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Customer Relations Management System (CRM)
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the kingdom of Bahrain

A. Problem Analysis

 1. What was the problem before the implementation of the initiative?
Since the liberalization of the Telecommunications Market in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the establishment of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) the Telecommunications market increased in size many folds, with a diversity of suppliers, products and services. The situation became more confusing to the end user with each passing day not knowing his rights or duties. With more end users becoming aware of TRA and its role to protect them and their rights, more starting coming to TRA with complaints and queries. TRA’s call center was bombarded with calls reporting issues, complaining about services and asking about customer rights. All the investigations that TRA does in the background to help itself take an educated dissection was done manually with paperwork, the staff found it harder and harder to keep on top of all the files, a single case used to take up to 90 days to come to a conclusion, hence the introduction of the Customer Relations Management System (CRM) idea that would cut the time considerably it will also help the staff better track all cases as well as reduce the chances of human error. Most importantly, it will allow the end telecommunications users log a complaint from the comfort of their home any time of the day and during public holydays using the online service at any time of the day, it also will allow the call center to log the complaint or the quire on behalf of the costumer if the costumer wishes to do so.

B. Strategic Approach

 2. What was the solution?
TRA thought that an educated and empowered consumer is the best strategy to reach its vision of a “Communications environment that enriches the social and commercial fabric of the Kingdom of Bahrain” Reaching out to the consumer and being there for them when needed is the best way to empower the telecommunications subscribers end user, with more telecommunications customers and users learning about their rights, TRA recognized that it needed a system to help it manage consumer complaints, comments and queries and also to help it track the telecommunications market trends and the directions that it is going, it also recognized that it needed a system that can highlight a potential issue before it reaches the market with a bigger impact The objective of implementing a CRM system were specific: 1. Empowered the end user, by reaching out to the customer where they are at their convenient time 2. Automated the system, to reduce human error and introduce an escalation system 3. Freed the staff time, to work on more cases 4. Reduced the response time by a certain percentage The selected system helped TRA in the following matter: 1. Empowered the end user, by allowing the telecommunications end users to reach out to TRA at any time and from anywhere using the Call Center or its online capability 2. Automated the system with an escalation procedure, assuring that no customer complaint, comment or query goes unnoticed or unanswered. 3. Freed the staff time allowing them to work on much more customer cases, quires or complaints 4. Reduced the response time to less than 50 per cent of what it used to be
 3. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives?
In no more than 200 words, illustrate what makes the initiative unique and how it addressed the problem in new and different ways. List the creative and innovative approaches that allowed for its success? Answer: The project was creative in many ways, most importantly the way it empowered the consumer to take charge of their telecommunications needs, wants queries and issues. It gave the end user the power to reach out to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority at any time and with the new mobile data technology, from anywhere. With the new CRM system, Consumers in Bahrain can have full charge of their issues and can do all the following 1. Log a complaint or a query 2. Update a complaint or a query 3. Follow-up on a complaint or a query 4. Observe the status of a complaint or a query While the staff can do the following 1. Log a complaint or a query 2. Update a complaint or a query 3. Follow-up on a complaint or a query 4. Observe the status of a complaint or a query The system is equipped with the power to take and manage input from many sources, The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority staff, Telecommunications subscribers and end users as well as Licensed Telecommunications Operators staff

