Streamlining Order Delivery

of Next-Generation
Business Services
Prepared by

Caroline Chappell, Principal Analyst, NFV & Cloud

Sarah Wallace, Analyst
Heavy Reading

White Paper
March 2015
 Monetizing Next-Generation Business Services
Competition in the communications industry is intense,
and service providers are looking for the next big thing
to differentiate themselves from their competitors. As
traditional communications service revenues decline,
service providers are seeking new revenue streams
by focusing on innovative applications, cloud-centric
strategies, interactive video-centric services, machine-to-
machine (M2M) services, network functions virtualization
(NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN). Another
trend that service providers see as a potential growth
engine is delivering business services for their enterprise
and small to midsize business (SMB) customers.
Technology evolutions such as SDN and NFV are
being adopted by global operators, with an initial focus
on business services. Since enterprise and SMB are
currently viewed as the strongest potential growth engine
Figure 1: Ranking the Benefits of NFV Implementation
Source: Heavy Reading
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for operators, it is easier to prove the business case on
newer virtualization technologies such as NFV and SDN,
where these technologies can be used to reduce time
to market and lower opex and capex in order to launch
services for their most profitable segment.
The current industry attention being paid to SDN and
NFV stems from the promise of hardware vendor
independence, improved operational efficiency,
standardized and open interfaces and the dynamic
chaining of network and IT functions to create new
“integrated” services. In a recent Heavy Reading
survey, service providers cited reducing opex, new
services monetization and improved resource utilization
as the leading benefits of NFV implementation to their
networks (Figure 1).
 Virtualization implies the design and use of centralized
orchestration and management solutions. However,
as service portfolios grow in complexity and combine
data center-based capabilities with features activated in
the network, an orchestration system that seamlessly
bridges both legacy and virtualized systems is required.
Virtualization also brings the promise of new and more
flexible business models, increased revenue from new
services, network efficiency and control and lowering
overall capex and opex.
As communications service providers continue seeking
alternative revenue streams, one customer segment
they are trying to better serve is the business segment
(i.e., their enterprise and SMB customers). Forward-
thinking operators are marrying the capabilities of cloud
and mobility to offer more enhanced service to this
segment. As customers today want services 24/7 from
anywhere, on any device, service providers are becoming
increasingly aware that cloud mobility will be essential
in serving the changing demands of their enterprise and
SMB customers.
Figure 2: Evolution of Cloud Service Portfolio
Source: Heavy Reading
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Cloud services – defined as services provided by
operators to customers across the Web from a cloud-
based platform – are becoming more popular among
service providers today as they realize it helps them
meet the changing market demands of their business
customers by providing a service environment that
is more scalable and agile, to help meet business
customers’ demands of lower costs and shorter time-to-
market for new products or services. Business customers
also want cloud services that support or enhance mobility,
which allows for a more flexible work environment and
allows for productivity on the move. This notion of cloud
mobility is becoming more popular, as the saturation of
smart devices means customers want access to their
information anytime and anywhere.
Figure 2 looks at the evolution of service providers’ cloud
offerings as it relates to the enterprise and SMB segment.
 Basically, what we are seeing from service providers
is a market shift toward more innovative, flexible
and value-added cloud services in order to meet
the demands of their business customers today.
The Holy Grail for service providers is the ability to
provide enterprise customers with a combination of
communications-centric services, bundled with basic
cloud services such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS),
and innovative platform as a service (PaaS) and software
as a service (SaaS) offers, by working with third-party
partners under a revenue-sharing arrangement.
Since every operator has similar networks and services
today, they can only differentiate themselves from the
pack by offering a superior customer experience. The
company that manages to do so can be more efficient,
more proactive and ultimately more innovative than its
competitors. Moreover, service providers today have
the added burden of competing with over-the-top (OTT)
players, which are increasingly becoming end users’
providers of choice for value-added services.
Forward-thinking operators have realized that to succeed
in this cutthroat, competitive milieu, they need to focus
on streamlining their service delivery mechanism, as that
will impact the customer experience. New metrics such
as Net Promoter Score (NPS) have been gaining traction
for measuring brand loyalty and advocacy among service
providers. The concept of NPS is used to determine
