Executive summary

Hong Kong’s Wallem Group is one of the world’s best-known marine transport and logistics organisations. It recently celebrated its centenary, marking 100 years of success in the maritime industry. The Group was looking for increased benefits from its voice traffic on major international routes – and on satellite calls to their fleet – as part of a broad drive to improve value and profitability.

After a far-reaching market survey, Wallem opted for BT Voice Port for its Hong Kong headquarters and Fort Lauderdale office in the United States (US). Voice Port offers international direct dialling (IDD) on the Group’s major traffic routes and voice communications to ships at sea.

The Voice Port service provides a robust, cost effective and reliable voice network linking Wallem’s main business offices and ships at sea. The Group has achieved service and support benefits, and has seen improved IDD charges into the bargain.

Marketplace

A young Norwegian, Haakon Johan Wallem, founded the Wallem Group in 1903 in the Chinese city of Shanghai. The Group later moved to the former British colony of Hong Kong, where it developed into one of the most respected names in the global maritime industry. The Group now employs more than 5,600 people in offices in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, North and South America, including their ships around the world.

Originally focused on ship broking, the Group is now a highly diversified business with interests in ship ownership, ship and cargo broking, ship agency, ship management and software development. Major oil companies know Wallem for its tanker fleet, while bulk carriers and container lines are equally familiar with its high levels of service and standards. In recent years Wallem has managed the largest ship in the world, the tanker ‘Jahre Viking’ and will continue the relationship now she has been renamed ‘Knock Nevis’ and converted to a Floating Storage Facility.

Business opportunity

At the centre of Wallem’s service promise to its customers is a commitment to leading edge IT, which is realised through the Group’s Information Systems department. In a highly competitive maritime market, Wallem was keen to find new ways of maintaining its competitive edge. At the same time, in weak global economic conditions, cost savings were required.

In November 2002, the Group conducted a thorough international voice services review. Wallem’s primary voice traffic routes were calls from its Hong Kong headquarters to mainland China, other regional destinations, and to ships at sea. The other principal area was calls from the office in Fort Lauderdale in the USA to Hong Kong, ships and other international offices including the UK.

With the relocation of its Hong Kong headquarters to new premises timed for the end of May 2003, Wallem wanted to phase the implementation of its newly chosen voice services with that office move.

BT solution

Ian Parkes, Group Information Systems Manager at Wallem, recalls: “We conducted a far-reaching market review and, particularly, looked at areas where money could be saved based on a very detailed analysis of our particular traffic patterns. We compared BT rates with other local and international vendors including two US competitors.”

In early May 2003, BT was awarded a contract to provide its Voice Portbranded service to Wallem in Hong Kong and the US. Voice Port offers competitive international direct dialling (IDD) rates for fixed line users in offices and for mobile and home users too. Fully managed and maintained by BT, it provides customers with secure and reliable voice connections, including key virtual private network functionality that helps to improve efficiency. During its research phase Wallem found that Voice Port offered by far the best tariffs on international call traffic originating from Hong Kong and the US, in some cases as 20 per cent lower than other carriers.

Flexibility was an important issue in the negotiations. Wallem was impressed by BT’s responsiveness to its requests to tune its standard tariffs to reflect the Group’s unique traffic pattern. Improved service and call rates on certain strategic routes identified by the earlier analysis – helped Wallem realise important financial and operational objectives.

BT showed that it was willing to go the extra mile throughout the negotiation and implementation process. “Apart from its keen pricing if I were asked to nominate a single reason why we do business with BT, I would say it is because of the support that we get,” says Ian Parkes. “As an example, we had a major issue with a US service provider where ‘phantom’ phone calls generated a US$40,000 invoice. Despite being a long-term customer we were unable to reach agreement and we asked BT for help.”

Ian Parkes, who went on to describe the matter as the best example of account management he has seen, relates what happened: “BT sorted it all out for us. We gave them the problem and the problem just went away. I know that the BT account team spent a huge amount of time on this, and it wasn’t really their problem and there certainly wasn’t anything in it for BT. It was just something they could help us with, so they did. There aren’t many big organisations that take customer care that seriously.”

There were other mainstream benefits. BT completed the Voice Port implementation at the end of May, the same time as Wallem’s Hong Kong office relocation. Ian Parkes says: “Based on the service levels and the tariff advantages we have experienced, we would always consider BT services where appropriate and we are very open to other aspects of its service offering that we have not yet addressed.”

Results

The service was quickly and easily installed, enabling Wallem to realise benefits almost immediately. BT also provides simplified billing and management arrangements with one consolidated bill issued in Hong Kong and a comprehensive one stop shop service and support package from BT’s regional team.

Ian Parkes concludes: “We chose BT Voice Port because BT was able to offer by far the best combination of price and service for our international telephone traffic profile. Compared with the other suppliers that we polled, BT offered the best value for money.”

For further information please contact your BT account manager or visit www.bt.com/networkedIT