Enable, the fibre broadband network provider in Christchurch, has connected over 157,000 homes, businesses and schools to ultra-fast broadband since 2011 as part of the national ultra-fast broadband initiative.
Enable builds and maintains the fibre infrastructure, while Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like One NZ, 2degrees, and Spark deliver broadband services to customers using Enable's network.
To encourage broadband users to transition from other internet services like ADSL and VDSL to fibre broadband, Enable runs promotional campaigns with ISPs, which can benefit both the ISP and their customers.
Each promotion involves various factors such as the duration of the offer, contract terms and specific agreements with ISPs. These variables can include different fibre products, customer eligibility and whether the promotion targets residential or business customers.
The problem
Enable can run promotions simultaneously, each with specific terms, discounts, and incentives for ISPs.
While the team was capable of handling the tasks, managing multiple active promotions with many moving parts was manual and labour-intensive, requiring a significant amount of time from staff.
The objective
Enable recognised that a more efficient solution was needed.
Enable and DATAMetrics have a long-standing working relationship, which made the DATAMetrics team the logical choice to help Enable with this issue.
Jackie Roodt, Enable’s Data and Insights Team Leader approached Andy Phillips, BI Consultant and Visualisation Specialist at DATAMetrics, to discuss an opportunity to set up an automated billing payment solution.
The primary objective of this project was to create an airtight data structure that would automate as much of the promotional campaign processes as possible.
Achieving this objective would provide the following benefits:
- Improved efficiency through reduced labour-intensive tasks for Enable's internal teams.
- Eliminate any potential errors from manual work
Challenges
Having worked with Enable on several projects already, Andy knew the inner workings of Enable's operations and clearly understood the assignment. He knew what was required and quickly determined how he would do it. But every project has its challenges.
It took quite a while to gather and integrate all the information because there were many moving parts, and all historical data needed to be captured and integrated.
Throughout the project, additional factors were discovered and incorporated, ensuring that all possible scenarios were catered to, enhancing the overall quality of the finished result.
"I must say, Andy thought of things that other people would never consider. The level of detail that was applied, and the analysis that went into making sure the result is all-encompassing was outstanding."
Jackie Roodt, Data and Insights Team Leader, Enable.
"Right from the start, when I was given the task, I could visualise how to set up the data structure to make it flexible for the different options that were potentially required. Putting it into practice was sometimes quite mind-bending, working through the different scenarios, but it was very satisfying once I got it sorted, and it performed really well."
Andy Phillips, BI Consultant and Visualisation Specialist, DATAMetrics.
The outcome
All active promotions were successfully loaded into the new data structure. Now an automated report is run each month, looking at the previous month's activity. This report collates all one-off and recurring monthly payment data to be processed. The spreadsheet generated by this report shows all payments to be paid out or recovered, allowing for easy transfer to Enable's billing system.
The automated billing payment system has been running for several months and has proven very successful.
"So now we've reached a point where we don't touch it, and we receive minimal queries. I don't think we've actually even got one inquiry since we automated the process."
Jackie Roodt, Data and Insights Team Leader, Enable.
Andy created supporting documentation for Jackie's team so that when the time comes to launch a new promotion, they can work through the documentation to set up the new campaign details.
The project resulted in a robust system that efficiently manages Enable's promotional campaigns. This solution has significantly reduced manual work, minimised errors, and provided Enable with a tool to manage future promotional campaigns independently.
