amdocs multichannel self service whitepaper

24
Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS) Product Overview/Whitepaper

Upload: oparikoko

Post on 06-Nov-2015

26 views

Category:

Documents


2 download

DESCRIPTION

Amdocs Multichannel Self Service Whitepaper

TRANSCRIPT

  • Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS)Product Overview/Whitepaper

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 2

    Intended Purpose and AudienceThe purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS). Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service enables service providers to empower their subscribers with advanced self-management tools for a consistent, intuitive real-time experience across devices (home PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone) providing care and commerce functionality.

    MCSS is based on the Amdocs User Experience Framework (UXF), utilizing the underlying technology and UI platform to create a consistent, extendable, rich, and easy-to-maintain user experience.

    This document describes MCSS functionality, use cases, integrations, and architecture and cross channel approach. The document is primarily targeted towards customer-facing technical personnel, such as solution architects and sales engineers, to assist them in better positioning Amdocs offerings to address the customer management needs of service providers. It also serves as the introductory primer for consulting and delivery personnel that may be involved in scoping and executing customer projects.

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 3

    Contents

    1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................5

    2 Why Service Providers Need to Transform Self-Service ..............................................................5

    2.1 Online Presence and Self-Service Opportunity ....................................................................5

    2.2 The Challenge for Service Providers ....................................................................................5

    2.2.1 Missed Consumer Expectations ................................................................................52.2.2 Inconsistency Across Channels ................................................................................62.2.3 Complexity of Flows on Mobilized Devices ...............................................................62.2.4 High Cost and Long Time-to-Market .........................................................................62.2.5 Deficiencies in Integration with Back-end Systems ...................................................6

    2.3 Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service Addresses the Challenge ..............................................6

    3 MCSS Overview .........................................................................................................................7

    3.1 Flows and Functionality Summary .......................................................................................7

    3.2 Multi-touchpoint Application Development ..........................................................................7

    3.3 Services-based Integration..................................................................................................8

    3.4 MCSS Benefits ....................................................................................................................8

    4 MCSS Main Flows ......................................................................................................................9

    4.1 Target User ..........................................................................................................................9

    4.2 User Flows ..........................................................................................................................9

    4.2.1 Billing Information and Payment ...............................................................................104.2.2 Current Usage and Trends ........................................................................................124.2.3 My Plans and Services ..............................................................................................134.2.4 Product Ordering .....................................................................................................144.2.5 Shopping Cart Persistence and Handover to Call Center ..........................................144.2.6 Order Tracking ..........................................................................................................154.2.7 Personal Settings and Notifications ..........................................................................15

    4.3 Subscriber Management and Family Functionality in MCSS ................................................15

    4.3.1 Managing a Family with a Shared Family Plan ..........................................................164.3.2 Managing a Family of Single Subscriptions ...............................................................17

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 4

    Contents (continued)

    5 Additional Functionality in MCSS ...............................................................................................18

    5.1 Recommendations ..............................................................................................................18

    5.2 Personalization, Notifications and, Charge Dispute .............................................................18

    5.3 Prepaid Customers ..............................................................................................................19

    5.4 Blending Shopping and Care ...............................................................................................20

    6 Usability .....................................................................................................................................20

    7 MCSS Architecture .....................................................................................................................21

    7.1 Functional Architecture ......................................................................................................21

    7.2 Technical Architecture .........................................................................................................22

    8 Summary ....................................................................................................................................23

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 5

    1 IntroductionThis document provides an overview of Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS) product, including functionality, benefits, and main flows. The document is organized as follows:

    Section 2 of the document highlights the industry trends and challenges service providers face today in delivering a superior self-service experience

    Section 3 summarizes the MCSS solution approach, and provides an overview of the functionality and system capabilities

    Sections 4 and 5 walk the reader through a selection of application flows and functionality

    Section 6 includes a snapshot on the approach taken during the development process to ensure superior usability and interaction design in MCSS

    Section 7 provides a short description of the functional and technical architecture of MCSS

    2 Why Service Providers Need to Transform Self-Service2.1 Online Presence and Self-Service Opportunity

    People all over the world are increasingly spending more time online, consuming more content, managing various aspects of their lives, shopping, and communicating with their friends and families. With increased capacity and reliability of wireless networks, data-enabled devices have become extremely popular, turning smartphones and tablets into the fastest growing touchpoints for online activity. According to Gartner research, in the second quarter of 2012 only, over 419 million mobile phones were sold worldwide. Between 2011 and 2016 the proportion of daily telecoms and media time spent on mobile phones is forecast to increase from 4% to 9%, and from 0.3% to 3% for tablets.

    With the widespread and accelerating adoption of smartphones and tablets, consumers today expect much more from their service providers. They expect to be always-on and connected, and expect nothing less than immediate, real-time gratification. They want the freedom to choose when and how they manage their services, and want to be personally empowered and in control with no limits. Over 75% of consumers today prefer to use online and mobile self-service tools instead of calling the contact center, and 96% expect to get personalized proactive notifications via their mobile device of issues affecting them.

