Ziggo Case Study - Amdocs

AMDOCS CUSTOMER success storyLEADING NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SERVICEPROVIDER STREAMLINES ITS OPERATIONS THROUGHINVENTORY CONSOLIDATION WITH AMDOCS OSS“Amdocs OSS saves time locating equipment, reduces wastedsite visits, and has helped to reduce operational costs.”Paul HendriksChief Technology Officer at ZiggoAMDOCS > CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SYSTEMS INNOVATION

AMDOCS CUSTOMER success storyCOMPANY AT A GLANCECOMPANY: ZiggoHEADQUARTERS: Utrecht, The NetherlandsWEBSITE: www.ziggo.nlREVENUES: €1,284 billion (2009)STOCK MARKET: Privately held by Zesko Holding B.V.EMPLOYEES: 2,257 (end 2009)SUBSCRIBERS: 3.2m households; 1.6m digital, 1.5mbroadband and 1m telephony customersSERVICES: Broadband Internet (HSIA), Cable TV, HDTV,video-on-demand, Telephony, VLAN and VPNservicesChallenges> Merger of three regional organizations resulted in morethan twenty separate and disconnected OSS> Improve the customer experience while reducingoperational costs and reducing time to deploy new servicesSOLUTION> Rationalized more than twenty disparate OSS inventorysystems and support tools into a single Amdocs OSSinventory system> Amdocs OSS transformed three merged companies’operations support systems into a streamlined andconsolidated inventory system.> Amdocs OSS integrates network inventory with GIS dataResults> OSS processes are optimized for increased efficiency andeffectiveness of planning, network provisioning andfulfilment for new services> Reduction in operational costs and a cut in order rejects> Makes deploying new services much faster> Significantly increases nationwide network resourcevisibility by increasing data accuracy> A centralized view of network physical and logicalinformation over the combined national network> Increased co-operation across the company throughconsistent and uniform processesEXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe merger of three separate, regional operatorscreated Ziggo, the leading national communicationsservice provider in the Netherlands, delivering a raftof triple-play services to 3.2 million households.Key to its successful merger was rationalizing thenetwork inventory, operations and systems of its threeregional businesses. With more than twenty differentoperational support systems, Ziggo needed to find aneffective way to consolidate them and centralize theinformation. In additional, logical inventory needed tobe integrated with their Geographic Information System(GIS) to add location-based network data. Based onthe success that one of its acquired companies hadwith Amdocs OSS, Ziggo decided to centralize all theinventory systems with Amdocs OSS. By creating asingle repository for capturing and deliveringup-to-date and reliable network and service data,Amdocs OSS enables Ziggo to manage the entirenetwork more efficiently and easily while at the sametime improving the customer experience. The resultshave been impressive, reducing service fulfillment time,cutting operational costs and the number of orderrejects. Optimizing OSS processes has made Ziggo muchmore efficient and effective, with consistent and uniformprocesses across the business.

“Customers are now up and running quicker with their new broadbandservices and are experiencing fewer problems.”The Netherlands’ communications market has undergonesignificant changes in recent years, with increasing numbers ofsubscribers and new technologies. Broadcasting and cable TVgenerates annual revenues of over $2.5 billion and an annual growthrate of 2.3%. More than one in two Dutch households now have adigital TV and one in five owns a high definition (HD) TV receiver.New technologies, such as Docsis 3.0 and Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC),offer much more flexibility and cost effectiveness for deliveringdigital internet, TV and telephony services.One company at the forefront of bringing advanced, feature-richand high-quality TV entertainment into the living room is Ziggo. Itoffers multiple analogue and digital channels, an increasing numberof HD channels, special-interest packages, and interactive television,including video-on-demand.Ziggo owns and manages the largest fiber optic HFC network in theNetherlands, on average terminating just 300 meters from customerpremises which increases the ability to deliver high-bandwidthcontent into the home. With the final connection via high capacitycoaxial cable, the infrastructure delivers data at around 4Gb/s(Gigabits per second) daily to each home.“Order rejects have been reduced because AmdocsOSS helps provide a clear and simple view ofa single inventory which in turn improves andspeeds up the service design process.”Ziggo was formed by merging three regional Dutch cableoperators—Essent Kabelcom (@Home), Casema and Multikabel.With this merger, Ziggo faced the challenge of combining theoperations of three different organizations, with twenty differentoperational support systems. One of the main challenges wasto rationalize inventory content by determining exactly whatinformation and database systems were in use and what data they held.But with so many separate databases containing network inventoryinformation—and even some spreadsheets—it became very complexto determine what information was stored where and how it relatedto data in other systems. It became very clear early on in theacquisition that some form of simplification and consolidation ofthese systems was necessary.One of the acquired companies, Essent Kabelcom, had been verysuccessfully using Amdocs OSS to manage its network inventory.“Amdocs OSS provides visibility over logical network assets, making itmuch easier to accurately identify which assets are being deployed forwhich services, and for which customers,” said Paul Hendriks, ChiefTechnology Officer at Ziggo. “With Amdocs OSS, Ziggo is able toallocate network resources and run service fulfillment processes moreefficiently, driving more value from network assets.”“The single inventory means that processessuch as new service deployment have beenshortened so that new products can be broughtto market faster.”Based on this success, Ziggo decided to standardize on AmdocsOSS as the main repository to bring together the multiple inventoryfunctions of all three merged businesses into a single, consolidatedsystem. Using Amdocs OSS to consolidate inventory data from thethree regional networks has delivered a range of business benefitsranging from better end-to-end visibility of network resources rightthrough to viewing both the physical and logical locations of allnetwork equipment.Hendriks continued, “We were in the midst of merging three differentregional businesses to create a single, national communications serviceprovider and, like many organizations in a similar position, one ofthe most complex challenges was bringing together multiple networkinventories. We were dealing with tens of different systems, some asbasic as lists of equipment in spreadsheets.“What impressed us about Amdocs OSS was its scalability,performance and reliability,” he continued.

