What an IDEA?

Aditya Birla Group Company-IDEACellular is a publicly listed company,which is one of the leading GSM mobileservices companies in India with more than72 million subscribers. From basic voice andShort Message Service (SMS) services to high-end value-added and GPRS services such asBlackberry, Datacard, Mobile TV, Games etc,Idea is seen as an innovative, customer-focused brand.

The company has expanded its pan-Indiapresence through service launches in Orissa,Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal,and the North East states recently.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

One of the pioneers in GSM servicesin India, Idea operates in more than20 states with a customer base ofover 72 million. The sheer size ofIDEA Cellular's customer base madeit a daunting challenge to providecustomer care. The Cisco Unified IPInteractive Voice Response (IVR)handles 4.5 million calls daily, andit caters to all geographicallocations of India where IDEACellular serves its customers. Thechallenge will increase when thecustomer base grows to an expected100 million by 2012. An influx ofnew rural users, where customerstend to use fewer minutes, hasdecreased average revenue per user(ARPU). “To remain profitable, weneeded to continue to provideresponsive service to all of ourmarket segments while reducing costs forlower value segments, such as customers withprepaid plans,” said Prakash Paranjape, CIO,IDEA Cellular.

SOLUTION

IDEA Cellular now offers a voice self-serviceoption for people who call the contact center,using Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal(CVP). The centralized solution serves all ofIDEA Cellular's eight regional contact centers.“We chose the Cisco solution because of Cisco'sstrong IP background and its experiencedelivering other types of telco-grade solutions,”Paranjape said. Another advantage of Cisco Unified CVP for IDEA Cellular is its support forthe open VoiceXML standard, which enablesthe company to develop new self-serviceapplications and easily integrate them withother applications and services.

Handling more than two million calls dailywith 14,000 ports, IDEA Cellular's Cisco UnifiedCVP is one of the world's largest deployments.Callers can either touch telephone keys orspeak commands to request self-serviceinformation, such as minutes remaining on aprepaid plans or charges for recent calls. CiscoUnified CVP retrieves the requested information from the customer relationship management(CRM) database and uses text-to-speechtranslation to speak it to the customer. Whencustomers indicate that they want to talk to alive agent, Cisco Unified CVP places the call inqueue until an agent in any contact centerlocation is available. Then it transfers theinformation that the customer already providedalong with the call, saving time for agent and customer a like.

Cisco Advanced Services designed thesolution, integrated Cisco Unified CVP withthe company's CRM database, and tuned it torecognize the wide variety of languages anddialects spoken in India. “Cisco Advanced Services made a significant contributionbecause the technology was new to us, andthey already had the expertise,” said Paranjape.

BENEFITS DERIVED

In tandem with the growing subscriber base,Cisco Unified CVP is helping IDEA Cellular toprovide cost-effective customer care.

LOWER AVERAGE HOLD TIME

Nearly 40 percent of callers, or more than twomillion daily, choose the self-service option.Freeing up agents has decreasedaverage hold time from 64 to 58seconds. “Saving six seconds a callfor 4.5 million daily calls translatesto $1 million saved,” said Paranjape.Agents now have more time tospend on non-routine issues andinteractions with high-value customers.

INCREASED CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

During the first nine months thatIDEA Cellular used Cisco UnifiedCVP, the customer satisfaction ratingfor self service increased from 3.75to 4.2 on a 5-point scale.

SELF-SERVICE PROVISIONING

Callers can use Cisco Unified CVPto provision new services, such asrequesting for Ring Back tone,without having to wait for a humanoperator. After hanging up, callersreceive a Simple Message Service (SMS)notification confirming that the service hasbeen activated.

LOWER BANDWIDTH COSTS

When a customer asks to speak to a live agent,Cisco Unified CVP treats the call at the edge ofthe network until an agent is available, andthen sends it over the IP network. “Keepingthe voice at the edge has helped IDEA Cellularsave bandwidth costs by 18 to 20 percent,”said Paranjape. “Our experience with Cisco hasbeen great,” he said.

ROADMAP

IDEA Cellular plans to use Cisco Unified CVPto interact with customers using video, furtherdifferentiating its service. Customers who callthe contact center with their mobile phoneswill be presented with video menus, for fasterand more intuitive menu selection. Thecompany will play 10-second videos aboutvalue-added services while customers wait foran agent. Customers who are interested inthe service will be able to interact with contactcenter agents using video. “Cisco is a trustedadvisor,” said Paranjape.

MUNTAZIR ABBAS (muntazira@cybermedia.co.in)