    2.2 The Challenge for Service Providers

    2.2.1 Missed Consumer Expectations

    Although consumers want to utilize self-service tools and systems, service providers are not meeting their expectations:

    48% consumers dont use self-service at all due to poor usability

    40% of self-service users still end up calling the contact center because they get stuck

    80% of shopping transactions started online have to be completed in assisted channels

    52% of service providers do not use proactive notifications to solve customer issues

    Needless to say, poor customer experience impacts customer satisfaction, loyalty and willingness to recommend (net promoter score), and ultimately translates to sub-optimal revenue and high cost of service. Service providers are continuing to lag in expectations due to limitations in existing systems that are not able to keep up with the accelerating demands of customers and users. The problem is significantly compounded given todays highly dynamic, multi-device, inter-linked, mobilized environment, and Service Providers need to transform their self-service solution approaches to deal with the new many-to-many interactions environment.

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 6

    2.2.2 Inconsistency Across Channels

    Service providers are facing a number of challenges with the approaches used to develop and deploy self-service solutions today across multiple channels and touchpoints. A key issue is ensuring consistency across touchpoints, where key operations can be executed easily and in a similar manner, whether performed on a PC, tablet, or phone. A related problem is ensuring continuity of transactions across channels, where a customer can start an interaction in self-service, and pick up and complete the transaction on a different channel. Siloed back ends, incomplete data/logic in different channels, and lack of application commonality is causing this fragmentation in the end-user experience across touchpoints and channels.

    2.2.3 Complexity of Flows on Mobilized Devices

    Another issue with self-service solutions today is with the complexity of the steps required to accomplish different tasks. Often, a subset of the capabilities available on the .com website is implemented in the same manner on the new mobile touchpoints. What was already a complicated experience for most consumers on the website becomes a non-starter on mobile devices, leading to high abandonment of self-service interactions. Self-care and shopping applications on phones and tablets, and, for that matter, PCs as well, need to be provide an experience that is intuitive, easy to use, with quick-action navigation, and three gestures or less to accomplish most tasks. Although consistency and commonality needs to be maintained across touchpoints, the experience needs to be simplified and optimized for the form-factor and modalities of the touchpoint being used. Todays solutions are failing to live up to these requirements.

    2.2.4 High Cost and Long Time-to-Market

    The process of developing and launching new/incremental self-service capabilities for all touchpoints takes too long, often exceeding three months. The siloed and cumbersome approach to creating and updating applications for different channels and touchpoints is a competitive barrier and a waste of resources, and has a direct negative impact on the customer experience. Additionally, with traditional tools and development approaches, a significant amount of resources is applied to designing and adjusting screens, integrating with business support systems, updating flows and content on different platforms. This results in confusing user experience, long time-to-market, and high costs.

    2.2.5 Deficiencies in Integration with Back-end Systems

    An additional problem in todays service provider IT environment is how to effectively access and combine data from many backend systems for display and interaction on a wide array of frontend touchpoints. Integration today is often done in a tactical, hard-wired, point-to-point manner across multiple systems and front ends, compromising application development agility and reliability. Changes are difficult to make without affecting multiple systems, and changes to one area can cause unintended broad ripple effects that can have negative customer experience impacts.

    2.3 Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service Addresses the Challenge

    Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS) is a multi-touchpoint self-service application that optimizes customer engagement across online and mobile channels, by delivering an intuitive, real-time customer care and shopping experience that enables service providers to increase self-service adoption, drive online sales revenue, and increase loyalty and net promoter score.

    MCSS addresses the limitations of todays self-service solutions by providing superior usability through smart navigation and quick actions, consistent look-and-feel across devices and touchpoints, and delivery of a native experience that leverages the unique capabilities of smartphones and tablets to enhance the user experience. Additionally, MCSS includes blended care and commerce flows that turn every self-care interaction into a sales opportunity, and supports channel-hopping that allows customers to start shopping in one channel and complete their purchase on another channel.

    MCSS Create Once Deploy Many capability accelerates time-to-market for application changes across all devices and touchpoints. Additionally MCSS supports rapid deployment of front-end changes due to decoupled integration with back-end systems, enabling service providers to react faster to changing business requirements.

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 7

    3 MCSS Overview3.1 Flows and Functionality Summary

    MCSS provides a comprehensive set of flows (described more fully in section 4 of this document) and functionality for web/PCs, tablets, and phones, including support for:

    Commerce flows, allowing catalog search and browsing, comparing offers and services, receiving subscription-sensitive and usage-sensitive recommendations, context-sensitive cross- and upsell scenarios, comprehensive view of current subscriptions, and services with a configuration option

    Care flows for postpaid subscribers, allowing receipt of Bill Ready notifications, view and payment of bill, investigation of bill details and usages, review of usage trends over time, and of unbilled usage and consumption

    Care flows for prepaid users, allowing top-up of the balance, purchase of allowances, review top-up history and usage history

    Care flows for families, supporting family management, shared plans, and allowances, setting different permissions for owner and viewer subscriber types

    Consumption, usage trends, and bill history can be viewed as lists and as graphs

    Persistency of user experience and flows over touchpoints and channels (e.g., an end user can start a flow of purchasing a new service on a smartphone and then continue it later on tablet or call center)

    Contemporary UI based on UX framework with rich business widgets providing the same look-and-feel, with native experience on all the supported platforms

    Pre-integration of systems to support persistent user experience and handover.

