Amdocs Multichannel

Self-Service (MCSS)
Product Overview/Whitepaper

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Intended Purpose and Audience

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS). Amdocs Multichannel
Self-Service enables service providers to empower their subscribers with advanced self-management tools for a consistent,
intuitive real-time experience across devices (home PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone) providing care and commerce functionality.
MCSS is based on the Amdocs User Experience Framework (UXF), utilizing the underlying technology and UI platform to create
a consistent, extendable, rich, and easy-to-maintain user experience.
This document describes MCSS functionality, use cases, integrations, and architecture and cross channel approach.
The document is primarily targeted towards customer-facing technical personnel, such as solution architects and sales
engineers, to assist them in better positioning Amdocs offerings to address the customer management needs of service
providers. It also serves as the introductory primer for consulting and delivery personnel that may be involved in scoping and
executing customer projects.

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Contents
1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................5
2 Why Service Providers Need to Transform Self-Service...............................................................5
2.1 Online Presence and Self-Service Opportunity.....................................................................5
2.2 The Challenge for Service Providers.....................................................................................5
2.2.1 Missed Consumer Expectations.................................................................................5
2.2.2 Inconsistency Across Channels.................................................................................6
2.2.3 Complexity of Flows on Mobilized Devices................................................................6
2.2.4 High Cost and Long Time-to-Market..........................................................................6
2.2.5 Deficiencies in Integration with Back-end Systems....................................................6
2.3 Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service Addresses the Challenge...............................................6
3 MCSS Overview..........................................................................................................................7
3.1 Flows and Functionality Summary........................................................................................7
3.2 Multi-touchpoint Application Development...........................................................................7
3.3 Services-based Integration..................................................................................................8
3.4 MCSS Benefits.....................................................................................................................8
4 MCSS Main Flows.......................................................................................................................9
4.1 Target User...........................................................................................................................9
4.2 User Flows...........................................................................................................................9
4.2.1 Billing Information and Payment................................................................................10
4.2.2 Current Usage and Trends.........................................................................................12
4.2.3 My Plans and Services...............................................................................................13
4.2.4 Product Ordering ......................................................................................................14
4.2.5 Shopping Cart Persistence and Handover to Call Center...........................................14
4.2.6 Order Tracking...........................................................................................................15
4.2.7 Personal Settings and Notifications...........................................................................15
4.3 Subscriber Management and Family Functionality in MCSS.................................................15
4.3.1 Managing a Family with a Shared Family Plan...........................................................16
4.3.2 Managing a Family of Single Subscriptions................................................................17

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Contents (continued)
5 Additional Functionality in MCSS................................................................................................18
5.1 Recommendations...............................................................................................................18
5.2 Personalization, Notifications and, Charge Dispute..............................................................18
5.3 Prepaid Customers...............................................................................................................19
5.4 Blending Shopping and Care................................................................................................20
6 Usability......................................................................................................................................20
7 MCSS Architecture......................................................................................................................21
7.1 Functional Architecture .......................................................................................................21
7.2 Technical Architecture..........................................................................................................22
8 Summary.....................................................................................................................................23

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1 Introduction
This document provides an overview of Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS) product, including functionality, benefits,
and main flows. The document is organized as follows:
Section 2 of the document highlights the industry trends and challenges service providers face today in delivering a
superior self-service experience
Section 3 summarizes the MCSS solution approach, and provides an overview of the functionality and system capabilities
Sections 4 and 5 walk the reader through a selection of application flows and functionality
Section 6 includes a snapshot on the approach taken during the development process to ensure superior usability and
interaction design in MCSS
Section 7 provides a short description of the functional and technical architecture of MCSS

Why Service Providers Need to Transform Self-Service

2.1 Online Presence and Self-Service Opportunity

People all over the world are increasingly spending more time online, consuming more content, managing various aspects
of their lives, shopping, and communicating with their friends and families. With increased capacity and reliability of wireless
networks, data-enabled devices have become extremely popular, turning smartphones and tablets into the fastest growing
touchpoints for online activity. According to Gartner research, in the second quarter of 2012 only, over 419 million mobile
phones were sold worldwide. Between 2011 and 2016 the proportion of daily telecoms and media time spent on mobile
phones is forecast to increase from 4% to 9%, and from 0.3% to 3% for tablets.
With the widespread and accelerating adoption of smartphones and tablets, consumers today expect much more from their
service providers. They expect to be always-on and connected, and expect nothing less than immediate, real-time gratification.
They want the freedom to choose when and how they manage their services, and want to be personally empowered and in
control with no limits. Over 75% of consumers today prefer to use online and mobile self-service tools instead of calling the
contact center, and 96% expect to get personalized proactive notifications via their mobile device of issues affecting them.

