C a s e S t u d y - Tech Mahindra

Case Summary
The client has a number of systems
for various services. Each of these
systems have their own order handling
capabilities due to which there is a
huge time lag between identifying a
product and making it marketable.
The client wanted a common interface
to capture any order. Tech Mahindra
designed a system called FLOW which
provides a common interface to
capture any order and hence meets
the requirements of the client.
The client is one of the world's
leading providers of
communications solutions and
services operating in 170
countries. Their principal
activities include networked IT
services, local, national and
international
telecommunications services,
and higher-value broadband and
internet products and services.
© Tech Mahindra Limited 2008
Business Needs Business Benefits
� A common interface to capture any order.
� To reduce time to market for new products.
� To address performance and flexibility related issues
� Rapid product deployment (90 day cycle from
design to delivery)
� Reduced operational costs
� Zero touch provisioning
� Quickly scalable solution to cater to high volumes of
demand
� Reduced time to market for new products
Implementation of an Order Provisioning System for a Tier 1 Operator in UK
Background
The client has a number C of systems a s for e various services S t each u of d which y have their own order handling
capabilities. This used to cause two main problems-
� A sales person had to be aware of where to place the orders apart from carrying out the actual activity
of selling. Hence, the sales person could not concentrate on the sale activity itself.
� There used to be a huge time lag between identifying a product and making it marketable. This was
mainly due to the time required in designing the product and making the system (on which the product
will eventually reside) capable of handling the product.
Tech Mahindra Solution
FLOW is a system proposed for taking forward the 'Manage Fulfillment Order (MFO)' capability within
provisioning. It is responsible for orchestration using MNTO matrix capability. It has a closely coupled
exception management system as well which manages fall outs conforming to the 'Manage Fall Out (MFOUT)'
capability.
It is seen as having two critical objectives. In the short term, it is to act as a means of placing orders on
existing order handling systems, presenting a common interface to client systems, and providing additional
functionality to enable cross system working. In the longer term, it is seen as a vehicle for migrating
functionality from the existing systems thus providing a full set of functionality and data to allow it to handle all
aspects of order processing.
Order solution Design (OSD) helps in rectifying above mentioned two problems. OSD is the mid-tier server
which captures orders from client systems (Seibel, GTX etc) and then places these orders on respective back
end systems (like CSS, COSMOSS). This provides sales people with a single interface to capture any order
and thus they can concentrate on marketing the product. Also, this helps in reducing the time to market as
new products no longer require extensive design / development work on back-end systems. Tech Mahindra
is involved in all the stages (Design, Development, testing and ASG) of SDLC for last 10 years i.e. since its
inception.
FLOW is a major project within Tech Mahindra and is a comprehensive suite of applications used for building,
deployment and management of a workflow system. Latest development in FLOW Product, have introduced
various features that makes FLOW highly configurable, flexible & reusable. The GUIs (FLOW Manage, FLOW
Design, FLOW Monitor, Flow Desktop etc) have been designed/altered for the ease of different user
communities. Various tools like QBuilder, MBuilder, Parameter Editor etc have been introduced so as to
automate the day to day activities of these users, which help them to perform the speedy development. The
suite is also capable of handling the complex XMLs published by various front ends and back ends.
Additionally the support given by FLOW Product team for the LoB queries and business requirements are
exceptional.
In FLOW 10 release cross component interdependent releases are packaged together. The documents are
generated keeping in mind the LoB users’ interest. The release notification is given through auto generated emails
and the releases can be downloaded from FLOW 10 web pages on CM website. Conscious efforts are
made so that the resultant deliverables are generic enough and LoB dependent functionality is controlled
through configurable options.
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Tech Mahindra Solution
Highlights
� The strong “tails count”-
12000 plus dispersed and
got reduced to 3000.
� Achieved 100% SLA
compliance in the last few
months.
� Responded to adhoc queries
promptly and to the
complete satisfaction of the
customers.
© Tech Mahindra Limited 2008
Implementation of an Order Provisioning System for a Tier 1 Operator in UK
During FLOW 10 development, FLOW has taken a big step towards adopting Agile Methodology, where the
requirements are prioritized and planned on quarterly basis and the deliverables are offered at the end of each
quarter. In FLOW 10, the user stories were prioritized so that the LoB’s get maximum benefits in existing
resources. Hence few performance changes were scoped so that the engine churns the business orders at
much faster rate.
FLOWS 10 is mainly focused on performance improvements initiatives, like:
� Reduced I/O – (Reduce database hits by 90 %!!)
� Introduction of JAVA in FLOW Stream
a. Improve Load times by x times. Initial comparison with Roguewave libraries and JAVA functions
have shown that JAVA string functionalities can run up to 10 times faster than Roguewave.
b. Roguewave dependency eliminated.
‘ FLOW Desktop’ is the replacement for FLOWmonitor which is connected to all 9 live FLOWstream servers
and FLOWmanage. It's taking progress messages and exception information for the 600K orders that are
processed every week by Wholesale FLOW. FLOW Desktop is a new venture for FLOW in that it's using
Oracle 10g RAC, Linux and commodity hardware. This has given major performance benefits and client was
thrilled with its performance
The new FLOWDesign application addresses the performance and flexibility related issues while trying to give
an enhanced usability experience to Call Sequence developers and reduce wait times.
A new application called ‘ Support Request Tracker’ has been introduced for tracking support queries
received from different lines of business with a purpose to create a common repository for all support queries
received from different sources & LOBs.
A new version of admin client called ‘ Analyse WorkFlow’ has been developed using latest technology to
provide more functionalities and better performance. This tool helps in progressing and repairing orders in
bulk. This reduces human intervention and in turn reduces human errors while repairing orders.
About Tech Mahindra
Tech Mahindra is a global systems integrator and business transformation consulting organization focused on the
communications industry. With the convergence of media and telecom, the changing landscape of the telecom industry
is becoming extremely competitive. As companies rapidly strive to gain a competitive advantage, Tech Mahindra helps
them innovate and transform by leveraging its unique insights, differentiated services and flexible partnering models. This
has helped our customers reduce operating costs and generate new revenue streams.
Margins from connectivity are rapidly falling and future growth in revenues will only come from new applications, content
and services. Hence, operators today are busy addressing business opportunities revolving around commerce, content,
convergence and customer experience to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Tech Mahindra, we understand this
and we offer solutions that help our customers achieve their business goals.
© 2008 Tech Mahindra Limited. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without
prior written permission is forbidden. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be
the trademarks of their respective owners.
www.techmahindra.com