394Case

Part Three
StudyKey
5 System Applications forBA425
the Digital Age Dr Majed Al-Azzam May 2020

Customer Relationship Management Helps Celcom Become Number One

Celcom Axiata Berhad (Celcom) is the oldest mobile multiple SIM IDs scattered among various records
telecommunications company in Malaysia and also in the system. The company wanted to be able to
its largest, with an unrivaled reputation for quality see a customer as a specific person, not a SIM or a
and reliability. Nevertheless, maintaining its com- number.
petitive edge has been a struggle. In 2006 Celcom Celcom’s solution involved changes to the compa-
dropped to third place among Malaysian cellular pro- ny’s technology, processes, and people. At the core is
viders. Since then, management has worked fever- an Oracle-based business support system (BSS) that
ishly to turn the company around, and Celcom has consolidated customer records, centralized inven-
regained the top spot in its market. This turnaround tory management, and sped up business processes.
required new technology and business processes for This system consolidates customer information into
managing the customer experience. a single view of the customer to improve customer
To become number one in the Malaysian mar- service across online, call center, and retail channels.
ket again, Celcom’s senior management knew that The Oracle implementation included new customer
the company had to build better networks and portal sites and retail stores as well as an Oracle
market more aggressively. But the real key to suc- Siebel call center system and Oracle inventory man-
cess lay in improving the customer experience. agement and Communications Order and Service
According to Suresh Sidhu, Celcom’s chief corpo- Management applications.
rate and operations officer, there will always be a The BSS project team asked approximately 700
competitor who can beat you on price or even out- Celcom employees in customer service, retail,
innovate you. But it’s much harder for a competi- marketing, and other divisions to list the top 10
tor to disrupt a strong, positive relationship with experiences that users and dealers wanted, such as
customers. Celcom believes it’s the market’s best fast activation, less paperwork, and always having
differentiator. the most popular phones in stock. The BSS trans-
The Malaysia telecommunications market is quite formation team then developed technical and busi-
mature, with few opportunities to acquire new cus- ness process requirements based on these top 10
tomers. Customer retention is essential, as is luring lists and compared offerings from several vendors.
customers away from competitors. Malaysia’s cus- Celcom chose Oracle as the primary technology
tomer base of 14 million is large and diverse, which provider for the new customer experience manage-
requires multiple approaches to interacting with ment system. The company wanted the most com-
them. Older customers prefer in-person service from plete suite of customer relationship management
Celcom dealers or retail outlets, while sophisticated (CRM) tools that would support multichannel and
young urban users prefer to do business online. All cross-channel marketing efforts. Oracle seemed
want reliable mobile service. the best fit and had the most functionality built in
Celcom was saddled with a siloed information without requiring additional modifications.
technology architecture and business processes that Celcom’s transformation plan entailed retaining
could not provide a complete view of customers. some of Celcom’s existing systems, and the Celcom
For instance, customer data from one system such team liked Oracle Communications’ modularity and
as billing were not easily available to other systems interoperability as well as its cross-channel capabili-
such as inventory. This is a common problem for ties. Oracle Communications is a cross-channel prod-
mobile providers because carriers have traditionally uct suite that provides a variety of services, including
counted customers by looking at SIM (subscriber broadband data, wireless data, and mobile voice
identity modules in mobile phones) IDs. However, services. It helps communications services providers
many customers have multiple devices and SIMs such as Celcom manage and integrate customer inter-
for personal and work uses. Celcom needed systems actions across multiple channels to improve customer
that could identify and serve each customer rather support, reduce problem resolution time, customize
than that person’s SIMs. Otherwise, Celcom service marketing to narrow market segments, and expe-
representatives would waste valuable company dite time-to-market for new products and services.
and customer time making sense of a customer’s Celcom understood the importance of cross-channel
 Chapter 9 Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications 395

customer experiences and wanted to make this differ- New phone activation time has been cut from two
entiate the company among its competitors. Celcom’s hours to two minutes. Fewer activations require
systems solution enables customer interactions to manual follow-up. Celcom dealers and customers are
seamlessly traverse its retail shop, online shop, call happier.
center, and partner/dealer channels. Inventory of mobile handsets at Celcom facili-
The BSS provides a single customer record, ties and dealer stores is now centralized and man-
regardless of how many services (mobile, landline, aged using BSS. Dealers can see what Celcom has in
and data) and devices a customer purchases; it is stock, and Celcom inventory managers can monitor
populated with data from various touchpoints. By the stock on dealer shelves. More detailed inventory
consolidating customer data into a unified customer control helps Celcom move more products because it
record, Celcom can offer tailored promotions offers can ship fast-selling units to dealers before shortages
in real time that fit a customer’s individual history. occur or have marketers target promotions in regions
Celcom’s holistic view of a customer includes fam- where the company wants to move specific products.
ily relationships, which has special significance This would have been impossible before. Salespeople
when marketing in Asia. The company is able to are beginning to use big data collected in BSS to bet-
see every aspect of service each customer uses, ter manage sales by region.
which makes cross-marketing and up-selling more Celcom is now much closer to achieving its brand
efficient. vision: pleasing its customers and exceeding their
Celcom completed the BSS implementation in just expectations.
18 months, replacing 17 separate systems with one Sources: Jessica Sirkin, “Oracle Implementation at Celcom Brings
seven-module Oracle system. IT, Business Together,” searchoracle.techtarget.com, accessed
Celcom officials explicitly tried to get employees January 17, 2016; www.celcom.com, accessed January 18, 2016;
Fred Sandsmark, “Customers First,” Profit Magazine, May 2014;
invested in the new system to ensure it aligned with and Oracle Corporation, “Celcom Transforms Its Customer Expe-
the business. The company enlisted project directors rience with Industry Leading Oracle Communications Suite,”
from both business and IT departments. Represen- March 31, 2014.
tatives from sales and marketing chaired the tech-
nology selection committees to ensure that people CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
outside of IT were making the case for the project. 9-1
13 What was the problem at Celcom described in
Top management, including sales and marketing this case? What management, organization,
department heads and Celcom’s CEO, are part of a and technology factors contributed to this
steering committee for customer experience man- problem?
agement that meets every two weeks. 9-2
14 What was Celcom’s business strategy, and what
Celcom’s integrated systems make it possible was the role of customer relationship manage-
for call center representatives to respond much ment in that strategy?
more rapidly to customer queries. In the past, cus- 9-3
15 Describe Celcom’s solution to its problem.
tomer agents needed to toggle between two to five What management, organization, and technol-
screens to do their work. Now they work with just ogy issues had to be addressed by the solution?
a single screen, which increases efficiency. Using 9-4
16 How effective was this solution? How did it
fewer screens cuts average call-handling time by affect the way Celcom ran its business and its
15 to 20 percent. BSS includes a new tablet-based app business performance?
for Celcom dealers that makes signing a customer
up for a new mobile phone completely paperless.