Telstra boosts customer experience with Ericsson BSS tech

Telstra has carried out a front end digital transformation for its prepaid customers, with the latest Ericsson Digital Business Support Systems (BSS) technology. The customer-centric initiative provides an easier and more intuitive digital experience for prepaid Telstra customers, with faster service activation speeds — more than 50% faster, compared to legacy systems. As a digital-led product, the prepaid digital stack solution is aimed at boosting customer control and convenience.

The co-developed initiative was designed, implemented, tested and launched by a joint Telstra and Ericsson project team; its accelerated delivery was made possible through continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), with TMF aligned Open APIs used extensively to enable integration and a shorter time to market. The solution enables Telstra to offer simple, easy-to-use products and experiences to its customers.

Shailin Sehgal, Telstra Product Enablement Technology Executive, said Telstra’s pre-paid customers now experience activation speeds of less than a couple of minutes, which had previously taken “around 10 minutes” with the legacy solution. Telstra has replaced the traditional CRM experience with a digital and customer-centric experience in an integrated end-to-end pre-paid solution.

“Our T22 vision is to fundamentally change the nature of telecommunication products and services in Australia by eliminating pain points for our customers and this implementation is another step we are taking to help us achieve this. Working with Ericsson has allowed us to have simplified product set up and enable faster time to market,” Sehgal said.

Mats Karlsson, Vice President and Head of Solution Area BSS, Ericsson, said the company set out to achieve efficient operation with reduced total cost of ownership, superior omni-channel customer experiences in all channels and a transition to digital operation, for Telstra’s retail prepaid transformation.

“We are delighted to have achieved these goals. User feedback is very positive across the board — all delivered by a joint Telstra/Ericsson team that showed how quickly excellent results can be achieved when ecosystem partners work closely and speedily,” Karlsson said.

The Ericsson Digital BSS products used in Telstra’s prepaid digital transformation include Ericsson Charging, Ericsson Digital Experience Platform (DXP), Ericsson Catalogue Manager and Ericsson Order Care. These offerings span customer segments, payment methods and channels. With cloud deployments, Telstra now has significant improvements in operational flexibility and efficiency.

Utilising modern agile delivery methodologies and program governance — and capitalising on CI/CD pipelines from the Ericsson development unit direct to Telstra — the solution is integrated with multiple IT systems. The CI/CD-based approach provides breakthrough methodology, leading to quality, timely and efficient solution delivery.

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