Telecom has selected Scottish vendor Graham Technology over more established players for a new front end CRM system, because other CRM providers didn't offer what it was seeking, says Greg Patchell, Telecom's technology, strategy and capability general manager.
"There aren't many solutions that are similar to Graham", says Patchell.
Graham's front-end focus is what differentiates it from other CRM offerings, according to Patchell.
"In an environment like ours, the big investment is in back-end systems and products like Siebel involve the front- and back-end and huge data migration."
The Graham Technology GT-X system that Telecom chose will process customer service and sales transactions at contact centres, on the internet and at retail outlets.
The system is costing Telecom $3 million, plus maintenance and project work, Patchell says. It will also be implemented at AAPT, Telecom's Australian operation.
Telecom didn't go through a formal tender process, Patchell says, but "we went out and had a good look at the market for solutions for putting front-end apps into call centres.
"There wasn't much competition, because [Graham] is quite different to Siebel, Oracle, Baan etc."
There are no other Graham deployments New Zealand, Patchell says, but reference sites at utilites and health insurance companies in Australia and at telcos around the world, including British Telecom, were taken into account during the selection process.
The GT-X architecture consists of a business process engine, business modelling tools, thin clients for user interaction and integration services and standards.
GT-X is Java-based and can run in a .Net or J2EE environment.