Process Mining for the Telecommunications Sector

The telecommunications industry is facing unprecedented pressure to transform: the expansion of new infrastructures such as fiber optics, 5G and the prospect of 6G requires immense investment, while at the same time providers are faced with falling revenues and increasing competitive pressure. Customer expectations with regard to network quality and service are also rising - the high willingness of customers in this sector to switch is forcing providers to invest more in customer service and personalized solutions. Telecommunications companies are also struggling with high maintenance and investment costs for technical infrastructure, inefficient legacy systems and the need to develop innovative business models.

Process Mining is increasingly establishing itself as an innovative solution in the telecommunications sector. The technology makes it possible to analyse, visualize and optimize actual business processes using digital traces in IT systems. By systematically evaluating event logs from various systems, telecommunications companies can make complicated, cross-departmental processes transparent and eliminate inefficiencies in a targeted manner. Process Mining increases efficiency, particularly in the customer onboarding process and the provision of services, and also supports the automation of routine tasks.

Many telecommunications service providers struggle with inefficiencies that often go unnoticed in day-to-day operations and are difficult to identify at first glance. For example, complicated, cross-departmental processing procedures often lead to delays in acquiring new customers - for example, when contract documents are forwarded several times between different departments or technical checks on the availability of certain services are not optimally coordinated. There are also weaknesses in customer service, for example when fault reports are processed with delays due to unclear responsibilities or customer inquiries are unnecessarily prolonged due to redundant requests.

The use of Process Mining makes sense in telecommunications insofar as it analyzes actual processes based on objective data. The technology systematically evaluates data from CRM systems, ticketing platforms and technical management systems, thus enabling telecommunications companies to derive optimization potential. The systematic process analysis results in shorter throughput times, ensures optimization in contract management and also leads to improvements in service quality. The process transparency gained also forms the basis for targeted automation measures - repetitive tasks can be automated using robotic process automation (RPA), freeing up employees for value-adding activities. The resulting reductions in processing time ensure more satisfied customers and ultimately mean a reduction in costs in the telecommunications sector.