PegaWorld iNspire 2024: How Orange Business is Streamlining Its Order-to-implementation using business process automation and AI​ ID

Welcome to streamlining our order to implementation using business, AI and automation. Um, I've been working with these guys for a couple of weeks with Jonathan, and they've got a great story to tell. And if you've ever been around a network organization within a telecom, you know the importance of speed. And what you're going to see today is how they've transformed the network deployment process to really give that speed to the end to end process, and connecting a lot of really disparate pieces of the process and technology that have to come together in order to do it well. So without further ado, I would like to introduce Mike D'avella and Charbel Asmar. Hello, everyone. And at the end we will do Q&A. So please use the mics since you can't hear without a mic in this room. So thank you for coming and take it away guys.

Thank you Ryan. Okay. Hello everyone. Um, Mike Devlin with me is Charbel Asmar, and we have hopefully an interesting story to tell you about Pega and, uh, our journey using BPMN. So first we'll talk a little bit about orange business and who we are. So we're a former telecom. You know we like to call ourselves an IT services company today. Like many telecoms have uh, we operate in over 220 countries. We have a point of presence in over 160.

We employ over 30,000 people and we offer connectivity. As part of that. Connectivity comes comes network, right. And our journey with Pega is around network deployment processes and how we expedited and made more efficient our rollout of of our global network. So Charbel and I work in a department called ENS and it stands for Orange International Networks, Infrastructure and Services. And we have three main functions within ENS. So the B2B market. So our customers our wholesale market. So um, you know resale and then and then our affiliates.

So our mission is to design, build, operate and secure the network. So from the orchestration and the industrialization, automation, digitalization, the software ization of our networks. So just a little bit more about about our services. We have 800 internet pops across the globe. We have a number of voice pops. We have can we have 5000 site satellites? We cover. We cover the globe right for 150,000 miles of submarine cable. We have 45 or kilometers, rather, sorry, 45,000km of of land cable.

So really, really span the globe. So you can imagine with this global network how difficult it was to roll out projects. And, you know, we were using we were using a tool wasn't exactly, let's say, fit for purpose. Um, a lot of work still being done via email, SharePoint. Um, so not not collaborative. We had some business problems and needs that needed to be identified. And so we were tasked with finding a workflow tool to help manage all of this. And we did our we did our homework, right. And in the end, we we realized that, hey, our organizations already using Pega, let's see if we can leverage what's already being done.

And it seemed fit for purpose, right? So we embarked on this journey with Pega. And um, I'm going to turn it over to Charbel so he can tell you a little bit more about how we embarked on that journey, what our problems were and our needs, and where we are today. Sure. Thanks, Mike. Hello, everyone. All right, so, um, we'll try and tell a bit of a story here, starting by the business problem, uh, the need, how we found Pega and what we've done so far, the tool that we rolled out. And where are we today and obviously, where we're heading. So starting with the business problem, um, with the with the nature of our business, um, you know, uh, being global, we have regional teams across all the different continents.

And, um, we are kind of regionalized. And at the same time, we have global designers and planners that are kind of trigger those regions in order to roll out all the, uh, the deployments related to, um, to our international networks. International and domestic networks. So, um, obviously we never had a solution for our global problem. Um, our processes were not standardized. Right. And, um, we never had a workflow tool the teams were using. Uh, um, just like an issue tracker, which is, uh, actually business users, um, have access to customize it. So it was just a bit of a little bit of a mess.

And, um, all they're doing is just manual efforts by, uh, triggering through emails, following up through emails, managing Excel templates and some files on SharePoint. So, um, we had teams working in silos and, um, you know, relying on all these manual activities. So taking a lot of time to, um, to, to to to produce or deliver an end to end solution. Um. Um, so obviously with those problems, the business need is to look for something that's, uh, unique tool, a workflow tool that can bring all these teams together and have them organized, um, and have a bit of an automation flavor into it, because we don't have that workflow automation. It's absolutely missing. There's no, um, handoffs of clear handoffs of activities or tasks and steps that are involved in these processes, um, to the various teams that are involved. So, um, no structure. Uh, we needed to work on, on, on getting some type of a structure in place and um, uh, and improve obviously the full control on, on the end to end, uh, deployment, uh, whether it's a global hardware deployment, a global, uh, network.

