The revolution in the telecommunications industry has been good news for consumers. Costs in general have come down and a host of new services, such as on-demand video and Internet telephony, are now widely available. With customers hungry for new services, even regional telecommunications providers see revenue potential and are starting to get in on the act, joining Comcast, Time Warner and other major players.
But change isn’t easy. A perfect storm of sorts is created when smaller companies without multibillion-dollar IT budgets and armies of internal developers attempt to upgrade technology, keep costs in line, and continue to deliver great customer service and new products – all at the same time. Something’s gotta give, and something usually does.
That was the scenario facing SaskTel, a full service telecommunications company serving some 500,000 customers in greater Saskatchewan, Canada. SaskTel offers customers a host of services, including wireline and wireless phone, high-speed Internet, and digital cable TV.
SaskTel has grown over time by adding technology from a variety of vendors. For its mail service – one of the hot growth areas – the company uses software products from Netscape, Oracle, Portal, Sun Microsystems Inc. and Trend Micro. It also has developed some custom in-house products.
With so many vendors, it has become a full-time job just to maintain the licensing contracts, product upgrades, compliance requirements and maintenance schedules. Among the pain points at the company, the following three issues top the list:
* Ensuring compliance with all software licenses was becoming a costly and time-consuming process.
* Integrating and testing new service offerings while maintaining a customer’s single sign-on ability was a challenge.
* Maintaining and upgrading all of these products was a major drain on the IT staff.
With its corporate plan calling for cost reductions, product development and market growth, SaskTel clearly needed a better IT roadmap to be able to achieve its business and technology goals.
In October 2003, SaskTel turned to Sun. Together the companies looked at the challenges of simplifying IT management, introducing new services and extending SaskTel’s market reach without significantly growing the network infrastructure.
After a pilot test was completed in November 2003, SaskTel installed Java Enterprise System, wwws.sun.com/software/javaenterprisesystem, as the platform for its communications and collaboration network services, and to simplify its maintenance, upgrades and testing of new software.
With the Java Enterprise System, SaskTel consolidated 19 software product contracts and replaced it with one annual contract with Sun. When a software package is up for renewal or updating, SaskTel is assured that the components are pre-integrated and tested in real-world scenarios. The result is a smooth transition for the company and its customers, with little unplanned downtime.
This simplified approach lets SaskTel solve three problems:
Software Licensing Like many companies. SaskTel’s IT infrastructure is a multilayered complex of products from many different vendors. Ensuring license compliance can be difficult, but it can be managed through simplified and predictable software licensing models like what's available with the Java Enterprise System.
Software Integration and Testing SaskTel regularly adds to its infrastructure when it introduces new services to the market. Recently, the company debuted a new video on demand service that required integration with the product suite to ensure a seamless customer experience, as single sign-on access is a key feature of SaskTel’s offerings. The ability to quickly and easily test and then integrate these new offerings is a key requirement for SaskTel.
Software Maintenance and Upgrades With SaskTel’s IT infrastructure heavily weighted toward best-of-breed components, the company faces challenges with software maintenance. Any roadblocks to upgrading the system can make it difficult and time-consuming to offer customers newer and more robust features and functionality. Java Enterprise System helps simplify maintenance and upgrades.
After streamlining its internal operations, SaskTel focused on improving its services offerings. For example, the company is planning to launch its new eMessaging service that was developed using the Java Enterprise System.
The tight, coherent integration of infrastructure software components is the key to Java Enterprise System. This enables SaskTel to deliver products to its 250,000 customers from one platform that offers e-mail, portal, security, identity, calendar, directory, availability, Web and application servers.
In January 2004, the new mail service project was under way. Original estimates for developing and rolling out enhanced e-mail services put the timeframe at 20 months. The team at SaskTel and Sun delivered the new product in just nine months – an achievement that avoided significant behind-the-scenes tasks associated with infrastructure upgrade, integration, identity management, maintenance, training, and consulting issues, all of which would have directly affected time-to-market.
SaskTel also benefited from a unique pricing structure. For only $100 per full-time employee, SaskTel has unlimited right to use Java Enterprise System. This arrangement goes a long way toward alleviating the company’s software licensing woes by creating a flat annual fee.
The $100-per-employee arrangement has the additional benefit of scalability, meaning SaskTel does not have to pass costs on to its customer base. SaskTel pays the same price whether it serves 30,000 customers or 300,000.
SaskTel also is using Java Enterprise System to meet another goal: to build next-generation communications and collaboration hosted services targeted at business customers, a relatively new segment for the company. The service is scheduled for market launch in 2005.
Technology upgrades are an important part of business. In SaskTel’s case, the technology upgrade already is proving itself a winner.
SaskTel expects a three-year ROI of 986 percent with respect to the initial Sun Java Enterprise System subscription, according to an ROI study conducted by industry research firm E-Business Strategies Inc. The study also estimates SaskTel will realize software licensing-related cost-savings worth U.S. $1.28 million.
By leveraging various components within Java Enterprise System and the expertise of Sun’s consultants, SaskTel was able to shave 12 months from the time to market for its eMessaging service – a 12-month advantage that potentially translates into more than $4 million in value, according to E-Business Strategies.
As for the company’s chief resources – namely, its employees – the benefits already are evident. When SaskTel migrated to a technology platform that reinvigorated its business, accolades rolled in from employees responsible for system administration, product development, marketing, sales and finance. That alone adds to better service and higher customer satisfaction at SaskTel.
Joe Keller is vice president of marketing, Java Web Services and Development Platforms, Sun Microsystems, and can be reached at joe.keller@sun.com.
