Bmg Chooses Sun For New Customer Management System

Business Wire, July 25, 1995

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 1995--BMG Direct, a subsidiary of BMG (Bertelsman Music Group) Entertainment N.A., has selected the Sun Microsystems platform for developing an easier-to-use, more effective customer management system. Information technology specialists from BMG Direct, Sun and Imonics, a customer management software specialist based in Cary, North Carolina, have created an automated system for scanning, tracking and responding to customer correspondence and telephone inquiries -- all with reduced training for customer service representatives and greater quality of results.

Digital Files Reduce Paper Trail

BMG Direct receives approximately four million pieces of customer mail each week from its rapidly growing mail order music club membership. The majority of correspondence is standardized order cards and remittance documents. Messages written on these documents by customers are imaged as they are processed and entered into Imonics' workflow system running on Sun(TM) workstations. A significant percentage of BMG Direct's customer correspondence is typed or handwritten letters. Rather than physically tracking and maintaining each of these individual letters, the new customer management system uses Kodak scanners attached to a Sun workstation to create a digital letter. These images are entered into the Imonics workflow system and distributed electronically to customer service representatives for processing and response.

Transaction codes that previously needed to be entered manually by the BMG service representative are now embedded in Imonics' customer management application, allowing for easier updating of customer records. Customer service representatives also have more information available on-screen, allowing them to immediately respond to phone inquiries about products or specific accounts.

Better Service/Less Training

"Working with Sun Microsystems has enabled us to achieve our vision for a more efficient, enhanced customer service system in a much shorter time frame than if we had partnered with any other vendor," said Oren Testa, BMG Direct's vice president of fulfillment operations. "Our new customer management system running on Sun workstations and servers is dramatically reducing the costs and time involved in training our service representatives and is helping us serve customers better."

As part of the new overall customer management system, BMG Direct also will be implementing enhanced voice-response functions within their call system for customers to easily obtain updated information about their account or a current order. The new telephony functions work via instant access to customer records housed on Sun SPARCstation(TM) 20 systems.

The BMG Direct installation includes over 500 SPARCstation 4 systems, used by customer service representatives for correspondence and phone inquiry. BMG Direct's network management costs have been reduced because the networked SPARCstations can be monitored and managed easily through Sun's Solstice(TM) enterprise management tools. BMG Direct's large and growing customer database -- 600 gigabytes and expected to reach more than a terabyte of data by the end of the year -- is housed on Sybase's database software running on four SPARCserver(TM) 1000 systems and 10 SPARCstorage(TM) Array subsystems.

"BMG Direct is an excellent example of Sun's enterprise strategy working to help companies successfully reengineer their business processes," said Anil Gadre, vice president of corporate marketing at Sun Microsystems Computer Company. "Our close partnerships with Imonics and Sybase have played an important part in designing and implementing this total solution, which is already saving money and time for BMG Direct."

Sun Microsystems Computer Company (SMCC) is a world leader in the design, manufacture and sale of network computing systems for businesses and is a division of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Recognized for quality and innovation, the company's SPARC-based workstations, multiprocessing servers, SPARC microprocessors and Solaris(TM) operating software each hold the No. 1 UNIX marketshare position and are used primarily for technical, commercial, industrial, education and software development applications. -0-

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