Eskom installs R40m CRM system

Johannesburg, 28 May 2004

Eskom`s massive new R40 million customer relationship management (CRM) system is in the final testing phase, and is expected to be operational by October.

Utilising GT-X7, a business process framework solution from Scottish software house Graham Technology, the new CRM application will be implemented locally by a joint team managed by Accenture.

The bigger picture

Once operational, the utility expects the CRM system to improve the interface between Eskom Distribution and its 3.5 million customers, by ensuring that action is quickly taken on any issue raised by customers

"Our contact centres are the front line of our business, as in the vast majority of cases people call these when they have a problem - such as when supply is down, there`s a billing issue or they`re having difficulty making their payments," says Hugh McGibbon, divisional customer service manager for Eskom Distribution.

"We`re making this investment to ensure we get it right. In the past, service agents taking the calls did not have easy access to all the information relating to the customer, meaning that calls would be logged and passed on to the section responsible for addressing the problem."

He says that if the customer called again, the service agent could see that a request had been logged, but would not always know what action had been taken, who had responsibility for it, and whether this person believed the issue had been resolved.

"The new system will improve the way we interact with our customers, as our service agents will have immediate access to all information about the caller. This will help them to deal confidently and professionally with the query and should make a big difference to the quality of the customer interaction."

"Back-office improvements will allow management to view the bigger picture - where we`re falling short and what the causes are - while also being able to drill down and intervene proactively in individual cases that are identified as being especially problematic," says McGibbon.

He says that a vital part of the project will be change management, which includes not only training for the 500 plus service agents, but also ensuring that everyone makes the transition quickly, smoothly and with a positive attitude.

The CRM glue

"As Eskom Distribution is currently in the throes of restructuring, the CRM system has to be scalable, and must work equally well if centralised or distributed out to the six newly formed Regional Electricity Distributors (REDS)," says Graham Technology`s country manager, Paul McGlynn.

"Thus we had to be able to supply them with a robust platform that can be added to, should further technologies - such as integrated voice response (IVR) - be required at a later stage."

He says that the platform is capable of supporting all incoming traffic as well as outbound customer campaigns, and uses all major electronic interfaces, including telephone, e-mail, SMS and the Internet.

"We will be going live with a distributed pilot in October, with between 200-300 users on the system spread across the various REDS centers, followed by an incremental rollout until February, where around 2 000 users will eventually be live," says McGlynn.

He says that the integration capabilities of GT-X7 will allow the functionality and data of new or replacement systems to be directly incorporated into Eskom`s business processes, with the data from all the back-end systems presented to a common front-end across a variety of channels.

"For the first time, Eskom has been given the glue - in the form of this application - to bring all its disparate CRM channels together."