Sony Europe consolidates its CRM application with Dimension Data and Sword Ciboodle

Global electronics firm drives customer support, sales and marketing activities by consolidating data and processes from 10 inter-connected contact centres across Europe

LONDON, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ - Dimension Data (www.dimensiondata.com) the $4 billion IT solutions and services provider and Sword Ciboodle (www.sword-ciboodle.com), provider of customer-oriented business software and services, today announced that they have jointly implemented a pan-European contact centre solution for Sony Europe's Consumer Electronics division.

Sony Europe is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation, the global manufacturer of audio, video, communications and information technology products for consumer and professional markets. Sony is represented across Europe by sales divisions in each of its local markets, which are the single point of contact for both the channel partners and the end consumers in those markets. Sony Europe's contact centres provide support for its pre-sales, post-sales and repairs services.

The solution for Sony Europe was designed and managed by Dimension Data and Sword Ciboodle, and is based on Sword Ciboodle's award-winning, process-driven CRM software. It has been rolled out to Sony operations in all European countries and manages customer interactions across phone, email, white mail, fax and web contacts. Additionally it offers multi-channel support for contact history, case management, reporting, KPI management, outbound call back, and multiple languages. Sword Ciboodle's centralised architecture provides the end-user with a 360-degree view of customer information, and a consistent, accurate view of Sony products.

"We knew that we needed a solution that would help us strengthen our European Customer Support Activities by providing in one hand a strong, central and standard platform, and in the other hand a tool flexible enough to adapt to the local specificities we have across Europe," said Stephane Lissillour, General Manager Contact Centres, Sony Europe. "Dimension Data and Sword Ciboodle demonstrated that they could deliver the best solution, and our choice has been vindicated by the strategic benefits we are now realising within consumer electronics."

"Dimension Data and Sword Ciboodle have delivered a single platform for managing contacts, allowing our customers to reach us at any time and by any channel," added Lissillour. "The solution will also help drive our business by providing customer insight that we have never had before."

"Dimension Data is a recognised global leader in technology solutions for contact centres. Based on this expertise and experience in technology, business consulting and best practice contact centre management, we proposed and then managed the development and deployment of the new customer service application for Sony CSE based on the Sword Ciboodle platform. Now, Sony has a 100% fit business process interaction management system which will help them reinforce customer intimacy and cement their customer relationships to support Sony's business growth," said Vincent Trentels, CIS Business Development Manager at Dimension Data in Europe.

"The project we have delivered for Sony Europe is a perfect example of how Sword Ciboodle can work with a world-leading brand name to deliver a customer-oriented solution that also has a deeper strategic value to the business," said Kenny Bain, CEO, Sword Ciboodle EMEA. "This is yet another successful implementation of Sword Ciboodle in an outstanding year for this company - a year that has been very hard on other companies in this sector - and we are looking forward to continuing this success as we move into 2010."

About Dimension Data

Dimension Data plc (LSE:DDT), a specialist IT services and solution provider, helps clients plan, build, support and manage their IT infrastructures. Dimension Data applies its expertise in networking, converged communications, security, data centre and storage, Microsoft and contact centre technologies, and its unique skills in consulting, integration and managed services to create customised client solutions www.dimensiondata.com

About Sword Ciboodle

Sword Ciboodle helps improve the way large organisations interact with their customers. The combination of award-winning, process-managed CRM software and specialist consulting and delivery services help Sword Ciboodle's clients achieve higher revenues from their customers and reduce operational costs. Sword Ciboodle is consistently recognised by industry analysts as one of the world's leading customer-centric technology providers. For more information, please visit www.sword-ciboodle.com.

About Sword Group

Sword Group delivers high value business applications to the world's largest companies globally.

With operations in 37 countries, Sword today employs over 2000 people and in fiscal year ending December 2007 generated $263m in consolidated revenue.

An international leader in the delivery of Business Process Improvement solutions, Sword's skills, infrastructure and experience help our customers across regulated industries optimise performance, increase efficiencies and maximise return on investment.

With flexible delivery options, including On Demand and On Premises, combined with our extensive industry expertise, Sword provides comprehensive support to customers across insurance & healthcare, energy, banking & finance, telecoms, utilities, engineering & construction and government.

For more information, please visit www.sword-group.com.

SOURCE Sword ciboodle