1.0 INTRODUCTION
Celcom (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, a Technology Resources Industries (TRI) Bhd company has been the leading mobile cellular operator in Malaysia for the past 10 years. Celcom's main business activity is to develop and market Mobile Services such as Celcom GSM and ART 900 and Fixed Services such as Direct Connect, Leased Lines, Equal Access and Virtual Private network (VPN). Within Celcom's short history in the telecommunications business, it has ventured into value-added services, the latest being multimedia.
Celcom Axiata Berhad provides mobile communication services for customers in Malaysia. It offers voice, mobile broadband and email, roaming, and IDD services, as well as telemetry and fixed wireless desk phone solutions. The company also provides a unified messaging service that allows users to view a fax message via Web; and AirCash services, which provide instant access to money via client’s mobile phone. Celcom Axiata Berhad was formerly known as Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad and changed its name in December 2009. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Celcom Axiata Berhad operates as a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad.
Company Background
Celcom started its operation as STM Cellular Communications in 1988 with Fleet Group and Telekom Malaysia as shareholders. Subsequently Telekom Malaysia sold its 51% shareholding to the TRI group which was controlled by Tajuddin Ramli. Fleet Group's share meanwhile was transferred to the Time Engineering group which was later sold to TRI. In the initial years Celcom experienced a tremendous growth in subcriber base and network coverage under the stewardship of Rosli Man, the President of the company. It was during his tenure that Celcom turned into the leading cellular companies in Malaysia. He left Celcom in 1996.
When the cellular phone market was opened up in 1995, Celcom upgraded to the GSM900 service and quickly grew to become the largest mobile phone company in Malaysia. Competition soon sets in, and several digital mobile telcos compete for market dominance. It was the age of the phenomenal growth of mobile services.
During the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Celcom's owner, Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli suffered a debt crunch, and his shareholding in Celcom was seized by Danaharta, the national asset restructuring company. Failure to resolve his debts resulted in the controlling stake in Celcom being sold to Telekom Malaysia, the government-owned incumbent fixed line operator in 2003. Telekom Malaysia proceeded to merge Celcom with its own mobile-operator subsidiary TMTouch through a reverse takeover of TMTouch.
Celcom was originally listed on the Bursa Malaysia, but after the merger with Telekom Malaysia Berhad, it has since remained private. Owing to the bad management of its former management Celcom was as found liable by an arbitration panel in Switzerland for infringing an agreement signed with Deutsche Telekom AG’s unit, DeTeAsia in 2002.
The tribunal ruled that Celcom was liable to pay DeTeAsia US$177.2 million in principal plus US$16.2 million in interest as well as other legal and arbitration costs. This works out to a tidy sum of about RM740 million, leaving Telekom to intensify its efforts at recovering monies from Celcom’s previous owners for their misdeed. Only then will TM be able to fully exorcise itself from the haunting of Celcom’s tumultuous past.
Celcom is one of the largest telecommunications service providers in Malaysia and the region. Its core business remains prepaid and postpaid mobile voice services. Celcom has also achieved significant growth in mobile broadband, m-commerce, enterprise solutions and bulk wholesale services. Celcom continues to have the widest network coverage in the country. Through ongoing investments in network coverage, capacity and performance, Celcom intends to maintain its technology leadership and position as the country’s best mobile service provider.
In line with market focus and positioning strategy, we will continue to focus on a more sophisticated segment management, new product and services beyond voice, a significant enhanced Human Capital Management and major transformation on customer experience.
Celcom is part of Axiata Group, one of the largest Asian telecommunication companies, focused on high growth low penetration emerging markets. Apart from Celcom, Axiata has controlling interests in mobile operators in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cambodia with significant strategic stakes in India, Singapore, Pakistan and Thailand through its various subsidiaries and affiliates.
2.0 BODY
2.1 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Shazalli was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Director of Celcom on 1 September 2005 while Narain Singh Sidhu is a chief operating officer of Celcom Axiata Bhd. Suresh is currently the chief corporate and operations officer of Celcom. He has been with the Axiata group since 2009. Chrari TVT is a CFO at Celcom. Mohammad Farid b. Mohamed Yunus is a Strategy & Business Tranformation at Celcom. Azri Abdul Rahim is a Chief People Officer at Celcom. Afizulazha Abdullah is a Chief Operation Advance Data at Celcom. Anuar bin Rozhan is a Chief Solutions Officer at Celcom. Noor Kamarul Anuar Nuruddin is a Information Technology & Transformation at Celcom. Zalman Aefendy Zainal Abidin is a Senior Vice President of Marketing at Celcom. Eric Chong Tiong is a Chief Sales and Commercial Officer at Celcom. Abdul Satar Mohamed is a Chief Network Officer at Celcom. Jefri Ahmad Tambi is a Regional Operation (SABAH & SARAWAK) at Celcom.
