Protek`s Customer Care and Billing (CCB) project for MTN Uganda has been named as a winner of the 2002 World Billing Award for the Best Billing Implementation, telecoms category.
The award was presented to Paul Buttle, Director of Sales, Protek, in recognition of the CCB system implementation and Protek`s ability to deliver new and improved billing and customer care functionality to MTN Uganda.
"The judges were impressed by the number and quality of the nominations, particularly those for the implementation categories. For a market which is supposed to be dormant, there is a lot of activity going on. There were a remarkable number of projects put forward which were of real substance," commented Hugh Roberts, chairman of the panel.
"Judging was very hard - the winners that we eventually settled on all demonstrated pragmatic and often innovative approaches to the challenges with which they were faced. We believe we have acknowledged excellent examples of both the successful management and development of legacy environments and the identification and implementation of original solutions to meet new requirements. Congratulations to the winners."
To grow its business and expand the service offering, MTN Uganda needed to move away from its disparate business support systems, and move to an integrated customer care and billing solution. "We are impressed with the way Protek reacted to the various challenges arising during the implementation phase. The company always provided support and allocated experienced staff and the required resources to solve the issues as they arose," commented Tom Bragaw, CEO, MTN Uganda.
Protek`s CEO Paul Beaumont stated: "Pre- and post-paid integration is key to today`s service providers, and we`re delighted that the success of MTN Uganda`s customer care and billing implementation has been recognised by the World Billing Awards."
The winners were announced on Tuesday night at a gala ceremony held at the Carlton Tower Hotel in London. The World Billing Awards were introduced in 1997 to acknowledge billing best practice and to raise awareness of the significance of the billing process to the communications industry. The gala dinner was one of the highlights of Billing Systems 2002, the largest gathering of billing professionals in Europe.
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On 21 October 1998, MTN Uganda launched commercial services in Uganda, just six months after acquiring and signing of the licence. MTN has since grown to be the dominant telecommunications company in Uganda servicing in excess of 210 000 customers and growing.
The licence required that MTN provide 89 000 lines in the first five years of operation. MTN adopted wireless approach to providing telecommunications services to the Ugandan market. The wireless approach has proved to be convenient and quicker in achieving most rolling out services. Despite insufficient infrastructure (power, roads etc) MTN has covered in excess of 90% of the urban population, providing services in over 80 towns and villages and their immediate environments.
MTN Uganda`s policy of affordable tariffs and availability of services, backed by distribution and innovative marketing, opened up a broad market to telecommunications. As a result, Uganda`s teledensity has more than quadrupled. Before MTN launched its services, the teledensity in Uganda was one of the lowest in Africa at 0.27%. Today MTN has changed that. The teledensity has almost quadrupled to put Uganda amidst the middle range of teledensity countries at 1.2%. (The average in Africa is 1.98%.) Access to a telephone as privilege is a long gone thing. www.mtn.co.ug
Protek
Protek develops, markets and supports software solutions for next generation convergent service providers and large enterprises, ensuring a predictable and rapid return on investment in a safe and secure environment.
Protek`s business and operational support systems enable service providers and large enterprises to improve business efficiency with increased revenue from new services and reduced costs through automation. Protek`s software solutions are easily configurable by users to integrate business processes, allowing real-time end-to-end management of customers, applications, services and networks.
Protek`s broad range of functionality in Customer Care, Billing, Rating, Order Management, Flow-through Service Provisioning, Inventory, Network Management, and Mediation provides both customers and end-users with increased control over their business. Real benefits include faster time to market, reduced business risk, improved customer service, scalability and ease of implementation.
Protek`s Network Security Solutions enable customers to conduct their business transactions electronically, secure in the knowledge that they are assured of the very highest levels of trust and confidentiality.
More than 175 service providers, large enterprises and government organisations in over 35 countries, utilise Protek to improve their competitiveness and profitability.
Protek Service Provider customers include BellSouth, BT, MTN, ntl:, Swisscom, Telenor, Verizon, VIAG and Western Wireless International.
Protek`s Network Security customers include BUPA, Local and Central Government, Defence Organisations in the UK, the US and other NATO countries.
Protek partners include Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Nortel, Bull, Siemens, Dimension Data, Ascom, Connexn, Microsoft, HP, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and EDS.
Protek employs over 500 people globally, with headquarters in the UK and offices in the US, Central America, Scandinavia, Russia, SA, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
For more information, please visit our Web site at www.protek.com or e-mail us at info@protek.com.
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