C. Execution and Implementation

 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
The Project strategy was implemented in 6 unique stages 1. Identifying the Need, With the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority awarince gaining momentum, and with the number of customers and end users Complaints and queries increasing, TRA has needed to look at the matter with a fresh eye, hence the decision to work with the general public as consumers, hence the project of implementing a Customer Relations Management system, that can help the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority take its services, protecting the telecommunications subscribers and end users, to the next level. 2. Developing the idea, Once the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority decided to proceed with the CRM project, it needed to develop the idea more, from the following perspectives a. Who are the key stakeholders? Those that will be directly impacted by the CRM project and who will represent them b. What are the features that we need? All features that needed to be in the CRP system needed to be clearly identified and the resining for having such a feature must be justified. 3. Researching and drafting the RFP, Once the idea development has been done and agreed upon, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has gone into the research and development mood as all possible suppliers and systems needed to be identified, a Request for a Proposal, to assure that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority obtain the best system for the best price, had to be drafted. 4. Evaluating the Bids, This project will play a big role on the industry and will affect all the players in the Telecommunications market, hence all parties had a say in the evaluation of the project and the selection of the supplying vendor. The evaluation followed a certain criteria’s and participants had to fill in a unified scoring card. 5. Selection, Each category in the evaluation had a certain percentage that was tallied up the top three winners in the technical evaluation had their financial beds opened and the financial evaluation percentage added up to the their tally, the lowest price had the highest percentage, with the second lowest price had a small percentage added to his score and the most expensive having the lowest percentage added to the overall total. In the end the vendor with the highest percentage was selected 6. Implementation, Once the system and the supplier has been selected, the implementation of the system went into 3 distinctive stages a. Offline: where the functionality, feel and look of the system was looked into. b. Testing: where representatives of each stakeholder tested and reported back to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority with their findings c. Live: at this stage the system went live and all customers and users could have used it with input from all parties
 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
With such project the effects the entire telecommunications market in the Kingdom of Bahrain, hence the economy of the kingdom, all that are involved in the telecommunications market were considered as a stakeholder and had a representative in the development of the project, evaluation of the project and most importantly the selection of the vendor. The following were involved as stakeholder 1. The telecommunications Regulatory Authority, represented by its staff 2. Consumers and end users, represented by the Consumer Advisory Group (CAG) 3. Business users represented by Business Advisory Group (BAG) 4. Licensed Operators represented by a team from different active licensed operators in the Kingdom of Bahrain
 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
The project was born from the need to better protect the consumer and end users of the Telecommunications industry in the Kingdom of Bahrain hence the finance came fully from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. On top of the financial responsibility, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has taken the responsibility of Managing the project and running the end result. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has established an internal team to set the specifications as well as communicate with the external parties that were involved in the development of the project. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority formed a committee from different departments and expertise such as Consumer Affairs, Information Technology, Legal and finance to better serve the project and fully cover it from all aspects.
 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
There are many factors that is measured as a success factor for the project 1. Empower the Consumer and end user, by being available to the consumer 24 hours a day 7 days a week, the System also gave the consumer the power to update their case and or monitor their case from anywhere at any time. 2. Reduce the time it takes to reach a resolution, the telecommunications Regulatory Authority has noticed that the number of open files was becoming bigger with each passing day and the time it took each case was becoming accessibly huge, hence the proposed system should considerably reduce the time it took to reach a resolution. The implemented system has reduced the resolution time by more than 60 percent. 3. Develop a well-planned work flow for each telecommunications complaint, comment or query, there are three main types of cases that reaches the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, each one has a specific work flow that it needs to follow, the new Customer Relation Management System (CRM) helped manage each individual case. 4. Develop an escalation procedure, to assure all telecommunications customers, consumers and end users complaints, queries and comments are followed up, an escalation procedure has been put in as a major feature of the project. This feature has assured that there were no cases that were dropped or ignored for any reason. 5. Develop a project management system, with the new Customer Relations Management System, each case that comes into the Consumer Affairs Department is considered as a separate project and is managed individually, with a project management system that is controlled by the CRP.
 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
The reports that the Costumer Relations Management System produce is monitored on a daily, weekly monthly and quarterly basses as well as annually to study the health of the system as well as the health and trends of the telecommunications market in the Kingdom of Bahrain. While the system is preforming above expectations at the moment, that does not mean that it does not need development as there is always place for improvement. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority is always looking for new methods and tools to better its services and improve its protection to the Telecommunications subscribers and users. That being said, the Information Technology department as well the Consumer Affairs Department in the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority are closely monitoring and improving upon the procedures of the Customer Relations Management System as well as the outputs of the system to assure that it is running at optimum effeminacy
 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
The Telecommunications Regulatory faced many obstacles, as expected in any major innovative project. With that in mind, there are two obstacles that are worth mentioning here: 1. Obtaining key stakeholders buy-in, as mentioned before there are many stakeholders in the project as it affect the entire telecommunications market in the Kingdom of Bahrain from subscribers, costumers and end users to local and International telecommunications and data providers and as the telecommunications Regulatory Authority is responsible for all, it had to identify and manage to obtain all the stakeholders buy-in into the project as a prerequisite to its success. The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority has identified the following stakeholders and representatives of each: a. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority was represented by a committee of its staff b. Costumers and end Users were represented by the Telecommunications Costumers Advisory Group (CAG) c. Business users were represented by the Telecommunications Business Advisory Group (BAG) d. Local and international licensed operators were represented by a committee selected by the operators 2. Obtaining legal footfall, as the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority only works within the Telecommunications Law of the Kingdom of Bahrain, it had to develop a legal framework for the project to be successful, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has gone through its lengthy procedure to issue a final regulation that bounds all in the market to the project a. Draft a regulation with all the rules and responsibility of each involved party b. Publish the draft regulation for consultation, this is a part of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s transparency and assuring that all that are involved has a say in the matter c. Study and consider all the comments that comes back from the consultation d. Once all consultation feedback has been studied and considered, all were published with the authorities’ comments e. After all of the above listed is completed, a Regulations is issued and put into effect

