Zain

Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain) is the 3^rd GSM license owner in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and provides GSM telecom services to various types of customers in KSA. In 2011 Zain approached EXPERTPATH to provide them a comprehensive Network Integrated Solution to Gain a better control and visibility of its own active and passive assets/equipments, available in Zain buildings and in the sites distributed over the kingdom. Zain also demanded this solution to control and monitor the network inventory, which allows a better use of network and its components. This solution was also required to maintain the Lease Agreements for all the Zain Sites spread in the Kingdom and to streamline their payment process.

In order to satisfy Zain requirements, EXPERTPATH crafted a solution in combination with Oracle Network Application and Oracle E-business Suite. Oracle Network Applications were used to capture active assets in the Network through Network Elements (NMS/EMS) while Oracle E-business was used to create and maintain Assets in Zain books and monitor the movement of Network Inventory. Oracle E-business was also used to manage Zain Sites and keep a complete record of each site including the Lease Agreements and their payments.

EXPERTPATH also conducted a comprehensive physical count for Zain to capture Active & Passive items in the Network. Physical Count Activity was performed with a high precision capturing the detailed information of assets/equipments and data was handed over to Zain in Excel Sheets (Soft Copies).

1.1        Network Applications Used in Zain:

1.1.1          Oracle’s Metasolv Inventory Application:

Oracle’s Metasolve Inventory maintains all aspects of Zain network and inventory, including:

• Product inventory - the products offered to subscribers from a marketing perspective
• Service inventory - the services configured in the network and delivered to subscribers from a technical perspective
• Resource inventory - the network resources configured to deliver the services
• Number Inventory – the IP Addresses and telephone numbers associated to customer services.

Oracle Communications MetaSolv Solution allows Zain to capture all network and service inventory data, and correlate and report that data as meaningful information that empowers the entire organization. The solution can also integrate with network-facing information sources.–including existing network management systems, element management systems, fault and performance management systems, and legacy data stores.–enabling Zain to further leverage the intelligence of a strategic network and service inventory platform. With this powerful integration capability, Zain can automatically identify discrepancies between the network “as is.” And the network .“as intended.” in inventory, ensuring that the business decisions are made on the most current information available.

Oracle Communications MetaSolv Solution integrates order provisioning and inventory with workflow management capabilities, helping Zain manage workloads across workgroups and individuals. These workflow management capabilities are intelligently integrated into the service fulfillment process, providing direct access to all information needed to perform a given task. Work Queue Manager interface is also configured to show the information as Zain want to see, allowing Zain to proactively manage workflows and service performance.—including jeopardy situations.—and plan and allocate resources. The solution’s flexible workflow modeling allows Zain to dynamically build workflow processes, including initiating exits to external systems in the middle of the process.

1.1.2          Oracle Communications Network Intelligence:

Network Intelligence is an advanced network inventory, capacity planning and network optimization tool that provides an “as configured” view of the network assets in Zain, storing key network information on both active and passive equipment.

Network Intelligence use this information along with data from other sources such as service pricing, capex and opex costings, sales and marketing information to provide several key capabilities and outputs such financial and engineering build plans, resource exhaust prediction, service and customer trends, resource optimization, KPI reporting and outage management/planning.

1.1.3          Oracle Network Integrity (Discovery and Reconciliation)

Network discovery and integrity will be used to synchronize the view of the devices and configuration in Network Intelligence with the actual configuration in the network.

Discovery – Scans the network to discover network elements, element management systems and network management systems. Maps the discovered data to an object model and outputs the results in an MTOSI/MTNM XML file.

Reconciliation – Loads the MTOSI XML file and matches the discovered network elements with those maintained in inventory. Detects discrepancies, generates discrepancy reports and enables the correction of discrepancies.

