Lumen Automates Router Provisioning & Activation, Reducing Time by 70% with Itential
INDUSTRY
Communications Service Provider
GOALS
- Accelerate New Customer Activations
- Eliminate Revenue Leak
- Maximize Resource Allocation
- Improve Customer Experience
USE CASES
Zero-Touch Router Provisioning & Activation
INTEGRATIONS
Key Results
Reduced required touchpoints for a customer to self-serve from 6 to 1.
Orchestrated provisioning of routers end-to-end, at scale.
Decreased provisioning and activation time by 70%.
Implemented Golden Configuration trees to automate configuration across locations.
Automated updates for pre-installed base configuration from Adtran with no onsite support required.
Enabled key personnel to be reassigned to more critical priorities.
Speedy Deployment Needed with Ultra-Fast Business Fiber
As one of the top five communications companies in North America, Lumen has one of the fastest business voice and data plans, and success demands efficient and flawless new customer service deployments. However, with more than 10,000 buildings pre-qualified in its fiber network, the company’s operations staff was stretched thin to maintain the network and support new customer activations.
To activate new business subscribers, the company relied on three teams that oversaw the receipt, manual configuration, and installation of high-end Adtran routers. Under these conditions, the total time to reconfigure routers and finalize overall onsite service provisioning for a large business customers could take weeks and involve three to six touchpoints where a technician had to put hands on the device to modify a configuration.
The company needed a way to automatically provision its new fiber solution to set up customers faster, with fewer resources and without negatively impacting customer satisfaction. If they could accelerate error-free customer installations, the company could start collecting new subscription fees faster while assigning its personnel to more critical priorities.
Our number one goal was reducing the number of touchpoints for a customer to get a service delivered. It was creating a worse experience for the customer, more work for our engineers, and a revenue leak due to wait times.
Senior Director, Network Architecture
Why They Chose Itential Automation for Zero-Touch Provisioning
Itential, in tandem with their network engineers, created a base Golden Configuration that Adtran placed on each router shipped from their warehouse. This approach allowed the devices to be shipped directly to the customer location, connected to the network, and remotely configured. Automations were then built within Itential to manage the activation process between the ordering and inventory systems, Cisco NSO, and the Adtran router.
The combined solution replaced the company’s manual process with a customized, automated provisioning workflow to automatically update the pre-installed base configuration from Adtran, oftentimes with no onsite support required. In these cases, the router was shipped to the customer site where it was turned on and connected to the network. The automated process continued from there once the router was recognized on the network. With Itential, they were able to automate the end-to-end provisioning of routers at scale through our:
- Deep integration and support for Cisco NSO and support for all router device technologies.
- No-code integrations to more than 300+ systems and the ability to auto-generate integrations for in-house developed systems, to automate the full end-to-end process from order request to order delivered.
- Self-service portal, making it easy for customers to request new services and automate the full end-to-end process.
With Itential, we can now activate new accounts with a single, small team, allowing technicians to focus on more critical issues. We see revenue quicker thanks to Itential’s ability to integrate with our current systems.
VP of IT, Business Ops
Provisioning & Activation Times Reduced by 70%
With Itential and Cisco NSO, the company reduced the number of touchpoints from six to one, with the design in place to eventually eliminate all touchpoints. This effort resulted in a significant reduction in activation time, which means they’re achieving an average of two more weeks of revenue per customer.
Itential integrates with Lumen’s existing systems, which increases the return on past investments and ensures a seamless transition to new processes, with minimal retraining required for operations staff. In addition to faster provisioning with fewer resources, the Itential and Cisco NSO solution is improving the overall quality of new service setups, resulting in happier customers and fewer support requests.
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