case study
Cloud engineering case study for a telecom company to develop a cloud based sales process
Challenge, Context, Problems to be solved
Every user's needs are different, and that means their buying journey is too.
One of the fastest growing TV, mobile phone and broadband service operators, wanted to be there whenever, and however, a user wants to interact with the company, enabling them to "buy their way". This was the customer's omni-channel vision for lead and prospect management and this project made it a reality.
The telecom company wanted to deliver a brilliant customer experience, but "we want that brilliance to extend to our prospect experience too – to the people who are considering using our services" explained the head of multi-channel sales.
Mission, tools and methodology
The client was the first provider of all four broadband, TV, mobile phone, and home phone services in the UK. Every year it sees millions of sales interactions, but they do not all result in a user signing on the dotted line. By providing sales people with greater visibility of a user's previous interactions, the client can provide a more tailored and personalised experience. For example, it can ensure any follow-up communications are focused on the services and products that the user viewed or priced up online.
Through deployment of a cloud based sales process the telecom was able to empower its talented sales people with tools to have even better customer conversations and greater sales interactions, the aim was to provide an experience that means more of its users choose to become customers.
With more than 80% of users (prospects) starting their purchase journey on the client website, it was critical that the transition to an assisted channel – for example a store or the contact centre – is seamless.
Achieved results
With this cloud based solution, the telecommunications company was able to make all previous channel interactions visible to agents, allowing them to personalise customer conversation appropriately. Every sales interaction is recorded to capture as much detailed knowledge of the prospect’s journey as possible.
People do not think of our online, telesales or retail as separate entities, they just think of us and want to have a joined-up experience - Head of Sales
To ensure this user (prospect) information is also available to sales agents working in the field, the telecom used a mobile app "If it's in the Cloud, then it's available on the app" revealed the customer.
More than half of our sales team are mobile, so we have to be able to deliver data to them on the go.
Further, the cloud deployment enabled better insights, better application performance understanding, accessibility and digitally transformed what was traditionally a very manual sales channel.
Must have Cloud Management skills
- Cloud network designs (public, private, on-premise & hybrid).
- Cloud service providers and technologies (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud etc).
- Cloud-based security skills.
- Agile and DevOps frameworks knowledge.
- Cloud automated configurations for services proactive monitoring and alerting.
- Knowledge of cloud computing.
- Technical Analysis.
- Requirement Analysis.
- Programming skills (Java, asp.net, Php, python, ruby).
Other cloud engineering skills:
- Database management.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning.
- Automation.
- Serverless architecture.
- Change management.
- Performance training.
- Understanding cost centers and factors, as well as, migration costs.
Responsibilities and functions of a Cloud specialist
- Maintaining and managing all cloud related problems to ensure smooth operation of virtualized infrastructure.
- Developing and maintaining complex cloud network design for hosted and delivery platform services.
- Act as a SME on Cloud Architecture service improvement, integration and optimisation.
- Technical lead in Cloud migration including providing design input, collaborating with business owners, analysts and customer services on projects.
- Evaluate new technological developments and evolving business requirements.
- Provides high-level specialised technical support and consultation to business and IT Management.
- Responsible for vendor relationship management, negotiations, tracking, troubleshooting and reporting of all cloud technology related contract commitments.
Challenges and hot topics for a Cloud specialist
- Developing and rewriting application architecture for cloud
- Investing in people and tools to required for successful migration and ongoing management of cloud-based services.
- Maintaining user acceptable or high level cloud infrastructure performance with regards to:
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- Low latency
- Cloud application interoperability
- High security
- Downtime
- Hosting and bandwidth costs
- Manage risk and security