The Client
Electrolux Group
Electrolux is the world’s leading manufacturer of household
appliances and appliances for professional use, selling more than 40 million
products to consumers and professionals in more than 150 markets every year.
Their product range includes refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners
and stoves, sold under world-class brands such as Electrolux, AEG-Electrolux,
Zanussi, Eureka and Frigidaire.
Electrolux in Hungary
Electrolux Lehel Kft. is a subsidiary of the Swedish
Electrolux AB. At Electrolux Lehel Kft., manufacturing is carried out at the
center in Jászbereny, while the marketing department is located in Budapest.
The main profile of the company is refrigerators, freezers and vacuum cleaners.
Electrolux Lehel Kft. sought out SciamuS in 2005
because their phone costs were high and on the increase, especially in the
mobile area. They had a mixed and partially obsolete infrastructure.
SciamuS was commissioned to perform a Consido (Cut
& Control the Communication Costs) project using the success-fee
construction—being paid only in return for a portion of the savings. The
project would cover land and mobile voice and data transfer (Internet and leased
lines).
Analysis and Recommendations
The analysis prepared by SciamuS demonstrated the
following:
- Both land and mobile fees were very high, especially
for international calls.
- There was a high proportion of roaming rates, meaning
even higher extra costs.
- It was necessary and advisable to replace the obsolete
PBX, as it would be possible with a new one to integrate mobile phones much
better into the company system.
- The proportion of personal calls was extremely high,
thus representing a significant cost problem. Therefore it was necessary to
deal with this issue.
- Although the client had GSM adapters, they didn’t have
sufficient capacity or the appropriate configuration.
Implementation
The implementation, which lasted six months, began
with two competitions:
- Land telecommunications (including data links)
- New PBX in Jászberény
The landline tendering took the form of negotiation
and was won by T-Systems. This meant that at the same time, providers were
switched in Jászberény,
where until then Invitel had been the provider. The new PBX, like the old one,
was an Ericsson model with, among other things, a mobile extension function,
which meant that the mobile phones worked as extensions in the PBX system for
both incoming and outgoing calls.
T-Mobile won the mobile telephone service contract
within the framework of a multi-round competition. Along with the previously
existing services, Electrolux receives a direct connection that not only allows
cheaper calls to be made to mobile phones from a desktop phone, but also allows
mobile devices to connect into the system and through the PBX, and onwards to
make domestic or international calls. For reasons of cost, however, landline
users continued to call the other two mobile providers available in Hungary
though GSM adaptors. SciamuS created a completely new internal regulatory
system covering both landline and mobile calls. Among other things, it
regulates cost limits, the conditions of international calls, as well as when
and how it is worth using roaming services. It also contains a range of
recommendations and hints regarding phone use. Traffic is kept under constant
supervision with the help of the electronic call list. As a result of this
supervision, SciamuS noticed that one of the connections is not operating, and thus
this error was also corrected.
Results and Conclusion
The average savings is 39%, which more or less matches
the 40% projected in the report. Despite the fact that SciamuS shed light on
the large proportion of roaming costs, it was not possible to convince enough
colleagues to use the mobile extensions, which would significantly decrease
this. In spite of this, the management rated the project as very successful,
and therefore proceeded with the continuation.
New Request in 2007
The landline and mobile contract expired at the end of
2007. Therefore Electrolux once again asked SciamuS to help achieve further
cost reductions. Together it was decided to separately conduct competitions for
the landline services (once again including the leased lines) and the mobile
telecom applicants. On this occasion, the savings exceeded 40%.
Thus, in two and a half years, Electrolux was able to
save 70% on its telecom costs, even though manpower increased about 20% in the
same period, while the number of mobile subscribers rose by 60%. This
extraordinary result shows how worthwhile it is to deal with telecom costs in a
project-based manner. This, however, assumes the active support of the client.
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