The Challenge

UZO was a new brand trying to put out an image of simplicity and transparency. Being a low cost brand and having website and contact center as the only customer touchpoints, it was vital that the contact center communicators were able to give a timely and accurate response. However, a legacy application was threatening to hinder them badly.

The Solution

Enter DRI and SugarCRM. A wide set of custom modules were designed to enable the management of each and every customer request and complaint. A highly configurable system that made sure that each type of query had an appropriate workflow, tasks were assigned to teams and followed up on, and information was exchanged with other systems such as billing and network. All this on a light, user friendly system, to cope with typical contact center employee churn.

The Result

Over 7 years after going into production, SugarCRM is still the backbone of the UZO contact center, hosting a total of 6 virtual brands. Through all this time, changes have been made to cope with new legal requirements and market changes, millions of tasks have been processed, configurations of request types and workflows added, removed and changed. The system remains rock solid.

The whole story

Launched by Portugal Telecom in 2005, UZO has quickly emerged as one of Portugal’s leading mobile virtual network operators. UZO has rapidly built an extensive customer base by offering affordable, non-contractual mobile phone plans.

Based in Lisbon, Portugal, UZO is a virtual operator for TMN, the leading mobile telecommunications provider in Portugal. UZO’s simple, hassle-free cellular plans has made it a popular choice for many consumers who have been reluctant to lock into a long term contract.

A growing pain

With a growing customer base, the company’s internal tool for tracking customer interactions was stretched beyond its capabilities. High employee turnover, typical in a contact center, was creating a huge demand for training, give the poor usability of the previous solution.

UZO’s internal solution also made it difficult for customer service representatives to view an account’s complete history. Inbound and outbound call information was separated and viewed only by certain individuals and groups.

Sugar to the rescue

UZO conducted a thorough search to replace their existing tool, emphasizing user adoption and precise customer communication tracking. UZO’s comprehensive search ended when they chose to go with SugarCRM due to its ease of use compared to other CRM solutions.

The flexibility and scalability of SugarCRM, warranted by it’s Open Source nature, was another factor, as it allowed UZO to shape the platform to it’s real business needs, instead of the other way around.

Partnering with DRI

UZO enlisted the help of DRI, a certified SugarCRM partner, to implement a fully customized and integrated long-term solution. With DRI’s expertise, UZO’s Sugar deployment is now customized to fit UZO’s specific needs as a telecommunications customer call center. DRI’s key customizations and integrations with external billing applications have given reps the added ability to expedite customer inquires and solutions based on the nature of the service inquiry.

Continuous growth

With Sugar Enterprise and the help of DRI, UZO’s customer service center has become a competitive strength for the growing company. Customer inquiries are now handled more efficiently, helping UZO retain a higher percentage of their large customer base.

In production since 2006, SugarCRM still supports UZO’s massive growth. UZO is now one of the best known brands in its business. The platform has been proven flexible and scalable enough to grow with the company in the highly dynamic mobile communications market.