Uh, circuits, uh, in between, between continents or between countries in the region. Um, so we had to look for something, and then we started looking for what's available on the market. Right. Um, so, um, this is where, um, Pega comes, uh, we checked a few platforms, and then we looked at, um, another team within orange Business that was using, actually Pega, um, for the customer provisioning, ordering side of the house. And we saw how, how, how the tool was capable to, to actually, uh, bring, um, a lot of the, you know, fixed, you know, it was fit to, to, to, to to meet our business needs and what we were looking for. Right. Um, I don't need to talk too much about Pega, obviously, because you all know, you know, most of you have been here for the last couple of days hearing a lot of nice things, but, uh, what? From our experience. What what Pega really, um, the the top, you know, first, first, I would say, Um, that's number one that we benefit from, is the fact that we were able to have a standardized, standardized workflow process where all the teams were able to have this transparency, the full visibility on the end to end activity in one place.

Yeah, they managed to get all these things organized because they were not organized at all. So, um, you know, uh, ability to handle multiple interdependencies and actors. You had we have legacy tools that, uh, we couldn't interconnect. We couldn't actually, um, have anything interfacing, obviously, because we don't have a workflow tool that has that capability. So, um, interfacing with those applications in order to facilitate the day to day activities of those project managers or the planners and the various work groups involved, the people that execute the implement and also the people that look after the the configurations and testing before they hand over to operations. So, um, Pega was uh, was was the answer. And um, going to the next slide, we'll talk about the tool that was born, uh, which is called Optima. And this is what we're going to talk about. We rolled it up first, um, about four years ago.

Uh, it was a struggle to get user adoption, but we managed to get that in place. So what Optima stands for is orange process tool integrated, uh, for management and agility. Um, we that's the definition of it. But, um, the real benefits from the tool is that, uh, you know, using Pega Platform, we managed to have this single workflow automation tool, uh, we managed to deliver in terms of automating the handoffs, having a structured process. You know, on the BPM side, it was a great help. Pega is obviously very dynamic, uh, with the fact that our processes and workflows are so complex, it was able to help us to get that structures and standardized processes and get all these regions to come into the to one standard process because, um. Um, they all work differently. Each region has its own needs. Each region has different teams that do different things, but we manage to get that in place.

And one of the good benefits of um, of Pega is the fact that, um, you can have a lot of variations in your workflow, right? So if asia-pac, um, for the, for the, for the ordering of the circuit with their carriers, they have a specific person that does that. For example, you can you can set those rules and that that task can be automated with that person. You don't have to go and send an email to the whole group and say, look who's going to do this. We need this and delivered and that country. So you can set the rules, you know, for for each region, each country, this person is in charge of this. So instead of the manager getting an email saying, you know, uh, allocate someone from your team, the rules are they're set. Everything is automated. It goes to that person.

They get it on the dashboard. They do the task. They they benefit from, from, um, interfacing. Facing related to, because maybe I should talk a little bit about the process itself and the fact that the end to end process is really starts with with a trigger from designers and planners that trigger the activity, and they work on a design plan, and then they have various tasks where they need to have um, um, some financial approvals, whether it's related to a hardware ordering or a circuit ordering, there's CapEx, opex, and we'd have shared access circuits to have there are specific tools, um, that we couldn't let go because people, you know, we have the financial teams that handle all the all the workflow, all the financial approvals and those tools that we can't say, let's shift to Pega. We've struggled in that. Maybe in the future we'll manage to move across. But, uh, so as a solution, we set up APIs with those tools. So the user, the planner, does not have to actually go manually and log this, uh, in in a separate tool, go to a different portal, seek the approval. So that interface will do that for him.

He will just submit it through Optima. The interface will bring back the result. Yes. It's approved automation, automation. The task will move to the next person, which is the network service implementation team that tells you, look, this is approved. That's a heads up. Um, you know, it's coming through to you. You need to do your ordering, um, work with the suppliers to make sure you deliver what you need to deliver as part of the solution. Right.

