It's high time to put an ATM in your pocket
It's high time to put an ATM in your pocket
A new series of services in information technology (IT) has
been introduced to humankind. The latest one in Indonesia is
mobile banking from GSM operator Telkomsel.
Starting last month, Telkomsel offers this service to Panin
Bank customers who are also kartuHALO users. KartuHALO is
Telkomsel's postpaid card.
This can be made possible due to a collaboration between
cellular technology, information technology and the banking
system. Now, the cellular handset can operate just like an ATM.
Services provided on this mobile banking facility include
account statements, fund transfers, details on the last five
transactions, monthly billing charge payments (electricity,
water, telephones, credit cards and kartuHALO), interest rate
information and PIN changing mode.
Telkomsel's Director of Marketing and Sales, Hasnul Suhaimi,
said that the company was committed to always introducing
innovation-based services for customer satisfaction.
He said mobile banking was only a beginning to anticipating e-
commerce.
This new service has wide accessibility due to the
infrastructure installed by Telkomsel.
The company aims to operates 400 additional BTS this year,
bringing it to a total of 1,500 units nationwide.
Hasnul said that with everything that is possible due to
information technology, Telkomsel was ready to offer new
services.
With regards to customer care, the company always tries to
answer any questions from the customers, he added.
By implementing the so-called intelligent computer guides,
operators are able to answer any question asked by customers, he
said.
Users can now carry out real-time payments via several ATMs.
Telkomsel also tries to offer top-quality service not only to
its postpaid users, but also to its prepaid simPATI card holders.
Telkomsel won the Indonesian Customer Satisfaction Award this
year in the GSM prepaid card category. Last year, the company won
the same award in the GSM service category.
In what is becoming fierce competition in mobile
telecommunications services, each player needs to launch new
value-added services. But everything is directed toward customer
satisfaction.
Hasnul said that though simPATI users have some limitation in
services, they still enjoy convenience in buying vouchers to
refill their pulses through ATMs. And now, they can also enjoy
auto refill by dialing Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) or through the
Internet www.telkomsel.com. But the users must be clients of BNI
or BNI credit-card holders.
Indonesia has seven cellular providers, operating three
systems, including the GSM. Since GSM has proved to be the most
popular system, operators must compete to provide various and new
services based on the latest development in technology.
After pocketing a communications device with ATM facilities,
people may soon be carrying around not a mobile tool but a
"magic" one. Any cellular operator ready? (icn)