Smoothing the lines of communication

Primus Telecommunications used to need 16 business days to connect new customers to its networks. As a result, the global communications company was losing more than 30% of its orders to competitors.

The company did not have a central repository for all customer interactions. Individual departments did not have the capabilities to track customers' orders, respond to inquiries or account for delays. Primus realized it needed to fix its order management problems and reduce the time it took to fill customer orders, said Jordan Darrow, VP of Investor Relations with the Primus Telecommunications Group.

The company wanted to extend connections to various external business partners, transforming its intranet into an extranet. Primus eventually chose SpaceWorks, a Web-centric, e-business solution, to automate all aspects of ordering, including marketing and selling, order tracking and fulfillment, and to support a community of selling partners.

In the first six months of the system's operation, Primus has cut its order provisioning time in half, Darrow said, reducing it from 16 days to seven. The sales staff has gained the ability to quadruple the number of orders per month, and the overall order volume has doubled. Outside sales groups can now check rates online.

Primus estimates that it is saving more than $500,000 per year in order processing costs, more than $180,000 in fraud prevention, and an additional $120,000 in the prevention of lost orders, according to Darrow