BANGALORE, INDIA: The convergence of networks, systems and devices is revolutionizing the communications industry.  As technological progress redefines the marketplace, communication service providers (CSPs) or telecommunications companies (telcos) face a unique set of lucrative opportunities and momentous challenges.

Infosys BPO has adopted a matrix structure that helps bring forth their understanding of the CSP industry drivers, deep domain expertise, and IT capabilities to offer clients solutions that cover the whole range of services Infosys BPO provides , such as lower SG&A costs, improve cost of revenues/ services and enhance top-line revenues.

"To help the service provider reduce cost of revenue, firstly you need to have the industry knowledge and  secondly you require technology intervention. Through the use of technology, we can break down the cost for revenues. That's again the advantage we have because of the parentage of Infosys BPO," says Gopal Devanahalli, VP and head of the Communication Service Providers SBU, Infosys BPO.

Excerpts:

CIOL: How successful are enterprises in addressing the challenging economic environment by way of cost reduction ?

Gopal Devanahalli: In the wake of the global economic crisis, companies have been under pressure to reduce costs drastically. However, surveys show that most companies are focusing on the large variable costs that have an immediate, significant impact (e.g., travel and entertainment, administrative staff, suspending capital investments etc). Unfortunately, as soon as external pressure drops, these costs tend to creep back into the cost base. Research shows that only initiatives that focus on 'reducing the cost of revenues' or on reducing system inefficiencies have a significant long term impact.

A number of global telecom players that we are working with are undertaking such 'long-term impact' cost reduction initiatives.

* The Network Access Cost Management work that we are doing with a European
connectivity solutions provider has enabled them to save $100 million over the last five years through circuit inventory cleansing.
 * A large global connectivity provider that we are working with has freed up considerable amount of time their sales people spent doing admin work by partnering with us to create an offshore Sales CoE which would handle admin related work including complex work like bid management, resulting in reduction of bid turn around times and also in significantly reducing the bid management costs.
* We are also working with the fleet management team of a US-based global telecom giant to drive down maintenance costs by extending the life of vehicle parts before they are replaced on fleet vehicles. The use of analytic techniques has enabled us to predict the life expectancy of vehicle spares, thus helping the client to ensure that the spares are not replaced before their life time is over, resulting in savings to the tune of close to $3 million a year.

CIOL:  How has Infosys BPO been helping CSPs and telcos lower SG&A cost and increase revenues?

GD: Most BPOs tend to focus on generic solutions aimed at reducing costs e.g. SG&A solutions like Customer Service, F&A, Procurement, etc. Our understanding of the telecom industry drivers, deep domain expertise, and IT capabilities have enabled us to offer our clients solutions that do not just aim at lowering SG&A costs, but also reduce cost of revenues/ services and increase top-line revenues.

On the 'Cost of Revenues' front, we have leveraged our domain understanding and technological capabilities to develop solutions across the Fulfillment, Assurance and Billing areas. One area we are focusing on is Network Financial Management which includes offerings like Circuit Inventory Management and Network Access Cost Management.

Our 'Revenue Enhancement' solutions also leverage on our domain and technology expertise to enhance client revenues through analytics (e.g. Churn analytics) and Revenue Assurance solutions. Even on the traditional SG&A offerings front, we offer added value to our clients by leveraging our industry experience, domain understanding and technology capabilities. For example, in the 'Customer Service' space we have introduced a tool to guide advisors through trouble shooting calls by making use of pre-built scenarios, thereby reducing call handling time as well chances of advisor error.