    Application personalization with user preferences management and quick links for commonly used flows

    3.2 Multi-touchpoint Application Development

    MCSS is based on modern web architecture (HTML5, JQuery widget libraries), advanced mobile technologies (device abstraction, hybrid layer to access native device capabilities), and open integration mechanisms (REST services) to connect applications to back-end systems, such as CRM, Ordering, OSS and Billing. The MCSS development environment supports simultaneous update/customization for major form factor combinationsdesktop, tablet and phoneensuring maximum code reuse and consistency, while at the same time optimizing the applications to the specific touchpoint. MCSS includes the following areas of functionality via an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), and runtime servers and components:

    Page Creation: Supports creation of constituent pages/screens for applications in a matter of days instead of weeks/months using cutting-edge UI technology and innovative concepts such as modularity, widget libraries and layered customization (separation of core and custom application pages/components).

    Cross-touchpoint Design: Provides the ability to design pages and page components once, and have them be deployed to multiple form factors and devices.

    Mobile Enablement: Supports development, packaging and deployment of a single hybrid application to a wide range of supported devices, allowing access to native device functions such as camera capture or barcode reader, and providing runtime updates, notifications and tracking capability.

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 8

    3.3 Services-based Integration

    MCSS provides a layered and well-defined, yet decoupled, mapping between the front end (e.g., applications) and the back-end systems. The loose coupling between the applications and the back-end systems is enabled by the UI Interaction Services, a set of consistent REST (Representational State Transfer) services per touchpoint that enable the MCSS applications to interact with backend systems. These lightweight services are optimized to support specific operations with minimal footprint and low complexity. The Interaction Services layer:

    Exposes MCSS to a standardized set of generic operations that mask the specifics of back-end systems

    Ensures optimal performance for broadly distributed clients, especially mobile clients, through use of the lightweight REST protocol

    Maximizes reuse across touchpoints and across client applications

    3.4 MCSS Benefits

    Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service optimizes customer engagement across online channels to deflect calls from the call center, and improves net promoter score (NPS), sales and time-to-market by:

    Driving online usage with a consistent experience across touchpoints and unmatched usability:

    Simplifying online interactions with in-context, quick-action navigation and superior and intuitive design

    Delivering a robust user experience by leveraging smartphones capabilities

    Allowing customers to complete 80% of transactions within three gestures

    Enabling experience continuity across touchpoints

    Growing wallet share by turning every self-care interaction into a sales opportunity:

    Enable channel-hopping across touchpoints to increase sales conversion rates

    Offer the most relevant products and services based on interaction context (cross-sell)

    Leverage every care opportunity to increase sales volume (upsell)

    Complete online shopping experience with search, browse, compare and purchase products and services

    Hitting the market faster with rapid deployment across devices and touchpoints

    Create once, deploy across many devices and form factors to shorten IT cycle time

    Improve time-to-marketlaunch and update offers simultaneously across all channels

    MCSS has a unique value proposition, as it combines everything that service providers need in a comprehensive self-service solution:

    High call-deflection value for SPs due to rich out-of-the-box functionality

    Pre-Integrated with the back-end systems

    Superior cross-touchpoint customer experience

    Validated user-centric design

    Market agility and TCO reduction enabled by fast deployment

    Increased sales activity with context and user sensitive cross- and upsell available from Care screens

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 9

    4 MCSS Main Flows This section of the documents walks through the different types of flows MCSS supports. The flows are reviewed in the context of a target user (e.g., CSP subscriber), and what he is looking to accomplish in managing his services. Note, although MCSS provides a rich set of flows/pages ready-to-use, the development tools allow easy customization and extension of the application pages, including look-and-feel changes via stylesheets and other modifications.

    4.1 Target User

    Meet John Smith. He is a graduate student spending a considerable amount of time online for entertainment, studies, and social media. Given that John is constantly on the go, he has complex services and multiple devices he uses at home, on campus and during his commute or in social settings. John prefers managing his services and financials using online self-service and mobile applications. To manage his NXT account he uses the Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service application. While at home John mostly uses his tablet, and his laptop on rarer occasions, whereas when on the go he mostly uses his smartphone.

    4.2 User Flows

    MCSS supports flows for three types of residential customers, single postpaid subscriber, single prepaid subscriber, and family/multi-subscriptions. These different types of subscribers will have different landing pages matched to the functionality available for them. As we review the flows that John uses, we will be referring primarily to the single postpaid subscriber flows.

    What John likes about his NXT application is that he can use it on all of his devices: laptop, tablet, and smartphone. This way he can use his commute time on the train to view his usages and trends, review and reconfigure his services according to his current needs, and much more.

