MVNO Transformation and BSS overhaul

The Approach

The project began at the end of 2016, and lasted 18 months. It was intended as a Full MVNO transformation, involving the parallel integration of two different online charging systems, and customer SIM cards replacement at the Full MVNO launch. The project was delivered in the SaaS model to ensure timely and flexible delivery.

The Business Need

Through Mobile Vikings nv, DPG Media manages its digital transformation project aimed at assembling all of its mobile spectrum brands under a single entity. The brands (Mobile Vikings, Stievie and JIM Mobile) required a single, unified BSS solution to fully converge their business rules.

Comarch was chosen to implement this project thanks to its optimal coverage and related functionalities, best value for money offer, and extensive experience in the telecom industry.

DPG Media’s telco business transformation is in line with industry-wide trends where media companies and social network giants are increasingly positioning themselves as communication services providers.To compete in this environment, Mobile Vikings nv needed to grow to a Full MVNO from a Light MVNO, and therefore required a compact BSS solution able to cover those expanded mobile operator business needs and unify business processes.

The Challenge

The system sought by Mobile Vikings nv was expected to handle services of all three Mobile Vikings nv brands:

Mobile Vikings, a mobile virtual network operator offering prepaid SIM cards and subscriptions with unique price plans for mobile data, only via online channels (web and app). Its original loyalty program, called Viking Deals, required a BSS system capable of managing a large number of loyalty points transactions.
Stievie, an online video-on-demand platform requiring omnichannel environment support for its streaming service.
JIM Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator offering prepaid SIM cards and subscriptions distributed by partners and dealers, and via online channels (web and app). This brand required support for its flexible subscription-based service that allows customers to control their data and calling minutes limits.

The goal of the project was to build a unique, multi-brand customer management solution allowing Mobile Vikings to thrive in the highly competitive Belgian telecom market.

Apart from the technological and business challenges, Comarch’s operational flexibility came into play to handle the organizational aspects. The migration of the old system to the new one began in the waterfall approach, developing into agile implementation. Furthermore, the solution delivered by Comarch could integrate easily with other systems, and made requesting new product set-ups a straightforward process.

The need to integrate an OCS (Online Control Session for prepaid accounts) system from two different vendors was particularly challenging for the Comarch team. It was imperative that Comarch Smart BSS serviced both OCSs, recognized to which one each client belonged, and migrated client data after the vendor agreement had run its course.

In addition, Mobile Vikings nv’s transformation project was conducted in response to a requirement of the European Commission in the context of the BASE sale by Telenet. Comarch assisted the company in meeting the strict deadlines arising from this.

The Implemented Products

Mobile Vikings chose Comarch Smart BSS and Wholesale Billing (formerly InterPartner Billing). The solution from the Comarch Smart BSS product line is a comprehensive, pre-integrated convergent system that gives Mobile Vikings full management abilities for key BSS processes such as request to answer, order to payment, usage to payment, request to change, and termination.

The system contains compact versions of Comarch products such as CRM, Self-care, Billing System, Product Catalog , Voucher Management, Customer Lifecycle Management, Loyalty Management, and Application Integration Framework. Smart BSS configured in this manner handles charging, invoicing and billing using a real-time rating functionality provided by the integrated OCS, and benefits from the support of authorization and service provisioning. The system provides interfaces for real-time offline and online authentication, charging and accounting through the RADIUS (RFC2865 and RFC 2866) networking protocol, SAP-integrated payment invoicing, subscription and voucher management including order tracking, balance checks, and top-ups. The Wholesale Billing product allows telecommunication support for business to business relations and settlements.

The implemented products fulfill Mobile Viking’s requirements and boost its business by providing means for content providers (Mobile Vikings, Stievie and JIM Mobile) to exchange billing data and invoices, and to share revenue and cost information.

The Results

In only 18 months, SBSS was built to replace three systems (first Stievie, then JIM Mobile, followed by Mobile Vikings). A very tight two-year deadline (18 months of implementation and four months actual migrations) was set for the complete migration from light MVNO to full MVNO.

The two telco brands, JIM Mobile & Mobile Vikings (with combined active subscriptions numbering about 350 000) were successfully and seamlessly migrated from the previous OCS to the new one, without any customer interaction, due to the dual integration of the OCSs. In between those migrations, Stievie was migrated as a one-shot.

After the implementation was complete, full integration with Mobile Viking’s existing financial system and comprehensive reporting was deployed, allowing better follow-ups on business KPIs and daily activities. The solution for Stievie was fully deployed in the Comarch Data Center in Kraków, and the flexibility of the approach made it a straightforward task to add new partner systems on demand.

Comarch Smart BSS now handles over 300 million monthly charging records, allowing Mobile Vikings to maintain a strong position in the Belgian telecom market.

Mobile Vikings Case Study