"K-90 certainly knew their business. Throughout the time they have been working for us they have shown their complete knowledge of interconnect systems and business processes and how to optimise the two so that operational costs are decreased whilst revenue and profit are increased. We have been impressed by their knowledge and hard work and will certainly use them again .."
Mike Fiddler, Systems Development Manager.
"K-90 showed from day one that they would work with us to ensure our interconnect system worked to its best ability. Their BT EBC knowledge is second to none and they are now supporting the system to help us maximise its potential .."
Leigh Knowles, Interconnect Manager
Global Crossing, an international telecommunications company, uses the legacy Prospero interconnect system.
They realised that they may not be using the system to the optimum and that this may have been losing them revenue. They commissioned K-90 to investigate the system and the business processes that surrounded the system and to report what they could do to optimise the system and processes.
K-90 used business analysts, database experts and interconnect experts and spent 4 weeks thoroughly investigating the Interconnect and interface systems whilst documenting the system and business process inadequacies. This culminated in a 40 page document which listed
- system problems
- business process problems
- the impact of such problems
- the suggested solutions
- the business benefits of implementing the solutions.
Global Crossing had also asked K-90 to investigate whether another, newer, interconnect system would better suit their needs. K-90, as an independent consultancy company, was happy to do so and listed alternative systems with the benefits and limitations of other systems including any cost benefits that accrued.
Subsequently, many of K-90's suggestions were implemented and K-90 are now working with on site staff to ensure that the current system is operating to maximum efficiency, ensuring that the BT EBC is up to date and supporting the operation.
Lynx Integarted Systems Limited (Kenya)
"Lynx and K-90 have worked together as one cohesive team for 3 years on various IT projects in East Africa .
K-90 have shown consistent professionalism, customer care and flexibility. The technical and business skills provided to us by K-90 have helped Lynx to work on a wide range of business opportunities from Retail and Telecoms systems to Networking and project financing. K-90 is a great technology and business partner to have on board "
Francis Agumba , Managing Director.
A selection of the key K-90/Lynx joint project are outlined below:
- Telecoms: Tape Elimination Solution - Legacy PSTN Switches
Design, source and supply of a cost effective solution for the elimination of data collection via magnetic tapes and optical drives from legacy switches to the mediation system.
Solution saves client $11m in first year with 2 month payback period. - Telecoms: Switch Data Analysis
Design and build data reporting facility for international traffic providing greatly enhanced billable information resulting in dramatic reduction in debtor days.
Payback period - 3 weeks. - Retail: OSS/BSS, EPOS
Design and arrange end-to-end business IT automation (HQ to Store) using Microsoft solutions (ERP, EPOS) as a full technology refresh for the supermarket client.
New infrastructure to be run on a 5 year Managed Service basis utilising project financing / leasing of all capital and services.
Business Impact: removes $5m from Capex budget of retailer and provides a pay-as-you-go facility for the client. - Networking: Optimization of corporate networks
Implementation of leading-edge technology from Peribit, a USA-based company, to enable significant bandwidth usage savings on existing LAN/WAN links.
Negates the need for clients to upgrade existing links for new application rollouts due to average of 75% reduction in network data throughput, and in many cases allows link capacity to be downgraded by at least 50% if appropriate.
Banking, Oil & Gas, Insurance, Manufacturing, ISPs, Telcos are live and on-going markets for this technology in East Africa .
Business Impact for larger clients: $m savings in the mid to long term; payback in 6 months; non-disruptive rollout - Telecoms: OSS/BSS requirements analysis and system design
Full review and proposal of mediation, rating, billing, customer care and CRM platform for new fixed line telecoms operator.
New infrastructure to be run on a 5 year Managed Service basis utilising project financing / leasing of all capital and services.
Business Impact: removes $4m from Capex budget of telco over 5 years and provides a pay-as-you-go facility based on bills/month and contracted subscribers. - Telecoms: Bulk SMS provision
Provision of SMS messaging in bulk purchase format (500,000 to 50m / month) to a mobile marketing business.
Business Impact: Savings of over 60% on locally sourced bulk SMS, month on month. - Hardware: Sourcing
K-90 have assisted in driving down costs by sourcing surplus hardware (servers, PCs) from Europe for the following African industry markets
Manufacturing, University, Hospital, Government, Sugar Processing
Business Impact: Savings of 30% - 60% on standard list prices. - Project Finance & Rentals
Many African projects suffer from cash flow issues, particularly with large capital expenditure. K-90 provide access to UK-based capital rentals and hire purchase facilities to enable projects to be cost effective on a spread-cost and spread-risk basis. Several of the projects named above utilised this facility.
Uraeus Holdings Limited
"K-90 have always been highly responsive and flexible. Moreover they understand business issues and deal well with the pressures that our business brings, such as tight timescales, changes to plan and tight cost control. The quality of the technical staff they have on board is a credit to their business"
Peter Duckworth, Chairman
"Uraeus is a Telecoms OSS/BSS outsource business working across Africa and Middle East . We use K-90 as an integral Uraeus team member to source Telecoms OSS/BSS specialist personnel for the design, implementation, operation and support of our outsourced solutions.
K-90 were also key in establishing the "Africa-friendly" technical architecture that Uraeus is utilizing today through the selection and integrating of the following solutions:
- Interconnect Settlement, Mediation and Activation, Fraud Management, Business
- Intelligence, Revenue Assurance, Billing & Customer Care, Process Automation.
K-90 have always been highly responsive and flexible. Moreover they understand business issues and deal well with the pressures that our business brings, such as tight timescales, changes to plan and tight cost control. The quality of the technical staff they have on board is a credit to their business"
Peter Duckworth , Chairman, Uraeus Holdings Limited
"Through searching the vendor market for an appropriate solution K-90 quickly and successfully matched the business needs to the capabilities of one particular vendor and also ensured tight budgetary compliance, local support and rapid rollout were guaranteed."
Tunde Olaniawo, Managing Director, Entegration Solutions Limited.
"I came to K-90 in 2003 in search of a logistics and business management solution for the Nigerian agent of a very large international courier company.
K-90 rapidly got to understand the business and its real-world issues by visiting the client's operational staff in the largest depot, plus the board members at the Lagos HQ, before even considering what the solution may be. This was a sensible but critical approach to ensuring the solution was fully matched to the needs of the business.
The business requirements were:
- Real-time courier vehicle tracking, scheduling and, route planning
- End-to-end package tracking and management (package bar coding)
- Logistics management(shipments control and verification)
- Business intelligence - KPIs (financial analysis, delivery performance & SLAs, staff performance)
- Enhancement in business intelligence to allow for improved service offerings (e.g. SLAs)
Through searching the vendor market for an appropriate solution K-90 quickly and successfully matched the business needs to the capabilities of one particular vendor and also ensured tight budgetary compliance, local support and rapid rollout were guaranteed."
Tunde Olaniawo , Managing Director, Entegration Solutions Limited ( Nigeria )