Business Process Mapping and Re-Design : BSNL MOBILE CELLULAR SERVICE

Introduction

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd launched Mobile Cellular Services in India in the year 2000 under which Pre-paid and post-paid cell phone connections are sold to customers through a network of Customer Service Centers (CSC), distributors and dealers spread over the country.

SIM card distribution to the various agencies, and Mobile Number allotments are centrally monitored by the Headquarters of BSNL Mobile Services, at the RK Nagar Telephone Exchange, Mumbai. The Accounts Officer at the zonal Headquarters issues SIM cards and recharge cards to the various CSCs as and when required. Other than CSCs, SIM cards are also sold through approved dealers. Pre-paid SIM cards and recharge cards are purchased by distributors who in turn sell them to customers. The Accounts Officer keeps track of cards issued/ sold to CSCs/Dealers/Distributors, and of all related accounts.

At the Customer Support Centre, a customer is allowed to choose a GSM number of his/her liking, for the mobile phone, from an available list of numbers. A GSM number may be blocked, for later purchase, for a period of 48 hours on request by a customer, and released if payment for the connection is not made within the period. Fancy (or vanity) numbers are sold for a special fee. In case of loss of mobile phone, or damage of SIM card, a new SIM card with same mobile number may be obtained after payment of replacement charges.

Prerequisites for SIM card distribution and management process

Operating Environment

The intranet constitutes the various Customer Support Centres of BSNL, connected to the Mobile Services Headquarters, through dedicated lines. An Intranet Web Server, running IIS, is required at the Mobile Services, headquarters, on which the application software is hosted. The backend database is MS SQL Server, which may be hosted on a separate Database Server. An additional standby server is recommended for redundancy in case of any system failures. The only pre-requisite for the Client systems at the Customer Support Centres is for them to be equipped with a web-browser. These will be located at the counters.

Software Architecture

SIM Card Management System is implemented as an Intranet application. The Web Server is located at the Mobile Services, Headquarters, at RK Nagar Mumbai, on which the application software is hosted. The application software is developed in ASP, JavaScript, and HTML. The central database is based on MS SQL Server 2000. The system can be accessed over the Intranet of BSNL connecting all the Customer Support Centres to the Mobile Services Headquarters. Clients equipped with web browsers can access the system from the counters located at the Customer Support Centres.

The SIM Card Management System is user-friendly, designed to be easy to use through a series of screens and pull-down menus. The software can be used by anyone with necessary domain knowledge at the Mobile Services Headquarters, BSNL, and the Customer Support Centres.

The SIM Card Management System is an intranet application designed – to handle sale transactions at Customer Support Centres; to carry out all activities related to SIM card/ GSM number distribution/ allotment by the headquarters; and to maintain accounts; through a centralised database. The SIM Card Management system uses intranet technology to give a cost-effective solution that delivers powerful and robust results. By connecting Customer Support Centres, dealers, and distributors with the Mobile Services headquarters, through a centralised server, information is managed effectively and efficiently. Up-to-date and reliable information on stock of SIM cards and recharge cards and the revenue earned through their sale is available at any given time.

Product Features

• Maintenance of all SIM card details in a centralised environment.
• Handle sale transactions at the twelve Customer Support Centres in Chennai.
• Handle SIM card/ GSM number distribution and allotment by the Headquarters Maintenance modules for incorporation of new schemes, plans etc with ease.
• Automate generation of all accounting and statistical statements. Efficient query system for the enquiry counter.

The CSCs located at twelve telephone exchanges are connected to the headquarters, BSNL Mobile Services, located at RK Nagar, through dedicated lines. A centralized database, located on the server at the headquarters, is used to track the transactions involving stock and sales of SIM cards and recharge cards, and allotments of mobile numbers, through the various Customer Support Centres, dealers and distributors.

Counter operations handled are Sale of connections – post-paid as well as pre-paid, Sale of recharge packs, Blocking of GSM number for a period of 48 hours on request by a customer, Sale of vanity numbers, Conversion of pre-paid to post-paid connection, Replacement of damaged SIM cards, and Receipt generation for all these transactions. The counter facilitates the customer visiting the CSC center to view the list of available mobile numbers, at the time of buying, and choose one of his preference. The software provides an Administrative module for incorporating various plans and schemes offered by BSNL from time to time. The SIM Card Management system handles tallying and accounting of daily sales at the CSCs and generation of consolidated statements of Stock and Amounts collected. Facility is provided for Administrator to disseminate FAQ’s and other essential messages to the counter

staff.

MAPPING OF THE DISTRIBUTION PROCESS

In the above mapped process the accounts officer at the zonal headquarter distribute the SIM card to the CSC’s and approved dealers which in turn sell the SIM to the distributors and consequently both distributors and CSC’s sell the SIM card to the customers. The after sales services to the customers are provided by the CSC’s only.

