Svyazinvest is a telecommunication investment joint stock company
that was formed by consolidating shares owned by the federal government
in regional telecom operations during the privatization of the
telecommunications sector. It is considered one of the largest
telecommunication holding companies in the world (Svyazinvest, 2008).
Svyazinvest incorporates seven large mega-regional telecommunications
operations, and national domestic long-distance and international
operations. The holding company’s subsidiaries operate public telephone
networks with capacity exceeding 32.4 million telephone lines. In 2005,
Svyazinvest, together with IBM and Amdocs (the provider of billing and
CRM products and services for integrated customer management), began
the largest CRM billing modernization project in Russia (Global Technology
Unit, 2005). This project was designed to replace more than 180 of
Svyazinvest's billing systems across seven regions with Amdocs products,
and included the implementation of new voice and data services for its
subscribers. The CRM project was conducted in several phases, including
the introduction of a single billing system across Svyazinvest operations.
The new CRM strategies and technologies eventually will provide
Svyazinvest with the ability to connect different operations located in
different geographic regions under one umbrella. This will give employees
the ability to get a single comprehensive view of consumers. Overall, the
implementation of new technologies is expected to give the company a
competitive advantage by developing the efficient and effective network
infrastructure in order to provide a high-quality telecommunication service
to its subscribers.