Embarq’s 12-Month Billing Transformation

An Interview With Embarq's Service Delivery Manager, Julie Sehrt

Can you think of an example of something that you put off and came back to later?

Some of the things that we pushed off were a lot of the reporting in terms of aging, balancing reports, operational reporting. If it wasn’t absolutely critical day one in order to be able to process cycles and get bills out the door, those were pushed off and were implemented one-off through production as we could get to them.

Billing transformation probably never stops in some ways. Are there any things outstanding on this project at this point?

...Anything that was critical we delivered throughout the last eight months through small enhancements. We had a small effort that was packaged up in a phase two of functionality to automate processes that were manual, take things to the next level. Unfortunately those are on hold with the other activities (i.e. the pending merger with CenturyTel that is expected to close in second quarter) that are going on. We do have those slated to be readdressed and will move forward with those.

With the new transaction, instead of a separation, it’s a merger. Are you facing some new challenges?

We are. ...There are not a whole lot of similarities with what we did with the long-distance platform and what we are working on with the merger activities. From a process and how we handled it, there is some reuse in that you have to make decisions and be willing to stick by them. The method by which we are looking at converting and addressing billing with the new company is completely different from what we did. It’s not that we are standing up a whole new platform, but moving our customers into an existing platform. There are not a lot of similarities that we are able to reuse. But the excitement and the challenges are there just as much.

Will the big project that you just did end up going into the new company?

Those decisions have not been finalized. There’s not a whole lot I can share about the merger because it’s not finalized and it won’t be by the time we have the Billing & OSS World Conference & Expo. I have to stay away from those questions.

Do you think the mindset that you don’t need two years to do will assist this process that you are going into?

Absolutely. The merger discussions have an aggressive approach to consolidating the two companies.

Would you say that’s one of your main messages to the attendees of your session?

The key message is going to be that by having the partnerships and accepting the risk, it can be done in a shortened time frame. And it was successful and we got it in on time and pretty close to budget. I’m not going to say it was on budget. ... It really has been a successful implementation. We converted all of our customers. We were up a running day one being able to bill and process and support our customers. It’s been a good story.

Do you have anything else to add?

Would I do it again? Absolutely. It was fun. It was stressful and it was chaotic, but it really was a lot of fun.

Well I guess you get to do it again, so your wish is coming true.

It’s coming true — just in a different manner.

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl