Customer Relationship Management case study
Telecom New Zealand fits the bill with AS/400 and Integrated Customer Management System
Advances in technology and growing competition spell out rapid change in the telecommunications industry. In order to stay in the race, telco providers are under a great deal of pressure not only to satisfy, but to exceed customers increasingly high expectations. One key to maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction is the use of an integrated, comprehensive customer service and billing (CS&B) solution. Telecom New Zealand, New Zealands leading telecommunications provider, knows the value of maintaining customer relationships. Telecom delivers a full range of Internet, data, mobile and fixed-line calling services to corporate, business and residential customers. In fact, the companys cellular network covers approximately 97 percent of New Zealands populated area. Telecom operates one of the most advanced national telecommunications networks in the world investing hundreds of millions of dollars every year in its local network. Above all, Telecom believes in investing in customer relationship management (CRM). Using IBMs Integrated Customer Management System (ICMS) running on the AS/400, Telecom is able to deliver a superior level of service to existing customers, while attracting new business.
AS/400 and ICMS deliver centralized customer service and billing Application
In the early 1990s, soaring growth rates were taxing Telecoms existing systems for billing and customer service. In the 1980s, inefficiencies in the system had Telecom six months behind in billing some of its customers. According to Steven Fox, an AS/400 consultant for centralized customer billing, Telecom had been using an archaic, manual system. When the explosion in the telecommunications area started causing severe problems, they had to do something quickly to integrate the process. Knowing that the AS/400 is an industry leader in offering CS&B applications for telco firms, Telecom chose the IBM platform to run its CS&B solution. So committed to superior customer care was Telecom, that it embarked on a joint venture with IBM to develop ICMS now sold worldwide by IBM.
A high-performance, reliable, scalable platform to support Customer Service and Billing (CS&B) applications. Increased billing efficiency, improved customer satisfaction, and significant cost savings. IBM AS/400 server. IBMs Integrated Customer Management System (ICMS).
Business Benefits
Hardware Software
Telecom steps up service and satisfaction with ICMS
ICMS is an integrated CS&B application that not only consolidates and facilitates billing processes, but also lets service representatives handle customer questions quickly by accessing complete account information. ICMS promotes high-quality customer service, as well as flexible billing for smoother cash flow.
Using ICMS, Telecoms frontline staff can enable multiple products and services directly from their workstations while accessing unified customer information. By handling customer queries and service requests faster, staff members dramatically improve customer satisfaction and reduce the cost of providing service. For Telecoms customers, it means that all of their inquiries billing updates, account balances, and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) service installation can be handled by a single call.
In addition, the AS/400s scalability allows Telecom to manage the increased workloads and performance demands as they grow. Says Jenkner, As we scale up performance, there is very little we have to change in terms of device-specific code. The changing process takes place under the covers and has no effect on the people developing applications the application immediately starts to use benefits of the new hardware. The scalability introduced by IBM makes our upgrades an extraordinarily smooth process.
Copyright IBM Corporation 2000
IBM Corporation Marketing Communications, Server Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 Published in the United States of America 12-00 All Rights Reserved This paper describes one customers experience with IBM products. The results described are presented as an illustration of the potential use of those products and may vary by customer environment. Copying or downloading the images contained in this document is expressly prohibited without the written consent of IBM. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in every country in which IBM operates. IBM hardware products are manufactured from new parts, or new and used parts. Regardless, our warranty terms apply. IBM, the IBM logo and AS/400 are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
AS/400 scales and performs to support tough demands from multiple transactions
Telecom plans future upgrades at the IBM Customer Benchmark Center
Telecoms AS/400 has the performance and scaling capabilities to support an impressive growth rate. With about 2,500 end users, Telecom accommodates a growth in processing power (CPW) of 35 to 55 percent annually. Presently, Telecoms database size is approximately one terabyte, and it is growing quickly. The AS/400s consistent high performance continues to impress Telecom. Notes Juergen Jenkner, senior technical consultant for the EDS/ Telecom New Zealand account, The single AS/400 top-end system is serving ICMS processes with more than 300,000 transactions every hour between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, each week. Thats one billion disk I/Os per day. Our internal response time runs between 0.2 and 0.3 seconds on average for these 300,000-plus transactions. Theres no other platform in a commercial environment I am aware of that can do this sort of disk I/O and keep a 0.3 second internal response time.
As part of its upgrade process, Telecom travels to the IBM Customer Benchmark Center in Rochester, Minnesota, to determine the companys hardware needs and to benchmark the capacity of its new AS/400s. According to Jenkner, project manager and seasoned benchmark center visitor, Our latest visit was a bit of a surprise. The new 840 server delivered, conservatively, about three and a half times the capacity of the previous top-end model. In the near future, Telecoms experience at the benchmark center will allow the company to carry out upgrades in its own environment, with greater ease. Benefiting from the emphasis on careful planning, Telecom has quickly taken advantage of the latest hardware and software upgrades that the AS/400 offers. When we come here to do all the upgrades, they run very smoothly, notes Fox. People will often say, Oh well, that wasnt a very big deal. But that is because of all of the planning we do at Rochester. The IBM Customer Benchmark Center experience truly makes things run more smoothly when we come back home.
TELECOM New Zealand Ltd. Greg Taylor Manager Information Technology 141 Willis Street Wellington New Zealand Phone: 0064 4 802 9600 Fax: 0064 4 385 9457 E-mail: [email protected] The information in this brief was provided by Telecom New Zealand and not by IBM. This brief does not constitute an express or implied recommendation or endorsement by IBM of any particular product, service, company, or technology, but is intended simply as an informational service. IBM makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, concerning the content, completeness or accuracy of the brief or the non-IBM products or services described therein. IBM specifically disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, year 2000 readiness and the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
AS/400 keeps Telecom up and running without interruption
Even under the most taxing conditions, the AS/400 delivers solid reliability for New Zealand Telecom. According to Fox, The most important thing for Telecom is ensuring that systems are available no failure, no breakdown. I consider the AS/400s uptime very high compared against the other platforms that we run.
For more information
Visit the AS/400 Web site at: ibm.com/as400, or contact your IBM marketing representative or IBM Business Partner.