D. Impact and Sustainability

 10. What were the key benefits resulting from this initiative?
There are many benefits that came from the Customer Relations Management system initiative that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the Kingdom of Bahrain has implemented. The some of the benefits are listed below: 1. Empowering the Consumer and end user, an empowered consumer is the base of any highly competitive market such as the telecommunications market in the Kingdom of Bahrain. By being available to all consumers, subscribers and end users the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the Kingdom of Bahrain is making itself and its capabilities available to all telecommunications consumers, subscribers and end users at all times wherever they are, most importantly, from the comfort of their homes. 2. Reaching out to the consumer and end user, By making the Costumer Relations Management system online the telecommunications Regulatory Authority has made itself available to all Consumers, Subscribers and end users of all telecommunications services in the Kingdom of Bahrain, by doing so, the Authority has reached out to the Consumers, subscribers and end users in times that were not economically feasible as it was only available during working hours. With the New system, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority is available 24 hours a day 365 days a year during weekends and public holydays. 3. Automating the complaint, comments and quivery handling system, by implementing the new Consumer Relations Management system, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has drown a specific and clear automated path for each complaint, comment and / or query that comes from any telecommunications subscriber, consumer and end user in the Kingdom of Bahrain with a very specific time schedule for each. By doing so, the telecommunications has, considerably, reduced the possibility of human error. 4. Creation of an escalation system, one of the main objectives for the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to implement the Customer relations Management system was to monitor the development of each telecommunications costumer, subscriber and end user complaint, comment or query. To make sure that all incoming consumer communications, be it via mail, e-mail or call center is handled appropriately and within the allowed time. The CRM system allowed an automated escalation feature to take charge reducing the number of missed deadline considerably it also reduced the time the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority needed to coordinate between all its internal departments and licensed operators significantly.
 11. Did the initiative improve integrity and/or accountability in public service? (If applicable)
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority had sustainability and transferability in mind when it selected the operation Costumer Relations Management system. The Authority wanted a system that worked with all its other systems as well as integrate easily with the systems of telecommunications licenses operators that are operational in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has selected a system that integrate well with all key stakeholders systems that are involved with a minimal financial immediate implication and long term investment.
 12. Were special measures put in place to ensure that the initiative benefits women and girls and improves the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable? (If applicable)
Needless to say that such a big undertaking comes with huge challenges and overcoming each one of these challenges is a lesson learned. Among the many lessons learned are: 1. Planning, planning in such a project is key to its success as a plan will show the requirements and resources needed, most importantly it will highlight all pitfalls that one might fall into and can easily avoided. 2. Legal framework, each project comes with its own challenges; the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has faced an enormous legal challenge with the number of stakeholders that were involved. Laying the legal framework was key to the Costumer Relations Management system initiative that was implemented by the Authority. 3. Teamwork, the Costumer Relations Management system that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has implemented was huge and involved many internal departments as well as other external stakeholders, all parties buy-in was critical to the success of the initiative. 4. Consumer empowerment, the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority main objective to implement a Costumer Relations Management System was to empower the Kingdom of Bahrain’s telecommunications consumer’s, subscribers and end users. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority believes that an empowered consumer is the base of any successful competitive market, as an empowered consumer will demand the best product and services for the best price and value for money.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the kingdom of Bahrain
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Basil Al-Arrayed
Title:   Head of Corporate Communications  
Telephone/ Fax:  
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   barrayed@tra.org.bh  
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