Telcom tries to improve customer service

Telcom tries to improve customer service

	Published : Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:08 By : Agencies Print this Story

HONOLULU (AFX) - Hawaiian Telcom has hired a consulting firm to solve customer service and business support problems that have plagued the phone company since last April.

Hawaiian Telcom will pay Accenture Ltd. $46 million dollars to take over key Hawaiian Telcom systems from another consulting company, BearingPoint Inc.

Billing system glitches have dogged Hawaiian Telcom after new owners took over the islands' phone service from Verizon Communications last year.

Customers complained of long waits for service and problems with getting through to the phone company to report their problems.

Half of the funds in the new 17-month Accenture contract will go toward improving the order-to-billing process, enhancing productivity and other work to fix the current system.

The rest will cover system maintenance.

The Accenture deal, announced Thursday, came one day after BearingPoint agreed to pay Hawaiian Telcom $52 million as well as dismiss previously submitted invoices of about $30 million.

As part of the agreement, Hawaiian Telcom released BearingPoint from all liability in connection with acts or omissions prior to the date of the settlement payment.

The Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C., which created Hawaiian Telcom from the Verizon Communications' Hawaii assets it bought for $1.6 billion, hired BearingPoint to build and operate a new back-office and information technology infrastructure.

But problems followed soon after the April 1 cutover to the new system, with customers complaining of long waits on help lines and double billings.

BearingPoint will officially hand over the reins to Accenture on May 2.

Formerly Andersen Consulting, the Bermuda-based company changed its name to Accenture in 2001. Accenture describes itself as a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company.

Hawaiian Telcom has already gotten some Accenture help, and says response times are improving.

Dan Smith, Hawaiian Telcom's vice president for corporate communications, said 79 percent of all calls to the residential call center last month were answered in 20 seconds or less.