Swisscom selects Sun to power Siebel Retail CRM implementations

SAN FRANCISCO: Sun Microsystems Inc. announced that leading Swiss telecommunications carrier Swisscom Mobile has selected Sun Fire T2000 servers running the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) and the Sun Java Identity Management Suite to enable its 1145 retail stores to connect securely with the company's Siebel CRM system from Oracle(R) and point-of-sale (POS) applications. This will let the stores provision services at the point of sale, making it easier for customers to take advantage of more and better services faster.

Swisscom Mobile initiated its Siebel CRM project, which Christian Kattenbusch, project leader for CRM and identity management at Swisscom Mobile said "Sun is intensely interested in helping us accomplish our financial and technical goals."

The new Sun infrastructure components will further expand the capabilities of the Siebel CRM system, according to Kattenbusch. "For half the price of the old environment, we will get a substantial improvement in scalability and availability," he said. "We are extremely impressed with the performance of the T2000 server and are interested in consolidating other machines to the new Sun systems." "One of my biggest challenges is getting everything under one roof," he said.

The Sun Java Identity Management Suite is helping Swisscom Mobile realize its goal of providing optimal, standardized customer care by simplifying secure access to the corporate CRM system and POS applications.

The Sun Java Identity Management Suite's comprehensive user authentication and single sign-on capabilities allow the retail stores to immediately connect to the company's CRM and POS applications.

Since implementing the Sun Java Identity Management Suite, the retail outlets have decreased the cost of a sale and reduced the training requirements of shop staff for each new service launch. Customer service levels have also increased and can be easily measured with a satisfaction indicator within the Swisscom Mobile shop. In addition, the Sun Java Identity Management Suite is helping ensure retail outlets will benefit from future improvements as new services and changes in the POS system will be updated and available to the retail outlets in real time.

"Sun Java Identity Management Suite has added significant value to our retail channel while maintaining our investment in our existing POS systems. And because it is based on an open framework, we know our investment will be protected well into the future," said Kattenbusch. "Additionally, we are meeting our goals of reducing our recurring operation costs and increasing our ongoing customer service levels."

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