Noor Kamarul Anuar Nuruddin its mastermind behind the widest coverage and best network was entrusted to continue his current role as CTO. Ericsson has been Celcom’s long standing Spare Parts Management Service (SPMS) partner since 2000. For Celcom, the SPMS contract from Ericsson offers a future-proof spare parts handling model, which means that it can adopt the latest features very quickly, an important way to improve its competitive position. The longevity and latest extension of the contract is a proof point of the trust that exists between the partners. Noor Kamarul Anuar Nuruddin, CTO, Celcom Malaysia Berhad, explains the key advantages for the operator: “The SPMS contract has always worked for us, Ericsson has consistently performed and with this reliable delivery of components, we do not have to worry about whether we have the correct dimensions or enough parts. It makes our lives a lot easier.”
Celcom has several branches in Johor and Human Resources department play important roles in their company. All departments in Johor Bahru use IT in their daily management. For example celcom use meeting conference and e-meeting in their organization. In order to spread information they use BBM, sms, and email. Email is one of the way to send their proposal and to contact with their HQ. In their organization Celcom use divisional categories such as Sales department, Human resources department, and Facilities department. They are also use IT to organize activities. For instance in order to organize an event, sales department use online system. For those who want to organize event with Celcom, they need to key-in form that are provided in Celcom website. Only selected staff can check the form. Besides that, human resources department have 3 staff that are responsible in recording document, facilities, and credit management.
2.2 THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN CELCOM
During the early 90’s, the uses of information technology were very weak and limited. This company is severely limited on technology excess thus nearly everything is done manually because the technology back then was still in its infancy. All staffs are connecting with each other via land line telephones, voicemails, face-to-face meeting and postal mails. Postal mails take days the internet connection used during the early 90’s known as Analog or the dial-up access which the quality of the connection is not always good due to poor coverage and data rates are limited as well as expensive. However, everything is changing including the information technology used in Celcom such as:
Celcom AirCash (form of mobile bill payment service)
Customers can instantly access to their financial transactions anytime and anywhere through their mobile phone, enabling customers to perform mobile financial transactions anytime, anywhere such as payment of utility bills, payment to Celcom postpaid and etc. The payment will be processed in real time as there are no charges for access and service fee. Besides that, this system allows the customers to use their mobile phones to transfer money to other AirCash users, remit money to foreign countries (initially to Indonesia) and top up mobile airtime reload to customer’s own number or others as well as request transfer airtime to their families and friends locally and to nine other countries such as Bangladesh.
ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planner)
This system is used to describe a broad set of activities supported by multi-module application software that helps a manufacturer or other business manage the important parts of its business. This system can sustain coordination with complicated and multifaceted operations. Since the enterprise resource planning system contains numerous software modules that work to combine fundamental activities across operating departments, this system would allow the possibility of checking upon different departments using an incorporated database. Since different departments of the company share a unified database, proper and faster business communication is implemented within the workplace.
Transaction Processing SystemThis is an operational system whereby data are recorded and processed via ecommerce or through retail stores with customers whenever there are business transactions such as payments, withdrawals and etc. Later, all data will be processed and stored. This can aid additional transactions in company and generate more data. This system is vital as it is needed to process those data to generate more useful information. Celcom uses online this system on e-commerce business processes so that customers can make payments; check the amount of the bills and so on. Payments of bills can be processed immediately after customers pay online.
CRM systems (Customer Relationship Management)This is an enterprise can build a database about its customers that describes relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements and so on. By using this technology, the telecommunication industry can always keep track on how to improve their customer satisfaction.
ERM systems (Enterprise Resource Management)The purpose is to manage user access to its network resources efficiently. ERM software generally lets a user sign on to different enterprise systems and applications using the same password. It is easier for the enterprise to control and keep track of which systems, resources each user has access to and provides consistent standards for creating and changing passwords.
To maintain their position as market leader, celcom has enhanced their products technologically to keep the Malaysian telecommunications updated with ever technological advancement by developing competitive measures to fight off their rivals both at the present and in the future, this ranges from delighting their customers with their numerous service features, developing greater customer relationship strategy, implementing more societal marketing schemes and supporting the government.