So, um, um, so this is this is one of the main benefits. And at the same time, um, the end to end visibility of the whole project and all the subprojects that are associated with it, because you could have a we have to open a new pop, for example, in Japan, and you could have a various type of activities related to, you know, ordering a bunch of circuits or, you know, deploying the equipments, deploying, uh, type of hardware, you know, switches, routers, etc.. Uh, cabling, uh, you need to send field engineers and sometimes which is one of uh, also one of the nice benefits that we managed to get is, um, although there's no because all the users will listen to the users. All the users were saying, okay, everything's so rigid, standardized. What about if I want to, um, I don't want to use another tool. I want to do something ad hoc. Right. Maybe it's not part of the end to end process. Uh, I want to order something, but I need to create my own tracker.

Right. So they're going back to that mentality where they used to have this issue tracker, where they used to they used to, you know, configure it themselves and make it fit for them. Right. So we created like an ad hoc case type which is quite good, you know. And you said exactly. We listen to them say what type of task you wish to be able to add and remove. And who would you like to involve with you from? We've got about 13 workgroups from, you know, so who do you want access to this? Who do you want to collaborate with.

So we managed to get something in place that that is ad hoc. Um, right. And they can report on it and they can have, you know, for their own use. It helps them in their day to day activity. So, um, on the reporting side, the end to end visibility is very beneficial for our management. This is what they were missing in the past. Now they have the one place where they can go and see all the activities that are ongoing within their teams and their remit. Um, we managed to add about 30 different case types and they all vary across, um, you know, um, circuit installations, circuit migration, circuit decommissioning, upgrade modifications, uh, same thing on the hardware side. And also they touched two main networks.

We have the IP network and the voice network. Right. And when you say voice, obviously there's a lot of different domains involved. And the same thing on IP on the data side, um, there's all all different type of networks and domains. So the good thing about Pega is it gave us that flexibility. Um, you know, otherwise we would have like 100 different types. Right. So it gave us the flexibility to say if it's a circuit case type, when you create that case in the creation step, you can you can, you can actually have selection criteria where you can use the variation in the back end of the workflow, right? So it could be a redeployment instead of an installation of a new hardware piece, right.

You're just redeploying something so it will automatically use the back end. Um, and recognize that this is the workflow that we should use. These are the work groups that should be involved. Instead of having everyone involved and having to waste other people's time. Right. So, um, we've talked we've talked about teamwork list, you know, um, they've got visibility, uh, to the teams work basket, visibility to each one's individual work basket. Um, the SLAs were quite important for us, you know, because, um, with the work list, we had SLAs, for example. You know, you shouldn't take more than two days to get an approval on, on something, um, related to a CapEx or an opex, uh, case, uh, request. So, you know, we set SLAs if something is, um, past due or almost, you know, past you, uh, you'll get a notification to tell you, you know, uh, follow up.

Let's, uh, let's get this one going. So. So SLAs are notifications are set pretty much on each single task, right. So we've defined our SLAs. We put them in place and we connected them to um to notifications. So the right people and escalations are in place in terms of email notifications. Right. And then obviously this is to to to fast track the ability to, to produce and deliver. All right.

Um, yeah. So one of the things that Optima has, has helped us do, and what we use Pega specifically for is to mask the complexity of network deployment processes, right? That's right. So we've we've been able to take something that's very complex and break it down into something that is simple and easy to use. Simplification. And all of the tools that are integrated with optima today, all these complex tools, we don't have to we don't really have to worry about using Optima. And that's obviously it goes to the integrated Intelligent Automation. So when we talk about automation, we're not there yet in terms of GenAI and Blueprint. We're looking into that in the future hopefully.

But where how we use automation today for our benefit is to connect with other tools, um, and application within our environment, uh, like uh, circuit, uh, you know, circuit repositories, which is very important. You know, um, you know, you trigger a circuit activity and you have no visibility on that circuit or the, or the parameters behind that circuit, which is residing in a repository. Right. And that, you know, having at the start, it was funny, actually, all we did is have a hyperlink for users to go to that tool and have access to that data. But we managed to that was the first API that was set actually with CCR, where we managed to have that, um, in fact automated. And the minute they put the reference, all that, all those parameters, all that data comes back into the into the case information screen. Um, so that's obviously ease of use. That was one of the first APIs. And we then moved on to adding some other APIs, um, with other applications to, to obviously facilitate the use.

