Fixed line order validation, Decomposition and Order placement

Global CSP speeds up order validation and placement reduces errors and saves over half a million dollars annually.

The CSP extended its order-processing automation – back towards its customers – to check new orders automatically. That’s helped speed up the order decomposition process – where each component sub-order is identified and allocated to the relevant team – and greatly reduced errors. As well as improving the customer experience, it’s delivering savings equivalent to 11 full-time employees’ salaries.

the CSP’s Head of Automation said: ‘These capabilities have made a big difference. As well as reducing our costs, new customer orders are being acted on far more quickly and with almost no errors. The automation was delivered quickly too, straight off the back of our initial implementation for order processing.’

The CORTEX software does three main things. First, it performs automatic validation checks on each order to ensure that everything’s as it should be and prevent mistakes later on. Second, it ensures that all external resources are available. Finally, it places sub-orders for the individual components of each order with the appropriate operating units.

500
Thousand
$0.5m saved each year as errors are eliminated
11x
FTE
Cost equivalent to 11 FTE was avoided as it has scaled
100%
Serviceable, consistent Orders every time

Validating orders…

CORTEX receives an Excel-format data file containing any new orders via e-mail from the CSP’s serviceability team. The validation process checks each order’s internal consistency to make sure that all data is present and correct. That includes confirming customer details, service compatibility, inventory requirements, and the installation addresses and zip codes – using third-party sources – and also validating any addresses that are not yet in service.

Checking resource availability…

The order data is verified, line by line, against the catalogues of third-party suppliers and also against any other resources that might be necessary. An example of this would be outsourced services, such as last-mile connectivity, that are essential components in its overall solutions. The CSP has a base of approximately 130 external partners – called ‘off-net providers’ – that provide an array of options.

CORTEX double-checks with the off-net providers’ catalogues that they can provide the services specified. If the supplier can’t, there’s an automated arbitrage process called ‘re-work’. CORTEX will automatically choose an alternative provider according to pre-defined policies, but if that’s not possible, it will raise an exception and push it back to someone in the CSP’s serviceability team.

During the serviceability process, an existing line may have been specified to deliver a new service. This will be a line that was previously in service at the location but has not been used recently. There might, therefore, be uncertainty over whether it is operational, accessible and compliant with current standards. In such instances, CORTEX can raise a ticket on the workforce field management system to arrange for an engineer to visit the site. After inspection, CORTEX can then decide whether to order a new cable or use the existing one.

In the event of any inconsistencies or errors during validation, CORTEX will raise an exception, and push the order back to the CSP’s sales team.

The Head of Automation continues: ‘One of the big problems before CORTEX was velocity – or the lack of it. We had different groups doing different things – order validation, re-work, re-survey and so on – and so orders were getting trapped in order capture. Now it’s automated, everything just goes straight through without fail.’

Placing orders…

The final step in the process is the automated placement of sub-orders for the individual component parts of the solution – among internal teams and off-net providers. This is done in one of three different ways:

  • Via API, direct to the off-net supplier’s procurement systems
  • Through the supplier’s portal
  • By automated e-mail to the supplier and prompting for manual telephone follow-up.

The order placement process becomes the first step in the CORTEX off-net e-mail management process that then follows orders through to their conclusion.

Automating serviceability…

The Excel-format data file that contains the new order details originates from within the CSP’s CRM platform, Salesforce. That information, input by their sales teams, will have already passed some initial automated finance checks and balances as part of Salesforce’s standard order acceptance.

CORTEX resolves the orders, based on current policy, to establish which part of the CSP’s organisation, or which off-net provider, ought to deliver that part of the overall solution. There is still some manual effort here in the handoff to CORTEX. Automating those processes fully is an area of ongoing innovation.

Cutting through complexity…

Prior to the CSP implementing automation, their business processes were ill-defined with many manual workarounds in use. Having refined much of that in operations that were already automated – and to build wider, more effective benefits for the organization – the obvious extension to the order processing was to better automate processes connected to their sales operation.

CORTEX spent some consulting time to deepen its understanding of exactly what was going on and then visualise how best to automate it. That strategic approach is at the heart of why this order validation, decomposition, and placement implementation has been so effective.