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Versatility in action: How Hansen CIS is positioning North American utilities for success in the age of digitalization and AI

Insights Versatility in action: How Hansen CIS is positioning North American utilities for success in the age of digitalization and AI
Greg Pigate
Written By

Greg Pigate

As the Hansen team gears up for another action-packed week at IUCX, the leading event of its kind for the Energy & Utilities sector in North America, there’s no denying that the CIS landscape is undergoing change like never before. And our first full calendar year of quarterly releases can attest to that. This month, Hansen is pleased to announce our fourth quarterly update to Hansen CIS for North American Municipalities and Utilities, which includes a slew of updates addressing various elements of this rapidly evolving industry. In this blog, we provide insights into some of the key enhancements for customers of Hansen CIS. To get a comprehensive breakdown of all the recent updates, reach out to your account manager, visit the What’s New page on the Hansen CIS Connect Community site, or check out our booth in Phoenix!

REBATE PROGRAMS MODULE

A new module has been added to Hansen CIS to support rebate campaigns offered by the utility. By implementing rebate programs with criteria configured to match business processes, the utility can effectively target its unique audience and personalize marketing strategies for optimal results. Utilizing the flexible setup of the rebates module, the company can simplify the enrollment process for its rebate programs, improving the overall customer and Hansen CIS user experience.

CSR DASHBOARD ENHANCEMENTS

To continue the effort to make all of Hansen CIS metadata-driven and easily configurable, the dashboard screen, called the CSR Dashboard, is now also completely configurable without requiring any customizations. Each tab has been updated to make use of the flexible metadata structure used by other CIS screens, allowing the user to adjust how and where each field is displayed. While the CSR Dashboard itself, and its accompanying tabs, have been ‘converted’ to provide the same ultimate functionality, this structural overhaul means you can use any columns in any table in the Hansen CIS database to build out the CSR Dashboard to suit the needs of CSR processes, or build out dashboards suited to other business needs.

HANSEN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE COURSES ON HANSEN LEARNING

A new set of courses has been released to support utilization of Hansen Business Intelligence (HBI) features. The functional overview course provides an overview of the use of interactive dashboards, KPI tiles, graphs, and reports that provide insights into business data trends and anomalies through HBI. Participants will learn how to navigate and utilize various pre-built decision-support components, including the Executive and Billing Ops Dashboards, to analyze data effectively and make informed business decisions. The course also explores the configuration options available for dashboards and the integration of data from Hansen CIS.

HANSEN VIRTUAL AI AGENT

The recently-released Hansen AI Virtual Agent has been directly integrated with the Hansen Self Service Portal (HSSP). Customers can now click to call or chat with a personalized AI Virtual Agent, any time of day, whenever they are online. The AI Virtual Agent uses the same Hansen Integration Framework (HIF) APIs that the self service portal does to “talk” directly to Hansen CIS.

The Hansen AI Virtual Agent offers unique features tailored to utility customer service interactions. It operates 24/7, providing assistance through web chats and calls, following your defined business practices and conversing with customers naturally. The Virtual AI Agent doesn’t just answer questions and repackage information found online, before turning customers who need help over to a human, but any action that can be performed via the Hansen Integration Framework (HIF) in Hansen CIS can also be performed by your agent. The same way that your rules and settings allow your customers to view and update information in the Hansen Self Service Portal (HSSP), your agent can update contact information, make a payment, or add a service order, without employee intervention. The integration touchpoints for this product will continue to be built out for Hansen CIS in the coming months and years.

These improvements and the many other enhancements included in our latest release ensure that Hansen CIS is well-positioned for the era of digitization and AI. They constitute a progression in our vision to constantly improve your CIS experience on every level. At Hansen, we are committed to bringing the best changes right to you – and that is something that you can always count on.

