Connect Communications

Location:

Pakistan

Partnership period:

2017-2018

Industry:

Internet Service Providers

Technologies:

Laravel, PHP, MySQL, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Linux, jQuery, Application, Cost Optimization, Data & Analytics, SaaS Solutions,

Team Size:

3 Frontend Developer, 4 Backend Developer, 2 Database Engineer

Competitive Environment

The internet service provider industry has seen immense consolidation over the past decade. Behemoth telecom carriers now dominate most markets leveraging vast size and resources to provide nationwide connectivity footprints. This leaves smaller regional ISPs struggling to effectively compete - especially those relying on legacy tools and manual processes rather than modern software built for optimizing ISP operations.

Our client, Connect Communications, was one such provider operating regionally across Pakistan. Despite loyal customers, scaling proved difficult due to the lack of tailored software aligning with their unique needs. Generic solutions were inadequate and enterprise platforms for mega ISPs overly complex. Connect Communications needed an affordable, customized SaaS catered to regional providers managing tens of thousands of subscribers instead of tens of millions.

After failed attempts with existing products, they approached us to help fill this gap - an agile ISP SaaS platform robust enough to handle growth while flexible across their specialized use cases at SMB-friendly pricing.

Problem Statement

Connect Communications struggled to scale subscriber management and growth with industry solutions inherently designed for either mega carriers or generic business use cases.

Key challenges included:

Difficulty tracking service assets across locations leading to inventory inefficiencies
Billing complexity across customized subscriber packages and large account volume
Support ticket overflow without automated routing to appropriate responders
Inability to create targeted marketing campaigns to optimize conversions
Lack of subscriber lifecycle and operations analytics to guide business decisions

Connect Communications needed workflow optimization across core ISP operations - billing, asset tracking, ticketing, and analytics - catered specifically to mid-sized regional providers.

Solution and Objectives

Through deep consultation, our team crafted a plan for a fully hosted ISP business management suite designed expressly for optimizing regional provider needs while remaining affordable and flexible.

The core SaaS platform objectives included:

Automate subscriber billing with customized packages/rules
Inventory tracking and management mobile field apps
Intelligent multi-channel support ticketing queues
Granular reporting and analytics for operational insights

By combining specialized capabilities purpose-built for regional ISPs like Connect Communications, the proposed solution aimed to significantly streamline operations as an integrated management hub spanning mission-critical business areas.

Technology Planning

With scoping completed, our team examined leading technologies capable of fueling platform requirements while allowing easy modification:

Microservices Architecture - promotes independent development and scaling of distinct app capabilities as modules
MongoDB Database – provides speed and flexible data modeling needed for custom operations
Docker Containers - eases deployment across environments and optimized infrastructure resource allocation
Google Cloud Platform – leverages managed services like Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, and VPCs reducing DevOps overhead
Continuous Delivery Pipelines - automated testing and release processes maximize production readiness

This combination enabled our teams to build core platform functionality rapidly while ensuring enterprise-grade scalability, security and reliability.

Phases

Phase 1

Phase 2

Integrated Development: Billing Engine & Inventory Management

During the following months, we engaged in a multifaceted approach aimed at the integrated development of both the billing engine and the inventory management system, expanding upon the robust foundation laid in Phase 1. This phase marked a pivotal juncture wherein our development team embarked on the intricate process of crafting two indispensable components crucial to Connect Communications’ operational framework.

The billing engine, conceived with meticulous attention to detail, emerged as a testament to our commitment to delivering tailored solutions that meet the unique demands of large-scale subscriber management. This intelligent billing engine represents a paradigm shift in subscriber billing methodologies, offering an array of sophisticated features meticulously designed to optimize revenue streams and streamline financial operations. Among its key functionalities are configurable billing schedules, enabling the client to adapt billing cycles to varying subscriber needs seamlessly. Personalized branding capabilities empower them to infuse their distinct identity into every customer interaction, fostering brand loyalty and recognition. The integration of secure payment processing mechanisms ensures the safeguarding of sensitive financial data while facilitating seamless transactions. Automated collection functionalities further enhance revenue collection efforts, ensuring the timely resolution of past-due accounts and minimizing revenue leakage. Robust audit logging and reporting capabilities provide comprehensive insights into financial transactions, empowering the client with actionable intelligence to drive informed decision-making and compliance adherence.

Concurrently, the development of the inventory management system heralds a new era of operational efficiency and asset oversight. As a pivotal component of the organization's infrastructure, this bespoke system revolutionizes asset tracking and management practices, offering real-time visibility into inventory levels, asset statuses, and utilization patterns across multiple warehouse locations. Automated reordering processes streamline inventory replenishment workflows, ensuring that essential supplies and components are replenished proactively, thereby minimizing disruptions to field operations. Furthermore, the system's sophisticated lifecycle analytics capabilities provide invaluable insights into asset performance and utilization trends, empowering the client with the data-driven intelligence needed to optimize resource allocation and drive operational excellence.

The integrated development of the billing engine and inventory management system represents a culmination of our collective expertise and unwavering commitment to delivering transformative solutions that empower the client to achieve its strategic objectives and drive sustainable growth in a rapidly evolving market landscape.

Phase 3

Conclusion and Results

In 9 months we successfully built and launched a specialized ISP SaaS platform tackling critical gaps holding back Connect Communications’ business. The product has become central for supporting efficient scaling plans by the provider after fast user adoption. Our partnership continues today driving their growth strategy as platform intelligence and capabilities expand across other functional areas of their operations.

Key Challenge

Two key challenges emerged during the execution phase:

Building intelligent ticket routing capabilities to correctly categorize and assign issues systematically across agent tiers
Enabling offline field technician access for tools like inventory lookup and troubleshooting guides when onsite connectivity was unreliable

We overcame these obstacles through a combination of robust design discussions, purpose-built microservices for modular capability enhancement, and leveraging leading technologies like MongoDB to accommodate flexible data structures needed in ISP environments.

Next Steps

With Connect Communications seeing excellent traction from core modules impacting day-to-day operations, our roadmap focuses on expanding platform functionality deeper into other business divisions:

Field Workforce Productivity Suite – mobile tools for technicians leveraging IoT, connectivity analytics, and skills matching to optimize human/network resource allocation
Network Infrastructure Module – integration layer for managing equipment health status, traffic patterns, spectrum availability, and other infrastructure analytics
Customer Self-Service Portals – allowing subscriber access to account details, order tracking, payments, and limited troubleshooting for common issues

We continue enhancing platform capabilities to further augment operational visibility and leverage data science for unlocking efficiency opportunities.

Connect Communications

Connect Communications

Competitive Environment

Problem Statement

Solution and Objectives

Technology Planning