Long-term Management of Configurable Telecommunications Service Offerings: a Case

Long-term management of configurators has been identified as challenging and business-critical in previous work. Configuration knowledge and prices may change frequently due to product changes and business reasons. If sales rely on configuration support, prompt updates are important, even business-critical. This work reports challenges and practices of long-term management of a configurable B2C broadband telecommunications service offering, contributing one of the first studies on long-term management of service configuration knowledge. Some significant differences to management of physical configurable offerings were identified, especially in the area of installed base management. To evaluate system effects, a change in a telecommunications service offering must be considered from at least three dimensions: how it affects the products, how it affects prices, and how it affects management of existing customers (the installed base). Five processes related to offering changes were proposed and characterised. A single process cannot be optimal for all product and pricing changes, as the scope and effect of changes can vary significantly. A lightweight enough process should be used for small and frequent changes, and an appropriately rigorous process should be used for significant changes. An adequate set of processes may to some extent alleviate problems related to an unacceptably slow ability to react to market changes.