1. What does “modernise with precision” mean for Tier-1 telecom operators?

“Modernise with precision” describes a low-risk, targeted approach to BSS/OSS modernisation where operators upgrade only the parts of their digital stack that create the greatest impact. Instead of embarking on high-risk, multi-year full-stack replacements, Tier-1 telcos selectively introduce cloud-native BSS/OSS, API-driven telecom architecture, AI-ready data layers, and TMF-compliant BSS components.
This modular strategy reduces cost and disruption, allowing operators to strengthen areas such as product agility, order orchestration, customer experience, and operational efficiency while maintaining stability in core environments. It aligns directly with TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA), which encourages a composable, interoperable, future-proof approach to telco transformation.

2. Why is time-to-market so important for telecom monetisation today?

Telecom monetisation increasingly depends on the ability to respond quickly to new commercial opportunities – from enterprise IoT solutions and digital services to 5G monetisation, wholesale partnerships, and B2B vertical offerings. In this environment, operators that can design, package, and activate new services in days rather than months gain a clear revenue advantage.
Legacy catalogues, rigid product hierarchies, and tightly coupled BSS architectures make rapid innovation difficult. Modern operators therefore prioritise catalog-driven architecture, agile/composable BSS, and cloud-native BSS capabilities to give business teams control over offer creation without relying on long IT delivery cycles. Faster launch cycles = faster monetisation.

 

3. What is slowing down product launch cycles for many telcos?

The primary obstacles are deeply entrenched in legacy architecture: hard-coded product models, outdated catalogues, nonstandard integrations, and heavy IT dependencies. These constraints slow down even minor product changes, creating friction between commercial teams and IT.
Modern telcos are replacing these bottlenecks with TMF-compliant BSS, cloud-native catalogues, API-driven BSS integrated via TMF Open APIs, and low/no-code configuration tools. These solutions allow product owners to create and test offers independently, ensuring the Digital BSS backbone supports true agility.

4. How can telecom operators reduce order fallout and manual intervention?

Order fallout typically stems from fragmented systems, inconsistent data models, and brittle custom integrations across BSS/OSS chains. When orchestration spans numerous legacy systems, even small discrepancies can cause orders to fail.
Operators can dramatically reduce fallout rates by adopting zero-touch service orchestration, modern order management modernisation, end-to-end automation, and a unified data model across their Digital OSS and Digital BSS layers. Cloud-native telecom systems and order orchestration for telecom remove reliance on manual rework, minimise delays, and improve service accuracy – all essential to delivering predictable customer experiences.

5. Why is accuracy so important for B2B and wholesale customer experience?

For enterprise and wholesale customers, trust is built on precision. A single misquote, incorrect configuration, or missed activation can lead to delays, SLA breaches, revenue disputes, and strained relationships. These segments rely on highly controlled, predictable fulfilment processes – particularly as operators expand into 5G edge services, network slicing, managed security, and outcome-based contracts.
Improving accuracy requires strengthening the underlying architecture – through modern CPQ for telecom, clean data models, cloud-native BSS/OSS, and robust API-driven telecom architecture. When quoting, ordering, provisioning, and billing are accurate, customer satisfaction increases naturally.

6. How does cloud, AI, and API-driven architecture support telecom modernisation?

Cloud-native platforms provide the scalability, flexibility, and deployment speed needed to support modern telecom services. AI introduces intelligence into operations, enabling predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and proactive assurance. APIs – especially TMF Open APIs – ensure new components integrate cleanly with legacy systems.
Together, AI-powered BSS/OSS, cloud-native architecture, and API-driven integration create a digital foundation that supports continuous innovation, reduces technical debt, and enables operators to deliver new services more efficiently. This trio is central to future-proofing the telco stack.

7. What is TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and why does it matter?

TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) is an industry-standard framework designed to help telcos simplify, modularise, and modernise their BSS/OSS environments. ODA promotes interoperability, composability, and openness so operators can integrate new capabilities without heavy customisation or vendor lock-in.
For Tier-1 operators, ODA serves as a blueprint for transitioning from monolithic legacy stacks to cloud-native, API-driven, modular BSS/OSS infrastructure. By adopting ODA-aligned solutions, operators speed up integration, lower deployment risk, and reduce long-term operational cost.

