Ensuring a successful implementation of your MNP projects

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Ensuring a successful
implementation of your MNP projects
Summit on Mobile Number Portability Implementation and Management
15 - 16 November 2012 at the Mlimani City Conference Center,
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

1

About Mediafon
Mediafon is a Lithuanian IT/TELCO company with a wide spectrum of services and a
customer oriented attitude. Mediafon is providing professional telecommunication services
and solutions to more than 100 operators and services providers worldwide.

Services
§  Carrier services
§  IVR and SMS services
§  Number portability services:
§  NP solution implementation and administration
§  Consulting services
§  NPCDB – NUMLEX

NP Experience
§  Lithuania fixed networks (Y2004) – on side of the biggest Lithuanian fixed lines operator
§  Georgia mobile networks (February Y2011) – in the role of NPC Administrator
§  Georgia fixed networks (December Y2011) – in the role of NPC Administrator
§  Azerbaijan mobile networks (Y2012) - in the role of NPC Administrator
§  Moldova – in the role of NPC Administrator. Winner in the international tender in August
2012. NP is planned to go live in mobile networks in the 2nd quarter of 2013 and in fixed
networks in the 3rd quarter of 2013

2
NUMLEX –Smart Number Portability www.numlex.com

Determining the standard
Number Portability processes
(“best practice”)

3

What does “the standard/typical
process” mean?

4

Which are the common definitions of standard/
typical processes, known as best practice?
§  Recipient operator oriented process (one-stop shopping) versus Donor
oriented (two-stop shopping)? Probably
§  With short porting time versus long? Hopefully
§  With possibility to allow a long porting time, upon subscriber request? Yes
§  With short cut-off time? Essential
§  With fully automated validations versus manual? If Possible
§  With possibility to port ranges of numbers? For sure
§  With possibility to cancel porting upon subscriber request? Depends
§  With possibility for the Donor operator to reject the porting? Most desired
§  Simple versus complex? Hmm…
Having this clear definition of the typical process,
which is best practice based,
why do we have so different processes
in different countries?
5

The frequent questions, which often stay unclear
when NP project starts (1)
1.  How will the numbers assigned to operators be managed? Is a
transformation of the national numbering plan foreseen? Can the
operators renew the information about numbering resources in a data
base? Can the Regulator renew these date?
2.  Who is the owner of the first time ported number? Second time
owner? Should the number be returned to the number range owner
when the customer cancels his subscription with the Recipient
operator? How does the answers on these questions influence the NP
processes, licenses, number management and payments for
numbering resources?
3.  How should the customer be identified? How to resend the
Application? How to reduce mistakes in the Application?
4.  Is return of range part available? Is reverse of range part available?
5.  How does the process of reverse porting look like – returning of
numbers ported by mistake? What are the conditions for operators?
Should the administrator participate in this process?
6.  Can the number with negative balance (debt) be ported? Who should
compensate the difference? What are the possible solutions?
6

The frequent questions, which often stay unclear
when NP project starts(2)
7.  Should the rate of repeated porting for separate customer be regulated?
What is the period of repeated porting? How is this regulation related to
porting with negative balance?

8.  How long is the porting time? Allow porting at any time of the day, or only
during business hours? Only fixed time? Should the subscriber be allowed
to select porting time?

9.  What is the time for ordering NP? Only at business hours?

10.  Should the service providers be directly connected to the central NP data
base (CDB)? Or shall they use the infrastructure of the operators?

11.  Should the integration with a SMS centre be organized for customer
identification and SIM check?

12.  What are the main functions and responsibilities of NP CDB administrator?

- All these questions make big influence on the typical process for
Number Portability

7

Simple process versus complex

Facts:

§  The identification of main requirements from the very beginning
pushes NP project management to the success
§  The main requirements usually are very typical and very often
they are used in many countries
§  Quite often all stakeholders agree on typical (standard)
requirements for NP
§  The unclear questions and undefined answers create space for
free modifications and long discussions during the project
§  All modifications to the typical process can either simplify the
process or make it even more complicated

So, how does the typical process look like?

8

Does it look like too complicated?

Donor’s
CRM
Residents'
Register

CDB Other
SIM operators

Recipient’s
CRM
9

Is this process complicated as well?

* This process relies on previous flow diagram
10

Does this look like too simple?

Donor’s
CRM

CDB Other
operators

Recipient’s
CRM

11

Is this process simple as well?

* This process relies on
previous flow diagram 12

Simple and complex (complicated) processes

Conclusions based on our experience

§  If the complexity depends on the technology and the experience
gained from the implementation only, the process for NP can be
SIMPLE

§  The more simple view on the flow from very beginning, the more
COMPLEX process will be implemented at the end of the project

§  There are a lot of possible solutions between the complexity and
simplicity of the process

“The typical process” - is it something in a middle?

