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Competition intensifies in the South African telecommunications market

With the African telecommunication market growing increasingly competitive, Vodacom, the Pan-African cellular communications company has identified debt management as a key area of focus to maintain market share and stay ahead of the competition. Vodacom provide Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) service, which is the international standard to more than 35.7 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique.

As global economic conditions deteriorate, many organisations are being force to re-evaluate their business models and explore ways to improve operational efficiency. Debt management and collections activities are increasingly becoming the focus of these improvements as organisations look to identify customers who are being affected by stricter credit lending criteria and enhance existing relationships to maintain payments.

There are a number of factors that organisations are considering when analysing debt management and collection activities. These issues, such as how segmentation and customer relationship management (CRM) systems can be optimised, are fundamental to allowing a targeted and personalised approach to debt collection. Automation of collections activities, such as the issue of standard reminders, can increase the amount of resources available to focus on higher value activities.

Having trialled a number of other collections systems, Vodacom South Africa selected Experian’s Tallyman system due to its ability to automate processes, its customisable features and ease of integration with other customer management systems. The system also allows the adoption of a more streamlined approach to customers by feeding information from Tallyman into Vodacom’s data warehouse which holds data from billing and other customer facing systems. With this system in place Vodacom can ensure that customers who are in arrears will not be offered other products or increased allowances for any additional services.

Veran Kathan, Managing Executive for Credit and Risk at Vodacom, said: "The South African mobile market is increasingly competitive. Experian’s Tallyman will enable us to improve the way we interact with customers who are behind on their bills. By treating them in a more thoughtful and personalised way we hope to be able to rehabilitate, retain and attract new customers who appreciate good service.”

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