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Customers jumped from carrier to carrier and AT&T lacked the technological advances to retain their customer base and remain profitable. Market share was slipping and changes were necessary as AT&T was losing ground on its most important asset, its phone network.
While the advances in cell phone technology advanced at blazing speed, AT&T's antiquated system could not transfer data via cell phone. This was a monumental problem that was costing the company millions. Combine that with a shift is technology that actually diminished the quality of cell phone calls with AT&T subscribers and the scene is set for a tsunami of problems for the company.
The Problem
AT&T Wireless executives frantically tried to complete a CRM upgrade to Siebel 7, a CRM wireless number porting system. Since the company had dropped in market share and fallen behind Verizon and Cingular, the project was undertaken at a fever pitch. The new CRM system had to be up and running in time to handle an FCC deadline for allowing customers to change carriers without changing their phone numbers (number porting). The effort was a failure and the system not only crashed but also was not able to be brought back on line. The collapse affected not only AT&T Wireless services, but also other aspect of the business, and customer service representatives could not keep …show more content…
When projects run late, testing always suffers, with often disastrous results. One example mentioned in the article pertained to the revision on a piece of Odyssey, a telco program used by AT&T that was to work with the new Siebel 7 system. Various teams were responsible for different aspects of the project, one of which entailed changing code on the Odyssey system. Since the company was so pressured to complete the project, teams within the project did not consult with the other teams. As one team changed the code another team would run tests on new programming that was dependent upon the old code and was now meaningless. The lack of direction was causing the project to …show more content…
While AT&T wireless was planning to outsource their customer service responsibilities to oversees companies, the management's lack of interpersonal action caused turmoil during the project, thus threatening the outcome. The company would have been better served to postpone layoffs and offshore outsourcing until the systems project was completed. Morale and productivity among AT&T Wireless IT staff were devastated by rumors of offshore outsourcing and layoffs that spun around the project but were left mostly unaddressed by IT
While the advances in cell phone technology advanced at blazing speed, AT&T's antiquated system could not transfer data via cell phone. This was a monumental problem that was costing the company millions. Combine that with a shift is technology that actually diminished the quality of cell phone calls with AT&T subscribers and the scene is set for a tsunami of problems for the company.
The Problem
AT&T Wireless executives frantically tried to complete a CRM upgrade to Siebel 7, a CRM wireless number porting system. Since the company had dropped in market share and fallen behind Verizon and Cingular, the project was undertaken at a fever pitch. The new CRM system had to be up and running in time to handle an FCC deadline for allowing customers to change carriers without changing their phone numbers (number porting). The effort was a failure and the system not only crashed but also was not able to be brought back on line. The collapse affected not only AT&T Wireless services, but also other aspect of the business, and customer service representatives could not keep …show more content…
When projects run late, testing always suffers, with often disastrous results. One example mentioned in the article pertained to the revision on a piece of Odyssey, a telco program used by AT&T that was to work with the new Siebel 7 system. Various teams were responsible for different aspects of the project, one of which entailed changing code on the Odyssey system. Since the company was so pressured to complete the project, teams within the project did not consult with the other teams. As one team changed the code another team would run tests on new programming that was dependent upon the old code and was now meaningless. The lack of direction was causing the project to …show more content…
While AT&T wireless was planning to outsource their customer service responsibilities to oversees companies, the management's lack of interpersonal action caused turmoil during the project, thus threatening the outcome. The company would have been better served to postpone layoffs and offshore outsourcing until the systems project was completed. Morale and productivity among AT&T Wireless IT staff were devastated by rumors of offshore outsourcing and layoffs that spun around the project but were left mostly unaddressed by IT