Um, now, um, going to the next slide is our process model. So, um, we've been talking about Optima, but this is actually the Optima International. Um, you know, with, with, with our business, um, we have Optima International and also we have so we have all the regions under the one bucket, which is international. And then we have France. France is it's owned because they have their own network, own tools, uh, different processes, different way of working. And obviously they needed a tool in French. Right. So that's the, um, the French perimeter. And we'll talk about that in the next couple of slides.

So this is the the process model that we followed for the international, Uh, perimeter. Um, you can see from left to right the first orange cell where you see project start, and at the end you see the project completed. Right? So this is the end to end placeholder. It's not actually, there's no such thing as workflow automation. It's just a placeholder. There's no activity. There's no workflow. There's no, uh, automation with with other applications.

Um, there's no, you know, it's just a pure main project where you can associate the actual workflow, which is what we call subprojects. So all our actual activities are nested under the subproject. And you could have a, like a you know how I said opening a new or a new site in the country? That could be the the master project, as we call it, or parent project, which is the end to end placeholder. And then you have all those related activities to installing new circuits, hardware, um, you know, some type of services that are actually, uh, listed that can be Associated with the with the main project and they called subprojects. So within the case information of a project we click and then you see all the list of subprojects. You see the status where they are at, what task is currently pending, who's handling this. So so the good thing about Pega is actually, you know, you see where we are at with the with the with the with the flow, who's who's accountable, who's looking at it, who's what was completed and what's the next step. Right.

Um, so this is the process model that we've used and the variations that I spoke about. So you see on the left the different circuit types, uh, whether it's a shared access backbone, uh, different type of, uh, you know, it could be just an in house wiring where you don't need to engage with the carriers or suppliers to install a new circuit. So that is just internal, which is a very simple workflow. So that variation, um, you know, uh, is, is can be triggered at the, at the circuit creation step. Right. Um, then you've got uh, on the right, you see the, the hardware, So if it's not a circuit, obviously it's a hardware activity. And then you see it could be a redeployment, a new hardware, um, or just basically a hardware ordering only we're not doing anything else. We're just ordering a piece of hardware. We're not, uh, you know, configuring, sending a field engineer or doing any, any testing, etc..

So, so that's how the workflow variation works. And then we've got other type of activities like customer migrations and renewals, which is more related to cost optimizations. Right. Um, so that's the process model. And um, going into the next slide is what we kind of what I touched, touched upon, which is Optima expansion. So um, we started we started first with some of the people that are here. We had a bit of a discussion on how we we managed to achieve adoption. So on the Optima International side, uh, we started maybe, um, two years before Optima France was launched or is still in the build phase, but actually they've, they've they've, um, rolled out 12 use cases so far, so we've started five years ago, but managed to get user adoption in place in 2021. Around mid-year we chose the region.

We piloted a few use cases. Um, we made sure that, you know, we used, um, so, uh, agile approach in our way of working. We were doing sprints, you know, two weeks sprints, deploying a workflow and then testing it, and then again rolling into production. So we chose one region so we don't make it too complex. We chose APA at the time. And that was a success story. You know we had some good feedback which kind of, uh, made the other regions get excited about it and follow. Right. So, um, the other regions followed and we managed to achieve, uh, full user adoption across the globe.

Um, and then when the French perimeter was also, you know, uh, you know, why they also had some issue, whereas an existing, uh, tool. Uh, sorry. So that that actually was not being maintained. No future cannot they cannot maintain it. Then it's not really, you know, uh, a pure workflow automation tool. They looked at what we're doing and then looked at the success story behind it, and then they said, okay, we need to do something for for the French perimeter. So the good thing is that they managed to reuse some of the Pega infrastructures that we have used. So the leverage from the work that we've done on the international side, um, there we'll talk in the next slide about the international, how many users and stuff. But um, um, you know, on the on the international side, we're about two, two, 200 plus users, um, 30 use cases, as I mentioned before.

But on the French side, there's 50 plus users, uh, 12 use cases. Uh, they've got about three APIs in place today. Um, we'll probably double that in terms of interfacing with our applications. Um, and again, uh, why? It's because, you know, they've got also legacy networks in France. And, um, they're totally separate from our international networks. Aren't they on the French side, too? Right. They're using it at a at a much deeper level.

