Streamlined Product Portfolio Management for the Telecom Industry

The telecommunications industry is one of the most complex sectors of the economy in terms of product offering management. Thousands of products, tariff plans, customer segments, distribution channels, bundles, promotions, and subscriptions create a labyrinth where it is easy to get lost.

Higson provides telecom giants and smaller operators alike with a tool that fundamentally simplifies this complex portfolio management. Our Central Product Catalog enables efficient and agile operations in the dynamic telecom environment.

The Challenges of Portfolio Management in Telecom

Scale and Complexity of Telecom Offerings

A modern telecommunications operator is no longer just a provider of voice or data services. It is a comprehensive enterprise offering:

• Mobile Services: Prepaid, postpaid, hybrid plans, roaming, and international packages.
• Fixed-Line Services: Telephony, fiber optics, DSL, and cable.
• Television: IPTV, cable, satellite, VOD, and premium packages.
• Convergent Services: Bundles combining mobile, internet, and TV in a single offer.
• B2B Solutions: Dedicated business plans, cloud services, IoT, and M2M.
• Value-Added Services (VAS): Insurance, entertainment, fintech, and smart home solutions.

Each of these categories contains dozens or hundreds of product variants. When multiplied by various customer segments (individual, small business, corporate, public sector), distribution channels (retail stores, partners, online, telesales), and geographic regions, the result is a portfolio with thousands of unique line items.

Market Dynamics

Telecom is a sector in constant flux. New technologies (5G, IoT, edge computing), evolving legal regulations, aggressive price competition, and changing customer expectations force continuous modifications to the offering.

A typical telecom operator introduces annually:

• Dozens of new tariff plans.
• Hundreds of time-limited promotions.
• Dozens of modifications to existing products.
• Numerous price changes in response to competitor moves.

Managing all this using traditional, siloed IT systems is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive.

Consequences of Inefficient Portfolio Management

Without an effective product portfolio management tool, operators face a range of operational and business problems:

• Data Inconsistency: When product information is scattered across multiple systems — CRM, billing, e-commerce, point-of-sale — discrepancies inevitably arise. A customer might see one price online and another in a retail store, leading to frustration, complaints, and loss of trust.
• Long Time-to-Market: In the traditional model, launching a new product requires coordination across multiple departments and systems. This process can take weeks or months, while competitors act faster.
• High Operating Expenses (OPEX): Maintaining multiple systems and manual data synchronization processes generates significant costs. Resources that could be used for innovation are consumed by daily administration.
• Regulatory Risk: In a strictly regulated industry, errors in offer communication can have serious legal consequences. Incorrect prices or misleading descriptions can result in heavy fines and reputational damage.

Higson – Centralizing Telecom Portfolio Management

The Central Product Catalog Concept

Higson introduces the concept of a Central Product Catalog (CPC) — a single source of truth for all information regarding the operator's offerings. Instead of a fragmented architecture where every system stores its own version of product data, Higson becomes the repository from which all channels and systems draw real-time information.

This centralization delivers immediate benefits:

• Consistency: The same product information is available at every customer touchpoint.
• Real-time Updates: A change made in Higson is instantly visible everywhere.
• Control: Full transparency regarding active products, variants, and target segments.

Solution Architecture for Telecom

Higson was designed with the specific requirements of the telecom industry in mind:

Hierarchical Product Structure

Telecom offerings have a natural hierarchy — from service categories to base products and specific variants. Higson allows for intuitive modeling of this hierarchy:

• Service Categories (Mobile, Fixed, TV, Convergent).
• Product Families (e.g., "Family Bundles," "Business Plans").
• Base Products (e.g., "Unlimited 5G Plan").
• Variants (different data limits, speeds, commitment periods).
• Add-ons and Options (extra data packs, roaming, premium services).

Advanced Business Rules

Higson enables the definition of complex conditions without IT intervention:

• Product X is available only to customers in Segment Y.
• Pricing depends on the commitment length and the chosen sales channel.
• Promotions apply to specific regions or customer types.
• Certain add-ons are compatible only with selected base plans.

Versioning and Lifecycle Management

• Launch Planning: Products can be prepared in advance and activated automatically on a specific date.
• Version Control: A full history of changes is preserved for auditing and analysis.
• Product Retirement: Phasing out sales while maintaining support for existing customers (grandfathering).

Key Features for the Telecom Sector

Tariff Plan Management

Higson enables comprehensive management of:

• Tariff Structures: Subscription fees, usage-based charges (per minute/GB), thresholds, and progressive rates.
• Price Segmentation: Distinct pricing for B2B vs. B2C, loyalty discounts, and channel-specific conditions.
• Promotions and Discounts: Time-based "happy hours," conditional promotions (e.g., "bring your number"), and referral programs.

Bundling and Convergent Offerings

• Bundle Creation: Combining mobile, fixed internet, and TV into "all-in-one" plans.
• Compatibility Management: Defining rules for which products can be combined and which technical or business restrictions apply.

Multi-channel Distribution Support

Higson allows for the definition of distinct conditions for each channel (Retail, Web, Mobile App, Telesales, Partners) while maintaining central control over the entire offering.

Multilingual and Multi-currency

• Product descriptions in multiple languages.
• Prices in different currencies with automatic conversion.
• Localization of formats (dates, numbers, units).

IT Ecosystem Integration

Higson integrates seamlessly with the core components of BSS (Business Support Systems) and OSS (Operations Support Systems):

• Billing Systems: Ensures that prices communicated to customers match the prices on their invoices.
• CRM: Allows consultants to see the current offer available to a specific customer based on their segment and history.
• E-commerce: Powers online stores and mobile apps with a single data feed.
• Provisioning Systems: Automatically triggers services based on parameters defined in the catalog.
• APIs and Industry Standards: Offers a robust API compliant with TM Forum Open APIs (SID and eTOM models) and RESTful architecture.

Business Benefits

Accelerated Time-to-Market

• Before Higson: Launching a new plan takes 4–8 weeks across multiple systems.
• With Higson: The same process takes 2–5 days.

OPEX Reduction

• Business Autonomy: Business users implement changes independently of IT.
• Elimination of Duplication: No more maintaining the same data in multiple systems.
• 30–50% reduction in costs associated with product offering management.

Enhanced Customer Experience

• Trust: Customers receive consistent information across all channels.
• Personalization: Ability to present offers tailored to the customer's profile.

The Future of Telecom with Higson

Higson supports the industry's evolution toward:

• Hyper-personalization: Individualized offers based on customer context.
• Real-time Pricing: Dynamic prices based on demand or network load.
• OTT and Partnerships: Seamlessly managing bundles that include partner services (Netflix, Spotify, etc.).
• IoT and 5G: Defining innovative structures for devices, network slicing, and edge computing.

Summary

Managing a telecom product portfolio is a challenge of unparalleled scale. Higson offers a way out of the maze — a Central Product Catalog that serves as the single source of truth for the entire organization. It is not just an operational improvement; it is a strategic investment in agility and the future of digital telecommunications.