Since launching in 2009, 2degrees has made a competitive impact on the New Zealand telecommunications market. The company has built a nationwide mobile network and lowered costs for Kiwis in the process. In early 2015, 2degrees acquired internet service provider Snap to become a full service telecommunications provider. 2degrees now has over 1 million customers, 1,200 staff, and 55 retail outlets with its brand new mobile network covering 98.5% of the places Kiwis live and work, complemented by ADSL, VDSL and UFB services.
In 2018, 2degrees realised its existing labour-intensive purchase-to-pay processes were significantly impacting business productivity. The business of buying lacked overall financial rigour and efficiency, with paper based purchasing and invoicing taking too long. In addition, the manual intervention necessary meant errors occurred, and end users were frustrated with long approval cycles. 2degrees knew it needed to improveprocurement visibility, efficiency, and control. End-to-end purchase-to-pay automation would facilitate reduced order processing times, and incoming invoices could be handled without unnecessary manual user intervention.
“We now view DXC as a trusted partner. They offered us speed and agility with thought leadership and significant Oracle EBS subject matter expertise that we just didn’t have internally.”
Alex Moffatt IT Application Delivery Manager, 2degrees
2degrees selected Basware to provide an online web-based portal, with a seamless purchase-to-pay process. Since bottlenecks in automating business processes typically reside in integration with the surrounding IT landscape — 2degrees also required integration to its existing Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) solution. With extremely diverse purchasing needs, 2degrees’ knew a specialist was required to cater for the unique requirements.
A strategic partnership was formed
As the largest independent provider of Oracle consulting and managed services in New Zealand and Australia, DXC offered the calibre of expertise 2degrees sought. As a provider of a full continuum of services around Oracle’s integrated suite of applications, platform services, and engineered systems, DXC provided the necessary dynamic technology leadership to integrate the two solutions.
DXC were engaged to provide Oracle EBS functional and technical consulting to determine requirements, specify integration solutions, develop integrations using XML translation, and conduct testing.
While 2degrees hadn’t previously worked with DXC, according to Alex Moffatt, IT application delivery manager at 2degrees, “We now view DXC as a trusted partner. They offered us speed and agility with thought leadership and significant Oracle EBS subject matter expertise that we just didn’t have internally.”
Solution
The DXC team of consultants set up an initial workshop with four consultants meeting with 2degrees team members to gain an in-depth understanding of business requirements. Matt Farrer, NZ consulting manager for DXC explained, “We employed a customised approach, however our knowledgeable consultants were able to go in and leverage their previous customer experience to support an optimal outcome as quickly as possible for 2degrees.”
As functional specifications were prepared and approved, the development work rapidly began. The DXC team delivered the full integration and initial testing within five months. 2degrees subsequently began independent testing with go live scheduled for 2019.
”With DXC consultants working side by side with our internal team, they were able to offer significant added value. They advised us on the integration architecture, design and implementation processes which was extremely helpful.“
Alex Moffatt IT Application Delivery Manager, 2degrees
Innovation is key
As New Zealand’s newest full-service telecommunications provider, 2degrees is laser focused on its customers. 2degrees entered the New Zealand wireless market as a prepaid-focused disruptor, halving the standard prices of voice calls and text messages and attracting over 200,000 customers in the first six months. Its service footprint is now at 98% of the population, with a dramatically expanded retail and distribution footprint.
This commitment to leading the market in innovation and value for its customers has won 2degrees numerous accolades and awards for marketing and customer satisfaction.
To continue its outstanding growth and success, 2degrees knows that innovation must extend to IT. Even with back office solutions such as this, savings to time, improvements in efficiencies, and reductions in cost are paramount.
Results
Technology is being used as an enabler for the business to achieve its goals. Where previously a purchase order took an average of 30 days to invoice against with internal customers becoming frustrated every step of the way – modernisation will improve that experience and significantly enhance the user journey. Time is freed for other tasks and processes are no longer error-prone. The business can get on with building its network further, expanding its retail and distribution footprint, and improving customer experience.
During this project, 2degrees realised that internal subject matter expertise regarding Oracle EBS was low with high reliance on external advisory services. DXC assisted in closing that gap through knowledge transfer. Alex Moffatt explained, “With DXC consultants working side by side with our internal team, they were able to offer significant added value. They advised us on the integration architecture, design and implementation processes which was extremely helpful.”
As a result of their expertise, DXC consultants uncovered several areas that hadn’t been set up correctly. They were able to provide suggestions for future system improvements, and looked at some reoccurring month-end issues to provide recommended actions.
Alex Moffatt summarised, “We’re very thankful for DXC’s assistance, and we’ve learnt a lot. We’ve subsequently selected DXC to provide Oracle EBS managed services moving forward.”