2.2 The Challenge for Service Providers

2.2.1 Missed Consumer Expectations
Although consumers want to utilize self-service tools and systems, service providers are not meeting their expectations:
48% consumers dont use self-service at all due to poor usability
40% of self-service users still end up calling the contact center because they get stuck
80% of shopping transactions started online have to be completed in assisted channels
52% of service providers do not use proactive notifications to solve customer issues
Needless to say, poor customer experience impacts customer satisfaction, loyalty and willingness to recommend
(net promoter score), and ultimately translates to sub-optimal revenue and high cost of service. Service providers are continuing
to lag in expectations due to limitations in existing systems that are not able to keep up with the accelerating demands
of customers and users. The problem is significantly compounded given todays highly dynamic, multi-device, inter-linked,
mobilized environment, and Service Providers need to transform their self-service solution approaches to deal with the new
many-to-many interactions environment.

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2.2.2 Inconsistency Across Channels

Service providers are facing a number of challenges with the approaches used to develop and deploy self-service solutions
today across multiple channels and touchpoints. A key issue is ensuring consistency across touchpoints, where key operations
can be executed easily and in a similar manner, whether performed on a PC, tablet, or phone. A related problem is ensuring
continuity of transactions across channels, where a customer can start an interaction in self-service, and pick up and complete
the transaction on a different channel. Siloed back ends, incomplete data/logic in different channels, and lack of application
commonality is causing this fragmentation in the end-user experience across touchpoints and channels.
2.2.3 Complexity of Flows on Mobilized Devices
Another issue with self-service solutions today is with the complexity of the steps required to accomplish different tasks. Often,
a subset of the capabilities available on the .com website is implemented in the same manner on the new mobile touchpoints.
What was already a complicated experience for most consumers on the website becomes a non-starter on mobile devices,
leading to high abandonment of self-service interactions. Self-care and shopping applications on phones and tablets, and,
for that matter, PCs as well, need to be provide an experience that is intuitive, easy to use, with quick-action navigation, and
three gestures or less to accomplish most tasks. Although consistency and commonality needs to be maintained across
touchpoints, the experience needs to be simplified and optimized for the form-factor and modalities of the touchpoint being
used. Todays solutions are failing to live up to these requirements.
2.2.4 High Cost and Long Time-to-Market
The process of developing and launching new/incremental self-service capabilities for all touchpoints takes too long, often
exceeding three months. The siloed and cumbersome approach to creating and updating applications for different channels
and touchpoints is a competitive barrier and a waste of resources, and has a direct negative impact on the customer experience.
Additionally, with traditional tools and development approaches, a significant amount of resources is applied to designing and
adjusting screens, integrating with business support systems, updating flows and content on different platforms. This results
in confusing user experience, long time-to-market, and high costs.
2.2.5 Deficiencies in Integration with Back-end Systems
An additional problem in todays service provider IT environment is how to effectively access and combine data from many
backend systems for display and interaction on a wide array of frontend touchpoints. Integration today is often done in a
tactical, hard-wired, point-to-point manner across multiple systems and front ends, compromising application development
agility and reliability. Changes are difficult to make without affecting multiple systems, and changes to one area can cause
unintended broad ripple effects that can have negative customer experience impacts.

2.3 Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service Addresses the Challenge

Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS) is a multi-touchpoint self-service application that optimizes customer engagement
across online and mobile channels, by delivering an intuitive, real-time customer care and shopping experience that enables
service providers to increase self-service adoption, drive online sales revenue, and increase loyalty and net promoter score.
MCSS addresses the limitations of todays self-service solutions by providing superior usability through smart navigation and
quick actions, consistent look-and-feel across devices and touchpoints, and delivery of a native experience that leverages the
unique capabilities of smartphones and tablets to enhance the user experience. Additionally, MCSS includes blended care
and commerce flows that turn every self-care interaction into a sales opportunity, and supports channel-hopping that allows
customers to start shopping in one channel and complete their purchase on another channel.
MCSS Create Once Deploy Many capability accelerates time-to-market for application changes across all devices and
touchpoints. Additionally MCSS supports rapid deployment of front-end changes due to decoupled integration with back-end
systems, enabling service providers to react faster to changing business requirements.

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MCSS Overview

3.1 Flows and Functionality Summary

MCSS provides a comprehensive set of flows (described more fully in section 4 of this document) and functionality for
web/PCs, tablets, and phones, including support for:
Commerce flows, allowing catalog search and browsing, comparing offers and services, receiving subscription-sensitive
and usage-sensitive recommendations, context-sensitive cross- and upsell scenarios, comprehensive view of current
subscriptions, and services with a configuration option
Care flows for postpaid subscribers, allowing receipt of Bill Ready notifications, view and payment of bill, investigation
of bill details and usages, review of usage trends over time, and of unbilled usage and consumption
Care flows for prepaid users, allowing top-up of the balance, purchase of allowances, review top-up history and
usage history
Care flows for families, supporting family management, shared plans, and allowances, setting different permissions for
owner and viewer subscriber types
Consumption, usage trends, and bill history can be viewed as lists and as graphs
Persistency of user experience and flows over touchpoints and channels (e.g., an end user can start a flow of purchasing
a new service on a smartphone and then continue it later on tablet or call center)
Contemporary UI based on UX framework with rich business widgets providing the same look-and-feel, with native
experience on all the supported platforms
Pre-integration of systems to support persistent user experience and handover.
Application personalization with user preferences management and quick links for commonly used flows

