Telecom player
Improved customer experience through efficient product data management.
In collaboration with a leading telecom company, Prevas took on the challenge of improving the client’s product data management. By integrating existing systems, standardizing product attribute data, and aligning with the business strategy, we established a unified flow of product information – resulting in a significantly improved customer experience.
Improved delivery of complex product information
“At Prevas, within our Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) offering, we focus on helping our customers benefit from better product data management,” says Oscar Forslöf, Solution Architect at Prevas. “We’ve had a long-standing collaboration with this company, supporting their efforts to clarify and improve the handling of product data in the sales process – all to create a better experience for their customers.”
The large Swedish telecom company had conducted a customer study that mapped out the entire customer journey. The analysis revealed a clear need to shift from siloed ways of working to a more customer-centric approach. One specific pain point identified was the long lead time for customers to receive a quote. These quotes often contain complex, tailored solutions where all components must be selected and configured to meet specific requirements – a demanding task for the sales team that hinges on having access to accurate product data in the system.
The company’s products are often part of larger networks that include solutions from other vendors. This puts high demands on the sales organisation to deliver detailed product information throughout the sales process. In addition, the company often works in multi-year projects that require thorough planning, and customers frequently request information about products that are not yet fully developed.
Despite having a wide range of IT systems for managing product data across various functions – including an e-commerce platform, PLM, PDM, image libraries, document management systems (such as manuals), and ERP – there was no streamlined workflow or tailored IT solutions in place to effectively deliver the information customers were looking for.
“The catalogue system available to the sales team didn’t provide enough information to compile and present the solutions effectively to the company’s customers,” says Oscar Forslöf.
To understand the challenges, Prevas conducted interviews with the company’s salespeople to learn where and how they accessed information about the specific products that needed to be combined into a tailored solution for a quote. This approach allowed Prevas to trace the flow of product information further into the organisation – to product owners and developers who had previously communicated only by email or shared drawings in PDF format as the basis for the sales team’s work.
The sales team lacked a good tool to compile and present solutions to customers.
Oscar Forslöf, Business Unit Manager
Optimising the flow of product information
Prevas has helped standardise the company’s product data templates, implement structured processes, and develop its digital product catalogue. The goal, to give the sales team easy access to product information in a format that clearly shows both relevant data and which products fit together in specific customer solutions.
“The company already had all the systems in place – what we did was develop and connect them,” says Oscar Forslöf.
“For example, we standardised product descriptions, definitions and attributes within the existing database templates. We also defined integration requirements between systems, so that the e-commerce platform only pulls, transforms and displays the attributes the sales team actually needs. This provides a new, commercial-facing view of the product – rather than a purely technical one.”
With Prevas coming in from a high-level, holistic perspective, the team was able to help the company see the full picture. This collaboration led to the development of more structured and formal internal processes – ultimately improving traceability and accountability, something that’s highly valued by the company’s customers.