1.2        Oracle E-business Suite Modules

1.2.1          Oracle Application Asset Tracking

Oracle ERP Asset Tracking application provides Zain the option to integrate the ERP with OSS systems where passive network assets are maintained (e.g: such as planning tool or legacy systems or spreadsheets if any available). This integration was required for tracking purposes and financial controls on passive network assets, in order to address a complete and comprehensive Asset Lifecycle Management covering all types of capital expenditures, including active/passive network assets and related information such as

• Inventory item attributes such as Item number, serial number, revision number etc.
• Locate assets at different locations such as another organization, project/task, HZ locations, even Customer sites
• Item configuration
• Asset usages such as installed, in-service, out-of-service, assets in-transit.
• Project expenditures, for Network rollout, that are becoming assets
• Asset number, quantity, FA location, FA book, expense account
• Contact person for the asset
• Complete transaction history throughout the life cycle
• Life-cycle Tracking

1.2.2          Property Manager

Property Manager Module was implemented to keep record of Zain Sites and streamline the lease administration process. EXPERTPATH has the honour to implement Lease Approval and Payment Approval Hierarchal process through Property Manager in Zain. These hierarchal processes were introduced for the first time in Middle East where Zain users can approve Leases and Payments through Emails. Each Lease that is created in the system goes for the approval cycle depending upon the region and amount to avoid any fraud cases. Similar is the case with annual payments, EXPERTPATH has developed an automated system for payment approvals. This system automatically processes a payment which is due and sends it to corresponding persons for approval depending on region and amount. Other functions of Property Manager include:

DEFINE AND MANAGE PROPERTIES AND SPACE

• Record and track data for each floor and space for a building
• Define and manage maximum and optimal levels of occupancy for a space
• Define and manage common, rentable, assignable, and usable areas for each space
• Track names, phone numbers, and addresses for property contacts
• Automate space definition with integrated CAD solution

STREAMLINE LEASE ADMINISTRATION

• Abstract and manage critical lease information, agreements, and other contractual obligations
• Automatic notification of lease milestones and other actionable events
• Calculate rent increases based on indexes
• Calculate variable rent (percentage rent) on actual or forecasted sales
• Apply abatements and allowances to variable rent

MANAGE CAM AND OTHER EXPENSE RECOVERABLES

• Maintain unique recovery terms and conditions for each tenant
• Automate the calculation and reconciliation of CAM and other expenses

AUTOMATE PAYMENTS ANDBILLINGS

• Authorize and generate payments and billings directly into Oracle Payables and Oracle Receivables
• Automatically generate normalized lease accounting transactions

Oracle Property Manager offers the following benefits:

• Reduce operating costs by automating repetitive tasks and complex calculations.
• Capture and manage key lease dates and milestones
• Assign space and monitor utilization.

1.2.3          Oracle Project Management

Major components of our Project Management Applications proposed to Zain were as follows:

• Oracle Project Management
• Oracle Project Costing

Project Management easily creates new projects by copying basic information from existing projects or templates representing various Network rollouts plans, Transmission, Switching, Infrastructure, utilities, construction, etc. The solution provides PMOs authorized access to critical details and links them to commonly used functions via a configurable Project Homepage. While it Graphically displays the task schedule, work plan, progress, milestones, and critical path information. Integrate out-of the box with 3rd party scheduling tools including Microsoft Project, Microsoft Word. With the ability to leverage an advanced PMO environment for Network rollout projects by utilising Oracle Primavera as an integrated solution with Oracle ERP (it is not proposed to the limited scope on PMO requirements).

Project Costing collect project-related expenses from transactional applications (such as Procurement, Inventory, Time & Labor and Internet Expenses), and aggregate it into user-defined expense categories. Elect to allocate indirect costs or to apply overhead costs using date-effective burden multipliers definable for each cost type, business unit, geography, or project type. Projects types are used to categorize operational and buiness capital expenditures in a way to perform Costing and financial analysis on investments made; projects can be categorized as WIMAX, Broadband, IN, 4G, Commercial equipments, etc. While it is able to capture construction-in-process for assets being built, installed, or acquired.