You are wakened by the sound of the Today program on BBC Radio 4, then the Pips, then John Humphrys tells you it’s 7a.m. and your heart sinks. You get ready to leap out of bed when suddenly you remember it’s Saturday, and you fall back onto the pillow, hit the off button on your radio alarm clock and roll over for another hour or two of well earned blissful sleep.

That feeling of relief and well-being will also be felt by the growing number of CEOs of “calls and lines resellers”, who have chosen Singularity as their WLR3 Integration partner on the day Openreach announce they are turning off the SPG. The rest will be sitting bolt upright, wide eyed and frantically thinking about what to do next!

(more…)

View this video if you are in the Local Government. It’s a good example of how to use BPM software to improve your delivery of services to citizens.

The creation of Openreach, a separate division of BT, in the UK has accelerated the process of local loop unbundling and accelerated the growth in internet service delivery in the UK and the Openreach business has also proven to be a successful commercial entity in it’s own right.

Across the globe there is growing pressure to open up access to the existing copper local loop in order to facilitate a more rapid deployment of high speed internet services. Whilst the exact model of structural separation which will be choosen will depend on local circumstances, there is little doubt that the experience gained in deploying and operating the UK Openreach model will be of significant benefit to other countries, as they will be able to draw on the expertise gained in developing the process, system, technology and commercial solutions developed for the UK.

(more…)

Today’s organisations compete through more efficient and better executed business processes. Business Process Management (BPM) is an approach and technology for implementing well-defined, well executed processes.

Michael White provides his top tips on how to successfully introduce BPM to your organisation.

1. Pick a project that will make a difference.

For your first BPM project, select a highly visible business process where improvements will yield real organisational benefits. The process you choose should be in a key operating area that is important to the organisation, so it can act as an example and inspiration for subsequent projects. Clearly define what the expected benefits of improving the process will be, such as cost efficiency, customer service, or faster responsiveness. Quantify these benefits you require in terms of money, time, people or other specific measures.

2. Obtain Senior Management Buy-in.

You want high-level sponsorship of the project at the outset to ensure you get the resources you need, to gain buy-in from staff and to overcome resistance to change. Your executive sponsor should have the authority and respect required to keep up project momentum. He or she should also be prepared to remain in a hands-on role throughout the first delivery – just showing up at project kick-off won’t be sufficient.

(more…)

A year into the rollout of WLR3, with the first CPs going BAU (business as usual) on the Equivalence Management Platform (EMP), it is worthwhile considering the progress made to date by OpenReach and what CPs should plan for in 2008. Let’s begin with a short recap of why WLR3 has become a hot topic, writes Barry McErlean, a Key Account Manager at the telco unit of Singularity.

Under the Telecoms Strategic Review Ofcom stipulated that BT Retail and third party resellers should use the same mechanisms to access the Openreach network, to ensure ‘equivalence of input’. The WLR3 (Wholesale Line Rental 3) standard specifies how CPs should interact with Openreach in future so they have equivalent access to the network. Openreach implemented a new system known as the Equivalence Management Platform (EMP). Communication providers (CPs) can access the EMP to purchase Wholesale Line Rental (WLR3) which will, in time, replace the WLR2 gateway previously provided by BT Wholesale.

(more…)