13

So, how does “the typical process” look like?

We think that there is nothing such as a typical NP process, that
can be applied anywhere. It is hard to agree with stakeholders
on it.

There are always unique requirements, and the simplicity of NP
process depends on:

§  Deviating needs of different stakeholders

§  Legislative base

§  Specifics of the country (technologies, telecommunication sector
development level, business culture, people involved and etc.)

§  Selected NPCDB provider (competence, knowledge, experience)

14

Pinpointing and acknowledging the
needs of different stakeholders

15

Some needs at different stakeholders

Regulator Customer Operator
§  Increase level of §  To keep the
competition §  Secure porting
number §  Smooth NP
§  Accelerate sector §  Free of charge
development solution’s integration
porting in internal systems
§  Increase the §  To get the best §  Guaranteeing
quality of service quality of service
§  Smooth the quality of
to the best price service
working NP §  Porting without
solution §  Clear and
service reliable porting
§  Effective interruption process
management of §  Short time
numbering §  Convenient
porting interface for small
resources §  Maximal simple
§  Transparent operators
porting (one-stop §  Acceptable porting
monitoring tool for shop, online)
NP operations time

16

Pinpointing and acknowledging

All stakeholders agree on:
§  Need for smooth porting process
§  Need for guaranteeing the high quality of service

Despite cardinal differences in stakeholders needs, most of the
differences in the NP process appear due to country specifics, like;
§  Telecommunication sector maturity level
§  Availability of online services
§  Operators’ network development level and used technologies
§  IT and data bases development level
§  Regulation peculiarities and the level of NP experience
§  Business culture
§  Customs of the country

17

Evaluating the compatibility of
stakeholders’ needs
(Real cases)

18

Case 1. Porting date example
Description
§  Porting date - the exact time when porting will take place. The complexity of
the process depends on who sets the porting time during the process

Solution
§  To develop NP process where porting time is flexible, and customer can select
any porting time
§  To use model with more flexibility given to operators. For example Donor can
inform all involved parties about the exact time for the porting

Lesson learned
§  Flexible model causes more technical obstacles for operators (e.g. porting at
nights, etc.)
§  Strictly fixed porting may not be convenient for customer and thus may not
encourage to use NP service
§  More balanced solution shall be found to satisfy different stakeholders needs

19

Case 2. Broadcasting message example
Description
§  Broadcast of execution – is a message informing all operators about porting
time. Depending on who initiates broadcast different solutions are possible

Solution
§  NPCDB sends broadcast message to all operators automatically at a time
relatively to the selected porting time
§  Broadcast will be sent by a Donor or Recipient after one of them has confirmed
connection/disconnection of service

Lesson learned
§  Usually operators are unhappy with uncontrolled processes. An automated
sending of broadcast execution message by NPCDB limits their control, but at
the same time it will synchronize the execution of NP and will allow to define
more simple process with shorter service cut-off time
§  Broadcast sent by Donor/Recipient creates secure continuous process, but has
no future in respect to shorter service cut-off time and shorter porting time

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Case 3. Debt management example
Description
§  “A bad debt is an amount that is written off by the business as a loss to the
business and classified as an expense because the debt owed to the business is
unable to be collected…” – it is a main reason why the dept management in NP
process is so important for the operators
§  Very often the cost of pursuing further action in an attempt to collect the debt
exceeds the debt itself

Solution
§  To develop an additional NP process for dept management
§  To regulate the dept management as an operator – customer problem, which
shall be used according the law of the country

Lesson learned
§  Each country solves this problem differently
§  In many cases the solution was not clearly defined before the CDB tender
§  The bigger part of time for NP process design was used for this issue
§  Very often the process for dept management is bigger than main NP process
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Case 4. Simple process – short porting time
Description
§  Directive 2009/136/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. Article 30
- FACILITATING CHANGE OF PROVIDER:
“Porting of numbers and their subsequent activation shall be carried out within the
shortest possible time. …”
§  This is a big challenge for many countries (not in Europe only) and the reason for
that; too complicated existing NP processes, which require additional
investments to be able to support a shorter porting time
§  In many cases existing manual data validation and confirmation of the execution
takes a lot of time and leads to additional operational costs

Solution
§  Depending on possibilities - replace or upgrade the process

Lesson learned
§  Validation of the data shall be simplified and automated as much as possible
§  No documents and attachments are used for validation during the acceptance
§  The broadcast message shall be last message for the execution. There are no
needs to wait for a ready confirmation/acceptance from the operators
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Different needs – possible conflicts

