Ericsson has launched a customer-relationship management product, aptly named Ericsson Telecom CRM, an integrated billing and customer relationship management product developed to meet the specific needs of the telecom industry.
Based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and pre-integrated with Ericsson's convergent billing solution, Ericsson says Telecom CRM helps operators meet the dual challenge of delivering a superior customer experience while driving efficiency and reducing operational expenditure.
The mobile-broadband explosion provides more opportunities for operators, but also means they must seek new ways to differentiate themselves and build loyalty with their users by providing a higher quality and more personalized customer experience. Ericsson says Telecom CRM meets this need. The launch is the result of the strategic alliance between Ericsson and Microsoft that was announced at Mobile World Congress 2011.
Ericsson says Telecom CRM will help operators increase customer satisfaction – particularly in sales and customer care – by reducing the number and length of customer interactions. The product seamlessly renders valuable billing and subscriber data and functionality in an intuitive user environment. This helps operators to more efficiently address the needs of customers who place support calls, thereby reducing opex, the Swedish infrastructure giant said.
"Integrating billing and CRM systems is a common IT objective for many operators," said Ralf Guckert, head of solution area BSS at Ericsson. "But it is also clear that chief information officers are under pressure to reduce systems integration costs. I am really excited about the launch of Telecom CRM because it meets the need that so many operators have for a highly intuitive, telecoms-specific CRM system that is integrated with billing."
