Vodafone's Australasian CRM, Billing Project Limps Home

After "years of delay and huge cost over-runs," according to industry observer Randal Jackson, "Vodafone is expected to roll out its new combined billing and CRM system for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific at the end of next month."

Project Sam, as it is known, was "originally budgeted at $200 million," but Jackson says the cost will now likely be between $500 million and $600 million.

One source told Jackson New Zealand had chosen one of two billing system options for the project, but Vodafone corporately decided subsequently to run with the other.

The core problem seems to have been one of scalability, Jackson says, "that as the business grew, the billing system wasn’t able to scale up… It’s understood the introduction of PXT was offered free for six months, simply because it couldn’t be billed."

This reporter can't say he's surprised. Last summer Vodafone's massive trans-Tasman (Australia-New Zealand) infrastructure project was described as "running late, with a potential large cost overrun," according to Wellington, New Zealand-based industry observer Randal Jackson:

"In December 2003, IBM (News - Alert) was selected as the integrator for Vodafone's new CRM, billing and provisioning systems in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. The CRM component was to be based on Siebel, which is used in several Vodafone country subsidiaries."

Jackson explained the new systems were to cover 1,100 "heavy" users and 1,400 "light" users in the sales channel. He reports that the project, which is billing-related, "was originally costed at $200 million and was due to be delivered by IBM at the end of 2005. Two sources say the cost is likely to blow out to at least $300 million. One was told by IBM, when the contract was signed, that the deal was worth $200 million."

IBM was the systems integrator working in both countries.

In a Geekzone blog posting in late July 2006, Mauricio Freitas  reported "the guys at Vodafone New Zealand brought into the country [futurist guru] Dr. James Cantor," the major event being a lunch in Wellington where Dr Cantor "presented his views on future trends to an audience comprising mainly government officials involved in IT projects, and a minority of IT managers involved in other areas."

Freitas wrote that in Cantor's prepared and off-the-cuff remarks at the event, he said CRM (which Freitas identified as "Client Relationship Management") was the first area that can "benefit of a wireless paradigm," in Freitas's words, since "the main benefits would customer intimacy, responsiveness and business intelligence. Other areas that can benefit are supply chain and logistics. And government, of course."

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) Net.  For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

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