French firm and Telkom collaborating
French firm and Telkom collaborating
JAKARTA (JP): Sofrecom, a subsidiary of France Telecom, has launched, in collaboration with state-owned telephone company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), a computerized customer management system designed to improve Telkom's efficiency and customer services.
Sofrecom Chief Executive Officer Christian Mitjavile said the customer management system, known by its Indonesian acronym Siska, will reduce the time taken to give new customers a phone connection, speed up the repairing of faulty lines and enable Telkom to issue more detailed bills to its customers.
Mitjavile added Telkom personnel have been trained since June 1994 to use the system's software.
Launched on Tuesday, the system will initially only be used at East Jakarta's Jatinegara telephone exchange, which serves 35,000 customers.
The cost of implementing the system across the city and in Surabaya is expected to be US$40 million. Funding has come from a World Bank loan in the form of software application devices, data provision and technology transfer.
Christian Raoust, Sofrecom's Asia-Pacific director, said the new system will help Indonesia achieve its ambition of being a world-class telephone operator in the next century.
"Instead of having to wait three to four months to get a new line installed -- due to the huge paperwork involved -- the new system will allow Telkom to find an empty line for the new customer in 10 minutes and have the phone installed in a week," Raoust said.
He said the system will not increase customers' costs.
The Siska system, which is based on the Girafe customer management system developed in Paris, was chosen by Telkom after the company put the project out to tender in 1994.
France Telecom, together with a number of local and foreign partners in the Pramindo Ikat consortium, last year won the bid to install 516,000 phone lines in Sumatra under a 15-year contract with Telkom.
Marc Wilkie, the general representative of France Telecom in Indonesia, said that in Sumatra Sofrecom will provide consultation services for network engineering and construction and is planning a long-term project to install the Siska system.
The director for the Siska project, Raynald Leconte, said it will be up to Telkom to decide when the project is expanded to other parts of Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java, for which Sofrecom has already signed contracts. (pwn)