s Finance Marketing Service Network Finan cial Development Accounting Advertising Sales Analysis Accounting Billing Call Center Figure 9-1: Telecom Organizational Chart As we see in figure 9-1, the typical telco is divided into several major units. 1. Engineering - the people responsible for the planning, con- struction, and maintenance of the network Sales and Marketing - the units that are dedicated to the advertising, distribution, and sales that bring in the busi- Customer Support - based on the billing systems, the cus- tomer service organization and other supporting functions Finance - accounting and financial controls and reporting The Telecommunications Value Chain To see how the various functions and processes of a company relate to each other, we would normally consult the firm's organizational chart. Unfortunately, organizational charts often tend to be confusing and misleading because they outline who reports to whom, not how the job of delivering service to the customer is accomplished. To get a non-political and non-personalized view of the functions that eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook happen within a telco, we use instead a device known as a value chain. The value chain provides a clear snapshot of the critical functions that go into the delivery of value to the customer. It shows the way these functions link up with each other to deliver that value. Network Network Creation Acquisition Planning Maintenance Service Provisioning Activation Order Billing Processing Customer Marketing Credit Services pera tions Sales 14, 15, 16, 17 Finan da Management Information Te chnology Human Resources Management Corporate fairs Figure 9-2: Telecommunications value chain Figure 9-2 shows a value chain with all of the critical functions necessary to deliver service. Notice also the functions that are not part of the chain (accounting, information technology (I/T), human resources). They are the support functions that actually deliver no direct value to customers, but provide support for 