Ferranti - Case study TRE-FOR
MECOMS™ BPO solution increases service level while lowering cost
When TRE-FOR ran against the limits of its legacy billing and customer care system, they decided to take a bold decision. The complete customer service function, including staff, was outsourced to Logica. Key front- and back-office processes are now run by Logica as part of a cloud-based MECOMS™ + Service solution.
As a result, customer service staff joined an organization where their domain is a key function, the service level for TRE-FOR's customers has improved markedly and costs have been reduced significantly.
Company
TRE-FOR is a Danish multi-utility company with a yearly turnover of approximately 2 billion DKK. They are one of the largest employers in the Triangle Region in Jutland, and have around 620 employees. TRE-FOR offers energy consultancy, sells electricity and natural gas, provides installations of electricity, plumbing, ventilation, fibre technology, automatic control, climate control, cooling technology, fire alarm security and access control systems in the entire country - and supplies the Triangle Region and Funen with electricity, district heating, fibre-optic broadband and tap water.
TRE-FOR leads the way with respect to environment and resources, and is active in developing climate-friendly energy technologies for the future.
Challenges
TRE-FOR was initially driven by a need to enhance its legacy billing and customer care system, which was beginning to impede the company's ability to deliver customer service within adequate response times.
Knud Steen Larsen, Managing Director at TRE-FOR: "It is our clear ambition that our customers experience high quality service in their contact with TRE-FOR. In this connection, we realised that our existing customer handling system was in need of an upgrade or a replacement, as it no longer accommodates the functionalities required for the range of services that we provide."
In addition to improving its existing customer service, TRE-FOR aimed to improve its competitiveness. They wanted to enhance their future ability to offer additional products and services and their ability to potentially compete in trans-Nordic markets.
Finding a solution
"To replace our existing system, we have been analysing our situation and our needs, which also implied looking into the possibility of outsourcing our entire customer service function," says Mr. Larsen.
When TRE-FOR began addressing a potential outsourcing of the entire customer service and billing function, the perspective stretched beyond core competencies and savings. It was equally important to successfully integrate their employees and ensure their personal and professional development.
Mr. Larsen: "Logica offered the best conditions for employee development within this area, and our employees will enter a company that regards customer service and billing as a core competence. Once we further investigated the financial foundation and the quality level, it was evident that outsourcing is the far most attractive solution for us."
Logica's offering, called MECOMS™ + Service, combines Logica's strong BPO capabilities with a MECOMS™ platform.
Mads Brøgger, Market Manager at Logica comments: "With our MECOMS™ + Service offering, customers enjoy a Logica Cloud concept with maximum flexibility. One of the primary strengths of MECOMS™ is that you can do all processes in an integrated solution. It provides a technical platform, business support system, back-office, front-office and output management. We feel that our cloud-based business solution is a huge differentiator in the market."
Jette Post, Customer Director at TRE-FOR: "Before choosing MECOMS™ as our future solution, Logica invited us to visit Ferranti in Belgium, where we saw the system operating live. It made all the difference: instead of just watching a PowerPoint presentation, we saw what difference the system can make."
Implementation
Logica was awarded a seven year contract. Services include take-over of TRE-FOR's existing meter to cash process and staff, and cover account set up, management of usage data, customer service, collections and inbound and outbound sales activities.
The core service for TRE-FOR (including the hosted system and the associated customer service) is priced on a per customer per product basis, with TRE-FOR's existing products being electricity, gas, and broadband. Additional services, such as support for outbound sales campaigns, are largely priced on a time and materials basis.
Jesper Scharff, Managing Director at Logica Danmark: "We are glad to take over the customer service and billing task from TRE-FOR and we have given a lot of attention to actively help our new colleagues settle in their new surroundings."
Mr. Scharff continues: "We have a strong experience with outsourcing tasks and today we are running customer centres for many organisations. For this reason, we can deliver efficient operations and an improved service to TRE-FOR‘s customers."
Other TRE-FOR business units will not be affected by this outsourcing of customer service. In order to ensure flexible cooperation between customer service and the business units at TRE-FOR, Logica has established a cooperation organisation which acts as an interface and ensures knowledge sharing across the various functions.
Business value
Ms. Post: "Billing is critical for us, and therefore, when choosing a new billing system, there are many factors we had to take in consideration. One of them is whether the system is future-proof, and we have found that MECOMS™ is indeed future-proof."
Mr. Larsen: "The decision to outsource our customer service and billing function has been assessed thoroughly, and we are aware that it can bring significant change for those employees who have their work location moved. However, when considering quality and financial facts, this is the right commercial step for us. Competition today is fierce, and we cannot permit ourselves to disregard the impact on profitability prompted by this solution. At the same time, it allows us to boost the level of satisfaction for our customers, so in my opinion we are obliged to think innovatively."
Ms. Post: "We see MECOMS™ as one of the leading billing systems in the market. It handles all the processes of a back-office operation, from meter to cash and also the processes in front-office. It helps us to increase customer satisfaction."