2.3 COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Identifying Competitive Advantage in Celcom
The strength of Celcom is to maintain a product differentiation strategy resulting from a strong market orientation, commitment to high quality, and customization of products and services from the other competitor. Besides, a long-term relationship with the primary suppliers results in shared knowledge of the product’s requirements, obey to quality standards, and a common vision throughout the development and production process. The high percentage of sales, suggest a satisfied customer base as well as positive word which generates new business per year. For instance, sales department responsible manage the sales activation by key-in the form. Being the oldest telecommunications service provider in Malaysia, has given Celcom a competitive edge and increased customer’s trust and loyalty to the brand also the strength of Celcom. According to customer needs, Celcom has used its strength to fill the needs of the customers which has given them a competitive advantage, increased the sales and also more customer loyalties where Celcom create distinctive target market which make the product available, affordable, convenient and unique at a consistent and high level.
An organization must create competitive advantages to survive and thrive which have done also by Celcom. A competitive advantage can be defined as a superiority gained by an organization when it can provide the same value as its competitors but at a lower price, or can charge higher prices by providing greater value through differentiation. There can be many types of competitive advantages including the firm's cost structure, product offerings, distribution network and customer support.
Celcom is the market leader in Malaysia when the competition in the specialty advertising industry is very strong both on local, regional and national level. They also have improved their competitive level, through developing many telecommunications feature, providing quality services at considerable price. The affect of the latest introduction of a new telecommunications service provider (U-mobile) make the competition in the telecommunication industry very high. For instances, Celcom had done a strategy with the cost of sms reduced from 50 cent to 25 cent and the cost of call reduced from 35 cent to 20 cent per minute. They are applying many future strategies to maintain their position as the market leader in the Malaysian market and at the same time Celcom enhanced their products technologically to keep the Malaysian telecommunications updated with the technological advancement like niche marketing, business package development, intercontinental and international service expansion. Besides, Celcom also currently offers the best broadband network in Malaysia since technology is the fastest growing market trend nowadays. Therefore, Celcom itself shows the strategy that they used to gain the competitive advantage.
Besides that, being the oldest and most experiences from the three, Celcom has many competitive advantaged compared to major rivals which are Digi and Maxis. Celcom have the highest trend in the market share, giving the highest coverage, many products features and having the highest customer size in the Malaysian market. They give the highest coverage as well where they spread the coverage with the planning which is they do some research that include the aspect where it depends on population in that area and the technology network of the country. For example, in Manhattan, the technology advanced that they used will reduce their implementation cost. Other than that, Celcom provides varieties of products and service to their customer, which is why they are presently the best in Malaysia. But they intent to launch a new product (U-verse), that lets customers, pay their bills through phone, book online flight tickets and hotel reservations. This would be the first that make long term of period to convinced customer about the company commitment by providing the best services to developing the country into globally connected nation. It’s used the differentiated strategy when they offering superior quality and valuable product features.
Furthermore, they also are having highest customer size in the Malaysian market where there is direct consumer market of hand phone user that this service can be utilized in our day to day life, like paying bills and checking account balance, making it easier for our families by just pressing a button instead of having to go to the company or bank to pay our bills. The market is divided into two which are youth market and normal market. Moreover, there is full freedom of entry once the company have meet up with the requirements and is ready to fulfill the government obligations. Nevertheless, Celcom has understood the need to make customers satisfied and providing not just what they need today, but what they will need in the future. In order to maintain the current market Celcom has developed competitive measures to fight off their rivals both at the present and in the future. Their services features are developing greater customer relationship strategy, implementing more societal marketing schemes and supporting the government. Through advancing technology, they have made it difficult for small companies to enter the market, thereby, creating barrier to entry for other small companies.
Then, the buyer power occurred when customer’s ideology of “quality service – less price” is still the ruling key to purchase. Understanding this is basics in every industry. Have been provided with many choices, the consumers in Malaysia normally go for the best service that offers the least price. They believed that technology plays the important roles that provide the best technology to produce quality service to their customer. They can only provide you with the best for the highest cost and this is another competitive advantage Celcom have over its competitors in the Malaysian market.
