Ooredoo Oman - Innovation in Technology Management, Planning & Implementation
Company: Ooredoo Oman, Muscat, Oman
Entry Submitted By: FTI Consulting (Singapore)
Company Description: Ooredoo Oman is part of Ooredoo Group, a leading international telecommunications company that operates businesses and serves consumers in 10 countries, delivering a leading data experience through its broad range of content and services and advanced, data-centric mobile and fixed networks. Ooredoo Oman has received a variety of awards for innovation and telco services.
Nomination Category: Technology Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Award for Innovation in Technology Management, Planning & Implementation - Telecommunications Industries
Nomination Title: Ooredoo Oman Digital Transformation
Provide an essay of up to 625 words describing the nominee's innovative achievements since July 1 2018:
To deliver on its brand promise, “Enjoy the Internet,” Ooredoo Oman has undertaken a digital-led transformation to strengthen its position as a data experience leader. Ithas since made excellent progress in its digital transformation agenda, with the launch of fully-digital core offerings and an unmatched customer experience though its Ooredoo App.
In line with Ooredoo’s group-wide transformation programme, “Get Digital” it has brought new digital experiences to Oman, including:
-Shababiah –a first-of-its-kind fully digital prepaid plan in Oman, which gives customers full control and flexibility. Customers can easily opt-in to the plan, select their numbers, customize their plan and have their SIM delivered from the comfort of their homes via the Ooredoo App. All services are managed through a dashboard, eliminating the need for customers to call contact centers or visit Ooredoo stores. Moreover, the App is free, quick and easy to access.
-Following the success of Shababiah, Ooredoo launched Oman’s fully digital postpaid plan in Oman; Shahry, which saw excellent take-up rates.
-Saeed: A first-of-its-kind Artificial Intelligence Chatbot, which answers customer enquiries in English and Arabic and currently handles over 70% of customer interactions that would traditionally have come through the call centre.
Continuing to pioneer digital leadership, Ooredoo Oman has also inaugurated an ‘App Factory’, an integrated and collaborative set-up for efficient design and development of new services in the App. The App Factory seeks to enable continuous monitoring and collaboration to support optimisation of the App and its underlying platforms that serve as key experience digital touchpoints. The factory brings together design, experience, development and agile delivery teams together, to deliver a cohesive digital product lifecycle management and develop a roadmap for exciting new digital services.
Studies show that 70% of digital transformation efforts fail to reach their goals, however, Ooredoo Oman successfully achieved its goal in six-months, from contract signature to scoping its first customers. Key outcomes include:
-Customer satisfaction resulted in new revenue streams, with a healthy 5x growth in recharges via the app, and digital customer adoption reaching nearly 20% of the active data user-base – a healthy and continuously growing figure. This also represents double-digit y-o-y growth in subscriptions via the App.
-Increased use of digital channels through chatbot, social media, and live chat has resulted in a 49% y-o-y decrease in calls to call-centres and increased customer satisfaction.
-To date, the app has over 1 million downloads and approximately 750,000 active users.
-Customer perceptions also improved dramatically with app ratings rising from 3.1 to 4.4, and record NPS scores. In Q1, Ooredoo recorded a 100/100 CSAT score with outstanding customer testimonials.
On the technology front, Ooredoo chose to work with MATRIXX software, a nimble digital transformation start-up in the BSS space. This allowed Ooredoo to integrate MATRIXX into existing BSS systems and the network infrastructure, overcoming challenges around legacy architecture integrations, avoiding the need for full-stack replacements and improving data monetization. A cross-functional team was set up to facilitate this execution, bringing individuals from marketing, customer experience, sales, customer care, business analysts, finance, legal, technology, network, IT development and partners for a 360-view and approach. Ooredoo also adopted a Minimum Viable Proposition approach which enabled phase one’s launch within 5 months from kick-off, while adopting the AGILE framework which enabled sprint-based delivery.
Digital transformation is a continuous process, and Ooredoo Oman’s early success in this journey has emboldened it to continue strengthening its digital leadership and invest in transformative technologies.
Another benefit to Ooredoo Oman’s digital transformations is the internal alignment of mindsets, which Ooredoo achieved through continuous communication by ensuring active engagement from all teams through CEO-sponsored workshops and early-stage beta-version demonstrations of the product, while in the making. Tangibly showcasing improved customer experience also boosted team morale.