Right. So they're actually using it for some ordering. There's a level of granularity because they yeah, they use case is a bit different than us because like um, they even have we're more, uh, high level, not high level, but they, they say use cases. If you look at them, it's just adding, you know, adding a Cisco equipment or adding a card to a switch. It's more, you know, um, actually, uh, I like the idea maybe. And we looked at that and we were thinking, maybe we should break down some of the activities that we do on international side because, um, they managed to achieve, uh, like interfacing with, uh, with, uh, actually the what's it called for the, for the hardware logistics and hardware ordering. Uh, um. I don't remember. Yeah.

Sorry. So, so so they've got, they've got something that they're the supplier for, the hardware that they follow up with, that they manage to build an interface with an external supplier. We haven't done that on the international side, but we've heard the story, and I think we're going to leverage on that and look into that. Maybe look at setting up, you know, whether it was Cisco Juniper setting up some type of a interface to, to their portal. So that's something we're going to look into. And that really is right. That really is the interesting thing with two different groups more or less doing the same type of work, but a little bit different. We have a symbiotic relationship, so we're learning from them while they're learning from us. So it's it's it's a it's a good relationship to have.

Absolutely. So we we leverage from each other. Um okay. So uh, now let's talk about maybe that's the last slide before we wrap up, but, uh, we'll talk a bit here about our, um, some numbers. Yeah. Uh, what have we done so far on the international side since the launch? Uh, we've completed over 7000 cases. Yeah. Um, the improvement in terms of, uh, uh, you know, end to end or product on the productivity side, we managed to improve by 14%.

So we've we've cut down the cycle, um, by 14%. So that's, that's we think this is a good major improvement. You know, um, instead of having a six months to, to roll out something, you know, we're looking at maybe in some cases 4 to 5 months or even as an average, uh, four months was was more of the number we were looking at. So, um, uh, we've got 13 different work groups involved, uh, you know, 200 users spread across those 13 work groups. Um, the there's no more emails, you know, uh, the work groups or the gatekeeper. Yeah, the the planners, whether it's an international or regional planner, which are the gatekeepers that receive that when the case is created, they're the ones that receive it. They've they've been given a mandate in the past that, you know, do not accept anything via email. You know, we need to, uh, you know, promote the adoption of the tool. And that's what we used in order to make sure that nothing happens through manual trigger via email or Excel.

Using Excel templates. So that that was one of the main reasons, um, to, um, to ensure that we get the full use of the, of what we've built. Right. Uh, we've run an NPS course, which was uh, we scored 13 points, um, which is on the good side. Right. Um, and yeah, we're growing and. Yeah. Mike, I'll hand over to you. Yeah.

So so we are growing, I mean, with the success we've had with with Optima and with Optima France, we're hoping to integrate additional tools with Optima so that we can handle even more of the functionality. And like I said earlier, mask the complexity of what we do. Um, we are looking at, um, let's say partnering with other organizations within Orange Business and how we can develop stronger relationships through having mature processes and a strong workflow tool. And in the end, and you know, this is one of the reasons we're here, um, was to look at, you know, how do we expand? How do we how do we grow, how do we take it to the next level? And we had already been talking about some of these things internally. But I think, you know, we'll put into practice what we've learned here over the past couple of days. Start looking at Pega Cloud and what things like Knowledge Buddy or Pega Blueprint or or GenAI. Right.

That's the huge topic today. How can how can that aid us in furthering our journey? Um, with, with optima and and Pega? Yeah. There's a there's a lot to, um, I think we've learned a lot from this, um, in the last couple of days. And there's a lot to take home and see how we can apply some of the and look into expanding, um, on the Pega capabilities. Yeah. Um, I know we've got a bit of time left. It'll be good to have some type of an interactive session.

Questions. And I don't know if some of you have had some experiences or bad experiences with, uh. I know we met with, uh, yesterday. I don't know if they hear this and they're going to try and attend, but, yeah, we're happy to collaborate here. Hey, guys. Uh, my name is Sayed Shakir and I am from, uh, Charter Communications. Uh, I just wanted to understand that, by the way, first of all, nice presentation. I just wanted to understand that Pega in this use case was used as a workflow tool and order management or just workflow purposes. No, no, it was mainly like a case management.