    Johns interaction with Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service always starts on his landing page. The landing page is a personalized home page that presents current cycle usages, allowances, consumption information and rated events. It also has an area featuring top offer recommendations and a menu bar designed to provide easy and intuitive navigation throughout the application. The menu allows quick navigation to the following application areas: Usage, Bill & Pay, Shop, My Products & Services, My Orders, Setting and Notifications, and, of course, the Home menu option bringing users to their personalized home page. The landing page has a consistent look-and-feel across the touchpoints and is designed to provide a native experience on mobile devices.

    FIGURE 1: POSTPAID SUBSCRIBER LANDING PAGE

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 10

    4.2.1 Billing Information and Payment

    At home, while having his morning coffee, John decides to take care of his NXT bills. Being a well-organized person, John seeks to understand his bill in detail, compare it to his previous bills, and then pay it.

    Viewing last bill: John takes his tablet and launches the NXT application. Since this is not the first time he is using the application, it signs him in automatically and opens the landing page. Tapping on the Bills & Pay menu option, John navigates to the bill summary view to learn about his bill. The bill summary includes the total charges, outstanding balance, due date, one-time charges, and recurring charges. From the bill summary John can examine his bill further or he can pay the bill and set up auto-payments.

    FIGURE 2: BILL & PAY MENU TO VIEW LAST BILL

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 11

    Examining bill details: John chooses to examine his bill further. He drills down into the charges details, which are broken down by line of business, service, and charge type. John views a list of events for voice, messaging, and data. The information displayed to him is split by usage type. For example, voice events are identified as local or international. Contact names are presented rather than contact numbers for the contact numbers that are saved as a contact on Johns tablet.

    Paying partial balance: Using his NXT application, John can make one-time full or partial payments using either an existing payment method, as stored in the CRM system, or, for example, by entering a new credit card. When performing partial payment he will be required to enter the amount he wants to pay at the moment. John can also use the application to set up automatic payments. This option is available from bill view and is also prompted after confirming a one-time payment.

    Paying the bill: John now has to rush off to work. While on the train he opens his smartphone NXT application to pay his bill. He is prompted to select a credit card or a bank account from a list of his pay means that already exist in the system. He can also choose to pay with a new credit card. He chooses to pay with a credit card that already exists in the system. After the payment is complete John is presented with payment confirmation and his balance is immediately updated, and is also prompted with an option to set an auto payment instruction.

    FIGURE 3: BILL USAGECHARGE DETAILS

    FIGURE 4: BILL PAYMENT

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 12

    Additional Billing activities: Under the Bill & Pay area the John can also perform the following activities:

    View payment history

    Drill down into old bills

    See billed charges and charges details of previous bills

    View credits in current and previous bills

    See bill trends

    Drill down into billed charges and events details

    4.2.2 Current Usage and Trends

    It is important for John to keep on top of his expenses. He needs to know his current usages status so he can add allowances or reconfigure his services accordingly and avoid paying overage charges.

    Current Usage: John can view his current usage on the landing page after opening the application, drilling into usage-related details presented in the Usage area of the application, and selecting Usage from the menu (on all touchpoints). The information displayed on the landing page includes usage of allowances in a graphical representation providing John with a clear indication of when his allowances are about to expire or what his extra charges are based on (for example international call costs, pay-as-you-go charges, or overages). On a mobile device the extra charges are presented in a separate tab to simplify the view.

    Usage Details: Since he has a few minutes before class, John decides to look into his current usage. He opens his NXT smartphone application, selects Usage from the menu and navigates to the Usage area. There he has his usage split by categories, enabling him to review his usage of voice, messaging and data. He switches between the categories to see the event details for each one. Inside each category he swipes between the views of usage, trend analysis and graphs. MCSS allows users to analyze their usage trends, such as most frequently called numbers, longest duration calls, and trends for voice, messages, and data over time (the time period is configurable by the service provider and can span up to six months of information).

    FIGURE 5: CURRENT USAGE

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 13

    Usage Trends: While examining his usages John swipes between current usage and trends views. A graphical report is displayed showing John his usage trends over time. When viewing his trends, John is presented with offers that are appropriate for his usage tendencies. Under the Voice category John swipes into a view presenting his with Most Called Numbers. He considers purchasing a Friends and Family SOC as suggested by the system.

    4.2.3 My Plans and Services

    Every couple of months John reviews the details of his current NXT subscription to ensure the plan he has suits his needs. He reviews his plans, and compares the details of his existing plan with available plans in the catalog. Should John find a more suitablehe will change his plan to the new one.

    Viewing My Plans and Services: John views the highlights of his plan by navigating to My Products & Services from the menu (he can also get to this view directly from the landing page on tablets and web). John decides to review his international calling service service configuration. In the My Products and Services area users plan details are presented together with the services that are included under it. Additional services and commitment terms are also shown.

    Configuring Plans and Services: After reviewing his international calling service configuration, John decides to reconfigure it to better suit his needs. Under the International Calling configuration, John removes UK and instead he adds Brazil and Australia. After John completes the configuration a confirmation is shown, featuring the summary of the performed changes and how it affects the charges.