Technical environmentAMDOCS PRODUCTS: Amdocs OSS including AmdocsResource ManagerINTEGRATIONS: Amdocs Inventory System isintegrated with numerous network databases including GIS(Geographical Information System)HARDWARE: Sun T5200 & M3000OPERATING SYSTEM: Solaris 10 Operating SystemDATABASE: OracleNETWORK TECHNOLOGIES: HFC, PDH, SDH, ATM, FR,DWDM, IP, Ethernet etc.Key customizations improve ease of use> Ziggo tailored the Amdocs OSS ‘Fast Find’ function toprovide specific key search criteria.> Using the Amdocs OSS Web Reports function enables Ziggoto conveniently access key information and allow users quickaccess to the front end of business processes. This allowsusers to view and select specific process parameters.> A number of customized Wizards allow users to makeinventory configuration changes much more efficiently.> The system is managed by Functional ApplicationManagers, and it is constantly optimized to meet thebusiness functionality.> In order to help minimize user’s application navigation forinformation, Ziggo implemented and optimized a number ofhomepages, WebReports and a few online interfaces.> Ziggo also implemented a number of utilities and batch jobsfor system administration, monitoring and patch application.Amdocs OSS delivers a consolidated inventoryZiggo has two main instances of the Amdocs OSS – planning andproduction. The planning instance is a clone of the productionsystem and is used for planning network inventory before rollingout the changes to production. As the centralized resource manager,Amdocs OSS has several interfaces for database links and filetransfers to and from other OSS systems. It also keeps a snapshotof active inventory for fulfillment, inventory management andservice assurance, which allows the data to be processed whilethe active network is changing. Faults and network issues arealso managed within Amdocs OSS by associating various types ofpre-configured, known issues with inventory objects. This allowstrouble management and fault resolution to be carried out moreefficiently by the Network Operations Center. The inventorycontains information like circuit connections, routing diagrams,site maps and plans.“With Amdocs OSS, Ziggo’s network is modeled as a hierarchicalstructure of managed objects,” said Hendriks, mentioningexamples such as Area, HFC Clusters, RF Converters, VPN typesand VLAN types. “Network views can show non-spatial views ofthe physical network using nodes, locations and network clouds,enabling easier visualization of these complex networks,” he said.Amdocs marries logical inventory with GIS“With Amdocs OSS, we know where any piece of physical networkinfrastructure is located, which is vital for network operationsefficiency. Amdocs OSS saves time locating equipment, reduceswasted site visits, and has helped to reduce operational costs,” saysHendriks.“With Amdocs OSS, Ziggo is able to allocatenetwork resources and run service fulfillmentprocesses more efficiently, driving more valuefrom network assets.”Amdocs OSS helps to model the network infrastructure intophysical and logical locations which are then stored in theinventory system so that both aspects are at the user’s fingertipswhen planning the network and provisioning new services. Thephysical location of network equipment is its geographical positiondefined by its postcode, building number, room, specific rack orcarrier frame number. Each network element also has a logicallocation based on the functionality of a site or equipment item.There is usually a relationship between the logical and the physicallocation of a network element.

