MTN recently went live with a browser-based system for its Service and Repair centres. The Challenger system was delivered by a combined team led by Business Edge Systems (BES) and composed of BES, MTN (business & IS) and other contracted IT professionals. The system has been designed to administer all work in the client`s repair centres including the receipt and tracking of an average of 18000 phones per month, allocation to technicians and the highlighting of stock variances. .
By taking full advantage of web technology, BES has created the flexibility for MTN to deploy Challenger without any additional software distribution and desktop management costs. This will lower MTN`s total cost of ownership significantly. The system is Microsoft-based using Transaction Server for transaction management, SQL Server for the database and Internet Information Server to serve web pages.
Hennie Pretorius, e-Business Director at BES, says that Challenger replaced the previous client-server system which no longer met business needs.
"The cell phone business is a very fast moving industry and Challenger had to allow functionality to be upgraded on an ongoing basis. Our intimate knowledge of MTN`s business and organisational structure meant the team could develop an extremely powerful tool for this high tech client."
"Development was done using XML and XSL. This provides a uniform communication base between the database, application server and the front end and dramatically speeds up changes to programs."
According to Cobus Pelser, Technical Operations Manager at MTN, Challenger is all about better customer service. "Cell phone owners often rely on their phones for business and cannot afford downtime. We have responded to this need by developing Challenger which will significantly upgrade the level of service to our clients.
"It will standardise the business process from dealer to service centre to repair centre and ultimately improve customer service in general."
The development team was lead by a BES architect who translated user requirements into a workable system specification. Challenger has initially gone live at 13 locations with another 2000 locations planned by March. December 2001 will see 7000 locations online at dealers, retailers and advanced repair centres.
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