Enterprise networking solutions are composed of complex service offerings that change dynamically and are configured uniquely for each customer. Consequently, the sales and implementation processes for service providers are lengthy and inefficient, and customer proposals are inaccurate, often resulting in high fulfillment rejection rates.

Especially in the lead-to-order process, the sheer complexity of the offering necessitates multiple design iterations or even a completely new design. The complex pre-sales process that demands intense collaboration between application engineers, sales engineers and network engineers further compounds the challenge with manual task errors—adding more fuel to the fire!

It does not end there, flowing into the order-to-cash process as well. Rarely has there been a seamless integration of the pre-sale, ordering and service fulfillment processes. In the same vein, change management while maintaining the solution's validity is another big challenge that service providers struggle to deal with. If that's not enough, a multi-phase implementation and the lack of effective collaboration between the sales and fulfillment teams leaves service providers dealing with issues galore in what should be a pretty smooth process.

The Effective Sell and Fulfillment of Advanced Network Services and Solutions Catalyst project will be demonstrated at Management World Americas 2010, taking place November 9-11, 2010 at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Fla. On display in Forumville, this initiative integrates CRM, solution management and OSS to optimize the lead-to-cash process.

This Catalyst demonstrates the following benefits:

• Improved Lead-to-Order Process
  • Improved sales productivity through automation and collaboration
  • Improved sales accuracy through a rule-based solution design
  • Reduced time to revenue
  • Less fallout in the order to cash processes through improved collaboration tools for sales, sales engineers and network engineers
  • Faster time to value through the re-use of best practices
• Streamlined Order-to-Cash Process
  • Sales Force Automation (SFA) talks 'networking' with Ordering and Provisioning
  • Faster Activation - Delivering the services and solution right the first-time (As-intended → As-designed → As-built)
  • Easy tracking of customers' implementation status
  • Efficient provisioning of new services when the blueprint is maintained with 'as built' adjustments to keep pace with the customers' evolving needs

Phase I of this Catalyst, which was demonstrated at Management World 2010, streamlined the entire sales process from sales force opportunity generation through the design, quote and proposal generation process.

The objective of Phase II of the Catalyst project is to further evolve a framework, consistent with the Application Framework (TAM), to help service providers improve sales productivity and design accuracy, reduce time-to-revenue and streamline order management and provisioning. The collaboration, championed by Qwest, employs Salesforce.com's Sales Force Automation (SFA) platform, Netformx's DesignXpert and Subex's NetProvision and Vector fulfillment solutions, and will demonstrate how to integrate sales management, solution management and OSS to achieve these goals.

To learn more about this Catalyst, please visit the web page, or better still, visit Forumville for a live demonstration. To learn more about individual Catalyst participant companies and their solutions, click here.