    Under My Plans and Services users can view the details of their assigned plans and services and make changes to their existing subscriptions by adding services, removing optional services, changing plans or devices, and changing the parameter settings. Users can configure their services, as follows:

    Add new services to an existing plan or remove optional services

    View the price schemes of assigned and available services, select a new price scheme, add or remove allowances

    Configure the service, for example, change the size of the voice mail, select a data service or friends and family service, bar a service (such as no international calling), and select the countries covered by an international plan

    FIGURE 6: MY PLANS & SERVICES

    FIGURE 7: EDIT INTERNATIONAL CALLING

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 14

    Suspending a service: As part of configuring his services, John can suspend a service and resume a previously suspended one. He can also choose to remove a service altogether. Services can only be removed within the limits of their commitments.

    4.2.4 Product Ordering

    John is considering upgrading his phone, and he opens his NXT application and searches for suitable devices. He is having a hard time deciding, but is able to compare phones side-by-side on the application. John decides to add a new phone to his shopping cart but not to continue with the purchase at this time.

    MCSS enables users to perform a wide range of shopping activities, allowing:

    Searching for a plan, a service or an allowance and purchasing it

    Browsing through the catalog and choosing a suitable plan or device

    Comparing between available plans in order to pick one best suited for the user

    Comparing between devices and their properties in order to pick one best suited for the user

    Adding a product to the shopping cart and proceeding with a purchase at later time

    Accessing the shopping cart from a different touchpoint to review and update its content

    Upgrading a plan, while configuring it to suit the users needs

    Upgrading a device

    Creating a new subscriber, selecting a device, choosing and configuring plan and services

    Getting a detailed order summary and purchase confirmation upon completion of the purchase

    While changing the plan, users can configure existing services, or add and remove optional services from the plan. Adding new services might require changing the plan. Users can also purchase a stand-alone allowance on top of a plan. For example: 100 minutes for voice, 200 MB data, or 100 messages. While selecting a new plan, users can either associate it with an existing subscription and replace the existing plan, or create a new subscription. All price plans are displayed with taxes and discounts.

    4.2.5 Shopping Cart Persistence and Handover to Call Center

    On his home computer John opens the NXT Website to continue his new device purchase. His selection is safely stored in his NXT shopping cart from his previous session, in which he added it using his tablet. John has some questions about the device, and he decides to contact the call center. The call center representative on the phone greets John and asks his whether he is calling regarding the new device that he is considering to purchase. Having his questions quickly answered by the representative, John is now able to complete his purchase either with the agent, or later on by himself online.

    FIGURE 8: COMPARE PHONES ON TABLET

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 15

    4.2.6 Order Tracking

    John can track his orders online and see whether his order was shipped. He can see his previous orders, their costs and details.

    4.2.7 Personal Settings and Notifications

    John wants to reconfigure his notification settings. He would like to receive notifications only on his mobile devices and not on the web, SMS or email. For this purpose John opens his NXT application on his mobile phone and goes to Settings. Under Settings My NXT he configures the notifications. Users can manage their personal settings and profile on all touchpoints. All settings are synchronized with the CRM system. Personal Settings are split into the following subsets:

    Customer profile settingincludes contact details (full name), contact address, email address, contact phone number, and pay means (whether the customer is paying by direct debit or credit card, and the details of the account)

    Billing-related settingsincludes billing address and payment method (auto payment or monthly one-time payments)

    Application settingsenables users to sign out of the application and to configure notifications (for example: allow notifications), set their preference for silent login or explicit login, and password selection

    4.3 Subscriber Management and Family Functionality in MCSS

    We saw John handling his NXT subscription using MCSS as a single subscriber. What would his NXT experience if he were managing a family account? In this case, he would need to handle several subscriptions, and possibly choose a family plan with shared allowances. MCSS has extensive capabilities for multi-subscription management, including families.

    FIGURE 9: SHOPPING CART ON WEB

    FIGURE 10: PERSONAL SETTINGS AND NOTIFICATIONS ON SMARTPHONE

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 16

    Family implies some sort of a hierarchy where different family members have different permissions. For example a child probably should not be able to purchase goods for himself without a parent being involved. To allow this flexibility Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service supports two roles for family scenario:

    Ownera family member, usually the one paying the bill, who has full set of permissions allowing the management of family subscriptions and permissions

    Viewerthis family member will only be able to view the services he has and view consumptions and usages. He will not be able to perform any changes to the subscription

    Managing family permissions and plans is a complex task, requiring attention to the needs of each family member. Therefore a full set of family management activities for an Owner user is supported on the Web UI while a more limited functionality is available on the tablet and mobile phone for all user types.

    4.3.1 Managing a Family with a Shared Family Plan

    Changing a Family Plan: One evening, John decides to update his NXT subscription. He wants to buy additional services for his family that would better suit their needs. John sits down with his laptop to adjust the services for himself, his wife and kids. He begins by viewing the family dashboard.

    Viewing Family Plan: A month later, John wants to look into his NXT subscription and analyze the usage for the family. He goes to Plans & Services screen to review his family plan. He begins by looking at the shared family definitions. And then he switches to view his own usage trends.

