MMCC Consultants of Milton Keynes have helped the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) to update its informatics system to enable the company to offer enhanced services to its 30,000 customers across Britain. The new system separates the company’s primary vehicle breakdown service from its additional services – such as insurance – to provide greater flexibility for its customers.
MMCC Consultants develop bespoke applications and provide system support for a wide portfolio of clients. The company was already handling the ongoing support of the system when the ETA decided an upgrade was required. MMCC was, therefore, the obvious choice of partner for the project.
The ETA, which claims to be the ‘world’s only carbon neutral motoring organisation’, has been providing an ethical alternative to other motoring organisations since 1990. But, according to Matt Mallinder, the ETA’s Operations Manager, having all its services – including motor insurance, travel insurance, carbon offsetting, etc. – linked directly to its membership database was becoming a problem. These services were only available to existing members and were provided pro-rata until the next membership renewal date. “It’s a big pill to swallow if your home insurance, motor insurance, travel insurance, etc. and your breakdown service all come up for renewal on the same day,” he said. “We had to upgrade our system to make our service more flexible for our customers.”
The new system has re-coded the ETA’s SGL database to take it away from the membership. It now allows the ETA to provide multiple products to multiple customers with multiple renewal dates whether or not the customer is a member of the core breakdown service. “Splitting our products in this way makes it easier for our customers to view our products in isolation and makes us much more competitive in the marketplace,” explained Matt. “We can also now offer payment options such as regular monthly payments or direct debit and have recently extended our range of products so we can provide an even better service to our customers.”
Although the core system was left intact, MMCC had to completely change the way it operated to allow for the sale of multiple products. When fully operational the system will allow the ETA to provide a full membership renewal service and give its customers online access to manage their accounts, pay bills and buy products. Mark Ogier, MMCC Managing Director said that the new system would open up opportunities for the ETA that were previously unavailable. “ETA’s customers will appreciate the increased flexibility they have over their accounts and the company’s staff will now be able to do their job efficiently without having to work around the capabilities of the IT system,” he said.
“We have had a very happy relationship with MMCC since we started working with the company two years ago both for ongoing maintenance of the system and during this major project,” said Matt. “Right from the start they worked with us to understand exactly what we want the system to do then make sure it works. We appreciate their expertise and commitment.”
MMCC took the original brief in December 2007 and had the system ready for testing in May 2008. The ETA expects it to be live early 2009.
MMCC Consultants
Stuart Griffin
Tel: 0845 6585777
Email: stuartG@mmcc.co.uk
www.mmcc.co.uk
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