1. 160
MCI
“We needed a tool that was—in my judgment—intuitive and easy to use. That's exactly
what we got with Business Objects.”
Ron Briggs, Senior Business Intelligence Analyst Supporting Wholesale Services, MCI
Lack of Accurate, Automated
Data for Customer Billing
MCI is a market leader in the
telecommunications business, serving
thousands of customers monthly. But that
kind of volume creates an administrative
burden. Tracking dozens of factors
consistently and accurately is essential for
timely remuneration. "When we’re generating
multimillion dollar invoices every month, waiting
until the day after tomorrow to get information
just can't happen," says Briggs.
Accurate billing and management is also
critical for MCI's wholesale customers.
Lack of a regular reporting system left most
customers not knowing their usage costs until
the end of the month, well after it was useful
in managing their business.
MCI found manual ways to address the
problem for many customers, but, in the end,
Briggs says, it brought the need for automated
query and reporting tools sharply into focus.
BI Consolidates Data
Quickly and Seamlessly
MCI turned to Business Objects to create a
query and reporting infrastructure that would
capture accurate information across all lines of
the wholesale business. According to Briggs,
"We needed the ability to pull information at a
moment's notice and from a number of
dimensions. That included tracking calls by type,
by region, by time of day, and by switch, among
many other factors."
Briggs credits the business intelligence (BI)
platform for meeting his team's requirements
to drill through multiple layers of
information, connect to multiple data sources,
and seamlessly use the web.
CHALLENGE
1 Reduce
administrative
burden of reporting
and billing
1 Access information
quickly and easily,
and consolidate
data from multiple
data sources
SOLUTION
1 BusinessObjects
and
BusinessObjects
InfoView allow MCI
to drill down into
data and sort it by
type, region, and
switch, among
other factors
BENEFITS
1 Gave customers
24/7 access to
critical information
1 Reduced billing
errors and
increased customer
satisfaction
CUSTOMER SERVICE
United States of America

2. 161TE LECOM MU NICATION S
Moreover, the BusinessObjects query and reporting
infrastructure was up and running within five
months. It was also rapidly integrated with the
main data warehouse and supporting data marts,
including a database for rate information and a
database carrying MCI's vast array of toll-free
information.
Data Available Anytime, Anywhere
Today, MCI uses BusinessObjects InfoView to
power a secure, web-based portal that allows MCI
wholesale customers to check and manage their
usage 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Requests
to change services are entered online. Provisioning
for new lines or other modifications is managed
within hours or days. Billing is rarely an issue.
Moreover, MCI wholesale customers have much
greater control over their business. Says Briggs:
"We have many different types of customers—from very
large telecommunications carriers to smaller resellers."
The software, says Briggs, also provides for much
greater detail on how communications services are
being consumed. "We're generating many new
insights. For example, we can track the trends and
variances of our customers' calls."
Business Objects supplies us with much greater
details on how our communications services are
consumed. We have a much broader vision.
For example, we can track the trends and variances
of our customers' calls.
About MCI
1 Activity:
Global communications
provider
MCI, Inc. is a leading global communications provider, delivering innovative,
cost-effective, advanced communications connectivity to businesses, governments, and
consumers. With one of the most expansive global IP backbones and wholly owned data
networks, MCI develops the converged communications products and services that are
the foundation for commerce and communications in today's market.
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