“What impressed us about Amdocs OSS was its scalability,performance and reliability.”Amdocs Resource Manager is connected to Ziggo’s GIS (GeographicInformation System) so that the exact location of a particular pieceof network equipment can be visualized on a street map. This isused by operations and field technicians to identify not only thelocation of the equipment but any other useful information suchas access roads or rights of way, which can save time in reachingthe site.Ziggo’s highest bandwidth subscribers now have internet speedsof 120Mbp/s. Retaining customers through operational excellenceis key to Ziggo’s strategy, and customer satisfaction increasedsignificantly after the introduction of the consolidated AmdocsOSS inventory system. “Customers are now up and running quickerwith their new broadband services and are experiencing fewerproblems” said Hendriks.Amdocs helps to enhance the customer experienceWith Amdocs OSS, Ziggo has made significant strides inintegrating both the network and customer-facing aspects of thethree predecessor companies and the twenty separate systems intoa single application and set of business processes. By integratingits various customer care and billing platforms, and streamliningoperations with Amdocs OSS, Ziggo can now introduce automatedbusiness processes across the entire operation. This has helped thecompany to focus increasingly on raising the quality of customerexperience and satisfaction levels.“Order rejects have been reduced because Amdocs OSS helpsprovide a clear and simple view of a single inventory which in turnimproves and speeds up the service design process,” said Hendriks.Ziggo has also established key performance indicators, which theymonitor continuously to assess operational processes and thereliability of their infrastructure. In addition, since consolidatedinformation about the network and services provides moreinformation about the uptake of the services in general, Ziggois also monitoring KPIs on sales and marketing efficiency. All ofthese KPIs are improving. “Amdocs OSS has played an importantrole in helping Ziggo reduce operational costs,” said Hendriks.“The single inventory means that processes such as new servicedeployment have been shortened so that new products can bebrought to market faster.”“Amdocs OSS provides visibility over logicalnetwork assets, making it much easier toaccurately identify which assets are being deployedfor which services, and for which customers.”Ziggo’s strength includes its new consolidated network andcentralized OSS, helping the company to continue to lead the Dutchmarket in digital television, broadband internet and telephonyservices. The number of bundle customers has more than doubledfrom over 260,000 at the end of 2008 to more than 675,000 at theend of 2009 while the current HFC technology will allow Ziggo toincrease internet speeds even further in the future – up to 400Mbpsand potentially even up to 1Gbps. In order to handle this rapidgrowth in service demand, the Amdocs OSS centralized inventorysystem is essential.Ziggo intends to add additional content packages for digitaltelevision to stimulate uptake, including interactive television andhigh definition programming ensuring strict quality control tooptimize the customer experience. With a clear strategy for growthcoupled with a highly robust and future-proofed inventory systemprovided by Amdocs, Ziggo is set to continue delivering worldleadingquality services to customers while keeping a strong focuson customer satisfaction.

ZIGGOwww.amdocs.comABOUT AMDOCSAmdocs is the market leader in customer experience systems innovation. The company combines business and operational support systems,service delivery platforms, proven services, and deep industry expertise to enable service providers and their customers to do more inthe connected world. Amdocs’ offerings help service providers explore new business models, differentiate through personalized customerexperiences, and streamline operations. A global company with revenue of $3 billion in fiscal 2010, Amdocs has approximately 19,000employees and serves customers in more than 60 countries worldwide. For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.For the most up-to-date contact information for all Amdocs offices worldwide,please visit our website at www.amdocs.com/corporate.aspAmdocs has offices, development and support centers worldwide, including sites in:THE AMERICAS:ASIA PACIFIC:EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA:BRAZILAUSTRALIACYPRUSIRELANDSOUTH AFRICACANADACHINACZECH REPUBLICISRAELSPAINCOSTA RICAINDIAFRANCEITALYSWEDENMEXICOJAPANGERMANYNETHERLANDSTURKEYUNITED STATESSINGAPOREHUNGARYPOLANDUNITED KINGDOMTHAILANDRUSSIACopyright © 2010-11 Amdocs. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution other than for intended purposes is prohibited, without the prior written consent of Amdocs. These materials are confidential, and shall be returned to Amdocs uponrequest. The trademarks and service marks of Amdocs, including the Amdocs mark and logo, Ensemble, Enabler, Clarify, Return on Relationship, Intelecable, Collabrent, Intentional Customer Experience, CES, Cramer, Qpass, SigValue, DST Innovis,JacobsRimell, ChangingWorlds and jNetX are the exclusive property of Amdocs, and may not be used without permission. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. ZGGO_SCCSS_STRY_09-11