Quality Applications

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Telecommunications Company Implements Achiever Plus
Achiever Business Solutions' Achiever Plus

International Telecom Co., which is known as Orange, is a fast-growing technology company comprising three separate business divisions: cellular, paging and telecommunications. The rapidly changing marketplace of the company's business groups requires a continual stream of new products and services, resulting in a tremendous burden of keeping staff informed. This truth led Orange to look for a way to speed up the efficiency of information distribution within the company.

 After evaluating several possible solutions, the company chose Achiever Business Solutions' Achiever Plus software. Achiever Plus provides a process-based solution that helps organizations develop and maintain effective quality, health and safety, and environmental management systems. The system helps fulfill ambitions ranging from compliance to a standard, such as ISO 9001:2000, to competitive business transformation projects. The platform-independent software runs on Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange 2000 or ASP, or via a Web browser.

 Prior to implementing Achiever Plus, it took Orange about 1.5 million sheets of paper per year to keep the procedures manuals up to date and up to eight weeks to distribute procedural-change or document control information to its major customer service locations (a process that cost $126,000 annually). Furthermore, by the time the new documentation was received, many times the company had hired additional employees, compounding the information distribution problem even further. With Achiever Plus, procedural changes are now distributed in minutes.

 "The pressure is on to have information of all kinds at the fingertips of the customer service representatives," says Orange's IT technical development manager. "The marketing department races against the competition, and customer service tries to ensure that it sees the latest offer before the next customer calls."

 Prior to the implementation of Achiever Plus, Orange used four different document management systems, which all relied on paper replication and distribution. This was labor-intensive and offered less-than-certain results. For example, within the telecom division there are 40 manuals, one for each department. These manuals had an average of 30 to 40 procedures, each requiring one to two pages of text. However, each department's manual was slightly different from one another. The company spent a substantial amount of time and travel expense to insert new documentation into each binder at several different locations. In fact, prior to the implementation of Achiever Plus, the company considered hiring two extra people just to perform this task.

 Following the implementation of Achiever Plus, Orange reduced its administrative headcount, improved customer service at a reduced cost and built an electronic foundation for work. Additionally, Orange experienced a 196-percent return on investment after just the first year of use and saved more than $250,000.

 Now, instead of just distributing all new procedural information to every representative, Orange designs each document distribution list so that only those people actually requiring the new or updated information receive a copy of it.

 "A customer who calls to report that his or her phone was stolen wants to know right away what must be done," says Orange's quality systems manager. "With the old manual system, this required an experienced and knowledgeable individual or a lengthy search through a pile of procedures. Now any operator can type in the words 'stolen phone' and, in less than two seconds, can be presented with all the documents relating to that subject."