Print this pageUniPortal - Webordering solution
Emeldi UniPortal is an intuitive, web-based ordering channel for Telco and IT related companies.
Flexibility, combined with ease-of-use
To be competitive, telecommunication companies must provide a rich portfolio of products, product bundling ability, special campaigns and much more in order to attract the customer. However, with product portfolio complexity, in most cases integration of on-line ordering with the core product catalogue is also complex, meaning that general-purpose ordering system is not easy to use for end customer.
To meet this challenge, Emeldi has developed UniPortal to simplify complexity and reduce customers’ lead-times for delivering their on-line ordering solution.
Customer: It’s easy to order, but I still get exactly what I want!
From customer point of view, we focus on an intuitive User Interface. Ordering with Emeldi UniPortal is as easy using a familiar desktop application wizard. The customer simply moves from one step to the next until the order is complete, and the customer has built an order comprising exactly the products and services that s/he needs.
Using “Service availability agent” UniPortal can check, based on the customer’s phone number or address, what products are available. This is very useful feature for fixed line operators that are providing different products in different places – for example faster ADSL connection with IPTV products availability in cities, and slower ADSL in rural areas.
For customer’s ease, activation price and monthly price is calculated on-the fly, using modern AJAX technology. Naturally, after every step of building an order, it is possible for the customer to go back to any previous step and make any necessary changes.
Operator: We can provide rich portfolio of products and services – instantly
For Operators or Service providers, it is very important to cut “time to market” for new products to a minimum. Also very important is to provide to customer “additional products” to offer a fully-rounded solution.
We developed Emeldi UniPortal with those requirements very much in mind.
At the core of UniPortal configuration is a web-based administration console that supports such features as:
- Creation of new products, that are based on current ones just with few clicks
- Multi-language interface
- Flexibility to change all text and ‘boilerplate’ in UniPortal. Support for user roles (e.g. author makes changes to texts, but they are visible to end user only after commited by editor)
- Tracking of all orders (both finished and unfinished). E.g.:
- Dealer can see list of orders he made
- Which is the last step user was in
- Every sent/received message
- All data entered by customer
- All products ordered by customer
- Time of every milestone: e.g. last user action, time of order confirmation, sent to backend
- Detailed statistics of orders
- Visual interface can be easily customized by “skins”
- Summary of order - at the end of ordering, summary page is saved in PDF. Later this PDF could be used as proof of what user saw before he confirmed order. It’s usually requested by regulators or local laws
- Campaigns – operators can define unlimited campaigns, in which can be offered specially discounted products or products with some special bonuses
- Order steps configuration – all steps of the ordering process are easily configurable simply by altering an easily-maintained XML-based configuration
UniPortal currently implements ordering of products like ADSL, IPTV, CDMA, Mobile and Fixed Line. All these products have their “bundle version” with specific business and technical requirements.
In every order user can choose:
- Device dependent on ordered services: ADSL modem, CDMA modem, set-top-box, mobile. E.g. if customer orders IPTV, he has to order also set-top-box
- Type of installation:
- Take away (self installation)
- Advanced installation by technician
- Addon product and services
- Gifts, special offers
- Order type specific agreements
- Service configuration, e.g. login and password for ADSL service
- Product commitments
Emeldi UniPortal integration
UniPortal offers easy integration with external systems, one of most important features of any ordering application. The middleware of UniPortal may be integrated using web-services, database links or other integration technology, according to your needs. Integration with TBOSS OSS/BSS is just plug and play, but also integration with other systems is not very difficult – see example in our case study.
Handling orders 24x7x365 – robustness built-in
Web ordering application is one of the most visible systems for end customers – like the point-of-sale, it offers a unique opportunity for customer interaction.
To maintain quality of service to customers, UniPortal ensures that Operators are able to take an order, even when some external system is down. This is accomplished as follows:
- When UniPortal becomes aware, that an external system is down (like service for technical info, CRM, provisioning, …), the service centre is immediately informed
- Default data are provided for orders – for example all ADSL products are offered to customer (even when it is not possible to verify if the highest speed is available for that customer)
- From customer point of view, order is finished without any problems
- In UniPortal such order is ‘parked’ until the external system is up again
- When the external service is resumed, validations are re-started – to ensure it is possible to provide products, that customer ordered
- If validations are OK, order is send to backend systems (provisioning, CRM, …). Otherwise the order is sent to back-office system
This, however, is just part of UniPortal’s robustness.
From our research, we found, that there are customers that initiate an order, but for some reason, do not complete the process. There may be various reasons for this – the customer didn’t understand something, or perhaps didn’t know which route through the process to choose, or had technical problems…
In those cases, UniPortal does not discard the unfinished order. If there is no activity on the order for a specified time, the order is sent to the back-office, where it may be reviewed, potentially leading to a contact with the customer by phone or mail, allowing the order to be completed.