how customers feel about the services they are receiving
from a brand, in a bid to turn potential detractors into
promoters and brand advocates. NPS is becoming an
important metric for measuring customer experience
by most service providers, and many CMOs are being
measured internally with respect to their organizations’
NPS scores.
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While customer satisfaction, first contact resolution and
brand awareness continue to be critical key performance
indicators (KPIs) used by service providers to measure
customer satisfaction, they are also looking at metrics
such as channel transaction value, channel gross margin,
channel sales conversion, customer channel shopping
frequency, etc., as crucial KPIs for measuring cross-
channel customer experience.
As the central nervous system of operators’ order service
delivery strategy, order orchestration plays a pivotal
role. As operators try to make up for lost revenue on
traditional services and there is growing demand for next-
generation services and increase in service bundles such
as quad-play, order orchestration becomes an increasing
challenge for operators due to order complexity. A
comprehensive order orchestration and fulfillment solution
should have the ability to capture and process these new
types of orders without fallout or errors.
In this context, an end-to-end order service delivery
system that traverses all aspects of a service provider’s
operation – from order generation, to order capture, to
fulfillment across different channels and customer touch
points – order orchestration will play a pivotal role in
enabling operators to transition from today’s bundled
services to tomorrow’s more personalized services.
 The Time to Revamp Order Orchestration is Now
Operators are under constant pressure to raise customer
service levels and reduce order processing costs and
cycle times. These are among the key factors driving
service providers to invest in a streamlined end-to-end
order orchestration system, with the expectation that such
flexible, workflow-based solutions will decompose each
order, interact with multiple systems to fulfill the order
and monitor the end-to-end service delivery process for
complex orders, from order submission to cash.
Heavy Reading recently conducted a survey of 54 global
service providers, asking about their perceptions and
plans around order orchestration. The survey asked about
current order orchestration capabilities, KPIs, challenges
in order delivery, and plans for future order orchestration
investments in terms of specific components, customer
segments and NFV/SDN.
The survey results indicate that nearly half of respondents
are dissatisfied with their current order orchestration
capabilities and are willing to make further investments.
Respondents’ investment priorities include capabilities
such as lead order to process, activate to cash process
and order to activate process. When choosing an end-
to-end order orchestration supplier, respondents are
particularly looking for the ability to integrate with third-
party applications, price and capability/expertise.
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The majority of respondents find that most order
orchestration elements for residential operations will
need improvement “at some point,” as opposed to
“immediately.” In terms of areas needing immediate
improvement, they are focused on service orchestration,
KPI measurement and proactive monitoring. The
majority of global respondents find that most order
orchestration elements for SMB and enterprise operations
will need improvement “at some point,” as opposed to
“immediately.” But for this customer segment service
providers identified service orchestration, proactive
monitoring and order management and decomposition as
key areas requiring immediate improvement.
When respondents were asked if their company plans to
use NFV and/or SDN to deliver services to its enterprise/
SMB customers, about a quarter said they are currently
making investments in NFV and SDN, while 20 percent
plan to use these technologies in the next 6 to 12
months, and 22 percent plan to use them in the next
12 to 24 months. Almost half of respondents say they
will use a combination of existing and new systems to
manage hybrid service fulfillment scenarios, followed by a
third that expect to have a separate orchestration for NFV.
Further, a quarter of respondents report that a centralized
catalog should take a broader role and manage all
virtualized network functions (VNFs) and physical network
functions (PNF).
As operators try to serve their various customer segments
with new services, it is clear that order orchestration
will play a critical role in providing superior service and
overall customer experience. A comprehensive order
orchestration and fulfillment solution should enable
the proper capture and handling of the order without
fallout, which will help service providers meet customers’
expectations while reducing order management costs
through efficiency and ultimately ensuring profitability.
 Order Orchestration Perceptions and Challenges
The Heavy Reading survey asked respondents their current perceptions of their order orchestration process, along with
which components and which vendors they are willing to invest in. In our survey, 44 percent of operators stated they are
willing to invest in their order orchestration capability in order to improve it (Figure 3).