3.2 Multi-touchpoint Application Development

MCSS is based on modern web architecture (HTML5, JQuery widget libraries), advanced mobile technologies (device
abstraction, hybrid layer to access native device capabilities), and open integration mechanisms (REST services) to connect
applications to back-end systems, such as CRM, Ordering, OSS and Billing. The MCSS development environment supports
simultaneous update/customization for major form factor combinationsdesktop, tablet and phoneensuring maximum code
reuse and consistency, while at the same time optimizing the applications to the specific touchpoint. MCSS includes the
following areas of functionality via an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), and runtime servers and components:
Page Creation: Supports creation of constituent pages/screens for applications in a matter of days instead of weeks/months
using cutting-edge UI technology and innovative concepts such as modularity, widget libraries and layered customization
(separation of core and custom application pages/components).
Cross-touchpoint Design: Provides the ability to design pages and page components once, and have them be deployed
to multiple form factors and devices.
Mobile Enablement: Supports development, packaging and deployment of a single hybrid application to a wide range
of supported devices, allowing access to native device functions such as camera capture or barcode reader, and providing
runtime updates, notifications and tracking capability.

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3.3 Services-based Integration

MCSS provides a layered and well-defined, yet decoupled, mapping between the front end (e.g., applications) and the
back-end systems. The loose coupling between the applications and the back-end systems is enabled by the UI Interaction Services,
a set of consistent REST (Representational State Transfer) services per touchpoint that enable the MCSS applications
to interact with backend systems. These lightweight services are optimized to support specific operations with minimal footprint
and low complexity. The Interaction Services layer:
Exposes MCSS to a standardized set of generic operations that mask the specifics of back-end systems
Ensures optimal performance for broadly distributed clients, especially mobile clients, through use of the lightweight
REST protocol
Maximizes reuse across touchpoints and across client applications

3.4 MCSS Benefits

Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service optimizes customer engagement across online channels to deflect calls from the call center,
and improves net promoter score (NPS), sales and time-to-market by:
Driving online usage with a consistent experience across touchpoints and unmatched usability:
Simplifying online interactions with in-context, quick-action navigation and superior and intuitive design
Delivering a robust user experience by leveraging smartphones capabilities
Allowing customers to complete 80% of transactions within three gestures
Enabling experience continuity across touchpoints
Growing wallet share by turning every self-care interaction into a sales opportunity:
Enable channel-hopping across touchpoints to increase sales conversion rates
Offer the most relevant products and services based on interaction context (cross-sell)
Leverage every care opportunity to increase sales volume (upsell)
Complete online shopping experience with search, browse, compare and purchase products and services
Hitting the market faster with rapid deployment across devices and touchpoints
Create once, deploy across many devices and form factors to shorten IT cycle time
Improve time-to-marketlaunch and update offers simultaneously across all channels
MCSS has a unique value proposition, as it combines everything that service providers need in a comprehensive
self-service solution:
High call-deflection value for SPs due to rich out-of-the-box functionality
Pre-Integrated with the back-end systems
Superior cross-touchpoint customer experience
Validated user-centric design
Market agility and TCO reduction enabled by fast deployment
Increased sales activity with context and user sensitive cross- and upsell available from Care screens

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MCSS Main Flows

This section of the documents walks through the different types of flows MCSS supports. The flows are reviewed in the
context of a target user (e.g., CSP subscriber), and what he is looking to accomplish in managing his services. Note, although
MCSS provides a rich set of flows/pages ready-to-use, the development tools allow easy customization and extension of the
application pages, including look-and-feel changes via stylesheets and other modifications.

4.1 Target User

Meet John Smith. He is a graduate student spending a considerable amount of time online for entertainment, studies, and social
media. Given that John is constantly on the go, he has complex services and multiple devices he uses at home, on campus
and during his commute or in social settings. John prefers managing his services and financials using online self-service and
mobile applications. To manage his NXT account he uses the Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service application. While at home
John mostly uses his tablet, and his laptop on rarer occasions, whereas when on the go he mostly uses his smartphone.

4.2 User Flows

MCSS supports flows for three types of residential customers, single postpaid subscriber, single prepaid subscriber, and
family/multi-subscriptions. These different types of subscribers will have different landing pages matched to the functionality
available for them. As we review the flows that John uses, we will be referring primarily to the single postpaid subscriber flows.
What John likes about his NXT application is that he can use it on all of his devices: laptop, tablet, and smartphone. This way
he can use his commute time on the train to view his usages and trends, review and reconfigure his services according to his
current needs, and much more.
Johns interaction with Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service always starts on his landing page. The landing page is a personalized
home page that presents current cycle usages, allowances, consumption information and rated events. It also has an area
featuring top offer recommendations and a menu bar designed to provide easy and intuitive navigation throughout the
application. The menu allows quick navigation to the following application areas: Usage, Bill & Pay, Shop, My Products &
Services, My Orders, Setting and Notifications, and, of course, the Home menu option bringing users to their personalized
home page. The landing page has a consistent look-and-feel across the touchpoints and is designed to provide a native
experience on mobile devices.

