Driving commercial success through enhanced CPQ

Communications service providers (CSPs) are beginning to deploy advanced 5G services following their significant investment in the network. They are starting to see early signs of revenue growth as a result, forecast to expand from USD400 billion in 2023 to USD722 billion by 2027. There is not yet widespread deployment of 5G standalone (SA), but CSPs are beginning to prepare their commercial and operational systems to be able to support the full breadth of 5G SA-based services. 

CSPs have increasingly been pushed into non-telecom business-to-business (B2B) services in search of new revenue streams. This has resulted in CSPs facing new competitors, often with historically superior customer experience capabilities using self-service and faster responses for quotes. The new demands of these complex services, which must be provided faster and at a lower cost, requires investment as CSPs’ legacy systems with siloed data are not fit for purpose. In addition, CSPs need to update their operational systems to create new service offerings faster, and deploy them quicker, to take advantage of the increased number and scope of customer requirements. CSPs have also begun to create services in collaboration with ecosystem partners, which requires an efficient management and operational system to support them. 

The most effective solution to these challenges is the deployment of a single ‘configure, price, quote’ process (CPQ) that can deal with all the complexities associated with telco B2B and B2B-to-customer/user (B2B2X) value chains, and increasingly important partner ecosystems. This single CPQ approach must cover the most complex scenarios, whilst also supporting the simpler services typically found as standard in many generic customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.

A CPQ system is typically front-end agnostic, meaning that it can connect to best-in-class CRM systems and provides a CSP with an integrated system that delivers quote-to-cash, while supporting functionally rich services within the B2B and B2B2X value chains. In addition, CSPs that have a strong CPQ system are in a better position to monetize their partner ecosystems more effectively.

CSPs should deploy single CPQ systems with tight integrations beyond the traditional CPQ footprint, including all the key elements that support the quote-to-cash process for complex service types, such as B2B and B2B2X, as well as future intent-based 5G-SA services. This tight integration enables hyperautomations to be added to the complete business processes. Integrations to the CRM, inventory management, service orchestration and assurance, service order management and billing ensure that all aspects of the process can be delivered in a highly coordinated manner.