Figure 3: How satisfied is your company with the current level of its order orchestration capability?

Source: Heavy Reading

When asked the top order orchestration capabilities respondents are willing to invest in, simple integration to all relevant
systems at the process, end-to-end visibility of orchestration process by monitoring and managing different task
information from underlying systems, and unified orchestration tool executing the whole process were the top order
orchestration investment priorities for respondents (Figure 4).

Figure 4: What are the top five order orchestration capabilities that your company is most willing to invest in?

Source: Heavy Reading

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 Respondents see complete end-to-end visibility (85 percent), order to activate process (83 percent) and activate to
cash process (79 percent) as the most important (critical and very important) components of end-to-end order
orchestration (Figure 5).

Figure 5: How important are the following components of end-to-end order orchestration for your company?

Source: Heavy Reading

The ability to integrate with third-party applications, price, capability/expertise and ease of product integration with
existing infrastructure are respondents’ most important factors in selecting an end-to-end order orchestration
supplier (Figure 6).

Figure 6: What are the most important factors in selecting an end-to-end order orchestration supplier?

Source: Heavy Reading

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 Most Common Order Orchestration Complaints
Heavy Reading also asked survey respondents what the most common order-related complaints were from their
companies’ enterprise/SMB customers during the fulfillment process and within seven days of activation (Figure 7).

Figure 7: What are the most common order-related complaints from your company’s enterprise/SMB customers
during the fulfillment process and within seven days of activation?

Source: Heavy Reading

The leading complaints were missed installation/activation SLA (45 percent), billing-related issues (42 percent), service
not working (36 percent), complaint about service quality (34 percent) and misalignment between expected services and
actual service received (32 percent). These complaints indicate that service issues are a top priority among customers.

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 Order Orchestration Strategies and Plans
Heavy Reading also asked respondents their order orchestration plans in terms of customer segments. Order
orchestration is an area of critical interest for communications service providers as they continue their focus on residential
segment but also take special interest in serving their business customers better.

The majority of global respondents stated that most of the order orchestration elements they use for residential operations
will need improvement “at some point,” as opposed to “immediately.” In terms of the areas that are in need of immediate
improvement, they are most focused on service orchestration, KPI measurement and proactive monitoring (Figure 8).

Figure 8: What level of improvement is needed for the order orchestration elements
used by your company for its residential operations?

Source: Heavy Reading

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 The majority of global respondents also stated that most of the order orchestration elements they use for SMB and
enterprise operations will need improvement “at some point,” as opposed to “immediately.” But for this customer
segment, service providers identified service orchestration, proactive monitoring and order management and
decomposition as the key areas that require immediate improvement (Figure 9).

Figure 9: What level of improvement is needed for the order orchestration elements
used by your company for its SMB and enterprise operations?

Source: Heavy Reading

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 The Role of Self-Service
When it comes to business services delivery to enterprise and SMB customers, the role of self-service becomes
paramount. Operators spend a vast amount of time, resources and budget dollars automating the order-to-cash-to-
care lifecycle through improved enterprise self-service portals. These self-service portals enable enterprise customers to
order new services, monitor the network, report maintenance issues, bill for services and analyze usage against specific
service-level agreements (SLAs). The portal capabilities align with a typical customer lifecycle for traditional enterprise
communications services such as IP, Frame Relay, MPLS/VPN and wireless, among others.

