Iceland Telecom Selects Portal’s Infranet® for New Customer Management and Billing Systems for Wireless Internet Services
Capgemini was selected by Iceland Telecom (Síminn) to install Portal's Infranet software for new customer management and billing systems.
The Profile
Síminn is progressive and creative, offering services with an emphasis on speed, convenience and security. Síminn’s quick adaptation of the wireless network to deliver innovative Internet services positions it as a pioneer among wireless carriers, globally.
The Issue
The company is organised in 5 client-facing arenas: Network, Solutions & Development, Broadband, Sales & Marketing and Finance. Current applications for mobile and Internet services were based on legacy systems and proved increasingly cumbersome and difficult to manage. IT support costs were rising, and return on investment was low.
Internet-based services comprised a lot of disparate systems - manual workarounds had crept in to processes simply to cope with escalating business demands. Management wanted integrated and adaptive systems. These would form the cornerstone of Síminn’s strategy to quickly launch new, innovative services. It was imperative that developed systems were easy to use and maintain - Síminn wanted to manage applications in-house.
The Infranet product from Portal was identified as an ideal platform, and an external organisation was selected to manage the systems integration. However, Síminn was not satisfied that the provider could deliver a fast and reliable service. Management became aware of partnerships that Portal had established with leading systems integrators, and was impressed by the credentials offered by Capgemini. The latter was invited to deliver results for Síminn.
The Solution
Capgemini set up a project team to scope requirements. Knowledge and experience of the telecom sector was leveraged. The workshop identified core applications, including Billing Services, Customer Care and the Infranet. Back-office applications running on SAP, as well as billing systems, were to remain intact. Project plans facilitated progress via a traditional ‘waterfall’ approach. Clear milestones allowed Síminn management to retain firm control. All the interfaces that would be required to support the business were identified. These included a large interface between current billing systems and Infranet for mobile customer provisioning, and billing information in the reverse direction.
Other notable interfaces were service provisioning from Infranet to the Internet platform, real-time authentication and rating of Order & Pay services, push of rated usage to a prepaid platform, usage collection (rating of mobile and Internet services) and a ‘self-care’ prototype. The latter was developed to allow customers to set their own preferences for the level of service desired.
Capgemini managed the entire development and deployment, and adopted its own quality system to manage the project. The partnership with Portal was valuable, Síminn benefited from specialist support as, and only when, required.
“The growing demand for Internet services and applications over wireless telephony, and the popularity of prepaid services, requires that our business support systems be flexible and offer real-time capability.” Mobile Services MD, Síminn
Halfway through the project Síminn management became anxious to see results. Capgemini demonstrated flexibility and quickly modified the terms of contract to facilitate a faster turnaround. The project accelerated to a rapid conclusion.
The Benefits
Benefits derived by Síminn are summarised by its Managing Director for Mobile Services: “We are proud of our long tradition of offering innovative and competitive communications services to our consumers in Iceland. Portal’s Infranet software allows us to experiment with and quickly implement new pricing models, and its real-time capability allows us to support new data and content-based prepaid services, minimising revenue leakage and promoting customer loyalty.”
The partnership of Siminn and Capgemini has made this possible. Especially valuable was the global experience on IP Billing and Infranet residing in Capgemini’s knowledge repositories and people networks, globally. The project team was able to leverage this to deliver working solutions for Síminn’s benefit. This enabled solutions to be developed quickly. Effective knowledge transfer ensured that Síminn could manage systems efficiently once they were deployed.
Written in co-operation with Iceland Telecom
