Q. Vodafone Albania is said to have one of the fastest GSM network rollouts in the world, taking advantage of its partners’ experience in operating networks. What challenges did such a rapid expansion pose in general to the network operation, and to the quality of data?
“In a developing world, introduction of mobile services brought a change in the communication world. Especially in places where fixed line infrastructure was not well developed with regards to the increase in population and migration processes within the country.
Today, most of the Albanian people use their mobile to engage in the social and economic system. Vodafone Albania’s GSM mobile network covers 95% of the territory of the Republic of Albania, and reaches up to 92% of the Albanian population in urban and rural areas. The company has 1,150,798 customers in Albania (as per end of May 2008) with a wide range of high quality communication services, including voice and data communications, ensuring that our customers use the best telecommunications network, and benefit from innovative and quality services.
The Albanian telecommunication sector is becoming much more challenging than it used to be, as competition intensifies. In a business environment, challenges are present all the time, and I believe that our role as a business is to continue providing our customers with services and products that are more suitable to
their needs.
Vodafone Albania is here to be the undisputable leader in the telecommunications market, having the best network operation coverage, quality of data and service, and the absolute advantage of roaming service wherever our customers travel.”
Q. There is a movement in the telecom industry towards stronger focus on data quality and Business Intelligence, how do you think this will impact the telecommunications industry?
“We base our decision making on Business Intelligence. As the penetration of other mobile operators increases, VF-AL positions itself in offering the best products and services that suit our customers’ needs. As being the undisputable leader in the telecommunications sector, and in compliance with Vodafone Albania’s mission to enrich people’s life through communication, we evaluate our customers’ behavior, and we are in the position to implement and offer efficient and affordable services and products.“
Q. Can Business Intelligence justifiably promise lower churn, higher revenue, increased customer value and reduced revenue leakage? And why/how?
“The communications market is one of the most competitive sectors in the commercial world. As economic pressure increases, many operators are moving from a growth-based business model, where success is measured in numbers of subscribers or ARPU, to a value-based model where success is measured by existing customer satisfaction, cross-sell and up sell of new products and services to the existing base, along with stimulation of demand in basic products like voice and SMS.
We at Vodafone Albania know our customers, and we tailor specific prepositions that suit them. That in other terms reflects a lower churn, and high customer satisfaction.”
Q. How does Vodafone overcome disconnected silos of customer information, manual exception processes, non-integrated business processes and poor ‘user’ access?
“First and foremost, VF-AL pays rigorous attention to having integrated business practices on customer information with the view to allow for minor exceptions. For specific cases, we do have in place a mechanism to ensure that decisions are in compliance with the regulations in place.”
Q. Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence solutions have been on the agenda for quite some time, to maximize use of data and to break down data silos in companies – for better decision making. Looking at the network operations, there is a huge amount of data and data sources - do you have challenges in exploiting your network data for the good of your overall business?
“The challenges we face in exploiting our network data deal with the capabilities VF-AL currently has. That means the infrastructure used and the people involved with processing the network data. Regarding the infrastructure, we have recently installed a new and more advanced prepaid platform, and there is an ongoing process to implement the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform. As for human resourses involved with processing the network data, there are several trainings ongoing.
Another challenge with regards to network data is properly interpreting the results in compliance with the regulations we apply. That is the guide we use to launch relevant products and services.”
Q. What do you see as the 3 most important challenges when implementing and using Business Intelligence for your network operation?
- Aligning the data with our Marketing strategy in developing suitable product and services prepositions for our customers.
- Having flexible, dynamic and fast data running tools for supporting our decisions and strengthening our position in
- Having the best technology implemented, respecting the law, and economic regulations for developing a long term strategy for our business.”
the market.
Q. Success is measured in many ways, how do you measure personal success and the success of Vodafone Albania?
“Personal success is based on delivering the best results for Vodafone Albania. I believe that success is achieved by developing people skills within the company, and enforcing VF-AL’s social responsible role as a business.
In terms of Vodafone Albania as a company, I do see success in terms of increased revenue share compared to other operators in the market, very high customer satisfaction rates, and I am proud to say that Vodafone Albania is a very socially responsible business towards the market.
Customer centricity, innovation, flexibility, transparency, fulfilling customers’ needs, and enabling them to make the most of their lives by being socially responsible businesses - these are the pillars in which we base our success.”
