RUNNING HEAD: CELCOM 1

Case Study: Celcom

Tie’rra Lorrine Holman

CIS/511

April 15, 2018

Susan Treece
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Case Study: Celcom

Celcom Axiata Berhad (Celcom) is the oldest and largest mobile company in Malaysia

and it boasts a reputation of reliability and quality (Laudon & Laudon, 2017, p. 336). Even with

a stellar reputation, the company has seen some pitfalls and has struggled with maintaining a

competitive edge. After seeing a loss in sales and dropping to number three in the country,

Celcom’s management worked relentlessly to gain back the number one spot. There were several

reasons behind this down fall of Celcom.

The body of Celcom’s Malaysian market of customers (more than 14million) required

the company to have multiple strategies to be able to stay connected with the consumers. Celcom

had to manage their customer base which included over 14 million consumers who ranged from

older mobile users, to younger mobile users, as well as dealers and retailers. In comparison to

Celcom’s older customer base, the younger users preferred completing transactions online. Due

to the competitors like Skype, Google & Netflix, Celcom needed to upgrade their systems and

they settled on an ERP system to accommodate the younger generation. ERP systems were in

high demand. Celcom’s CRM system was Oracle-based business support system which

integrated with customer’s data, information, centralized inventory management. It was

connected to every single piece of information of consumers to improvise customer service

across online, retails channels. Firms even implemented CRM tools which support multichannel

and cross-channel markets, for that Oracle is one of the best suitable for efficient outputs.

Celcom was in desperate need of change and some changes were needed to be made with

some of the leaders of the organization. “The most basic reason for replacing a CEO is a

functional shortcoming of the incumbent officer” (Kerin, 2013). When Celcom replaced their
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CEO, they were able to welcome diversity of the culture into the organization. The senior

management team understood that to regain the number one position, they would need to create

better networks ad impactful platforms.

Celcom had a flaw in its legacy systems that made the system incapable of being able to

retrieve a complete view of customers. This was a necessary tool as the system was outdated and

changing with the industry. The article indicates that Celcom’s technology systems were not

efficient enough to communicate with simple yet parallel tasks such as billing and inventory

tasks. From a technological point of view, Celcom decided to replace the 17 legacy systems with

one seven-module Oracle system by BSS system. At the core of this solution is that Oracle’s

business support system can consolidate data from various places into one. This can make

Celcom’s business processes faster and more effective. Additionally, Oracle provided a call

center system, inventory management applications, CRM and others, the solutions that were

given by Oracle, was included call center system, inventory management applications, CRM and

others. The new system now had cross-channel capabilities for all of Celcom’s channels. Now

different areas call centers and dealers would be equipment to feed information across the

organization.

In any organization, the company culture is important to the success of the company.

Healthy company cultures value every employee in the company. The value is not dependent on

an individual’s job duties. Companies with healthy corporate cultures realize that no matter how

small or mundane the task, that everyone is a team and working towards a common goal.

“Healthy corporate culture improves the performance of a business in a number of areas”

(Kelchner, 2017). Companies should take initiative for people in various departments and

consult them about their thoughts and opinions before investing time into a new venture or
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project. By doing so, companies can gather a sense of the overall company morale and their

personal experiences with the new system. Members included, project directors from IT,

representatives from marketing and sales, and even the CEO. Celcom saw a need for instilling

new strategies that ranged from finding a more efficient way to perform transactions, so it had

all end-users to provide input.

Celcom also found ways to improve their technical communications methods, that the

organization was currently utilizing. By improving the technical communication methods,

individuals had a better understanding of the communication flow of the business. It catered

customer’s data, other pertinent information, and a centralized inventory management in one

place. By centralizing the data, it helped to improve operational tasks. Customer relations

became stronger as the customer service provided became better, as well as sales and marketing

actions. Dealers and retailers were able to be paid quicker and more frequently. The inventory

management provided the company the ability to track inventory more efficiently and precisely.

The solution was noticeably effective for Celcom as it opened new gateways. They began

to see an increase in productivity. Call-handling by the customer support team decreased by 15-

20 percent. Celcom was able to adjust their business model to handle the challenges of the

market in a more efficient and better way. Celcom found that new sim activation would now

take only two minutes as compared to a previous activation time of two hours. Given this

change, consumers would now poise Celcom as a top choice when thinking of

telecommunication companies. Celcom would now be able to set targets on specific markets and

gray areas. They were even able to keep track of inventory and other pertinent issues more

efficiently. Celcom is now able to and market the products on a much faster pace at a cheaper

operational cost, which the previous business model was unable to do.
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There were operational activities and business decisions that were improved by Celcom’s

new CRM capabilities. Dealers and clients were now able be paid more frequently and inventory

management could be tracked with both supplier and dealer prospects. As stated previously,

inventory management was improved as well. By providing direct solutions between demand of

the products/services and how much supply there was, Celom now had access to real time data

that was extremely accurate.

The business decisions that were improved was the change from the legacy technology to

a new Oracle-based business support system which integrated with customer’s data, information,

and a centralized inventory management. Celcom was now able to focus on a targeted market

and/or region. By doing so, Celcom was able to establish and run marketing campaigns in areas

that would not only bring in a profit but also provide certain cost reductions. The centralization

of inventory, increased efficiencies within the call centers, and faster payment terms with

vendors, assisted in alleviating some storage expenses, labor, and late charges on billing.

Celcom’s new proposed business strategy to regain the number one position in the

Malaysian telecommunications market, was based on a multitude of actions. Celcom knew they

would need to build more effective networks as well as be more aggressive in their marketing

and improving the overall customer experience. Additionally, they needed to implement an ERP

system to appeal to their younger market. The ERP Systems provided the younger users with a

platform to do business digitally versus the traditional Celcom way.

References

Kelchner, L. (2017, November 21). Importance of a Healthy Corporate Culture. Retrieved April

15, 2018, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-healthy-corporate-culture-

20899.html
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Kerin, J. (2013, January 02). 4 Top Reasons Why Companies Hire New CEOs. Retrieved April

15, 2018, from https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0113/4-top-reasons-why-

companies-hire-new-ceos.aspx

Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2017). Essentials of management information systems. Boston:

Pearson.