TMNG Global Develops A Business Plan Enabling A Wholesale Provider to Add Voice Services

Challenge

A wholesale provider of data services was considering adding a voice component to its core set of business offerings. In order to make the decision, the client wanted to develop a full business plan that would demonstrate the viability of such a strategic move. The client needed the services of a firm with extensive voice and strategic planning expertise and chose TMNG Global to help achieve their objectives. Our challenge was not only to help in the development of the business plan, but to also oversee the implementation of the new business unit.

TMNG Global Solution

A TMNG Global principal composed a team of TMNG consultants with knowledge of the specific operational disciplines required for this task. Our team partnered with the client’s key stakeholders to formulate the business plan and market entry strategy. The framework included an overview of the wholesale market and an assessment of its major players — who would later become the client’s competition. The team identified which voice products the client would need in order to compete in the voice market, developed a pricing strategy for future products, and suggested pricing for each product. All of the possible operational requirements were defined, and a staffing model was designed and populated for each functional organization. The team also developed a network deployment strategy composed of switchless resellers, facilities-based carriers, and major communication service provider — all of whom were expected to be entering the long distance market within the planning cycle — to support the sales plan.

The business plan was presented to the Board of Directors and was approved. We were then asked to develop an operations plan that would ensure the client’s success after nine months of entering the wholesale voice business. We proposed and implemented a project management office to support the new business. The office was composed of functional teams from the sales and marketing, customer care, accounting services, network, and regulatory and legal departments. Each functional team was jointly led by a senior TMNG consultant and a client sponsor.

The teams created detailed project plans for each functional area and conducted weekly meetings with the project management office leaders to assess progress and to remove roadblocks. The company’s marketing director and a TMNG principal oversaw the project management office and held monthly meetings with the steering committee which was comprised of the company’s president and vice presidents.

The project plans outlined the scope and breadth of work to be done, starting with the definition of business requirements for each functional area. First, end-to-end cross-functional process flows were created for all customer touch points. Then, detailed procedures were written from the process flows. As each set of processes and procedures was approved, the functional requirements were documented using TMNG Global’s proprietary toolset TMNG Lexicon™. All of the completed work was then submitted to the IT organization and input into the system requirements. Once the requirements were defined, we assisted the IT team with the system selection process. We also employed TMNG Lexicon™, to create Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to solicit external vendors and an internal team of IT associates. All responses were given a numerical score using the TMNG Lexicon™ methodology, and the client chose an appropriate vendor based on that score.

Once the vendor had been selected, TMNG assisted with contract negotiations and service level agreements. Finally, we provided project managers to oversee the development and implementation of the systems and to create a test plan and staff a team.

Since it was a nationwide provider, the client’s voice product had to be certified in every state, so we staffed the team with regulatory Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who understood the certification process. At the end of the project, all team members met their deadlines and allowed the client to launch its new voice business within the desired time frame.

The client had to quadruple its overall staffing in order to be ready for the forecasted growth to its business. Our final task was to assist with the interview and selection process as well as the training of new hires.