FIGURE 1: POSTPAID SUBSCRIBER LANDING PAGE

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4.2.1 Billing Information and Payment

At home, while having his morning coffee, John decides to take care of his NXT bills. Being a well-organized person,
John seeks to understand his bill in detail, compare it to his previous bills, and then pay it.
Viewing last bill: John takes his tablet and launches the NXT application. Since this is not the first time he is using the
application, it signs him in automatically and opens the landing page. Tapping on the Bills & Pay menu option, John navigates
to the bill summary view to learn about his bill. The bill summary includes the total charges, outstanding balance, due date,
one-time charges, and recurring charges. From the bill summary John can examine his bill further or he can pay the bill and
set up auto-payments.

FIGURE 2: BILL & PAY MENU TO VIEW LAST BILL

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Examining bill details: John chooses to examine his bill

further. He drills down into the charges details, which are
broken down by line of business, service, and charge type.
John views a list of events for voice, messaging, and data.
The information displayed to him is split by usage type. For
example, voice events are identified as local or international.
Contact names are presented rather than contact numbers
for the contact numbers that are saved as a contact on
Johns tablet.
Paying partial balance: Using his NXT application, John
can make one-time full or partial payments using either an
existing payment method, as stored in the CRM system,
or, for example, by entering a new credit card. When
performing partial payment he will be required to enter the
FIGURE 3: BILL USAGECHARGE DETAILS
amount he wants to pay at the moment. John can also use
the application to set up automatic payments. This option is
available from bill view and is also prompted after confirming a one-time payment.
Paying the bill: John now has to rush off to work. While on the train he opens his smartphone NXT application to pay his
bill. He is prompted to select a credit card or a bank account from a list of his pay means that already exist in the system. He
can also choose to pay with a new credit card. He chooses to pay with a credit card that already exists in the system. After
the payment is complete John is presented with payment confirmation and his balance is immediately updated, and is also
prompted with an option to set an auto payment instruction.

FIGURE 4: BILL PAYMENT

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Additional Billing activities: Under the Bill & Pay area the John can also perform the following activities:
View payment history
Drill down into old bills
See billed charges and charges details of previous bills
View credits in current and previous bills
See bill trends
Drill down into billed charges and events details
4.2.2 Current Usage and Trends
It is important for John to keep on top of his expenses. He needs to know his current usages status so he can add allowances
or reconfigure his services accordingly and avoid paying overage charges.
Current Usage: John can view his current usage on the landing page after opening the application, drilling into
usage-related details presented in the Usage area of the application, and selecting Usage from the menu (on all touchpoints).
The information displayed on the landing page includes usage of allowances in a graphical representation providing John with
a clear indication of when his allowances are about to expire or what his extra charges are based on (for example international
call costs, pay-as-you-go charges, or overages). On a mobile device the extra charges are presented in a separate tab to
simplify the view.

FIGURE 5: CURRENT USAGE

Usage Details: Since he has a few minutes before class, John decides to look into his current usage. He opens his
NXT smartphone application, selects Usage from the menu and navigates to the Usage area. There he has his usage
split by categories, enabling him to review his usage of voice, messaging and data. He switches between the categories
to see the event details for each one. Inside each category he swipes between the views of usage, trend analysis and
graphs. MCSS allows users to analyze their usage trends, such as most frequently called numbers, longest duration calls,
and trends for voice, messages, and data over time (the time period is configurable by the service provider and can span up to
six months of information).

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Usage Trends: While examining his usages John swipes between current usage and trends views. A graphical report is
displayed showing John his usage trends over time. When viewing his trends, John is presented with offers that are appropriate
for his usage tendencies. Under the Voice category John swipes into a view presenting his with Most Called Numbers.
He considers purchasing a Friends and Family SOC as suggested by the system.
4.2.3 My Plans and Services
Every couple of months John reviews the details of his
current NXT subscription to ensure the plan he has suits his
needs. He reviews his plans, and compares the details of his
existing plan with available plans in the catalog. Should John
find a more suitablehe will change his plan to the new one.
Viewing My Plans and Services: John views the highlights
of his plan by navigating to My Products & Services from
the menu (he can also get to this view directly from the
landing page on tablets and web). John decides to review
his international calling service service configuration. In
the My Products and Services area users plan details are
presented together with the services that are included under
it. Additional services and commitment terms are also shown.
Configuring Plans and Services: After reviewing his
international calling service configuration, John decides to
reconfigure it to better suit his needs. Under the International
Calling configuration, John removes UK and instead he adds
Brazil and Australia. After John completes the configuration
a confirmation is shown, featuring the summary of the
performed changes and how it affects the charges.

