Thanks to mobile broadband, an ever-increasing number of people and devices are connected. This phenomenon provides more opportunities for operators, but also means they must seek new ways to differentiate themselves and build loyalty with their users by providing a higher quality and more personalized customer experience. To meet this need, Ericsson has launched a new product called Ericsson Telecom CRM, which integrates customer relationship management (CRM) and billing. The launch is the result of the strategic alliance between Ericsson and Microsoft that was announced earlier last year at the Mobile World Congress. Ericsson Telecom CRM will help operators in Region Middle East to increase customer satisfaction - particularly in the areas of sales and customer care - by reducing the number and length of customer interactions. The product seamlessly renders valuable billing and subscriber data and functionality in an intuitive user environment. This helps operators to more efficiently address the needs of customers who place support calls, thereby reducing opex. Since the product is now being introduced in the Middle East, Anders Lindblad, President of Ericsson, Region Middle East commented: "We are very happy to be able to offer Telecom CRM to our customers in the region. The technology will allow us to help customers achieve a highly intuitive, telecoms-specific CRM system that is integrated with billing, and this is particularly important for chief information officers in the region who are under pressure to reduce systems integration costs". "The ability to provide exceptional customer service can make a big difference in attracting end users and ensuring that their needs are met, particularly in light of the changes operators in the region are facing in how their customers want to do business," said Karim Ramadan, General Manager for Microsoft Business Solutions in Middle East and Africa. "With the help of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Ericsson can use their industry expertise to help operators stay competitive in today's challenging industry landscape." Ericsson Telecom CRM 1.0 is a customer relationship management product tailored to meet the needs of the telecom industry, based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and integrated with Ericsson's BSCS Ix convergent billing and charging solution. This product is one of the ways that Ericsson and Microsoft are realizing their goal of integrating customer relationship management and business support systems, an objective that was mentioned when the companies announced their alliance in February 2011. The Saudi Gazette
