América Móvil’s Claro Brazil has reduced the time it takes to add a new customer into the telecom operators’ base from 8-10 days to 2-3 days. This is a result of a change in business process management, through the implementation of a combination of Amdocs enterprise product catalog (EPC), customer relationship management (CRM), sales and ordering.
Claro sped up the sales process to corporate markets by empowering sales representatives to insert order service data directly into the carrier’s system using a mobile device. Before this change, sales reps had to fill out forms and then a team of 450 people inputted the data into the system.
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“Field sales people can also model plans and access updated information when negotiating with firms,” said Wilson Teles Marcolin, Claro’s IT director for demands and tests, during TM Forum’s Latin America Summit this week. He also emphasized that there was a reduction in the numbers of mistakes – and customer complaints – related to billing. “With integrated systems, we synchronized customer service channels,” he added.
Marcolin did not disclose how much Claro has invested in the process.
The rollout started last December and is expected to be finished by next May. “By integrating customer service systems, our goal is to see each client as unique, and gather all the services they have,” explained Marcolin.
Currently, Claro Brazil runs 250 different information technology (IT) systems, of which 30 are related to customer service. The current scenario is better compared to few years ago, when Claro owned about 900 systems. Claro, as it is known now, is a result of the consolidation of several telecom operators. Each of them carried their own IT solutions, and when unified the “new company” faced a very heterogeneous environment. Consolidating systems is still a challenge.
Among the results of business process management, Marcolin also cited increased agility in introducing new products and services.
To achieve this new scenario, Claro needed to manage an internal cultural change, mostly with its sales people, who adjusted the way they worked. “They used to fill out a service order and deliver it. Now they are able to do the whole process.” The 450 people who were previously responsible for inputting customer data into the system will be reallocated to other areas, according to Marcolin.
Other challenges include the huge amount of data and the short time period when the IT team is able to work. “We have to do implementation between Saturdays at 11 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. when the stores are closed; and even though the new solution focuses on the corporate segment, it affects all systems,” Marcolin added.
There are 170 IT people working on this project, and they have already finished three rollouts. The new process is based on service-oriented architecture (SOA). The next phase includes a rollout to the retail segment, which is much more complex, considering its enormous data volume.
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