FIGURE 6: MY PLANS & SERVICES

Under My Plans and Services users can view the details

of their assigned plans and services and make changes to
their existing subscriptions by adding services, removing
optional services, changing plans or devices, and changing
the parameter settings. Users can configure their services,
as follows:
Add new services to an existing plan or remove optional
services
View the price schemes of assigned and available
services, select a new price scheme, add or remove
allowances
Configure the service, for example, change the size of
the voice mail, select a data service or friends and family
service, bar a service (such as no international calling),
and select the countries covered by an international plan

FIGURE 7: EDIT INTERNATIONAL CALLING

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Suspending a service: As part of configuring his services, John can suspend a service and resume a previously
suspended one. He can also choose to remove a service altogether. Services can only be removed within the limits
of their commitments.
4.2.4 Product Ordering
John is considering upgrading his phone, and he opens his NXT application and searches for suitable devices. He is having
a hard time deciding, but is able to compare phones side-by-side on the application. John decides to add a new phone to his
shopping cart but not to continue with the purchase at this time.
MCSS enables users to perform a wide range of shopping
activities, allowing:
Searching for a plan, a service or an allowance and
purchasing it
Browsing through the catalog and choosing a suitable
plan or device
Comparing between available plans in order to pick one
best suited for the user
Comparing between devices and their properties in order
to pick one best suited for the user
Adding a product to the shopping cart and proceeding
with a purchase at later time
Accessing the shopping cart from a different touchpoint
to review and update its content
Upgrading a plan, while configuring it to suit the users
needs

FIGURE 8: COMPARE PHONES ON TABLET

Upgrading a device
Creating a new subscriber, selecting a device, choosing and configuring plan and services
Getting a detailed order summary and purchase confirmation upon completion of the purchase
While changing the plan, users can configure existing services, or add and remove optional services from the plan. Adding new
services might require changing the plan. Users can also purchase a stand-alone allowance on top of a plan. For example: 100
minutes for voice, 200 MB data, or 100 messages. While selecting a new plan, users can either associate it with an existing
subscription and replace the existing plan, or create a new subscription. All price plans are displayed with taxes and discounts.
4.2.5 Shopping Cart Persistence and Handover to Call Center
On his home computer John opens the NXT Website to continue his new device purchase. His selection is safely stored
in his NXT shopping cart from his previous session, in which he added it using his tablet. John has some questions about
the device, and he decides to contact the call center. The call center representative on the phone greets John and asks his
whether he is calling regarding the new device that he is considering to purchase. Having his questions quickly answered by
the representative, John is now able to complete his purchase either with the agent, or later on by himself online.

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4.2.6 Order Tracking

John can track his orders online and see whether his order
was shipped. He can see his previous orders, their costs
and details.
4.2.7 Personal Settings and Notifications
John wants to reconfigure his notification settings. He would
like to receive notifications only on his mobile devices and not
on the web, SMS or email. For this purpose John opens his
NXT application on his mobile phone and goes to Settings.
Under Settings My NXT he configures the notifications.
Users can manage their personal settings and profile on all
touchpoints. All settings are synchronized with the CRM
system. Personal Settings are split into the following subsets:
Customer profile settingincludes contact details (full
name), contact address, email address, contact phone
number, and pay means (whether the customer is paying
by direct debit or credit card, and the details of the
account)

FIGURE 9: SHOPPING CART ON WEB

Billing-related settingsincludes billing address and

payment method (auto payment or monthly one-time payments)
Application settingsenables users to sign out of the application and to configure notifications (for example: allow
notifications), set their preference for silent login or explicit login, and password selection

FIGURE 10: PERSONAL SETTINGS AND NOTIFICATIONS ON SMARTPHONE

4.3 Subscriber Management and Family Functionality in MCSS

We saw John handling his NXT subscription using MCSS as a single subscriber. What would his NXT experience if he were
managing a family account? In this case, he would need to handle several subscriptions, and possibly choose a family plan with
shared allowances. MCSS has extensive capabilities for multi-subscription management, including families.