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Are the needs of stakeholders compatible?
Identified Stakeholder need Subscriber Operator* Regulator Operator* Possible
need No. (Potential (Potential conflict
recipient) donor)
1 Recipient oriented model YES YES - NO YES
2 Donor oriented model NO NO - YES YES

…

5 Short porting time YES YES YES NO YES

…

9 Allowed porting with debts YES YES YES NO YES

…

12 Porting of number ranges YES YES YES NO YES

…

18 Short time for second porting YES NO YES NO YES

19 Transparent porting data YES YES/NO YES NO YES

(churn rates)
…

25 Short reversion time (error) YES YES YES YES NO

26 Short return time - YES - YES NO

…

33 Free of charge porting YES NO YES NO YES

34 Selection of porting time by YES NO YES NO YES

subscriber
…

55 Online porting YES YES YES NO YES

56 Short NP solution YES NO YES NO YES

implementation time

* There are even more conflicts, if we have different stakeholders for fixed and mobile networks

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Understanding how to mitigate these
conflicts in order to ensure satisfaction
amongst all stakeholders and the success
of NP project

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Finding or Negotiating a common solution?
Tasks
§  Find your common solution for all stakeholders
§  This solution shall be acceptable for all of them

Possible actions and results
§  To search and find a common solution;
§  To understand and negotiate an acceptable
solution

Lessons learned
§  In many cases there is no possibility to find a common solution that is
acceptable to all NP process stakeholders. The result of such searching –
delayed implementation and too complicated processes
§  Understanding of real needs and the elimination of unclear wishes – is a main
task for negotiations between stakeholders, and it usually leads to the
success of the NP Project and a simplified process, which will be ready for
short time portings
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Managing inter-operator relationships
Description
§  It is quite clear that it is impossible to evaluate all requirements for NP
implementation before the Tender for the NP CDB is sent out
§  Many of the requirements will be unclear even during the more deep
analysis phase, done by a group of specialists representing the different
stakeholders. This will create a lot of problems to continue a project.

Solution
§  A common working group shall be created between
all stakeholders (participating in a NP project) for
managing complex tasks and solving problems.

Lesson learned
§  The most important issue during the implementation
of NP, is to achieve a collaboration between all
stakeholders to reach a common goal, and to increase
the feeling of success within the team, as they
engage in collaborative problem solving.
27

Flexibility versus “Know how”
(Lessons learned)

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How to manage the implementation of
untypical requirements?
§  The most known way - is to classify all untypical requirements and to create a
“Know how” or “Best knowledge” base for the universal solution development.
Usually this way allows to have a set of templates and examples from last
successful implementations. Less local specifics shall be evaluated

§  Another way – is the experience + flexibility, which is based on “ready for
quick changes”. The selection of this way is acceptable for providers of very
customizable/flexible solution, which are ready to quickly implement almost
any new process unknown in beforehand.

Conclusions
All stakeholders are free to select most preferable way to manage the
implementation of untypical requirements

They shall be ready for fast modifications, which usually aren’t foreseen
before or at the beginning of NP project

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Universal NP process or flexible reaction?
§  The NP legislative basis, national conditions and NP rules, readiness of operators
for NP ( technical base, processes) differs from country to country and have big
impact on a project
§  Regulated parameters of the NP process compose only a minor part of the same.
Operators shall make additional agreements and the Regulator shall support the
initiative of creating the inter-operators group, which will document all agreed
“non regulated parameters”. The regulator shall also use his authority to make a
decision, that all stakeholders has to follow, in case of any dead-lock situation.
§  NP processes are defined using widely known messages like “NP request”, “NP
reject”, “NP confirm” and similar others. But the final meaning and the
implementation of every message differs from case to case
§  Modifications and adaptations performed during the process generally aren’t final
and will continue till the end of transitional period
Conclusions
All stakeholders shall be ready for fast modifications, which usually aren’t
foreseen before or at the beginning of NP project

The use of ”Universal” process can even complicate this situation. Quick
changes are required for risk management and successful project finish 30

Flexible tool
Description
§  Implementation of many specific NP requirements might be managed only
by selecting the option of a centralized NP solution, that can be individually
adapted to the current situation in each country

Solution
Select a NPCDB solution that:
§  Is stable and secure
§  Can be easily customized
§  Has possibility to speed up NP process for reverse and testing purposes
§  Is modern and proposes new possibilities for flexibility like:
§  excluding single numbers from ongoing process
§  manage each number separately with separate history for each number
§  making any changes in short time
§  Supports different processes on the same platform
§  Allows the testing of NP processes simply, shortly and smoothly

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Your questions are
welcome

32

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