Telekom Malaysia Berhad gains competitive advantages from innovative customer service system

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1 IBM Case Study Telekom Malaysia Berhad gains competitive advantages from innovative customer service system Overview Challenge To differentiate itself in an increasingly competitive market, one of Malaysia s largest telecommunications providers wanted to become more customer-centric, improving customer service quality while reducing operating costs. Why Become an On Demand Business? By reengineering its customer relationship management (CRM) systems and methodology, Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) was able to reduce their costs by consolidating call centers, helping to increase its competitiveness with an innovative selfservice Web portal one of the first in Malaysia. Solution TM replaced siloed CRM systems with a streamlined platform based on IBM eserver p5 servers and Oracle Siebel V7.7 CRM software. In addition, IBM WebSphere Application Server software extends the functionality of the new CRM system onto the Web. IBM Global Services helped TM deploy the hardware infrastructure. Key Benefits Helped improve customer service through new self-service Web portal and reduced system response Helped reduce operating costs by consolidating call centers from 18 to 4 while encouraging paperless billing and customer self-service through the Web Helped improve employee productivity by lessening congestion at retail outlets, reducing call volume and providing up-to-the minute access to consolidated cus- On Demand Business defined An enterprise whose business processes integrated end-to-end across the company and with key partners, suppliers and customers can respond with speed to any customer demand, market opportunity or external threat. tomer information Established a flexible IT platform for growth, equipping the company with the CRM infrastructure to roll out new products and services as market needs demand

2 On Demand Business Benefits Potential for improved customer service, helping to differentiate the company in an increasingly competitive market Potential for reduced operating costs by consolidating call centers from 18 to 4 as well as encouraging paperless billing and customer selfservice through the Web Potential for improved productivity of customer service employees through access to consolidated CRM information; IT administrators also can be more productive through systems consolidation Established a flexible IT platform to help enable greater corporate agility Founded as a government organization and privatized in 1987, Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), one of the largest telecommunications service providers in Malaysia, offers a comprehensive range of in fixed-line, mobile, data and broadband communication services. As one of the principal listed companies on the Bursa Malaysia stock exchange, TM boasts a customer base of 12.5 million subscribers (fixed, mobile and Internet) and annual operating revenues of nearly US$4 billion (excluding overseas ventures). In its mission to become the communications company of choice for all of Malaysia, TM is committed to being a customer-focused organization that provides a full range of communications services for its subscribers. As such, the company places a strong emphasis on innovative initiatives to improve customer service. Industry trends increase the need for innovative new services In recent years, TM has experienced new pressures from increased regional competition and shifts in the global telecommunications industry. For example, the introduction of new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone services and discount long-distance service providers has led telecommunications providers like TM to push for innovation within their own organizations, finding ways to offer customers new high-quality products and services all while minimizing operating costs. The eserver p5 servers are adaptable to our business needs. Che Abdul Rahim bin Che Ahmad, General Manager, Telekom Malaysia Berhad But because TM s customer relationship management (CRM) systems were siloed and outdated, cost-effective delivery of exemplary customer service was increasingly difficult. To satisfy a subscriber request or inquiry, service representatives had to query several systems, resulting in slow response times and inconsistent levels of service. In addition, the lack of integrated customer information made cross-selling efforts virtually impossible.

3 Changing market dynamics require a fresh CRM approach In order to realize its goal of becoming more customer-focused, TM needed to radically overhaul its CRM systems. Not only that, but Liew Hon Nknew, project director of the CRM icare project, adds, To meet the challenges of the new telecommunications marketplace, we needed to revamp our entire customer service approach. We wanted to get to know our customers more closely, learn how to best serve them and offer them the right products at the right time and price. This transformation required us to reengineer our customer service organization along with the back-end CRM systems that support the agents. In a bold move toward establishing itself as a customer service leader and differentiating itself from the competition TM decided to introduce TM Online, Malaysia s first-ever dynamic customer self-service portal. Among other services, the portal would allow subscribers to view and pay their telephone bills online a huge boon to customers who previously paid their bills at TM outlets, post offices and banks. IBM eserver p5 servers form a powerful basis for new CRM software To provide the foundation for this new customer service venue and to help overhaul the underlying CRM systems supporting it TM turned to its trusted technology provider of choice for over 30 years: IBM. Working hand-in-hand with IBM Global Services, TM deployed two eserver p5 595 servers to support a new suite of Siebel V7.7 CRM applications. To help provide protection against disaster, a third p5-595 server was installed at a site approximately nine miles from the primary data center. The deployment team configured the servers using IBM High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing Key Components Software IBM AIX 5L V5.3 operating system IBM High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing (HACMP) software IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5 software Oracle Siebel V7.7 CRM software Servers IBM eserver p5 595 servers The centralized, virtualized CRM environment powered by eserver p5 servers provides superior infrastructure support and helps improve efficiency in our people and systems and truly optimized operations. Liew Hon Nknew, Project Director, Telekom Malaysia Berhad