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Family implies some sort of a hierarchy where different family members have different permissions. For example a child probably
should not be able to purchase goods for himself without a parent being involved. To allow this flexibility Amdocs Multichannel
Self-Service supports two roles for family scenario:
Ownera family member, usually the one paying the bill, who has full set of permissions allowing the management of family
subscriptions and permissions
Viewerthis family member will only be able to view the services he has and view consumptions and usages. He will not
be able to perform any changes to the subscription
Managing family permissions and plans is a complex task, requiring attention to the needs of each family member. Therefore
a full set of family management activities for an Owner user is supported on the Web UI while a more limited functionality
is available on the tablet and mobile phone for all user types.
4.3.1 Managing a Family with a Shared Family Plan
Changing a Family Plan: One evening, John decides to
update his NXT subscription. He wants to buy additional
services for his family that would better suit their needs. John
sits down with his laptop to adjust the services for himself,
his wife and kids. He begins by viewing the family dashboard.
Viewing Family Plan: A month later, John wants to look into
his NXT subscription and analyze the usage for the family. He
goes to Plans & Services screen to review his family plan.
He begins by looking at the shared family definitions. And
then he switches to view his own usage trends.
By default in MCSS there is one family owner who in turn can
choose to add Owner permissions to other family members,
thus allowing them to also manage the family subscriptions.
Subscribers with view only permissions will not be able to
perform changes; they will only be able to view their details
using Web as well as tablets and mobile phones.

FIGURE 12: FAMILY PLANS & SERVICES

FIGURE 11: FAMILY DASHBOARD

FIGURE 13: USAGE TRENDS

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4.3.2 Managing a Family of Single Subscriptions

MCSS allows managing a family without a shared family planwhen each member has a separate subscription with his own
plan and allowances. In such case (of a multi-subscription user) it is possible that some of the family members have a postpaid
subscription and some prepaid. Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service provides a good user experience for a Family subscriber on
mobile touchpoints in the following way:
A Family Member using Amdocs Multichannel SelfService on a mobile device or a tablet can view his details
and usage
A Family Owner using mobile device or tablet can choose
a subscription to handle (one at a time) and perform
actions on behalf of that family member only, without
impacting the family-level subscription if one exists.
For example an Owner will be able to top up buckets,
change configurations, add/remove and suspend/resume
services and more
Usage analysis in multi-subscription families: When a family
is managed without a shared family plan but rather as a
multi-subscription entity, the Owner user has to choose the
subscription (the family member) he wants to handle.
Viewing usage trends of a single subscription on the
Web: At this time John wants to view his own usage trends.
Buying allowance for a single family member via tablet:
When handling a family which is a multi-subscription entity,
the set of functionality available is the same as an individual
user experiences is available on other across all touchpoints.
On the tablet application John chooses the subscriber he
wants to handle at this timeJohn Smith. He then chooses
and buys himself an additional data allowance.

FIGURE 14: HANDLING A SINGLE SUBSCRIBER IN A MULTISUBSCRIBER ENTITY

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Additional Functionality in MCSS

5.1 Recommendations
Recommending a Friends and Family Service: A user viewing her most called numbers details, is presented with the
recommendation to purchase a Friends and Family SOC. If this option is selected, the five most called numbers are added to
the plan by default, but users can manually control is the numbers included in their plan.
Recommending Voice Packages: Based on the analysis of voice calls made over the preceding months, users can
be prompted to buy an additional voice package including a block of minutes for a set price.
Recommending Message Packages: Based on the analysis of messages sent over the preceding months, users can
be prompted to buy an additional message package which includes a fixed number of messages for a set price.
Recommending Data Packages: Based on the analysis of data usage over the preceding months, users can be prompted
to buy an additional data package with a fixed amount of data usage for a set price.

5.2 Personalization, Notifications, and Charge Dispute

Notifications: Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service provides push notifications both on device and in the application to inform
the user about important events and provide proactive care by notifying about exceptional situations. A Bill Ready notification
is sent to the user once the bill is ready. The user can click on the notification to pay the bill. This notification comes from the
billing system. Proactive motivation-driven notifications are available due to MCSS integration with the Amdocs Proactive Care
(Insight) solution. The following proactive notifications are available in MCSS:
Bill Plan Overagebill exceeds standard usage limits determined by Amdocs Proactive Care business rules
Abnormal Feesa bill includes abnormal fee charges. For example, Late Fee
Third-party Chargesa new charge (type = third party) on current bill which did not appear in any of the past six customer
bills. For example, Ringtone and Game
Last Payment After Next Billpayment was processed after the next bill was produced, so the bill balance does not take
the payment into account

AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 19

Abnormal Fees Notifications are meant to allow the user to view the charge and initiate a dispute online, instead of seeing the
charge later and contacting the call center. This is done by leading the user to a Dispute Charge screen. When the application
is closed and the user sees the notification on device, tapping on the notification will launch the application, then allows the
user to step through the flow. When tapping on the motivation-notification inside the application, the user will be immediately
navigated to the relevant screen to perform the suggested activity.

FIGURE 15: CHARGE DISPUTE

Quick Links: In addition, Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service learns the app usage habits of the user and creates quick links
for them thus further simplifying the user experience.
A user can choose to turn off this personalized Quick Links behavior in the same way the notifications functionality can
be turned on and offon and off.