The important of Information Technology
Information technology is important to business because it useful in business and automatically it give great insight to anyone learning about business. IT helps in gain competitive advantage through many systems such as internal system and protection of consumer information policy (PCIP). Internal system that used by Celcom is IT help desk which is defined as an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers or similar products. In other word a help desk may consist of group of experts using software to help track the status of problems and other special software to help analyze problems. Besides, protection of consumer information policy also shows that IT is important which Celcom used this type of system to protecting customer policy. This PCIP effectively represents the privacy policy mentioned in the Agreement between the customer and Celcom. For the instances, human resources department responsible in key-in information details about their customer. This information only selected staff can log in which is through User Id and password. It shows that Celcom is protecting consumer information policy. The system also used by staff to save their information detail as well. Human resources department also can manage staff requirement through online. Therefore, IT is everywhere in business that help to gain competitive advantage.
2.4 IMPACT OF IT AND WHAT IT CAN DO FOR THE BUSINESS OF CELCOM
Celcom use IT in their business. Offering their customers more than 10 solutions, Celcom PowerTools™ significantly increases the efficiency of their customers business with a few simple clicks. The improved business solutions and voice plan meets the vigorous demands of today's workforce.
The integrated services stresses on being mobile to stay ahead of competition, to get to the prospect first, to gain tactical advantage as well as to initiate smooth service delivery. In order to increase their sales and productivity, Celcom understand the need of their customers. Identifying the need to be in touch constantly, it is about letting their client’s workforce take the office wherever they go. The main solutions offered to Celcom’s customers are Email Connectivity, Workforce Mobility, and Data Accessibility. Each of this main cluster comprises of a suite of powerful solutions for various types of industries and vigorous demands.
Email connectivity gives Celcom Email & Beyond, a universal system utilizing Microsoft and other platforms for instant and effective push and pull email – Celcom most important business productivity tools. These solutions also allow Celcom to manage and enforce security protocols effectively and wirelessly.
Workforce Mobility from Celcom PowerTools™ consists of a comprehensive suite of solutions from Sales Force Automation & Field Service Automation to Enhanced Enterprise Messaging & Mobile Financial Services
Machine-to-Machine is divide by two which is fleet management and SCADA / telemetry. M2M - Fleet Management is the perfect solution to ensure timely delivery of Celcom products to its destination. The behavior of drivers and their vehicles can be monitored for safety, cost effective operations and for merit/reward programmes. Celcom is the leading provider of fleet and tracking services in the country. M2M - SCADA / Telemetry is the most convenient solution for enterprise to monitor and managed fixed assets effectively. It is ideal for data collection, remote control, alarms/warnings and ground surveillance. It also offering the widest coverage, excellent packages, strong technical and operational support.
On the other hand, mobile financial service offer three ways which are 188Mobile, Mobile Banking and Mobile Payment. With 188Mobile, customers can get stock information in their mobile phone whenever they require. These include real-time prices, summary snapshot, in-depth details, intraday charting, stock tracker and multiple viewing options. They also receive access to OSK research, and market breaking news. Celcom mobile banking solutions offer customers unrivalled convenience to check account summary, perform bill payment, transfer funds, and many more. Recently, Celcom introduce a new mobile payment known as Wireless EFTPOS. It is a new wireless payment system that is fast to set up and ideal for point-of-sales transaction, allowing customers to make payment whenever and wherever they may be.
Enterprise Messaging Service (EMS) gets Celcom message to everyone - employees, customers or even business associates, in an instant. From web to wireless, it is the fastest way to provide real time status or alert information. Field Service Automation is the solution that allows instant access to Celcom corporate database by their field personnel. It is ideal for usage at warehouses, assembly plants, technical support centers and for mobile enforcement. Sales Force Automation is one of the best way to keep Celcom sale force lean and mean, online and on top of every job. This solution allows the capture, routing and monitoring of leads across their sales force. Celcom also can keep track of assignment and status of jobs and planned schedules. Ultimately, they can check customer's credit or payment details and inventory status from wherever they may be. Enhanced Enterprise Messaging (EEM) provides wireless connectivity with customised back-end integration offering convenient and immediate connectivity to all network service providers. It features SMS Bulk for auto alerts, SMS Broadcast, SMS Hotline and SMS Premium for Mobile Vouchers, surveys & polls and for Information-on-Demand applications. Enterprise Mobile Portal is ideal for Celcom’s customers to access information through their mobile phones via 3G/GPRS. This solution is great for new product promotion, online product ordering and product survey.
Data Accessibility - With Data Accessibility from Celcom PowerTools™, customer can get a Mobile Connect Card for unrivalled 3G/GPRS coverage and real-time access. Even without PC, they can still get full-spectrum data roaming with mobile phone in over 100 countries.