When asked the key self-service functions or capabilities that their company thinks needs immediate improvement (in the
next 12 months), respondents cited constant visibility of order process at any point, improving offer design and delivery
process, enterprise product catalog, automatically managing in-flight order changes and improving the service design
process as the areas most in need of immediate help/ improvement to enable enterprise customers to place their own
orders via Web portals, where enterprise services constitute virtualized and non-virtualized services (Figure 10).

Figure 10: What are the key self-service functions or capabilities that your company believes need immediate
improvement to enable enterprise customers to place their own orders via the web portal where
enterprise services constitute virtualized and non-virtualized services?

Source: Heavy Reading

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 Plans for SDN and NFV
Initial use cases for SDN and NFV revolve around services that are focused on business customers. Figure 11 shows
service providers’ interest in leading SDN-centric use cases. A closer look will point to the fact that most of the use cases
on operators’ wish lists are requested with business customers in mind.

Figure 11: How important are the following SDN use cases to your company?

Source: Heavy Reading

An SDN/NFV framework allows network resources to be allocated in a highly elastic manner, allowing service providers
to respond more quickly to changing business requirements and not be constrained by network limitations, proprietary
hardware or various service silos. It stands to reason that self-service/self-provisioning has great appeal for service
providers that want to enable a more agile environment, while at the same time reducing cost.

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 When we asked their plans for order orchestration in terms of SDN and NFV, 24 percent of respondents said they are
currently making investments in NFV and SDN, while another 20 percent plan to use these technologies in the next 6 to
12 months and 22 percent plan to use them in the next 12 to 24 months (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Does your company plan to use NFV

and/or SDN to deliver services to its enterprise/SMB customers?

Source: Heavy Reading

Regarding the management of hybrid service fulfillment scenarios, 41 percent of respondents said they will use a
combination of existing systems and new systems, while 30 percent report they will have a separate orchestration for
NFV (Figure 13).

Figure 13: How does your company plan to manage hybrid service fulfilment
scenarios in the world of NFV/SDN and legacy infrastructure?

Source: Heavy Reading

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 Meanwhile, 24 percent of respondents report that a centralized catalog should take a broader role and manage all VNFs
and PNFs, followed by 22 percent that feel it will help in commercial bundling and pricing of VNFs and PNFs (Figure 14).

Figure 14: What role will enterprise product catalog-driven order

management play in NFV/SDN service fulfillment?

Source: Heavy Reading

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 Conclusion
As communications service providers continue seeking
alternative revenue streams to make up for the loss of
revenue from traditional services, they are realizing they
must revamp their legacy back-office systems in order
to provide next-generation services in a timely manner.
As demand increases for next-generation services,
along with various service bundles and offerings such as
self-service, order orchestration becomes increasingly
challenging, due to the rising complexity of the order.
A comprehensive order orchestration and fulfillment
solution should have the ability to capture and process
these new types of orders without fallout or errors. The
solution must also be flexible and able to handle orders
for various customer segment types, and be efficient
enough that the order process is deemed profitable.
Further, it must be able to integrate into new NFV and
SDN frameworks that service providers are exploring as
a means of rolling out new, innovative services in a more
agile, efficient environment.
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Heavy Reading’s survey indicates that nearly half of
respondents are dissatisfied with their current order
orchestration capabilities and willing to make further
investments in these systems. Investments in both
residential/SMB and enterprise are in respondents
future plans, and the focus is on areas such as service
orchestration, KPI measurement, proactive monitoring,
and order management and decomposition.
With a quarter of respondents already making order
orchestration investments in terms of SDN and NFV, it
is clear that service providers are also looking toward
new technologies to enhance their order orchestration
capabilities to provide a superior customer experience.
Successful order orchestration vendors need to not only
provide a robust solution, but also have the services and
integration capabilities to help service providers streamline
their order-to-cash processes. Ordering processes need
to focus on end-user experience and be able to address
the purchasing experience of end users and the people
who serve them.