5.3 Prepaid Customers

Earlier in this document Johns experiences as a post-paid
subscriber were described. Now we will describe Johns
experience with MCSS as a prepaid user. Subscriber type is
determined by the system during login, and an appropriate
landing page is presented.
View Balance, Usage and History: A Prepaid subscriber will
be shown a suitable landing page suitable, featuring current
balance, prepaid buckets and allowances consumption, and
allowing the user to top up. The user can drill down into
usage details to see the events of voice, messages, and
data, and view the top up history.
Top-Up and Auto Top-Up: For user convenience, in a
quick top up scenario the user is offered to top up the same
amount as the last time. The user can change the amount
according to need and top up by credit card, direct debit or

FIGURE 16: VIEW BALANCE, USAGE, AND HISTORY

AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 20

using a voucher. The user can configure Auto top-up to be applied. Auto top-up can be configured per bucket with amount,
pay means and frequency. The user can also choose to cancel Auto top-up.

5.4 Blending Shopping and Care

MCSS utilizes Amdocs Business Support Systems providing comprehensive solution that:
Presents only plans and services that user is eligible to buy
Provides relevant cross-selling in context of viewing usage trends
Upselling in context of installed base
When searching for plans, the system takes into account the plan the user currently has
Provides recommendations on home page

6 Usability
A positive first impression and ease-of-use is a critical aspect of ensuring stickiness of self-service solutions. A well designed,
easy-to-use, slick-looking UI can make an enormous difference in an applications success. A disciplined and thorough
approach to ensuring high usability characteristics was taken for MCSS during the design and development process. Focus
and attention was paid to ensuring superior usability as stated by a leading standards organizationeffectiveness, efficiency
and satisfaction with which a specified set of users can achieve a specified set of tasks in a particular environment.
In developing MCSS, we followed the industry standard design methodology user centered design. This methodology consists
of several stages:
Functional Analysisillustration of user navigation and information architecture done by usability experts
Wireframesbuilding the functional design concept and wireframes that illustrate the layout of the pages and interaction
pattern. The wireframes were validated by usability experts in order to ensure alignment with usability standards and
industry best practices
Graphic Designmultiple graphic concepts were created and a new slick graphic concept supporting consistency across
multiple touch points was selected to proceed with
Validationthe design was validated in several paths:
Usability Testing: assessing the effectiveness of the user interfaces by observing actual users performing simulated tasks,
and gain further insight into the mental model, preferences, behavioral patterns, and expected terminology of the actual
users. During MCSS development a number of usability tests were conducted resulting in design updates based on the
tests outcome. Enhanced flows were subjected to an additional round of testing resulting in ~70% improvements in task
completion. MCSS received positive feedback about the flows ease of use. Most of the testers stated: If I could, I would
use this application.
Service Provider Testing: As part of the MCSS pilot project during the design phase, the application was presented to
business stakeholders in two major Amdocs customers. Customer representatives were requested to perform several tasks
in the MCSS application. The completion rate of the tasks was high and the customers were pleased from the simplicity
of the flows. The pilot activity provided valuable feedback, including improvement opportunities which were then analyzed
and implemented.

AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 21

External Validations: MCSS was reviewed by external experts such as Human Factors International (HFI), and other external
design teams to evaluate the application and provide feedback. HFI Executive Summary has graded the application to
have very high usability, emphasizing scalable and flexible application design. Suggested improvements from the external
validations have been analyzed, and are included in MCSS design.

USER AND
BUSINESS
NEEDS ANALYSIS

FUNCTIONAL
ANALYSIS

WIREFRAMES

GRAPHIC
DESIGN

HIGH-FIDELITY
PROTOTYPE

VALIDATION

FIGURE 17: EXTERNAL VALIDATION

MCSS Architecture

7.1 Functional Architecture

From functional architecture perspective, MCSS can be viewed as three layers comprised of customer-facing UI, front-end
services, and back-end services provided by BSS systems.
UX Framework Clientthe top layer in the diagram, containing HTML 5 based UI for all touchpoints
UX Framework Serverthe middle layer in the diagram. This layer contains the UI REST-ul services implementing basic
business logic and relevant data manipulations
BSSthe bottom layer consisting of back-end systems such as Amdocs Billing, Amdocs CRM, Amdocs Ordering, and
also MCSS back-end modules (Sales Engine, Bill Presentment). Integration with backend systems is achieved via back-end
business API

DESKTOPS
HTML 4/5

UX FRAMEWORK CLIENT

SMARTPHONES
HTML5

TABLETS
HTML5

REST
UX FRAMEWORK SERVER
REST UI SERVICES

BUSINESS LOGIC

API/EJB
CRM
BILLING CASE
CREATION
INTERACTION
CUSTOMER
PERSONAL UPDATES
PAY MEANS
PAY INSTRUCTION
RECHARGE
INSTRUCTION

BILLING
CHARGING
UNBILLED USAGE
ALLOWANCE

MAPPING/AGGREGATION/DATA MANIPULATION

PIM/SOA
BILLING A/R

ORDERING

SELF-SERVICE

BILL PAYMENT
POSTPAID A/R
PAYMENT HISTORY

ASSIGNED PRODUCT
ORDER CREATION
ORDER QUOTE
ORDER TRACKING
PRODUCT
CONFIGURATION
PRODUCT
COMPATIBILITY
ELIGIBILITY
RESOURCE
ALLOCATION

