Trailblazing a telco provider’s transformation

The context

Our client, a leading telecommunications provider operates across several countries to offer mobile and fixed-line telephony, broadband, and digital TV plus related devices and services to both consumers and businesses. 

Existing systems were outdated and difficult to manage, hindering their ability to deliver seamless customer experiences, respond quickly to market changes and handle increased demand at key moments. A unified and modern platform was needed to streamline operations, improve brand consistency, and support ambitious growth plans.

They embarked on a digital transformation program with three main objectives: 

• Engaging customers
• Empowering employees
• Optimising operations

Arcast delivered a modernised corporate website and CMS platform as a crucial first step, and trailblazer for the wider transformation program.

Together we went through a two stage process to execute a successful modernisation:

Ideate & Design

Design scalable foundations, align stakeholders and remove all roadblocks for rapid execution.

Build, Integrate & Migrate

Deploy a new content platform and website, integrate with key systems and migrate the content from the legacy platform - and all in time for a major campaign launch.

Breaking new ground

The first challenge was to create a unified solution architecture to create a solid foundation and satisfy a myriad of security and integration requirements.

Next we needed to create a common UI library and component framework that would ensure brand consistency, but allow each country to create their own unique experiences. 

By running the first project to go live in the wider transformation, arcast acted as the trailblazer in a complex stakeholder landscape including business leads, architects, security experts and IT from operations across three different countries. Open communication between arcast and all stakeholders and the use of prototypes served as a crucial aid in gaining consensus and sign-off. 

During this stage, a key dependency was identified; a new commerce engine was being implemented and the intention was to roll this into the launch of the new site. Arcast used it’s experience with similar projects to insist that these projects be decoupled: If the commerce project were delayed, we could still roll out the new site integrated with the old commerce engine.

With the barriers to progress removed, we were ready to implement the MVP - a two-stage rollout for the first country.

Making it happen

We put together a small, multi-disciplinary team with designer, developers, testers and content specialists along with the necessary project and program management to deliver within the program’s scaled agile framework. 

Working iteratively we allowed end users to constantly test and provide feedback as we were building and integrating the new SaaS-based platform, ensuring the planned acceptance phase at the end of delivery was a formality and no major issues were found.

A combination of manual and automated content migration from the legacy platform was used, consolidating custom layouts into the new design system while limiting the content freeze period to minimise disruption to day-to-day content operations. Over 800 pages of content were migrated with care taken to ensure precious search engine rankings were preserved.

The team’s sense of ownership was high and arcast also took on the responsibility to drive progress in other workstreams to ensure that SaaS vendors, internal IT, security, testing and incumbent agencies all communicated clearly with each other and progressed to get the platform ready on time.

There was a small window of opportunity to go live before Black Friday campaigns, and a subsequent Christmas period change freeze meant timing was crucial. Dry-runs and a soft-launch of the B2B sub-site were used to iron out any wrinkles, resulting in the new platform going live smoothly and on schedule.

The Impact

The new platform made an immediate contribution to all key program objectives:

Engaging Customers: The new platform's improved performance and scalability significantly enhanced the ability to engage customers effectively, particularly during peak traffic periods. Visitor loads of up to 100x normal usage could now be handled, ensuring a smooth and positive customer experience even during high-demand events like Black Friday. This prevents lost sales due to slow performance and ultimately drives revenue growth.

Empowering Employees: Editors can now design and build pages visually using a flexible palette of content and functional components, including an integrated form builder. This enables them to implement updates and modifications without relying on IT or external agencies, improving agility and time to market for new content and campaigns.

Optimising Operations: Optimisation was not limited to content management processes mentioned above. In addition, several aspects of technical operations were optimised: 

Moving to a SaaS platform means security patches and other maintenance work is handled by the software vendor and not dependent on internal IT or agency capacity.

Deployments are automated, allowing operational teams to deploy technical changes frequently and efficiently without manual intervention. 

Proactive production monitoring and alerting ensure that issues are identified and addressed before they significantly impact customers. 

Finally, our insistence on decoupling the delivery of the new platform from the new commerce engine proved prescient. During project delivery the commerce project required a complete rethink resulting in a delivery delay of more than 6 months. Because delivery was decoupled, program stakeholders were nonetheless able to rally around an early success.

The arcast effect

Arcast's commitment to stakeholder alignment was paramount to the project's success. The ability to effectively communicate and collaborate ensured that everyone was on the same bus, and no-one was thrown under it. This focus on inclusion and alignment, combined with technical expertise and commitment to quality, enabled the successful delivery of a first phase in the provider's larger transformation journey.

Our emphasis on building strong relationships and fostering open communication was instrumental to the project's success. The high client satisfaction scores and enthusiastic testimonials demonstrate the value of our 'human touch' and our commitment to being a true partner to our clients. 

References

1. https://resultscx.com/telecom-customer-experience-trends-2024/