The Celcom 3G Connect Card provides both voice and data access via any laptop. The stable connection capability and affordability of this card make it one of the better connect cards available. Data roaming with data capable mobile phones via 3G/GPRS is available in over 100 countries and operators worldwide. Customers enjoy the best rates available when they roam.
Global voice and data coverage from Celcom and Vodafone can cross all the problem of geographical borders, communication barriers and travel distances. With the business solutions provided to customer through this alliance, the advantages of accessibility via the Celcom and Vodafone partner networks help customers build their business empire while travel.
The competitive nature of business requires efficiency, speed, and most importantly, mobility. That is why the BlackBerry® from Vodafone is designed with these qualities to put Celcom customer on top of the game. It is a single handheld device that delivers phone, SMS, MMS, browser, instant messaging and organizer applications. Now Celcom customers can manage all their information and communications efficiently, giving them more time to focus on business.
With the Vodafone Mobile Connect Card, Celcom customers can access the Internet wherever they may be. Powered by Celcom 3G/3GX (HSDPA), all Celcom customers can surf the Internet, check emails, review reports, and download files more faster and easier.
The Palm® Treo is act like a personal assistant that fetches email, downloads attachments, get Celcom customers on the web instantly and many more. Minus the unnecessary small talk, so the customer of Celcom can get on with the important stuff, like building their empire.
Protection of Information via Established Security Procedures
Celcom is committed to maintain security standards and procedures regarding unauthorized access to customers' information and will take all of the necessary precautions to ensure the safeguarding of the customers' information, whether it is stored electronically or in paper.
In all cases, information is retained in secured facilities, protected from unauthorized access and kept only as long as it is reasonably required. Celcom also updates and tests the technology to improve the protection of customers' information and protect the integrity of the information.
Other than that, to improve internal system, Celcom use IT Help Desk which operate 24 hours a day. All complaints from customers can be made via online system. Three notifications will be sent to the three respective parts which is IT department, HR department and to the top management (HQ) of the Celcom company. This will help Celcom itself to making a decision for their future organization.
3.0 CONCLUSION
Information technology is very important in all industries especially Celcom, the oldest telecommunications company in Malaysia. Without information technology, it will be very hard for people to reach out with each other. To conclude, Celcom is one of the market leaders in the industry. Currently Celcom provides many products and services that suites different customer needs, ranging from economic, business, and family and leisure satisfaction. Without information technology, Celcom will not be able to grow and become one of the most successful companies as it is right now. In addition, information technology does affect its daily operation as it makes the business process more convenient, organized and save more time. Moreover, as more and more Malaysians look for ways to keep in touch with each other, Celcom’s popularity and quality services has helped draw more customers to the company through customer relationship and brand loyalty as well as able to compete with other industries such as Maxis, Digi and uMobile for a better network coverage and generate more revenues in the future.
4.0 RECOMMENDATION
In order to compete with their competitors and survive in the market place, Celcom need to make sure that their system and managing is the best among the others. The first recommendation to improve the business of Celcom is by build their system effectively and efficiently. It can be achieved by study of the internal and external environment of market place. By using this method, Celcom can improve their sales and productivity. For example, other than using IT Help Desk to improve internal environment, Celcom also can modify their process flow and notifications so that it can be faster and easier.
Besides that, Celcom also need to improve their coverage. There are a few areas that still face with the problem of coverage. Do the case study more frequently to recognize the changes that happen in the public. Increase the limitation for every base station if necessary in order to make customers can excess to the internet more easily without coverage problem.
The other recommendation is by create and increase the loyalty of the customers. Celcom can make a loyalty program such as a special club for their user. Offer more discount to the customer by creating a Celcom customer card. The longer the customers stay using Celcom, the more they will get the discount. So, by using this method customer will be more interest to Celcom rather than others.
5.0 APPENDICES
The table shows that Celcom is more efficiency compare to other company in many types of term. It also shown Celcom create competitive advantage where the customer place greatest values compare to competitor.
6.0 REFERENCES
Dalina Desa,
Head, HR Business Partners,
Southern Region,
People & Performance Division.
Celcom Mobile Sdn Bhd
1st Floor, No 1, Jalan Kempas 3/1,
Kempas Baru, 81200 Tampoi,
Johor Bharu, Johor.
0197777675
Deusen, C. V., Williamson, S, & C.Babson, H. (2007). Business Policy and
Strategy. United States of America: Auerbach Publication.
