Sunday, March 16, 2008

KENAN INSIDE


If you work in a telecommunications company, the biggest adjustment that one has to make is the dynamism of the industry. Telco people have to put up with fast turnaround of cellular phones, new promos released almost every week, services launched every so often and software entries, exits and modifications.

ICMS’ demise
The Integrated Customer Management System (ICMS) was introduced in 1999 in congruent with the entry of the GSM service of Smart. It is a database that primarily manages the postpaid subscribers. Originally designed for wired service (landline), it has evolved to accommodate wireless service (cellular phones). Almost a decade old, it has served its purpose hence time to retire this aging system.

Kenan’s entry
Comverse (http://www.comverse.com/) is a software company based in Wakefield, Massachusetts, USA that offers a billing solutions software called Kenan. It was created as a convergent software for wired and wireless service and this seems like the software database that can handle the challenges of the postpaid service of both Smart and PLDT. In the worldwide setting, Kenan users include VOXmobile (Luxemburg), China Telecom (China), GCI (Alaska, USA) and Euskaltel (Spain). Smart purchased its backend system and intends to use the homegrown Customer Solutions Platform as its front end tool.

CRM’s match
The Customer Solutions Platform was renamed to One Customer Relation Management to give it a holistic theme. Currently, the CSP is being used as a front end tool for the prepaid service. You can’t find CSP in the internet as this is purely a home grown system. Credit should go to our IT guys; if they can’t find a software solution in the market to meet the company’s requirement, they’ll create one for you. The software was borne out of a need which was specific to the Filipino subscriber, the ultimate texter.

The CRM – Kenan system tandem is expected to be in place next year. The fact that it will integrate numerous systems translates to operational efficiency. For the users of this software system, you may see a familiar screen in the guise of CSP however at the back end, Kenan is doing all the dirty work. It is analogous to a personal computer CPU where the computing part is done by Intel (remember the Intel inside branding). In this case, the computing will be done by Kenan hence the branding - Kenan Inside.

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