This was developed
closely with the Zero-touch Orchestration,
Operations and Management (ZOOM)
project team and is used for provisioning and
lifecycle management of resource functions.
n New APIs to ensure consistent management
of the relationship with a customer across
different channels (Customer Management
API, Account Management API, Payment
Method API, PrePay Balance Management
API, Loyalty Management API, Shopping Cart
API and Promotion API).
n Enhancements and new APIs to improve
end-to-end management with other service
providers or third parties in B2B and B2B2C
contexts (Party Role Management API,
Partnership Type Management API, User
Roles and Permissions API).
n The Entity Catalog Management API enables
30
management of the entire lifecycle of catalog
elements during several processes such as
ordering, campaign management and sales
management.
n Mapping and alignment from the Digital
Services Reference Architecture (DSRA)
to Open APIs to make it easier to develop
platform boundaries in a digital ecosystem.
Agile Business & IT
The Agile OSS/BSS Toolkit includes a complete
blueprint for a platform to manage multi-vendor
hybrid/NFV infrastructure. It includes key
practical assets such as Open APIs, information
models, best practices and deployment guides.
The toolkit goes beyond basic network functions
virtualization (NFV) management to include
resource function activation and configuration,
inventory management, catalog management
and assurance.
SPONSORED FEATURE
The ZOOM NFV User Stories Suite looks
at end-to-end management of hybrid
How an Intelligent Chatbot can
environments from the perspective of
Revolutionize the Virtual Agent Experience
multiple teams within a CSP, such as
business and operational management,
design and development. User stories for
key virtualization challenges are necessary
to drive the specification of APIs. These APIs
help to integrate operational support systems
for virtualization management in a hybrid
environment.
Internet of Everything
The first ever Digital Trust Challenges and
Opportunities Standard was developed
based on workshops and interviews with
TM Forum members, and research from
various industries, academia and government
organizations. It outlines the key requirements
for digital trust and identifies the top seven
challenges. This will be a central pillar of
TM Forum’s future work on coordinating all
elements of digital trust.
The Monetizing Internet of Everything Guide
provides a standardized approach and
monetization template for new, innovative
digital services. It includes definitions
of monetization models, how to build a
monetization model using the template, an
outline and examples of typical monetization
patterns.
The widely successful Online B2B2X Partnering
Step-by-Step Guide and B2B2X Business
Scenario Template are key tools for achieving
agile, repeatable ecosystem partnerships.
They have been extended with invaluable
new templates for monetization models and
a standardized use case template. Applying
the best practices in these guides enhances
the ability of producers and consumers in
the platform economy to add value to their
interactions.
The Revenue Assurance Solution Suite of
documents defines the KPIs that provide
a common framework to measure three
important aspects of revenue assurance:
revenue leakage, revenue assurance related
process efficiency and data quality. Release
17.0 includes additional Revenue leakage
examples associated with NFV.
Customer Centricity & Analytics
The newly published TM Forum Big Data
Analytics Solution Suite includes an update
to the Big Data Analytics Big Data Repository
(ABDR). The updates build on research TM
Forum has conducted with members looking at
the primary challenges to adopting analytics.
The Customer Experience Implementation
Guide is a collection of use cases that
represent business challenges. It includes
three new use cases relating to IoE and
monetization, bringing the total to 54
(49 focusing on customer experience
management and five on customer analysis
and management).
31
Smart City Forum
TM Forum’s Smart City Forum has released
three new reports:
n City
as a Platform Case Study and Success
Criteria is an easy-to-follow architecture
outlining key components and building
blocks in a smart city platform.
n City as a Platform Architecture and
Supporting Capabilities defines a conceptual
platform architecture for a data hub to help
cities and other ecosystem participants
increase data monetization.
n City as a Platform Business Models provides
a simple way of understanding a city-as-
a-platform ecosystem and a simple set
of ideas to help a city determine what
is needed to develop a sustainable and
scalable city data exchange platform
business.
You can learn more about Frameworx here.
If you have questions or would like to get
involved in a project, please email us.
For more about the Forum’s work on customer centricity, including
how to get involved, contact Robert Walker, Senior Director, Digital
Transformation, TM Forum, via rwalker@tmforum.org