The  Implementation  of  Virgin  Mobile  SA’s  MIS  

MBA  Mod  2010  Group  5  

Background  !   Virgin  Mobile  SA  is  South  Africa’s  first  Mobile  Virtual  

Operator  (MVNO).  

!   “Copied”  in-­‐house  developed  MIS  from  Virgin  Mobile  Australia.  

!   Integrated  business  critical  processes  into  the  MIS.  

!   Hardware  failure  resulted  in  unrecoverable  MIS.  

!   Business  was  blind.  

!   Made  strategic  decision  to  outsource  MIS.  

Choosing  the  outsourcing  partner  

!   Major  business  impact,  management  realized  problem  and  was  prepared  to  invest.  

!   Immediate  requirement  to  implement  business  critical  processes  and  reports.  

!   4C  consultant  contracted  as  DWHS  manager  during  vendor  selection  process.  

!   4C  offered  pricing  model  in  line  with  VMSA’s  strategy.  

Implementation  Process  

!   Project  implemented  in  3  Phases  !   Phase  1:  Data  source  ETL  !   Phase  2:  Business  Critical  Process  Implementation  !   Phase  3:  Reporting  Configuration  

Old  DWHS  

COGNOS  

Prepaid  Billing  System  –  Cell-­‐C  

CRM  Cell-­‐C  

Allied  Shipping  Company   Nedbank   Roaming    

Credit  Vetting  

Commission  Processes  

Phase  1:  !   Gathered  information  regarding  data  sources,  formats,  frequencies  

and  samples.  

!   Configured  interfaces  on  new  MIS  resembling  interfaces  used  by  old  MIS.  

!   VMSA  concerned  about  progress  due  to  lack  of  visibility.  

!   Involved  VMSA  with  data  validations  to  improve  visibility  and  confidence  in  data  integrity  of  new  MIS.  

Old  DWHS  

COGNOS  

Prepaid  Billing  System  –  Cell-­‐C  

CRM  Cell-­‐C  

Allied  Shipping  Company   Nedbank   Roaming    

New  DWHS  

Credit  Vetting  

Commission  Processes  

Phase  2:  !   Prioritized  business  critical  process  to  be  implemented.  

!   Testing  done  by  running  processes  in  parallel  with  current  MIS  and  comparing  outputs.  

!   Interfaces  to  external  systems  kept  similar  to  current  MIS  output  to  eliminate  additional  development.  

!   Production  implementation  transparent  to  external  systems.  

Old  DWHS  

COGNOS  

Prepaid  Billing  System  –  Cell-­‐C  

CRM  Cell-­‐C  

Allied  Shipping  Company   Nedbank   Roaming    

New  DWHS  

Credit  Vetting  

Commission  Processes  

Credit  Vetting  

Commission  Processes  

!   Started  by  prioritizing  reports  to  be  delivered.  

!   VMSA  already  invested  in  COGNOS  as  reporting  and  BI  tool.  

!   COGNOS  user  interface  embedded  into  new  MIS  user  interface.  

!   Several  new  reports  requested  by  users.  

!   No  clear  user  requirements  for  reports  caused  delay  in  project.  

!   Signed  Business  Requirement  Specifications  required  before  reporting  configuration  start.  

 

Phase  3:  

Old  DWHS  

                           MIS  UI  

Prepaid  Billing  System  –  Cell-­‐C  

CRM  Cell-­‐C  

Allied  Shipping  Company   Nedbank   Roaming    

New  DWHS  

Credit  Vetting  

Commission  Processes  

COGNOS   COGNOS  

Old  vs.  New  End-­‐of-­‐life  storage  with  

no  redundancy  

Lacked  MIS  review  processes  

No  knowledge  base  

Data  quality  not  up  to  standard  

Conclusion  !   VMSA  lacked  in-­‐house  MIS  expertise,  made  strategic  

decision  to  outsource.  

!   New  MIS  would  reduce  risk  by  addressing  issues  faced  with  current  system.  

!   Consultant  from  4C  acting  as  DWHS  manager  provided  technical  insight.  

!   Change  management  minimized  by  utilizing  known  user  interfaces.  

!   Resulted  en  several  new  projects  between  VMSA  and  4C.