T-Mobile - eCommerce
A sophisticated eCommerce and eCare site for T-Mobile Wireless- Better customer service through customer care web site
- Faster activation for new customers through online system tied to back end business applications
- Built to run with variety of technologies
Based in Bellevue, Washington, T-Mobile is a leading provider of digital wireless communications in the United States. T-Mobile uses the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology - the world's most widely used digital standard.
The Challenge
T-Mobile required a highly-branded web site with sophisticated capabilities tailored for the wireless industry. The system had to be flexible enough to quickly adapt to business changes, as well as be simple enough to deploy across the country to both direct and indirect channels across various operating systems.
The Solution
The site was designed to allow the customer or sales representative to purchase and activate both pre-paid and post-paid phones online with a thin-client small enough to be run on a laptop with a 28.8 modem connection. In fact, the client has been tested on a laptop connected via dialup through a 9600 Baud via the wireless phone - a.k.a. activate a phone with a phone.
In addition to this eCommerce capability, the web site provides eCare capabilities that gave the customer enough independence to service their account online. Aside from providing highly-branded yet static marketing content, the system allows customers to send messages to phones, change their auto-dial numbers, and view and pay bills online.
Key integration points include real-time hooks into the billing system, switches, text, and binary messaging subsystems, credit scoring systems, credit-card and electronic check payment system, and the POS system. Key Technologies Used: HTML, JavaScript, Java middle-tier objects, Java "Swing" administrative utilities, ASP/COM, JDBC, ADO, Oracle, SQL Server, Linux, HPUX, Windows NT, load-balancing, n-tier architecture. Other technologies used: HTML and WML.
