Posted: 11/2000
Provisioning Takes to the Web
By Tara Seals
So much information is now available to telecom agents over the web, there may no longer be a need for them to make live contact with carriers. New developments already are making life easier and more efficient for the wired agent.
An advanced example of the trend is BuyTelco.com Inc. (www.buytelco.com) a portal launched in June. The site provides quotes and provisions orders for circuits, integrating its electronic system into a carrier's paper-based system and streamlining the provisioning process. It can quote ISDN, DSL, traditional voice circuits and point-to-point T1s in real time. It plans to add frame relay later this year.
Agents can place orders through the portal and earn a commission. During September's AgENt Conference & Expo in New Orleans, the company introduced a back-end system, through which agents can manage orders and run activity reports.
BuyTelco COO Kurt Scott explains, "You could place it yourself, but with us there's a better response because your order is pooled, and you don't have to deal with the paper side."
He adds the volume of orders BuyTelco.com places earns it provisioning priority with carriers. Because of this, the company can hammer down guarantee times for agents. The portal is quoting "several million a month," he says.
Provisioning manager for PowerNet Global Communications (www.pngcom.com) Kelly Rinker explains the benefits of using the web for provisioning.
"In today's technology, the fastest, easiest, most accurate way to submit orders is this," she says. "Orders by fax, people calling to get the status of an order--they can do all that themselves now. It's not tying up the phones, customer service or agent support any longer. And the faxes get distorted, but this eliminates wrong numbers being added and other mistakes."
In June PNG implemented a website program for agents. An agency uses an existing website, customized with its logo, graphics and pricing, that hyperlinks to PNG's portal. Once the clickthrough is made, the system tracks activity and orders via customer number. The agent can submit numbers for new customers, generate calling cards, enter orders and review service number and customer information status. When "new service" is entered, the system automatically submits the information to VoiceLog LLC (www.voicelog.com) for automated third-party verification.
Commission reports also soon will be available online.
Rinker says the company helps less tech-savvy channel partners.
"Not all agents have the technology to have their own websites," she says. "But we have meetings for them, and some of our bigger agents help to show them the difference."
Master agent Gene Foster predicts that within a year using online provisioning will explode, as all major carriers will be doing it.
"Primarily because it's so simple for a $50, $200 or even $500 a month voice customer to order up the services on their own," says Foster, president of Communication Management Services (www.cmstelcom.com) he explains. "They can go to the web- site of that carrier and/or they can contact an agent that they have a relationship with--then the agent can input the order."
Foster says CMS has taken the order forms from all major carriers it represents and made them electronic.
"In the last 10 months, since we introduced it, we've seen an increase in our accounts that have been provisioned out of the gate is upwards of 40 percent compared to the past," Foster says. "Because what's happened in the past is that a customer had to fill out 10 pages of order forms, then fax them to the carrier or master agent for provisioning, they weren't legible or information was lacking. What we've rolled out is that the subagent or customer is now required to type it all in."
At least two Tier 1 carriers are stepping up to the plate. AT&T Corp. (www.att.com) and Sprint Business (www.sprintbiz.com) have implemented agent extranet sites with online training, order forms, product information and commission updates.
AT&T's online order entry was scheduled to be operational in mid-October (after press deadline) for local services. The carrier's Kansas City agent tracking system (KCAT) is expected to let agents track orders, account usage and compensation.
In August, Sprint Business rolled out cobranded websites for its agents. Sprint is developing sites for partners at no charge, and it will host, maintain and manage them.
The agent's customers can find information and eventually will submit orders through these sites, which are linked back to the Sprint system.
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| Arnie McKinnis, manager of marketing development, Sprint Business |
"We're two steps removed from the end customer, so we have to make sure that as we roll out technology to our partners, it's bulletproof," says Arnie McKinnis, Sprint Business' manager of market development. "We're taking a structured, phased approach from now to probably the end of next year. It's a living, breathing site that'll be enhanced as it goes on."
The first segment of the program will be to provide product information and online forms, which submit a request for information to an agent. The second phase will include a decision tree with increasingly specific questions that customers answer regarding certain offerings. That information goes to the agent in hopes of shortening the sales cycle, says McKinnis.
Next year the carrier will add online pricing and configuration, and an order entry tool, McKinnis adds.
"Paper requires mailing and printing and hoping they can ingest it and explain it to their customers," says McKinnis. "E-mail gets us closer, not so much production, but the partner is still in the position of having to deliver the information to the end user."
He says, "With an Internet site that we host, manage and maintain and update, as we change content we can then push an e-mail out to the partner letting them know, and they don't have to do anything. From our standpoint, it helps us maintain our brand integrity."
Rounding out recent breakthroughs in the web arena for agents, Global Crossing Ltd. (www.globalcrossing.com) is developing web tools. The carrier's extranet includes online proposal generation, training tools, pricing, forms, sell sheets and automated access to implementation and sales engineers. Online order entry will be available later this year.
"The extranet is our global partner's home page," explains Donald Hahn, Global Crossing's vice president of alternate channels. "It allows them access to systems that the internal sales force would have."
In addition, a web portal called Ucommand provides access to service delivery and customer assistance platforms. This allows agents to analyze usage trends and call volume and to see frequently called numbers. It also simplifies the bill payment with automated payment options.
"We're always trying to improve the processes, extend the tools to our agents, to give them a decided advantage in working with Global Crossing as opposed to our competitors, and so they gain a competitive advantage in the field," says Hahn. "And the best vehicle to deliver that is online tools."