We use the case management, but with with the workflow automation, uh, you know, a lot of workflow automation involved. So within orange business though, we are using Pega for order management. Yeah, yeah. For uh. Different different. Organization for custom order management. Yeah. But but when we say workflow automation not not the complete automation package, right? It's just automating the handoffs, um, automation related to instead of having to do something in other applications manually, you know, saving the rework, avoiding rework to reduce errors.

So that type of automation. But it's mainly case management. The what we're using on the platform is to be able to manage those network deployment cases across, um, our global network and our global presence. Okay. We actually, um, we actually met with some representatives from charter yesterday. Okay. And they shared with us their experiences and, and their journey in, in their Pega deployment and how that's coming. Yeah. We had a lengthy discussion, actually.

They were telling us about the the difficulties that you guys are having in terms of achieving user adoption. And we shared some of our, um, you know, stories, experiences, how we managed to get adoption in place. So it was a it was an interesting. Our difficulties Faculties and successes. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. You know, it's the mindset, honestly.

We faced a lot of issues at the start. People. People like to keep using what they're using people, even if it's, you know, they like to. Even if you tell them, you know, you need to. You shouldn't be working for the tool. The tool should be working for you. You tell them that, then they don't care. They just want to keep doing what they're doing. They want to feel secure.

They want to feel, you know, that bring something that's going to automate my job. They don't understand that, that this is going to help them. And they can focus on doing other things and be more productive by, you know, focusing on other items that are coming for for the group and for the company. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. The other thing is like, uh, um, I saw this Optima software that is sitting between Pega and all the other integrations, let's say circuit inventory or circuit design system. So this was the job of Optima to kind of orchestrate. It's a we the way we're positioning it is the macro level workflow tool.

right? So yes, optimize is on a bigger platform. It's a bigger application. But you've got our circuit repository, our network repository, our tools that handle change management. Um, you know, uh, configurations testing, uh, change management requests are actually, you know, also in different applications like we spoke about the financial approvals. So all these they're kind of sitting interfacing around that main, you know, that macro level workflow workflow tool. Okay. So that was inside Optima OK one. On the international side we we have not replaced any tools.

Right. We've simply integrated them. Exactly. On the French side. The goal is to replace it all. Okay. And so we're hoping that once Optima France is more mature, which should be coming within the next, I would say year that we can actually decommission a at all, which would be a great success for us. Um, you know, to to achieve. The placenta moving into full into the run phase, they're still kind of in the build and at the same time piloting the or using the products that were delivered, but they're pushing towards that direction.

See it's different. We didn't have a tool on the international side on the French perimeter. They had a tool. But it's a it's a it's um, yeah, it's a legacy tool, really nothing that can be maintained going forward. That's why OK with them, they will just shut down and decommission the old tool and then start, you know, shift to using the optimal French. Okay. I don't want to eat everybody else's time. But just one question that, uh, were you folks by any chance using Order Management accelerator? Uh Pega.

Order management accelerator. No no no no no. Okay. So yeah, because usually like, uh, the use cases like when we talk about order management, um, happy path, everything is good. But when we are trying to implement, uh, reworks or revision. Right? And now you have to move the needle back from the end of the workflow back to the beginning. You have loopbacks, right. And then you fix what you need to fix and then it just goes back.

Right. Okay. So I mean for that, like you said, you use the functionality loopback. Yeah we do have we do have I mean you can get to a point. I mean, let's say we have um, we've got I mean, just talk a bit more about the there's, there's a, there's a high level design held, we call it document and a low level design that the engineers work on. So at some point, although the planners have submitted that attached it into the case, they get to a point where it gets to the network, uh, you know, change and configuration team, they do the management on the change and configuration. They can possibly, uh, you know, spot something that's wrong in that document. So what do you do here? You know, you're not going to just cancel the case and start from scratch.

So we use a, you know, they have the chance to reject or to send them back to that owner of the file so they can take action. They'll tell them, okay, something needs to be revised here. They revise it and send it back. Until, you know, you can have loopbacks going back and forth until they get the right design in place and so they can proceed. Okay okay. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

No worries. You're welcome. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Are we ready to party? Jonathan. Yeah. Thank you all for attending.

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Maybe last but not least. Thank you Jonathan. Thanks, Ryan, for all your support throughout this and for the opportunity. Thank you and thanks, everyone for being here. Thank you.