The Switch: T-Mobile's online improvements In between meetings a man is eager to replace his existing mobile phone with the newest smart phone he has heard so much about. Needing to accomplish this task quickly, he navigates to an online phone shop.

1. Author Progress Software ~ Photography Marcel Rob
Text xxx ~ Photography xxx
T-Mobile’s online improvements
The Switch
In between meetings a man is eager to replace his existing support special offers or take advantage
of market opportunities. In an
mobile phone with the newest smart phone he has heard on-demand world that requires
so much about. Needing to accomplish this task quickly, companies to react almost immediately
to remain competitive, it was taking
he navigates to an online phone shop. T-Mobile months to develop the
functionality to support new
initiatives. The company urgently
A
fter finding the correct product available to customers, a Telco’s ability needed to reduce that time-to-market
he begins the checkout process. to improve the customer experience down to weeks, if not days.
But as he is forced to click can have a huge effect on conversion
through a fifth screen, he realizes he rates. T-Mobile fully understands this INCREASE FLEXIBILITY AND
won’t be able to finish in time for his challenge. As one of the top 3 global REDUCE COST “Flexibility and cost
next meeting. Frustrated and wireless carriers and subsidiary of were the primary drivers to start a
disappointed, he closes his browser Deutsche Telecom AG, T-Mobile search for a new solution,” says Tessel
without completing the transaction. serves 150 million subscribers across Jarigsma, Senior Vice President for
Now imagine if that man could Europe and the USA. Internet and New Media at T-Mobile.
complete the same transaction within Eight years ago, at the request of the The marketing department was looking
just one or two screens. The possibility Marketing department, T-Mobile’s to decrease its dependence on IT and to
of his purchasing the Smartphone Netherlands IT group built a increase its own ability to quickly
before his next meeting increases customized online web shop. Though define, customize and execute
exponentially. state-of-the-art at the time, the system campaigns without having to deal with
The telecom industry has become grew too inflexible to support the complex technology issues. Jarigsma:
one of the most competitive markets in company’s needs, making it difficult “First and foremost, we needed a
today’s economy. With so many for the Internet Marketing group to solution that offered the flexibility to
vendor, product and service options quickly and easily execute campaigns, quickly and easily meet the ever-
P14 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

2. E-COMMERCE
“We were looking for an
easy-to-use webshop for our
customers. With TIE Kinetix we
have minimized the number of
steps related to placing an
order. In addition, we are now
able to offer richer content: cus-
tomer reviews, up sell opportu-
nities, stock information and
detailed product descriptions.
As a result thereof, we are able
to increase the conversion and
generate more revenue from our
web shop.”
Tessel Jarigsma,
T-Mobile Sr. Vice President for
Internet and New Media
changing, on–demand needs of the SELECTING SaaS According to Jarigsma, the and because the entire system is
industry. Second, it no longer made TIE Kinetix MamboFive E-Commerce Platform cloud-based, T-Mobile’s Marketing
sense for us to incur all of the offered both the functionality and management department now has far more freedom
development cost to customize a requirements the company was looking for. and agility to execute their own
solution when there were excellent And in addition, T-Mobile could trust and programs.
solutions on the market developed by leverage the extensive expertise and experience An additional advantage is that
vendors who knew far more about the of TIE Kinetix and its business partner The T-Mobile does not have to worry about
subject than we do.” Online Company so T-Mobile can focus all the technology and availability. Due to
And with approximately 30% of all their effort on doing a stable Progress-based platform TIE
telecom products in the Netherlands business in a very Kinetix ensures 99.9% uptime of the
purchased online, T-Mobile concluded competitive environment. “T-Mobile phone shop.
that a more flexible shopping platform T-Mobile has replaced
would be a strategic step forward in its its previous solution with is already HUGE Business benefits Only
online strategy and ability to gain TIE Kinetix’s shortly after the implementation,
market share. So, as Jarigsma began her E-Commerce Software as a realizing T-Mobile is already realizing
search for a new solution, the list of Service (SaaS) platform. By tremendous business benefits. The
criteria included far more than just outsourcing its entire tremendous company has substantially improved
functionality requirements. platform, T-Mobile the customer experience with new
“Management requirements were achieves an optimal business functionality, content and ease-of-use.
just as important to us, even not more balance between For example, it has integrated social
so”, explains Jarigsma. “Flexibility, technological possibilities benefits.” media and significantly reduced the
cost, time-to-market, agility – those and the ever-changing number of steps and web pages
were the elements that were going to demands of the business. customers are required to navigate to complete
give us the business success and The flexibility of the TIE transactions. A series of processes that once required
competitive advantage we were Kinetix system enables T-Mobile’s customers to navigate through five different
looking for.” very fast time-to-market web pages has been merged into a single page.
TIE ~ 2012 ~ P15