eir is the largest indigenous technology company in Ireland, providing fixed-line, data and mobile services to approximately 2.4 million customers. eir Business (formerly eircom Business Solutions) delivers mobile, voice, data, broadband and ICT services to SME, enterprise and public sector organisations.
eir Business was a named vendor for the supply of mobile solutions to the Irish Government Framework, which allowed them to deliver services to the Government and large corporates in Ireland. In order to qualify for and satisfy the Irish Government’s demand for mobile communications solutions, account management and advanced reporting, eir Business sought a billing solutions partner capable of standing up to the demands of 24/7 service provision and rapid solution delivery.
The business challenge
eir Business needed a flexible mobile billing platform that supported the complex mobile account hierarchies required by the agencies covered under the Government Framework. Key in its decision was the provider’s ability to introduce complex bespoke pricing bundles to the market in days, rather than months. Additional limitations in the existing consumer mobile billing solution relating to account analytics was also a key deciding factor.
Following a competitive tender process, MDS Global’s Cloud Monetisation Platform (CMP), with integrated analytics, was selected to address all their business requirements. The solution was endorsed and driven by the CEO throughout the implementation
An end-to-end solution
Following an intensive delivery schedule, CMP was available for end-to-end testing in three months. eir Business progressed with a ‘soft launch’ of live subscribers four months later, launching a limited number of propositions to get their services to market quickly. The full launch of all services followed shortly afterwards.
CMP provides eir Business full, end-to-end BSS capabilities, along with integrated fulfilment, policy management, billing, analytics and customer management. CMP enables eir Business’s rapid growth strategy, allowing them to quickly create bespoke B2B tariffs and propositions using CMP’s inbuilt configuration tools. Its scalability to support millions of subscriptions over the duration of the contract was a significant consideration for eir Business in their selection process.
MDS Global’s Business Operations
MDS Global implemented a managed service into eir Business. This managed service is delivered using pre-defined processes backed by extensive service levels, which are assured via monitoring and validation tools. This ensures the infrastructure, applications and processes are operating as intended, and performance is optimised.
This managed service gives eir Business the flexibility to manage operational processes, systems and third-party services, freeing up key internal IT resource to focus on supporting business innovation.
By taking the solution as a managed service, eir Business can focus on its business requirements, competitive pricing and winning new customers, while MDS Global’s Business Operations team runs and administers the platform and implements pricing changes to meet agreed service levels.
MDS Global created multiple CMP environments with all the necessary and relevant testing procedures in place. This helped the rapid delivery of the overall solution, so eir Business could take their propositions to market quickly.
MDS Global’s Business Operations provides, manages and maintains CMP and Spend Analyzer – a web-based product that gives a comprehensive overview of all accounts and billing information – in tight alignment with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, which can be audited by eir Business as they require.
Due to the perceived sensitivities of handling Irish Government data, the services are hosted in an eir data centre in the Republic of Ireland, including data back-up and restore, and fail-over resiliency with a fully redundant solution.
“MDS Global’s CMP allowed us to launch competitive bundles for the B2B and Government markets quickly. CMP has brought price changes down from 90 days to five days and has not only helped us retain our existing customer base, but also increased our competitiveness in the enterprise business sector. CMP is now a core part of our business technology stack and we believe it will assist us in delivering our challenging growth targets.”
Alan Mahon, Head of Business Mobile Product, eir Business
Business benefits
eir Business is now better able to respond to the mobility demands of the Government and enterprise sectors. The programme was delivered on time and within budget, meeting the challenges set by the Government Framework timetable. The most immediate indication of success was being included in the Government Framework and tendering for mobile opportunities – eir Business subsequently won elements of the Government tender.
MDS Global’s CMP solution is key to allowing eir Business to make price changes rapidly – in just a few days rather than 90 days on the previous system. This rapid time to launch gives eir Business a strong competitive edge.
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Bulk load functionality
eir Business later won a large contract to supply mobile devices and SIMs to over 10,000 subscribers. Usually, these accounts would be added manually – a time-consuming and costly task – so eir Business approached MDS Global to enable bulk load functionality. We quickly enabled a Bulk Processor tool, which allowed eir Business to load large batches of orders into CMP, with no need for manual intervention. This saved them both time and expense, and removed the risk of error associated with manual uploads.
MDS Global’s Spend Analyzer
MDS Global’s Spend Analyzer presents a unified view of all mobile accounts and billing information, and is accessed through a secure online portal. This allows eir Business’s own CSAs to analyse usage and offer ‘best fit’ tariffs and packages on a customer-by-customer basis. This element of the overall solution differentiates eir Business from its competitors and gives its customers access to Online Analytics for quick and easy account management.
Spend Analyzer also generates customised reports based on data by department, account or cost centre. These are emailed directly to the end customer. Spend Analyzer has become significant in supporting new business wins for eir Business.
“MDS Global’s ability to own and manage ‘the billing problem’ and operate a fully-assured managed service with guaranteed service levels that comply with industry regulations, is a powerful capability that our customers rely on 24/7, 365 days a year.”
Alan Mahon, Head of Business Mobile Product, eir Business