    By default in MCSS there is one family owner who in turn can choose to add Owner permissions to other family members, thus allowing them to also manage the family subscriptions. Subscribers with view only permissions will not be able to perform changes; they will only be able to view their details using Web as well as tablets and mobile phones.

    FIGURE 11: FAMILY DASHBOARD

    FIGURE 12: FAMILY PLANS & SERVICES FIGURE 13: USAGE TRENDS

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 17

    4.3.2 Managing a Family of Single Subscriptions

    MCSS allows managing a family without a shared family planwhen each member has a separate subscription with his own plan and allowances. In such case (of a multi-subscription user) it is possible that some of the family members have a postpaid subscription and some prepaid. Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service provides a good user experience for a Family subscriber on mobile touchpoints in the following way:

    A Family Member using Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service on a mobile device or a tablet can view his details and usage

    A Family Owner using mobile device or tablet can choose a subscription to handle (one at a time) and perform actions on behalf of that family member only, without impacting the family-level subscription if one exists. For example an Owner will be able to top up buckets, change configurations, add/remove and suspend/resume services and more

    Usage analysis in multi-subscription families: When a family is managed without a shared family plan but rather as a multi-subscription entity, the Owner user has to choose the subscription (the family member) he wants to handle.

    Viewing usage trends of a single subscription on the

    Web: At this time John wants to view his own usage trends.

    Buying allowance for a single family member via tablet: When handling a family which is a multi-subscription entity, the set of functionality available is the same as an individual user experiences is available on other across all touchpoints. On the tablet application John chooses the subscriber he wants to handle at this timeJohn Smith. He then chooses and buys himself an additional data allowance.

    FIGURE 14: HANDLING A SINGLE SUBSCRIBER IN A MULTI- SUBSCRIBER ENTITY

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 18

    5 Additional Functionality in MCSS 5.1 Recommendations

    Recommending a Friends and Family Service: A user viewing her most called numbers details, is presented with the recommendation to purchase a Friends and Family SOC. If this option is selected, the five most called numbers are added to the plan by default, but users can manually control is the numbers included in their plan.

    Recommending Voice Packages: Based on the analysis of voice calls made over the preceding months, users can be prompted to buy an additional voice package including a block of minutes for a set price.

    Recommending Message Packages: Based on the analysis of messages sent over the preceding months, users can be prompted to buy an additional message package which includes a fixed number of messages for a set price.

    Recommending Data Packages: Based on the analysis of data usage over the preceding months, users can be prompted to buy an additional data package with a fixed amount of data usage for a set price.

    5.2 Personalization, Notifications, and Charge Dispute

    Notifications: Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service provides push notifications both on device and in the application to inform the user about important events and provide proactive care by notifying about exceptional situations. A Bill Ready notification is sent to the user once the bill is ready. The user can click on the notification to pay the bill. This notification comes from the billing system. Proactive motivation-driven notifications are available due to MCSS integration with the Amdocs Proactive Care (Insight) solution. The following proactive notifications are available in MCSS:

    Bill Plan Overagebill exceeds standard usage limits determined by Amdocs Proactive Care business rules

    Abnormal Feesa bill includes abnormal fee charges. For example, Late Fee

    Third-party Chargesa new charge (type = third party) on current bill which did not appear in any of the past six customer bills. For example, Ringtone and Game

    Last Payment After Next Billpayment was processed after the next bill was produced, so the bill balance does not take the payment into account

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 19

    Abnormal Fees Notifications are meant to allow the user to view the charge and initiate a dispute online, instead of seeing the charge later and contacting the call center. This is done by leading the user to a Dispute Charge screen. When the application is closed and the user sees the notification on device, tapping on the notification will launch the application, then allows the user to step through the flow. When tapping on the motivation-notification inside the application, the user will be immediately navigated to the relevant screen to perform the suggested activity.

    Quick Links: In addition, Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service learns the app usage habits of the user and creates quick links for them thus further simplifying the user experience.

    A user can choose to turn off this personalized Quick Links behavior in the same way the notifications functionality can be turned on and offon and off.

    5.3 Prepaid Customers

    Earlier in this document Johns experiences as a post-paid subscriber were described. Now we will describe Johns experience with MCSS as a prepaid user. Subscriber type is determined by the system during login, and an appropriate landing page is presented.

    View Balance, Usage and History: A Prepaid subscriber will be shown a suitable landing page suitable, featuring current balance, prepaid buckets and allowances consumption, and allowing the user to top up. The user can drill down into usage details to see the events of voice, messages, and data, and view the top up history.

    Top-Up and Auto Top-Up: For user convenience, in a quick top up scenario the user is offered to top up the same amount as the last time. The user can change the amount according to need and top up by credit card, direct debit or

    FIGURE 15: CHARGE DISPUTE

    FIGURE 16: VIEW BALANCE, USAGE, AND HISTORY

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 20

    using a voucher. The user can configure Auto top-up to be applied. Auto top-up can be configured per bucket with amount, pay means and frequency. The user can also choose to cancel Auto top-up.