QUICK ACTIONS
PERSONAL SETTINGS
LOGGING,
REGISTRATION
BILL PRESENTATION
USAGE ANALYSIS

BILLING CM
BILLING
REPENISHMENT
PREPAID BALANCE
TOP-UP

FIGURE 18: MCSS FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE

CIH/EJB

BILLING PROFILE

INSIGHT
MOTIVATION
NOTIFICATION

SALES ENGINE
CATALOG DISCOVERY
CROSS-/UPSELLING
LIST PRICE
RECOMMENDATION

AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 22

7.2 Technical Architecture

Aligned with the functional layers, the technical architecture has three primary layers, the end-user facing UI, the UXF and
MCSS back-end application servers, and the BSS systems integration. MCSS supports horizontal scalability at all layers.
Application server nodes can be added as needed to scale to large volumes of transactions. The database component uses
data-replication and supports segmenting data across multiple DB instances in order to support large implementations that
may require storing massive data volumes that do not fit in a single database.
Superior end-user response time is provided by MCSS, including screen rendering and refreshes on mobile devices occurring
in ~0.5 seconds or less for most screens, and not exceeding one second for the most complex screens. The system supports
high availability, including allowing configuration/reference data changes in production environment without restarting server
components. MCSS is architected to have 99.999% availability. Furthermore, failover is done seamlessly in a way that end
users are not impacted and are able to continue with their activities.
In case of failed system processes, data integrity is maintained, and MCSS is able to continue functioning without errors from
the point of failure.

FIGURE 19: MCSS TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE

AMDOCS MULTICHANNEL SELF-SERVICE (MCSS) | 23

MCSS back-end servers consist of the following modules:

MCSS FE Serverfront end server responsible for REST services functionality
Cachecontains customer information to be accessed by all front ends
eBill BEimplements the import of billed data and integrates with live Billing system, and covers the following functional
aspects of care:
Unbilled usages, balance view, prepaid functionality, performing payments. To provide this functionality e-Bill module
integrates directly with Amdocs Billing
Billed usages and usage trends, previous bills and reportsare implemented based on information saved in MCSS
database. This information is imported from the Billing system and saved in MCSS Data Base for up to 18 months
SE (Sales Engine and E-Commerce Module)handles functionality around My Products and Services, Recommendations
and cross- and upsell, Shopping Cart and Order Tracking. The module has the following components and integrations:
Sales Engine within MCSS provides advanced catalog browsing experience, sophisticated search capabilities,
recommendations, cross- and upsell
EPC import process extracts the catalog distribution from Amdocs EPC and loads data to the MCSS instance
of Sales Engine
Amdocs Ordering integration providing assigned products management and configuration, shopping cart capabilities,
order management and tracking. It works with Ordering stateless API (no process management). API additions
and performance improvements were done in Amdocs Ordering to allow additional functionality and improved
performance in MCSS
Product model is based on ASPIMAmdocs Shared Portfolio Information Model (implementation of the cross-portfolioadopted IDC model for the current portfolio version)
Self-service SOAP WEB Services is a module exposing web services of old AMSS backend functionality including
the AMSS built in shopping cart, rate and review services and support module

8 Summary
Amdocs Multichannel Self-Service (MCSS) is a multi-touchpoint self-service application that optimizes customer engagement
across online and mobile channels, by delivering an intuitive, real-time customer care and shopping experience that enables
service providers to increase self-service adoption, drive online sales revenues and increase loyalty and net promoter score.
Todays self-service applications are inconsistent and complex, resulting in high interaction fall out and application abandonment.
48% consumers dont use self-service at all due to poor usability, 40% of self-service users still end up calling the contact center
because they get stuck, and over 80% of shopping transactions started online have to be completed in assisted channels.
MCSS addresses the limitations of todays self-service solutions by providing superior usability, through smart navigation and
quick actions, consistent look and feel across devices and touch points, and a delivery of a native experience the leverages
the unique capabilities of the smartphone to enhance the user experience. Additionally, MCSS includes blended care and
commerce flows that turn every self-care interaction into a sales opportunity, and supports channel-hopping that allows
customers to start shopping in one channel and complete their purchase on another channel.

About Amdocs
For more than 30 years, Amdocs has ensured service providers success and embraced their biggest challenges.
To win in the connected world, service providers rely on Amdocs to simplify the customer experience, harness the
data explosion, stay ahead with new services and improve operational efficiency. The global company uniquely
combines a market-leading BSS, OSS and network control product portfolio with value-driven professional
services and managed services operations. With revenue of $3.2 billion in fiscal 2012, Amdocs and its 20,000
employees serve customers in more than 60 countries. Amdocs: Embrace Challenge, Experience Success. For
more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.
Amdocs has offices, development and support centers worldwide, including sites in:
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