8. How is Hansen involved in TM Forum and ODA?

Hansen aligns its architecture directly to TM Forum’s ODA principles and has contributed to the development of one of TM Forum’s recognised industry standards. This reinforces a commitment not just to following best practices, but to shaping them.
Hansen’s portfolio of cloud-native, AI-powered, API-driven Digital BSS/OSS modules is built on TMF Open APIs and composable design principles. This ensures seamless interoperability in multivendor environments and helps operators modernise safely and incrementally.

9. Can operators modernise their BSS/OSS without a full-stack replacement?

Yes – and in fact, most Tier-1 operators now prefer incremental transformation. Full-stack replacement is high risk, slow, and expensive. By contrast, modular modernisation allows operators to introduce new BSS/OSS capabilities – catalogues, orchestration layers, charging engines, customer management, monetisation components – without destabilising the existing ecosystem.
This approach reduces risk, accelerates value, and aligns with ODA’s principles of composability and openness. Operators can modernise at their own pace while still maintaining service continuity.

10. How does modular modernisation reduce risk?

Modular transformation focuses on improving specific parts of the architecture – such as product agility, order accuracy, unified data, or 5G monetisation – without changing everything at once. Each module is integrated, tested, and scaled independently, which reduces disruption and improves predictability.
It also allows operators to retire legacy systems gradually, reducing technical debt over time while still realising near-term efficiency and revenue gains. This is why agile/composable BSS is now the preferred model for Tier-1 telecom transformation.

11. What operational improvements can telcos expect from a unified data model?

A unified, AI-ready data model brings real-time visibility across commercial and operational processes, enabling faster decision-making and more reliable service execution. It also allows operators to detect issues earlier, automate root cause analysis, and reduce order fallout.
This consistent data foundation is essential for AI-powered BSS/OSS, predictive assurance, next-best-action recommendations, and advanced analytics. It ultimately improves operational efficiency, accuracy, and customer experience – three core pillars of modern telecom performance.

12. Why is Customer Experience (CX) tightly linked to operational excellence?

Most customer experience problems – delays, incorrect orders, billing errors, missed SLAs – originate from inefficiencies within the internal BSS/OSS engine. When operators modernise their Digital BSS/OSS processes, eliminate manual workarounds, and ensure accurate orchestration and service activation, the customer experience improves naturally.
This is particularly true for enterprise and wholesale customers, where CX is defined by precision, predictability, and contract performance. Improving CX requires improving the processes beneath it.

13. How do Hansen’s solutions fit into a Tier-1 telco transformation strategy?

Hansen provides cloud-native, API-driven, TMF-compliant, AI-powered Digital BSS/OSS modules that integrate smoothly into hybrid and legacy environments. Operators can use them to strengthen catalog agility, automate order flows, unify data, enhance monetisation, or improve service reliability – without needing to replace their entire BSS/OSS stack.
This flexibility supports transformation at the operator’s own pace, aligned to business priorities, regulatory requirements, and commercial objectives.

14. What benefits can operators expect from a layered or hybrid modernisation approach?

A layered or hybrid approach allows operators to combine existing systems with cloud-native components, enabling transformation without disruption. Key benefits include:
• Faster time-to-market for new offers
• Improved order accuracy and reduced fallout
• Lower cost-to-serve through automation
• Stronger customer experience
• Gradual reduction of technical debt
• Alignment with ODA and modular architecture principles
This approach balances stability with innovation – ideal for Tier-1 operators.

15. How do industry standards such as ODA accelerate telecom digital transformation?

Industry standards like TM Forum ODA and TMF Open APIs reduce integration complexity, promote interoperability, and give operators a trusted blueprint for modernisation. They ensure that new BSS/OSS components can plug into existing environments without custom engineering.
By reducing dependence on bespoke integrations and enabling modular deployment, standards significantly lower long-term cost and accelerate transformation across the business. They also future proof the architecture for new technologies, including AI, automation, and 5G service innovation.


 
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