Each solution needs its own configuration, so you can't program everything manually

ServiceNow - thanks in part to input from KPN - has developed the brand new system Telecom Service Management. This offers telecom providers one unified order management platform for all telecom services, partners and customers. Cegeka designed the TSM implementation plan for KPN, plays a major role in that implementation and remains active in maintenance and further development.

Countless services, unworkable amount of scenarios

With Smart Combinations, business KPN customers have a variety of integrated services at their disposal. These include network, security, the digital workplace and cloud communications. What makes it complex? KPN delivers more and more services and therefore has to collaborate with a fast-growing number of parties, with great interdependence between all those services.

Daan Vos, solution architect at Cegeka: "Every solution, for example, needs its own configuration, which gives you so many scenarios that you can't program everything manually. Previously, KPN used the ServiceNow Order Management module for Customer Service Management. With this non-branch-specific solution, it took KPN and Cegeka an incredible amount of time to develop and configure everything properly. So KPN was eagerly looking forward to a smart telecom-specific order management platform that brings all services together."

End-to-end automation and streamlining

Not only KPN, but all major telecom providers worldwide were struggling with this problem. That's why ServiceNow - in collaboration with several major providers, including KPN - developed the Telecom Service Management (TSM) solution. This system provides one unified platform for all telecom services, partners and customers. TSM automates and streamlines the order management process end-to-end for both new orders, change orders and customer service terminations.

The platform was developed with telecom providers, but now proves to be suitable for other industries offering digital services as well. ServiceNow has therefore renamed the product Order Management for Telecom, Media & Technology. The platform contains all kinds of industry-specific functionalities; at the same time, there are plenty of opportunities for providers to develop customizations.

Vos: "TSM essentially translates what KPN sells into what it delivers. Thanks to the automated, catalog-driven workflow, everything gets to the right party at the right time. As a result, the software package tackles all the complex challenges KPN was facing."

Close cooperation KPN, Cegeka, ServiceNow and other partners 

Immediately after the release, the provider decided to implement TSM. Vos already has almost five years of experience with ServiceNow solutions within KPN. So he knows exactly which order management issues the company is struggling with and where it wants to go. KPN therefore asked the solution architect to design the implementation and migration proposal.

The development team consists of twenty professionals: ten from Cegeka, seven from KPN and three from other partners. KPN is the owner. Cegeka plays a major role in the implementation and migration to TSM - and later also in the maintenance and further development of the platform. Vos has the lead within the project and represents KPN at the Product Advisory Council of ServiceNow.

Vos: "We work very closely with KPN and the other partners; we sit in the provider's office every week. We also have a pretty intensive relationship with ServiceNow. This is reciprocal: on the one hand, KPN buys the product, on the other hand it is a strategic partner of ServiceNow and provides suggestions and wishes to improve the platform."

“No one can win on their own," Pele said. 'For us the same applies: the cooperation with Cegeka was crucial to achieve our goal”

Marco Damen, Product Owner ServiceNow at KPN

Adding products quickly

The first part of the solution is live: all flagship products are now being implemented one by one on the order management platform. It will still take years to onboard all Smart Combinations products, although brand new KPN product portfolios that are currently under development will be added already in 2023.

Vos: "The platform itself has a generic architecture with, for example, one catalog and one integration with the sales system. But each new product still requires some manual configuration work. Fortunately, by using reusable software building blocks, we can add products relatively quickly."

From efficiency and better customer experience to a single source of truth

The first products have only just gone live. One great result is already in: the transfer of orders from the sales system to ServiceNow has been reduced from an average of three days to a few seconds thanks to TSM's full automation.

Other than that, we cannot yet present business results supported by figures. However, given current performance, KPN's new order management platform is almost certainly going to provide:

• Employees working more efficiently and making fewer mistakes thanks to smart automation.
• Shorter product delivery times.
• An optimized customer experience through faster response times, among other things.
• Better time-to-market for new products within the portfolio.
• Fewer orders falling out in the transfer from sales to delivery.
• One source of truth: as all services are provided from a single unified platform.
• New insights as more central, unified and up-to-date data is available.
• Decommissioning of old, homegrown solutions.