    5.4 Blending Shopping and Care

    MCSS utilizes Amdocs Business Support Systems providing comprehensive solution that:

    Presents only plans and services that user is eligible to buy

    Provides relevant cross-selling in context of viewing usage trends

    Upselling in context of installed base

    When searching for plans, the system takes into account the plan the user currently has

    Provides recommendations on home page

    6 UsabilityA positive first impression and ease-of-use is a critical aspect of ensuring stickiness of self-service solutions. A well designed, easy-to-use, slick-looking UI can make an enormous difference in an applications success. A disciplined and thorough approach to ensuring high usability characteristics was taken for MCSS during the design and development process. Focus and attention was paid to ensuring superior usability as stated by a leading standards organizationeffectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which a specified set of users can achieve a specified set of tasks in a particular environment.

    In developing MCSS, we followed the industry standard design methodology user centered design. This methodology consists of several stages:

    Functional Analysisillustration of user navigation and information architecture done by usability experts

    Wireframesbuilding the functional design concept and wireframes that illustrate the layout of the pages and interaction pattern. The wireframes were validated by usability experts in order to ensure alignment with usability standards and industry best practices

    Graphic Designmultiple graphic concepts were created and a new slick graphic concept supporting consistency across multiple touch points was selected to proceed with

    Validationthe design was validated in several paths:

    Usability Testing: assessing the effectiveness of the user interfaces by observing actual users performing simulated tasks, and gain further insight into the mental model, preferences, behavioral patterns, and expected terminology of the actual users. During MCSS development a number of usability tests were conducted resulting in design updates based on the tests outcome. Enhanced flows were subjected to an additional round of testing resulting in ~70% improvements in task completion. MCSS received positive feedback about the flows ease of use. Most of the testers stated: If I could, I would use this application.

    Service Provider Testing: As part of the MCSS pilot project during the design phase, the application was presented to business stakeholders in two major Amdocs customers. Customer representatives were requested to perform several tasks in the MCSS application. The completion rate of the tasks was high and the customers were pleased from the simplicity of the flows. The pilot activity provided valuable feedback, including improvement opportunities which were then analyzed and implemented.

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 21

    External Validations: MCSS was reviewed by external experts such as Human Factors International (HFI), and other external design teams to evaluate the application and provide feedback. HFI Executive Summary has graded the application to have very high usability, emphasizing scalable and flexible application design. Suggested improvements from the external validations have been analyzed, and are included in MCSS design.

    7 MCSS Architecture7.1 Functional Architecture

    From functional architecture perspective, MCSS can be viewed as three layers comprised of customer-facing UI, front-end services, and back-end services provided by BSS systems.

    UX Framework Clientthe top layer in the diagram, containing HTML 5 based UI for all touchpoints

    UX Framework Serverthe middle layer in the diagram. This layer contains the UI REST-ul services implementing basic business logic and relevant data manipulations

    BSSthe bottom layer consisting of back-end systems such as Amdocs Billing, Amdocs CRM, Amdocs Ordering, and also MCSS back-end modules (Sales Engine, Bill Presentment). Integration with backend systems is achieved via back-end business API

    USER ANDBUSINESSNEEDS ANALYSIS

    FUNCTIONALANALYSIS

    WIREFRAMES GRAPHICDESIGN

    HIGH-FIDELITYPROTOTYPE

    VALIDATION

    FIGURE 17: EXTERNAL VALIDATION

    UX FRAMEWORK CLIENT DESKTOPSHTML 4/5SMARTPHONES

    HTML5TABLETSHTML5

    UX FRAMEWORK SERVERREST UI SERVICES

    BUSINESS LOGIC MAPPING/AGGREGATION/DATA MANIPULATION

    API/EJB

    REST

    PIM/SOA CIH/EJB

    CRM BILLING CASE

    CREATION INTERACTION CUSTOMER

    PERSONAL UPDATES PAY MEANS PAY INSTRUCTION RECHARGE

    INSTRUCTION

    BILLINGCHARGING UNBILLED USAGE ALLOWANCE

    BILLINGREPENISHMENT PREPAID BALANCE TOP-UP

    ORDERING ASSIGNED PRODUCT ORDER CREATION ORDER QUOTE ORDER TRACKING PRODUCT

    CONFIGURATION PRODUCT

    COMPATIBILITY ELIGIBILITY RESOURCE

    ALLOCATION

    SELF-SERVICE QUICK ACTIONS PERSONAL SETTINGS LOGGING,

    REGISTRATION BILL PRESENTATION USAGE ANALYSIS

    SALES ENGINE CATALOG DISCOVERY CROSS-/UPSELLING LIST PRICE RECOMMENDATION

    BILLING A/R BILL PAYMENT POSTPAID A/R PAYMENT HISTORY

    BILLING CM BILLING PROFILE

    INSIGHT MOTIVATION NOTIFICATION

    FIGURE 18: MCSS FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 22

    7.2 Technical Architecture

    Aligned with the functional layers, the technical architecture has three primary layers, the end-user facing UI, the UXF and MCSS back-end application servers, and the BSS systems integration. MCSS supports horizontal scalability at all layers. Application server nodes can be added as needed to scale to large volumes of transactions. The database component uses data-replication and supports segmenting data across multiple DB instances in order to support large implementations that may require storing massive data volumes that do not fit in a single database.

