Challenges

• Ensure around-the-clock availability, as well as unrivalled performance and manageability for Wind Hellas' third-party enterprise resource planning (ERP) back-office systems, billing solution, and Oracle's Siebel sales, marketing, and customer relationship management applications, on which the company operates its fixed line, mobile, and internet services
• Build seamlessly integrated, end-to-end automated process flows between diverse vendor products to optimize efficiency, enhance customer service, and reduce operating costs
• Gain rapid and unlimited access to the technologies needed to bring to market new service packages, bundled mobile and internet offerings, alternate pricing options, and special pricing promotions to meet changing consumer needs and trends ahead of competitors in a dynamic, cost-driven communications environment
• Leverage long-standing investment in Oracle’s market-leading infrastructure to develop innovative, convenient, and personalized ways for customers to manage their accounts with WIND Hellas, to reduce churn and boost customer lifetime value
• Simplify management of Oracle licenses for the database and middleware systems underpinning critical business processes
• Avoid time-consuming usage monitoring to avoid risk of noncompliance with the license agreement
• Increase budgeting accuracy and accounting flexibility through predictable license costs

Solutions

• Benefited from the unparalleled availability and scalability of Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g and real-time failover capabilities of Oracle Real Application Clusters to build unbreakable reliability for Wind Hellas' ERP back-office systems and its customer-facing billing, sales, marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM) processes
• Optimized system performance and streamlined support and management by using Oracle Partitioning, Oracle Tuning Pack, and Oracle Diagnostics Pack to detect and resolve system problems proactively, preventing revenue loss due to system downtime or restricted access
• Benefited from the high-performance caching capabilities of Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database to ensure subsecond response times, rapid order transaction processing, and fast inquiry response during live customer interactions online or through  the contact center—maximizing service quality and customer satisfaction
• Deployed Oracle WebLogic Server, Enterprise Edition to scale out customer-facing applications horizontally and dynamically to meet growth in services offered to customers and client numbers without impacting access speed and response time
• Benefited from Oracle WebLogic Server’s pre-engineered integration with Oracle Database to build a unified management environment across the entire middleware and database stack
• Used tools in Oracle SOA Suite for Oracle Middleware 11g to link and route workflow-through Siebel CRM and third-party billing applications into seamlessly integrated order-to-pay processes and to make amendments according to changes to business rules, current promotions, the terms of each customer’s individual contract, and new regulatory requirements
• Signed a three-year ULA for Oracle Database, middleware, and service-oriented architecture (SOA) technologies to gain flexibility to build and deploy new service features and capabilities without restraints, regardless the of the numbers of processors and users
• Gained predictable technology costs for three years, which improved budgeting accuracy
• Saved time by consolidating license renewals for each Oracle technology agreement into just one
• Benefited from the Oracle ULA with the ability to circumvent WIND Hellas' three-month procurement cycle, which would have delayed launch time for new offerings in a competitive communications environment, where being first to market is critical to reducing churn and increasing market share
• Expanded use of Oracle SOA Suite for Oracle Middleware 11g by building AESOP, a new online portal that will give customers self-service access to their accounts and enable them to amend address and bank account details, sign up for new pricing plans, upgrade to additional services, and purchase new mobile phones, tablets, and accessories
• Capitalized on the ULA to further WIND Hellas' strategy to standardize on Oracle’s pre-integrated database, middleware, and SOA technology to build new applications and functionality across the enterprise
• Reduced IT cost of ownership by maximizing use of the existing in-house Oracle specialists

Why Oracle

WIND Hellas is a long-term user of Oracle Database, middleware, and SOA technologies to underpin its back-office and customer-facing operations. Oracle will continue to serve as the company’s strategic IT partner as it furthers its goal to increase its share of the competitive telecommunications market in Greece.

"Entering into a ULA will enable us to capitalize on our investment in Oracle’s unbreakable technology to develop and deploy innovative, new offerings to customers rapidly and with no additional costs," said Dimosthenis Nikolopoulos, IT operations and program office director, WIND Hellas Telecommunications S.A.