Telecommunication Meets Cloud

By Swatil Binte Mahmud, Blogger, Lava Protocols

The first telegraph line in Malaysia was laid in Kuala Kangsar connecting the British Resident to the Deputy British Resident in Taiping in 1874. Since then, the country’s telecommunications industry has undergone several transformations to become the industry powerhouse it is today. The industry warmly embraces the changes and shifts in the evolving communications sector. Hence, Malaysia’s telecommunications industry is rich in history and progressive. Malaysia’s telecom industry is expected to have continued growth over the forecast period to 2025. The increasing urban population with the rising adoption of mobile phones makes it one of the booming industries in the country.

One of Lava Protocol’s clients is a global leader in the integration of end-to-end independent IT solutions and services, and network technologies. They are also a telecommunications (telco) service provider and work with various companies in Malaysia to provide them with better networking coverage. However, this client was struggling to keep up with the technological advances and faced many challenges. The main challenges were:

• Manual data management and tracking: manual handling of data led to data loss and inaccuracy. 
• Inconsistent audit report formats: vendors were hired to complete the audit reports every year which led to inconsistency in formatting.
• The manual calculation for frequency reports: Vendors manually calculated radio frequencies based on that data and each vendor would submit 60 excel sheets, each with 400 rows of frequency data. 
• Manual approach of report collection: Vendors submitted their reports via different channels which led to the loss of reports.
• Improper communication with vendors: Due to the lack of a central location for project details, vendors would constantly have to check their emails for information.

In the competitive telecommunications environment, it is necessary for every company to find tools and create strategies that can help them rise to the occasion. Hence, this client approached Lava Protocols for a smarter and user-friendly solution. Lava Protocols implemented Salesforce’s FORCE.com to resolve the client’s challenges. This implementation helped to track projects and automate project status updates and notifications and custom automation was created to generate audit reports and frequency reports. Finally, the Salesforce Community was integrated with Force.com to enable seamless data sharing between vendors and our client. Here are the solutions: 

• Tracking and automation: Project managers now have a 360° view of projects from a single system. This minimized the effort required from every department to update project status.
• Standardized audit reports: Salesforce automatically generates a PDF report in the format needed, therefore standardizing report formats across all vendors and eliminating the need for project managers to fix them. 
• Automated frequency report generation: This eliminated the need for manual calculation of data. A single excel report containing selected frequencies is generated and synced in the client’s Salesforce system. This is a marked change from having to go through 60 excel sheets from one vendor alone. 
• Sync between systems: Lava Protocols customized to sync data from their server to the client’s Salesforce system. Now, there is one central location for data i.e. a single source of truth, and the chances of having missed/ overlooked reports are close to zero. 
• Access, Anywhere, Anytime: Using Salesforce Mobile, the client can create a task and assign it to a vendor. Vendors can view project details and requirements on their mobile phones or desktop. 

The client is now able to get a full view of all project data from various parties and manage new and existing projects, from a single platform. The combined effect of having Salesforce and the right automation in place, eliminating most manual work, saved time, sped up processes and improved the project’s deliverability. In the telco industry, this is critical means a lot of money is saved.

The competition in the industry is highly consolidated with few companies and they enjoy significant market share. The key strategies adopted in the industry are introducing new and affordable products and services, mergers, acquisitions, expansion of services or networks, and bandwidth. However, the innovative tools and solutions made available by Salesforce can develop meaningful experiences and navigate through change faster on a trusted, intelligent platform. 

Salesforce offers ground-breaking innovation for your company and caters to your specific needs; if you still do not know how and why you need it, Lava Protocols will help you with exactly that!

Lava Protocols is an authorized Salesforce Partner. Want to improve your Customer Experience? Drop us an email to schedule your demo: hello@lavaprotocols.com.