    Superior end-user response time is provided by MCSS, including screen rendering and refreshes on mobile devices occurring in ~0.5 seconds or less for most screens, and not exceeding one second for the most complex screens. The system supports high availability, including allowing configuration/reference data changes in production environment without restarting server components. MCSS is architected to have 99.999% availability. Furthermore, failover is done seamlessly in a way that end users are not impacted and are able to continue with their activities.

    In case of failed system processes, data integrity is maintained, and MCSS is able to continue functioning without errors from the point of failure.

    FIGURE 19: MCSS TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE

  • AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 23

    MCSS back-end servers consist of the following modules:

    MCSS FE Serverfront end server responsible for REST services functionality

    Cachecontains customer information to be accessed by all front ends

    eBill BEimplements the import of billed data and integrates with live Billing system, and covers the following functional aspects of care:

    Unbilled usages, balance view, prepaid functionality, performing payments. To provide this functionality e-Bill module integrates directly with Amdocs Billing

    Billed usages and usage trends, previous bills and reportsare implemented based on information saved in MCSS database. This information is imported from the Billing system and saved in MCSS Data Base for up to 18 months

    SE (Sales Engine and E-Commerce Module)handles functionality around My Products and Services, Recommendations and cross- and upsell, Shopping Cart and Order Tracking. The module has the following components and integrations:

    Sales Engine within MCSS provides advanced catalog browsing experience, sophisticated search capabilities, recommendations, cross- and upsell

    EPC import process extracts the catalog distribution from Amdocs EPC and loads data to the MCSS instance of Sales Engine

    Amdocs Ordering integration providing assigned products management and configuration, shopping cart capabilities, order management and tracking. It works with Ordering stateless API (no process management). API additions and performance improvements were done in Amdocs Ordering to allow additional functionality and improved performance in MCSS

    Product model is based on ASPIMAmdocs Shared Portfolio Information Model (implementation of the cross-portfolio-adopted IDC model for the current portfolio version)

    Self-service SOAP WEB Services is a module exposing web services of old AMSS backend functionality including the AMSS built in shopping cart, rate and review services and support module

    8 SummaryAmdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS) is a multi-touchpoint self-service application that optimizes customer engagement across online and mobile channels, by delivering an intuitive, real-time customer care and shopping experience that enables service providers to increase self-service adoption, drive online sales revenues and increase loyalty and net promoter score.

    Todays self-service applications are inconsistent and complex, resulting in high interaction fall out and application abandonment. 48% consumers dont use self-service at all due to poor usability, 40% of self-service users still end up calling the contact center because they get stuck, and over 80% of shopping transactions started online have to be completed in assisted channels.

    MCSS addresses the limitations of todays self-service solutions by providing superior usability, through smart navigation and quick actions, consistent look and feel across devices and touch points, and a delivery of a native experience the leverages the unique capabilities of the smartphone to enhance the user experience. Additionally, MCSS includes blended care and commerce flows that turn every self-care interaction into a sales opportunity, and supports channel-hopping that allows customers to start shopping in one channel and complete their purchase on another channel.

  • About Amdocs

    For more than 30 years, Amdocs has ensured service providers success and embraced their biggest challenges. To win in the connected world, service providers rely on Amdocs to simplify the customer experience, harness the data explosion, stay ahead with new services and improve operational efficiency. The global company uniquely combines a market-leading BSS, OSS and network control product portfolio with value-driven professional services and managed services operations. With revenue of $3.2 billion in fiscal 2012, Amdocs and its 20,000 employees serve customers in more than 60 countries. Amdocs: Embrace Challenge, Experience Success. For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.

    Amdocs has offices, development and support centers worldwide, including sites in:

    THE AMERICAS: ASIA PACIFIC: EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA:

    BRAZIL AUSTRALIA AUSTRIA ISRAEL SPAIN

    CANADA CHINA CYPRUS KAZAKHSTAN SWEDEN

    COSTA RICA INDIA CZECH REPUBLIC THE NETHERLANDS UNITED KINGDOM

    MEXICO JAPAN FRANCE POLAND UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DUBAI

    UNITED STATES PHILIPPINES GERMANY RUSSIA

    SINGAPORE IRELAND SOUTH AFRICA

    TAIWAN

    THAILAND

    VIETNAM

    For the most up-to-date contact information for all Amdocs offices worldwide, please visit our website at www.amdocs.com/corporate.asp

    Copyright 2013 Amdocs. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution other than for intended purposes is prohibited, without the prior written consent of Amdocs. The trademarks and service marks of Amdocs, including the Amdocs mark and logo, Intentional Customer Experience, CES, Clarify, Ensemble, Enabler, Return on Relationship, Intelecable, Collabrent, XACCT, DST Innovis, Stibo Graphic Software, Qpass, Cramer, SigValue, JacobsRimell, ChangingWorlds, jNetX, OpenMarket Inc., MX Telecom Inc., MX Telecom Ltd, Streamezzo, and Bridgewater Systems are the exclusive property of Amdocs, and may not be used without permission. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.