IST are the customer experience technology experts that act behind the scenes, helping our telecom clients to acquire more customers, improve customer retention, whilst increasing operational efficiency

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ST is an Award-Winning
Customer Experience
Systems Integrator.
This means, we provide
specialized technology
solutions that will enhance
the customer experience.
Established in 2002, IST is now
the market leader in delivering
Customer Experience Solutions
within the Middle East, having 6 office
locations and employing over 200
skilled engineers. IST has completed
numerous key Customer Experience
projects with STC, VIVA, Mobily,
Etisalat, Zain and Virgin Mobile KSA.
IST’s most recent project with Zain
KSA, resulted in monthly IVR income
increase from SAR 80k to a huge
SAR 2m, that’s an income increase of
2,500% per month!
IST offers a host of solutions that will
help telecom organizations fulfil their
business growth. Our most common
projects include:
• Omnichannel customer
engagement center
In many cases, the customer
engagement center is your shop
front. Your customers judge your
organization based on their experience
during contact. IST customer
engagement centers are designed
to enhance the customer experience
across multiple platforms including
voice, web chat, web portal, email,
SMS, or Social.
• Sentiment analysis
Listen to what your customers
are saying and think about your
organization then do something
about it. Research shows that 93% of
Millennials use social media to voice
their concerns and dissatisfaction. IST
believes this to be the biggest growth
area of customer experience for the
next 5 years.
• Digital cloud customer
engagement
Removing the need for capital
expenditure and the flexibility to scale
up when you need to, cloud customer
experience solutions can now handle
enterprise deployments, despite being
relatively new to the market. IST
ISTarethecustomerexperiencetechnologyexpertsthatactbehindthescenes,
helpingourtelecomclientsto acquiremorecustomers,improvecustomerretention,
whilstincreasingoperationalefficiency.
I
forecasts that in the next 5 years, many
customers will switch to the cloud to
improve reliability and cut costs.
• Voice and speech enablement
Understanding customer speech and
speaking to them will drive customer
experience to the next level. Customers
can listen to their account balances by
asking the automated contact center.
No more complex and cumbersome
IVR menus.
• Back office optimization
It is estimated that for every customer
facing agent, your organization has 3
employees managing back-office tasks
generated by customers. Workload
distribution can automatically prioritize
and distribute such tasks so all
your valuable resources are used as
efficiently as possible. Productivity
will then be improved and employee
empowerment increases meaning
happier employees and lower staff
turnover.
Trusted technology partners
IST has strong relationships with
many leading customer experience
providers, many of whom, IST has
worked with for over 15 years. Some of
IST’s partners include: Cisco, Genesys,
eGain, Nuance, NovelVox, Verint, and
many more.
Working with so many partners is
challenging. IST always recommends
the best solution to solve our
customers’ business needs, even if it
involves additional work for IST. For
this reason, IST has established two
R&D centers. IST is the only Systems
Integrator in the Middle East to have
done this. IST R&D was set up to
create innovative solutions between
technology vendors, meaning IST
solutions can involve technology from
many vendors, something that IST is
very passionate about.
Industry recognized competence
With over 200 engineers, IST has
the largest workforce dedicated
to customer experience within the
Middle East. In recognition of IST
professionalism and project delivery
excellence, IST is both a Cisco ATP
(Authorized Technology Partner)
and Genesys Gold Partner. Both
these certifications mean IST has
demonstrated exceptional product
knowledge and has deployed
successful enterprise solutions.
The customer approach – outside in
“You cannot build a good customer
experience system, if you do not
understand the customer behavior.”
IST always recommends products
and services that are suitable for our
customers’ local market. A customer
experience system for a retail customer
in Saudi Arabia whose customers are
over 50 years old will be very different
to a retail customer in UAE whose
customer base is between 18 and 34.
Population demographics and
customer behavior plays a very
important role when designing your
customer experience solution. IST
has up to date market research on
customer behavior, including data such
as: what devices do they use, when
do they use it, do they call or use text,
which social platforms do they engage
with and how frequent. All these
factors play a big part in the solution
IST provides.
The Middle East has a big geographic
area and its population, culture and
language are all different. IST has
deployed many large-scale projects
in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Egypt,
Oman, Qatar, Jordan and Turkey. IST
understands the subtle differences
between each demographic.
Affecting the customer lifecycle
Any customer in the world goes
through the customer lifecycle when
purchasing a product or service. The
process of identifying a need, gathering
information, purchasing and evaluating
that purchase. In the telecoms industry,
where customers shop around after
their contract ends is common. This
suggests the pre-purchasing stages
are of greater importance. That’s
not to say customer retention is not
important, but customers are likely
to seek a cheaper deal in this price
sensitive market.
IST has simplified the customer
lifecycle into three categories:
• Customer Acquisition (Pre-
purchase stages)
• Customer Retention (Post
purchase stages)
• Operational Efficiency (Doing the
above, cheaper)
Each Telecom provider will have
different business requirements,
some may see customer retention
as important and others would like to
decrease their costs. At IST, we always
try to understand what our customers
want to achieve so the perfect solution
can be created. For example, the
following solutions can affect:
• Customer acquisition
A well-designed customer experience
platform on an OminChannel Contact
Center will ensure you never miss an
opportunity through whatever channel
they are using. Combine this with
Sentiment Analysis, and you can listen
to your potential customers on social
media and react when questions are
asked about your services.
• Customer retention
Providing exceptional customer
experience is vital at this stage.
Automated natural sounding Arabic
speech engines coupled with Voice
Biometrics can reduce customer call
time and provide 24/7 assistance.
Resolving customer complaints
through prioritized workload
distribution will ensure all issues are
dealt with promptly.
• Operational efficiency
Workforce management systems
can organize your agents efficiently,
taking into consideration vacation
time, seasonal demand fluctuations,
agent skills and previous history. This
ensures your contact center is always
optimally resourced. Combine this with
Workload Distribution and any resource
underutilized will be assigned tasks
automatically.
The above is by no means a
comprehensive list of our solutions,
please visit www.istnetworks.com for
full list of products and services. And if
a product is of service, simply complete
the enquiry form and a member of our
team will be in touch.
By Norman Liu – IST Marketing
Director
Why is IST big in the Middle
East telecom’s industry?