Wataniya Telecom breaks new ground in building customer relationships

The technology will provide the operator's call centre agents with the tools that will effectively enhance the one-to-one customer experience for over 820,000 customers in Kuwait.

The year long project culminated in a soft launch of the project in September, full roll out and deployment is now in progress, with live agents operating as of today.

Fuad Al Ablani, Deputy General Manager, Wataniya, commented on what the keenly sought implementation means to the regional telecom operator. "Our primary objective was to enhance the customer experience in their dealings with Wataniya, following our core strategy of being closer to our customers. We're growing significantly as an organisation, and this investment gives us a scalable technology that can grow with the size of our operations and subscriber base."

For Wataniya, part of the integral process was the complex integration of seven legacy systems and nine smaller applications into a single user interface. In order to do this, all of the back-end systems needed incorporation into the CRM, a task that called for careful architecture and management. The implemented CRM modules are part of the Oracle E-Business Suite.

Joseph Hanania, Managing Director for HP Middle East commented that, "the CRM solution allows Wataniya to offer its customers the enhanced levels of services that reinforce the operator's market leadership. The constant flow of unique value-add services and products can be communicated to customers as required on a consumer and business level."

Wataniya's key focus was to ensure that the Oracle CRM solution implemented by HP enabled business and customer interface enhancements as the key drivers of the solution. The Wataniya, HP and Oracle team complemented each other with their drive to achieve these strict goals and the programme implemented provides the ability for customer information to be shared by multiple employees whilst streamlining existing processes, more flexibility at the customer service level interface, as well as comprehensive return on investment (ROI) and a competitive edge in a rapidly expanding industry.

Al Ablani explained: "That the level of integration with the Oracle-based billing system (BSCS) provides near real-time customer synchronisation and complex functionality; such as the transfer of a customer from Pre-Paid to Post-Paid via the CRM solution. This type of activity is completed smoothly and without interruption, so that the customer receives instant feedback and no delays."

"Wataniya took a very bold step by building its CRM approach on an integrated 360-degree view of their customers; this will inevitably help Wataniya take the lead in the area of customer service in this highly competitive telecommunications market. We are impressed by the excellent results achieved by HP and Wataniya project team and look forward to contributing to the next phases of the project," said Husam Dajani, Oracle's VP for the Middle East and Africa region.

"The challenge presented to us by Wataniya was to give value to their customers, but also a rapid Return on Investment and enhancements to their market competitiveness," said Hanania.

Hanania explained that as Wataniya continued to chart its aggressive expansion plans both in Kuwait and throughout the region, HP would continue to provide its expertise to enable Wataniya's customers to be the ultimate beneficiary. "This CRM project is a natural move forward for Wataniya Telecom, will enable them to better understand the needs of their customers, and proactively create new services to meet those needs at a personalised level," he stated.

"What we are offering Wataniya Telecom is a 24x7, 360 degree view of their customers," he added.

Al Ablani concluded: "Wataniya's key differentiator has always been its relationship with its customers, and the investments we make in strengthening that relationship, both in Kuwait and across our regional operations. Today we are giving them access to greater choice, more flexibility and by far, the best call centre service in the Middle East."