4 (HACMP ) software designed to enable the automated recovery of business applications if a server is lost. Besides helping to ensure business continuity, the second system also acts as a development and test environment for the Siebel software. To help provide an environment in which servers can be used in the most efficient way possible, the TM team used the dynamic logical partitioning (LPAR) capabilities of the IBM AIX 5L V5.3 operating system to create 32 partitions on each server. By running multiple workloads on each server, increased server utilization can help optimize the return on investment. In addition, several management tools help TM administrators increase the efficiency of the LPAR environment. With IBM Advanced Micro-Partitioning feature, administrators can easily fine-tune processor resource allocation. And the Partition Load Manager helps administrators dynamically balance the workload among LPARs to best meet the needs of users. To help reduce the cost of adapters, ports, cabling and other physical devices, TM uses the Virtual I/O and Virtual LAN features of the p5-595 servers to share network resources among the smaller system partitions. The newly streamlined infrastructure also includes IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5 middleware to extend the functionality of the Siebel CRM software onto the Web, forming the foundation for one of the first self-service portals deployed in Malaysia TM Online. WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment is the premier Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Web services application server for creating, running, integrating and managing highly available

5 business applications. It provides a rich application deployment environment with a complete set of application services, including capabilities for transaction management, security, clustering, performance, availability, connectivity and scalability. Web portal offers customer conveniences while helping to reduce costs for TM Through the self-service capabilities of TM Online, TM expects to provide better customer service to more customers than ever before. In fact, several new services could become competitive differentiators for TM. For example, subscribers can search, sort, filter and download their bills. Paperless billing can help lower printing costs. And subscribers can also use the portal to view their payment history, place orders for products and services and even receive billing notices by or text message. The company expects that 30 percent of its 12.5 million subscribers (fixed, mobile and Internet) will sign up for TM Online. By enabling customers to perform many routine tasks themselves, the company anticipates that the number of inquiries to its call centers will drop. And by encouraging customers to interact with the company through the Web, customer service costs are expected to drop while customer service representatives will have more time to perform value-added tasks. Through TM Online, we are bringing TM closer to the customer directly to their home or office. They can conveniently check and pay bills from their home computers. They can avoid parking hassles and having to queue up at payment outlets, explains Che Abdul Rahim bin Che Ahmad, general manager of the Customer Information and Billing Division at TM. By helping to lessen congestion at TM retail outlets, TM Online will help counter staff to provide higher quality service as well as perform higher-value tasks. And the powerful new CRM system, which places up-to-date customer information at agent fingertips, will help streamline operations and employee productivity even further.

6 Virtualized infrastructure sets the stage for growth and innovation In addition to enabling the CRM advancements and the TM Online portal, the eserver p5 servers provide a strong foundation for growth. In particular, the virtualization features of the eserver p5 servers help create a flexible CRM environment that can enable new services to be launched quickly. That kind of IT flexibility gives TM the agility to adapt its customer service strategy to meet business and market needs. The eserver p5 servers offer not only speed and reliability but also the adaptability to scale to meet the sizeable traffic spikes that can arise from TM s enormous customer base. The eserver p5 servers are adaptable to our business needs, notes Che Abdul Rahim. When there is a surge in usage, the Capacity Upgrade On Demand feature allows processing capacity to be added as needed to meet the demand. This flexibility helps to ensure that TM will not be caught unaware by sharp increases in user demand, thereby reducing the potential for any adverse impact on customer service levels. Consolidated CRM system delivers true infrastructure optimization The powerful combination of eserver p5 servers and Siebel software has enabled TM to radically consolidate its call centers from 18 locations to only 4. Apart from the immediate reduction in real estate, energy and personnel expenses, this streamlined CRM environment has contributed to substantially reduced management costs. In addition, the IT department has seen a marked increase in productivity. Concludes Liew, The centralized, virtualized CRM environment powered by eserver p5 servers provides superior infrastructure support, improved efficiency in our people and systems and truly optimized operations. In short, it provides a better situation for our business overall.

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8 For more information Contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit us on the Web at: ibm.com/systems/p Copyright IBM Corporation 2006 IBM Systems and Technology Group Route 100 Somers, NY U.S.A. Produced in the United States June 2006 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, eserver, Advanced Micro- Partitioning, AIX 5L, HACMP and WebSphere are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. Offerings are subject to change, extension or withdrawal without notice. Performance data for IBM and non-ibm products and services contained in this document was derived under specific operating and environmental conditions. The actual results obtained by any party implementing such products or services will depend on a large number of factors specific to such party s operating environment and may vary significantly. IBM makes no representation that these results can be expected or obtained in any implementation of any such products or services. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED AS-IS WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. PSC01863-USEN-00