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Trouble-to-Resolution: Fewer and Faster

Abstract
Trouble-to-resolution is one of the few telecom processes for which less is more. Some of its most positive metrics are those showing negative growth troubles, dispatch, call center costs, handling and repair time, SLA penalties. This paper offers a strategy for trouble-to-resolution that is designed to achieve those positive metrics in our next generation, converged industry. The goals, we argue, are not only to speed resolution, but, more importantly, to reduce the number of troubles that enter the process in the first place.

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Introduction: Market Maturity Means No Cover for Troubles

It was not long ago that the focus across telecom markets enterprise, mobile, mobile data, and residential broadband was squarely on growth. Operators were driving to command market share and grow subscribers, usage, and revenues. Cost-side issues, like resolving troubles, were important but not at the top of the priority list. Many markets have now matured to the point where operators are showing renewed interest in operational excellence and doing things right the first time, in order to control costs and reduce churn. Trouble-to-resolution, the seven-stage process that starts with a network or service problem or the proactive anticipation of a problem and ends with resolution, is a perfect candidate for operators attention.

Trouble-to-Resolution Time Trouble Occurs

(Incident or Event) Alarm monitoring, customer care, and proactive analytics all provide indications of trouble Remote visibility allows CSR to troubleshoot the fault before dispatch

Trouble to Indication Indication to Root Cause Root Cause to Trouble Ticket

Automated correlation deduces root causes Integration with logical equipment and service inventory quickly identifies affected services

Reducing Total Time

Reducing Total Cost

Trouble Ticket to Fault Isolation Fault Isolation to Dispatch Dispatch to Correction Correction to Resolution Resolution
Enhancing Customer Experience

A designed data approach expedites correlation of faults to services Automated fault isolation maintains one or fewer dispatches per ticket Automated workforce management manages a large expense component

Verification minimizes chronics/repeats

Economic Impact For typical service providers, Trouble-to-Resolution activities account for 25-35% of total cash expense.

Figure 1 End-to-End View of the Trouble-to-Resolution Process

Troubles are enormously costly. Trouble-to-resolution activities account for 25% to 35% of total cash expenses for the typical service provider. In fact, Telcordia engagements have shown that, by improving trouble handling, operators can cut costs by:

20% to 30% on call centers 20% to 50% on network operations and staffing 10% to 35% on dispatch 10% to 30% on Service Level Agreement (SLA) penalties and churn.

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The question is how to take control of trouble handling in an environment where networks and services have become extraordinarily complex and dynamic, the chances of outages and performance problems are only increasing, and customers have little tolerance for trouble and easy access to competitors.

Adopting a New Three-Tier Outlook

Controlling the time and resources devoted to trouble-to-resolution requires an updated approach to three familiar challenges: finding the root cause of trouble, sizing up the trouble, and designing a resolution. Root cause analysis needs to extend wider and deeper: Troubles today can reside in traditional places, like network elements and circuits, but the causes of problems like connectivity issues, sluggish performance, or application failures can also be extremely subtle. And when you misdiagnose the true source of a problem, the result is wasted time and effort on a solution that does not work and prolonged degradation of the customer experience. Operators today need more sophisticated monitoring capabilities that deliver views beyond network elements and circuits, reaching all the way into home and office networks and customer premise devices, routers, and computers to remotely and automatically check parameters, test performance, and even solve some problems. Being able to zero in on the most subtle origins of trouble eliminates a healthy percentage of customer calls, shortens the duration of remaining calls, closes out calls faster, and, as we have stated, avoids future outages that will degrade customer experiences. Trouble size-up must be holistic: Understanding a problem also requires a view that can follow a service along its entire pathway. A typical service today may originate on a handset, go through a tower, into a backhaul network, to an Ethernet switch, and through an application server en route to its destination. An error could result from any number of protocol mismatches or out-of-alignment connections anywhere along the way. As a result, a traditional key performance indicator may look fine, yet other types of quality metrics should be acknowledged and measured to understand the service from the subscribers perspective. Recognizing the underpinnings of the customer experience involves having service models that link operational and business metrics, proactively track relevant metrics from diverse Operations Support Systems (OSSs) and network elements, and employ analytic capabilities that can prioritize repairs based on their business impact. Every fix must be systemic: When you are armed with a far more subtle and holistic knowledge of the trouble, it is easier to find a solution that prevents the trouble (and its costs) from recurring, because you can address all appropriate technologies and locations along the service pathway. Whats more, a holistic, systemic approach reduces the time to settle on the correct remedy, minimizes human intervention, and allows you to assign and manage trouble resolution resources more efficiently.

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Achieving More Rewarding Outcomes

With more penetrating network and service views and more sophisticated, automated monitoring capabilities, each of the familiar, seven steps in the trouble-to-resolution process can produce more impactful operational improvements. 1. Trouble to Indication Alarm monitoring, proactive analytics, and customer care that spans the service pathway and reaches the premises can predict or find trouble faster and minimize service degradation. 2. Indication to Root Cause Automated correlation deduces root causes, and remote visibility lets customer service reps troubleshoot before they commit dispatch resources. 3. Root Cause to Trouble Ticket A sophisticated, automated approach to data integrity management, which integrates logical equipment and service inventory, expedites correlation of faults to services. 4. Trouble Ticket to Fault Isolation Automated isolation results in one or even fewer dispatches per ticket. 5. Fault Isolation to Dispatch Automated work force management with dynamic scheduling and optimized routing significantly controls the cost per dispatch. 6. Dispatch to Correlation Verification capabilities minimize chronic and repeat troubles. 7. Correction to Resolution Automated, holistic process steps lead to resolutions involving less time and cost and greater protection of the customer experience.

Network Fault & Performance Field Force Management Testing & Diagnostics

Service Management

Trouble-to-Resolution

Remote CPE Management

Proactively Predict & Prevent Trouble Rapidly & Accurately Find Root Cause of Faults Reduce Time & Cost to Resolve Troubles

Figure 2 Benefits of a Comprehensive Approach

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Conclusion: Less Trouble, More Earnings

The benefits that can accrue from a more automated, intelligent trouble-to-resolution process can cut across the entire service delivery spectrum. It starts with fast, proactive root cause analysis, not only to find but also to predict and prevent trouble, and includes the ability to understand just how subtle next generation troubles can be and the need for systemic solutions. Evidence from the field demonstrates that this type of trouble-to-resolution approach one that is in sync with converged communications can unblock revenue, slash mean-time-to-repair, cut fleet expenses, and reduce the number and duration of service calls. But the most important metric will be fewer troubles progressing through the process in the first place.

For more information about Telcordia, contact your local account executive, or you can reach us at: +1 800.521.2673 (U.S. and Canada) +44 (0)1276 515515 (Europe) +1 732.699.5800 (all other countries) info@telcordia.com www.telcordia.com

Copyright 2009 Telcordia Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.

MC-COR-WP-018