Question

1.What was the problem at Celcom that was described this case? What people, organization, and technology factors contributed to this problem?

2.What was Celcom’s business strategy and what was the role of customer relationship management in that strategy?

3.Describe Celcom’s solution to its problem. What people, organization, and technology issues did the solution have to address?

4. How effective was this solution? How did it affect the way Celcom ran its business and its business performance?

5. Describe two operational activities and two business decisions that were improved by Celcom’s new CRM capabilities.

For each question, try to write your point first, then rationale of your point, examples you can provide, and re-stress point.

BUSINESS PROBLEM-SOLVING CASE Customer Relationship Management Helps Celcom Become Number One Ce telecommunications company in Malaysia and it largest, with a reputation for quality and reliability tomers have multiple devices an that is unrivaled in that country. Nevertheless lcom Axiata Berhad (Celcom) is the oldest mobile customers by looking at SIM (subscri modules in mobile phones) IDs. However and work uses. Celcom needed systems that person's SIMs. Otherwise, Celcom service repres maintaining its competitive edge has been a struggle. identify and serve each customer rather than In 2006, Celcom dropped to third place among Malaysian cellular providers and posted losses. Since tatives would waste valuable compa then, management has worked feverishly to turn the time making sense of a customer's multiplo company around, and Celcom has regained the top scattered among various records in the system. The spot in its market. To do this required major changes company wanted to be able to see a customer as a in the business, including a new CEO, changes to corporate culture, and new technology and business For Celcom, customers included not only mobile processes for managing the customer experience specific person, not a SIM or a numbe users but also its dealers and resellers. Celcom has To become number one in the Malaysian market nearly 30,000 channel partners who provide again, Celcom's senior management knew that the company had to build better networks and market more aggressively, but the real key to success lay in ness processes would need to improve the customer improving the customer experience. According to Suresh Sidhu, Celcom's chief corporate and opera company itself tions officer, there will alwa can beat you on price, or even out-innovate you. in-person customer services, such as handset sales and activation. Any change in technology and busi- experience for Celcom's partners as well as for the Celcom's solution involved c ny's technology, proces an Oracle-based business support system (BSS consolidated customer records, centralized inve competitor who ses, and peo lowever, it's much harder for a competitor to dis- rupt a stro Celcom believes it's the market's best differentiator. tory management, and sped up business processes. ong, positive relationship ith customers. customer in This system consolidates customer information a single view of the customer to improve c The Malaysia telecommunications market is quite ture, so there are few opportunities to acquire ustomer tail ew customers. Customer retention is essential, as is service across online, call center, an luring customers away from competitors. Malaysia's The Oracle implementation included new portal sites and retail stores as well as an Siebel call center system and Oracle inventory mai- agement and Communications Order and custo customer base of 14 million is large and diverse which requires multiple approaches to interacting with them. Older customers prefer in-person service from Celcom dealers or retail outlets, whereas So ness online. All want reliable mobile service anagement applications d young urban users prefer to do busi- Celcom's chief sales and commercial off Chong was co-chairman along with Sidhu of the Companies such as Skype ovide services that companies access over a nsf pr asking two questions: What do Celcom's business users need from BSS? What experiences should b of networks and devices, which can disrupt variety traditional telecommunications billing models. For deliver to Celcom's customers? The BSS projec elom to be number one in data services, it would asked approximately 700 Celcom employees in have to build enterprise systems that would be able reta xperiences Celcom was technology tha ?? se itecture and business processes transformation team then developed techn and business process requirements based on of customers. For instance, customer data from one system such as billin Top 10 lists and then compared offering easily available to other systems such as ere not m for mobile pro- Celcom chose Oracle as the primary tech ogy provider for the new customer experien ory viders because carriers have traditionally counte

Answer 1

.What was the problem at Celcom that was described this case? What people, organization, and technology factors contributed to this problem?

Answer:

To become number one in the Malaysian market again, Celcom’s senior management knew that the company had to build better networks and market more aggressively. But the real key to success lay in improving the customer experience.

Management: Malaysia’s customer base of 14 million is large and diverse, whichrequires multiple approaches to interacting with them.

Older customers prefer in-person service from Celcom dealers or retail outlets, while sophisticated young urban users prefer todo business online. Everyone wanted reliable mobile service.

Organization: Celcom service representatives wasted valuable company and customer time making sense of a customer’s multiple SIM IDs scattered among various records in the system. The company wanted to be able to see a customer as a specific person, not a SIM or a number.

Technology: Celcom was saddled with a siloed information technology architecture and business processes that could not provide a complete view of customers. Customer data from one system such as billing were not easily available to other systems such as inventory

2.What was Celcom’s business strategy and what was the role of customer relationship management in that strategy

Answer:

Celcom’s Business Strategy:

Celcom’s strategy to come back on top position in market was to build more effective networks, be more aggressive from a marketing perspective, and improving on the overall customer experience. In addition, Celcom had to imply ERP system for young urban users to do business on digital platform than the traditional method

Customer Relationship Management:

Celcom had to manage a customer’s structure based from over 14million people which was included older & young urbans mobile users, dealers, and retailers. So, in Celcom’s CRM system was Oracle-based business support system which integrated with customer’s data, information, centralized inventory management. It was connected to every single piece of information ofconsumers to improvise customer service across online, retails channels. Firm even implemented CRM tools which support multichannel and cross-channel markets, for that Oracle is one of the best suitable for efficient outputs

3.Describe Celcom’s solution to its problem. What people, organization, and technology issues did the solution have to address?

Answer:

Management: The company wanted the most complete suite of customer relationship management (CRM) tools that would support multichannel and cross-channel marketing efforts. Management understood the importance of cross-channel customer experiences andwanted to make this differentiate the company among its competitors.

Organization: The new system helped Celcom manage and integrate customer interactions across multiple channels to improve customer support, reduce problem resolution time, customize marketing to narrow market segments, and expedite time-to-market for new products and services. The BSS provides a single customer record, regardless of how many services (mobile, landline, and data) and devices a customer purchases, that is populated with data from various touchpoints. By consolidating customer data into a unified customer

Technology: Celcom’s transformation plan entailed retaining some of Celcom’s existing systems, and the Celcom team liked Oracle Communications’ modularity and interoperabilityas well as its cross-channel capabilities

4. How effective was this solution? How did it affect the way Celcom ran its business and its business performance?

Answer:

The solution was noticeably effective for Celcom as it opened new gateways to increase moreproductivity and customer support call-handling time was decreased by 15 to 20 percent. It changedtheir business model and operations to handle the market’s challenges, conditions in better way. Itshowed that new sim activation will take only two minutes as compared to two hours which may leadthem on people’s first choice. Celcom can now set targets on specific markets and gray areas. It evenmade ease to keep track record on inventory and related issues in better ways. Company now can launchand market the products on faster pace with reduced operational costs, which was old business modelwas inefficient to do.

5. Describe two operational activities and two business decisions that were improved by Celcom’s new CRM capabilities

Answer:

Operational Activities:-Dealers and clients were now able be paid more frequently and inventory management could betracked with in both supplier-dealer prospects.-Inventory management was improved by providing direct solution between demand of theproducts/services and supply of it, was updated with real time and accurate.

Business Decisions:-Change of legacy technology to new Oracle-based business support system which integratedwith customer’s data, information, centralized inventory management.-To focus on targeted market and/or region to establish or run marketing campaigns in becamesupported by data to find areas within the process that could be a cost reduction.-The centralization of inventory, increased efficiencies with call centers, faster payment terms with vendors help to reduce storage expenses, labor, and late charges on billing