Functions  of Accounts Officer

1. Issue of post-paid SIM cards to CSCs

2. Issue of pre-paid SIM cards to CSCs

3. Issue of spare pre-paid SIM cards to CSCs

4. Issue of recharge cards to CSCs

5. Issue of pre-paid SIM cards to distributors

6. Issue of post-paid SIM cards to dealers

7. Issue of recharge cards to dealers

8. Issue of recharge cards to distributors

9. Invoice printing – incorporating commission to distributors and TDS

10. Daily statement of sales – per Customer Service Centre

11. Daily statement of sales – overall

12. Various statements for listing category wise sales

Functions of Customer Support Centres (CSC)

1. Sale of post-paid cards

2. Sale of post-paid cards – Vanity levels one, two and three

3. Account number entry for post-paid connection after activation

4. Sale of pre-paid cards

5. Sale of pre-paid cards – Vanity levels one, two and three

6. Blocking of pre-paid GSM number

(of a SIM available at any CSC, from any other CSC)

7. Blocking of post-paid GSM number from any CSC

8. Sale of blocked post-paid cards

9. Sale of blocked pre-paid cards

10. Sale of recharge cards

11. Conversion of pre-paid to post-paid connection

12. Pre-paid SIM card replacement

13. Post-paid SIM card replacement

14. Including additional facilities, such as STD or ISD, to a connection after taking

additional deposit

15. Marking as validated, after verification of documents submitted by a customer

16. Surrendering a connection

17. Waiving of activation fee – available with special access permission

18. Waiving of replacement charges- available with special access permission

19. Daily collection list on account of sales – post-paid

20. Daily collection list on account of sales – pre-paid

21. Query on Friends/Family GSM numbers

22. Query on schemes

23. Query for PIN and PUK number

24. List of cancelled receipts

25. FAQ

The above functions incorporate the following features:

a. Ensuring that a customer does not avail of post-paid card quoting the

same land-line phone more than once.

b. Validation of land-line phone numbers.

c. Barring non-payment defaulters from SIM replacement.

d. Record demand note number in lieu of land-line number where

required.

e. Capture and validate Friends and Family GSM numbers if opted for.

f. Recording history of allotment time, designation of data entry person

and location for all transactions to enable future queries on the same.

g. Option for printing of receipts on plain as well as pre-paid stationery

for all transactions

Administrative/ Maintenance Functions

1. Incorporation of new plans, schemes

2. Updating talk value/ validity period/ etc. for existing plans

3. Updating messages for receipt-footnotes, messages for broadcast to counterstaff

4. Release of a surrendered connection for sale

5. Periodic statistical reports generation

6. Display entire history and status of transactions for a given GSM number or

SIM number

7. Reprinting receipt for an old transaction, if required

8. Canceling receipt for a completed transaction

9. General administrative and maintenance functions

10. Queries

PROBLEMS IN THE PROCESS

The major problem areas are

· Improper Distribution

· Prolonged activation time

· Inefficient customer care services

The process of applying for the service is cumbersome, full or red-tape and inconvenient. One can only apply at the BSNL headoffice in the city, unlike private operators, where customer can get the connection from a number of sales-points across the city. It also takes a long time for getting activated. One had to wait for months to procure the SIM and even more than a week after getting the SIM card for the service to get activated, and functional whereas other private operators activate number within a days. To add to the woes the customer care services provided by BSNL is relatively poor, one has to wait for hours to get connected to the customer care executive for having his grievances redressed and after that also customer had to wait for a long time for their problem being solved.

Recommendations for streamlining the distribution process

All these problems comes under the perview of the customer service centres and therefore poses various questions on the role of CSC’s in the distribution process and hence the problem can be made streamlined by reducing the work load of CSC’s.    selling the SIM cards to the customers by the

Modified mapping of the distribution process

In the modified flow chart the accounts officer at the zonal headquarter distributes the SIM card only to the approved dealers which through the channel of distributors sell the SIM to the customers. Here by the modifications the work pressure as well as bureaucracy and red tapism decreases and the distribution channel works properly. The advantage of selling the SIM through the retailers increases the availability and

The customer care services is also improved in the above process as the customers in the process pays the amount of their bill directly to the retailers which is not only reducing the burden of the CSC’s but also becomes convenient for the customers. The retailer in turn pays these bills to the CSC’s of their respective areas. These CSC’s are accountable to a central CSC of the zone which is ultimately accountable to the account officer of the zone.

BSNL should make the effective use Recharge Card Management System, Customer Care Management System and other advanced technologies to improve their internal process.

To speed up its process like activation, documentation, verification, allotting account number etc. it should outsource some of its work to speed up the whole process.

To further improve their customer service, I propose:

• BSNL to soon introduce touch- screen kiosk at the Enquiry Counter, so that customers are able to make their own  enquiries with respect to availability of numbers, bill amounts, plans / schemes etc.
• BSNL should make a tie up with more & more call centers so that customer complaints can solved much faster.
• Like private operators,BSNL should open their customer centers at various public places like shopping malls for better service to customers.

There is large future market ahead .BSNL should try to forecast this future demand and if BSNL wants to capture this market and increase its market share in future (which is right now very) it has to make such changes in its  customer service and specially in it’s distribution process otherwise it will lost it to its competitors.

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Tags: Account Officer, Administrative/ Maintenance Functions, ASP, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, BSNL, Cellular Service, CSC, Customer Service, Distribution Process, Distributor, Features, Function, HTML. GSM, Java Script, Management Process, Mapping, Mobile, MS SQL Server, Post paid, Pre paid, Problems, Recharge Card Management System, Recommendation, SIM Card, Software Architecture, Streamlining