Recent years has seen a massive consolidation of the local Internet Service Provider (ISP) market and one of the larger players, M-Web, today finds itself in excess of 250 000 members - more than adequate reason to consider deploying a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) solution.
According to Johan Potgieter, development manager at M-Web, the original idea was to find a call centre solution but since additional functionality was required he opted for a full-blown Applix CRM implementation. "The basis of the system is still the support desk, however, it also front-ends our subscription management application, logs support calls and tracks them to resolution, and provides change-management functionality."
Pointing out that since successful problem resolution often relies on having information about each customer, his or her PC configuration and details of the software installed, the change management functionality is key. "The Applix system gives support desk personnel access to such information, thereby dramatically improving efficiencies and enhancing service levels.
"It also allows us to be pre-emptive because if we have, for example, several people calling about the same problem we can proactively determine which of our other customers might experience similar difficulties and call them with a solution before they know they have a problem," he adds. Maximising its bandwidth utilisation is another area of benefit. "We have two distinct models - home users that dial in at night (typically 7-9pm) and the business users primarily logged in during business hours. Applix allows us to identify trends, such as when and where our peak traffic areas are, enabling us to structure packages around this information and thereby make best use of our resources," says Potgieter.
Looking to the future he says that M-Web plans to extend its current wireless application protocol (WAP) initiative.
Kevan Wright, account manager at local Applix distributor, Unihold, believes the real value of systems such as that implemented by M-Web lies in continuity. "The primary advantage of CRM is that is enables each contact with a customer to pick up where the last one left off - eliminating repetition and dramatically improving customer satisfaction," he comments.
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M-Web
M-Web is South Africa`s leading online service provider and the first to list on the JSE in August 1999 (previously trading as a linked unit with MIH Ltd). The company focuses on delivering the most compelling Internet experience in SA regardless of transmission path or viewing device. M-Web delivers e-commerce solutions through its Business Solutions division and is pioneering emerging technologies through WAP and its broadband initiative with a unique content proposition, Siyanda Broadband Satellite Communications. M-Web has invested in leading-edge network and service infrastructure to ensure it provides subscribers with fast and reliable connectivity. Headquartered in Cape Town, M-Web has operations in Johannesburg and Durban and total staff of over 900. M-Web also owns Computicket and manages the Internet Africa and Netactive subscriber base.
Unihold
A JSE-listed company for over 40 years with operations in southern Africa, USA, Canada, UK and Australia, Unihold specialises providing end-to-end electronic business solutions. The Company achieves this by leveraging current and emerging technologies specifically in the areas of communication, industrial systems management and automation, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) as well as video-data-voice integration. The group is structured so as to ensure competency and critical mass in all of these areas and its go-to market model offers customers two alternatives for deploying e-business solutions both of which allow them to take advantage of Unihold`s extensive consulting, design and implementation expertise. On the one hand, customers can adopt the conventional model of having a purpose-built solution designed and implemented for them; or they can use the model that is gaining rapid acceptance all around the globe that of using Unihold as an application service provider (ASP).