First S/4HANA site in East Africa, and first SAP S/4HANA CRM site in Africa
African Media Agency (AMA)/- The era of rapid technological growth has forced technology and telecom companies to adopt multifaceted approaches to survive and thrive in a challenging environment. Each new innovation brings a new wave of disruption, forcing companies to innovate and meet increasingly demanding customer expectations by delivering superior value.
Leading this trend is the telecommunications industry which sits at the convergence of all modern technologies. The promise of delivering content to any screen is finally becoming a reality enabled by advances in network technology, higher data speeds and enhanced content at the carrier level. The telecoms industry’s performance is closely linked to the provisioning of high-quality, reliable, and affordable data and voice services, as well as operators’ ability to align with the changes in market behaviour.
Jamii Telecommunications Ltd. (JTL) is a Kenyan telecommunications company offering Data Carrier Services, Satellite Backbone Services, Internet Backbone Services, International Gateway Services, Broadband VSAT Services, Signal Distribution Services and Broadband Wireless Services.
JTL required a platform that would allow it to orchestrate multiple systems, including billing and provisioning engines, as it grew and evolved through mergers and acquisitions. This meant that the company required a technology system that would enable it to analyse, process and consolidate information received from multiple systems in a concerted effort to run simple and faster – not just in its IT landscape, but across business processes, data structures and its way of doing business.
Enter SAP S/4HANA, the digital core that enables JTL to fulfil this ambitious business and technology vision.
According to S.Iyer, CEO of IMARK, the SAP implementation partner in charge of managing the JTL implementation, JTL faced multiple challenges at the outset of the project implementation. “The customer experienced a lack of integration within systems, low visibility of customer information, planning, execution and cost monitoring, a lack of cost analysis of projects, insufficient controls for material procurement and utilisation, and low visibility of payments to external vendors. They required a system that was able to integrate all function areas and deliver a single window, providing greater visibility and tracking of information.”
JTL adopted SAP S/4HANA with SAP CRM, with the project going live on time on 1 January 2017. “By leveraging SAP S/4HANA and its integrated capabilities, JTL has been able to develop system workflows to ensure timely flow of data ensuring all SLA’s are met. This has led to an improvement in customer experience and engagement as well as greater control and monitoring of costs and revenues, through better tracking and visibility. JTL has the distinction of being the first S/4HANA site in East Africa and the first S/4HANA-CRM site in Africa,” explains Iyer.
Joshua Chepkwony CEO and Chairman of JTL said: “It gives me great pleasure to see the fruition of the journey we embarked on in 2016. This is a great achievement for the company and a continuation of an automation and change process that is geared towards transforming how we do business.”
Dr Gilbert Saggia, Managing Director: East Africa at SAP Africa, said: “This is an excellent example of how SAP’s vision to make the world run simpler is brought to life in a challenging business environment. By putting SAP S/4HANA at the core of its business processes, JTL is able to execute decisions quicker, ensure faster on-boarding of customers, reach new geographies quicker and gain key insights into customers. This has the added benefit of delivering a superior customer experience while providing real-time visibility of key business information. We look forward to seeing how SAP S/4HANA transforms JTL’s business processes and sets it up for success in the highly competitive and fast-paced telecoms industry.”
