Next-Generation Marketing: Swisscom Schweiz AG counts on BSI for its B2C customer strategy

Baden, July 20, 2021 – Swisscom AG, headquartered in Ittigen near Bern, is the leading telecommunications provider and one of Switzerland’s most important IT companies. With over 19,000 employees, it is considered one of the country’s most innovative and sustainable corporations. Swisscom Schweiz AG has selected the software company BSI to develop a sustainable marketing technology system that facilitates automated customer engagement across all interfaces.

Tapping into new distribution paths and channels to communicate with its B2C customers, engaging with them proactively, gaining a deep understanding of customer journeys and thanking selected customers for their loyalty – to get a handle on these and other topics, Swisscom Schweiz AG was looking for a technology partner to actively support them with the implementation of their “Next- Generation Marketing” vision. To find the best partner, Swisscom issued a so-called pocathon tender in September 2019. Four well-known software vendors participated in the three-day competition to meet Swisscom’s objective of successfully implementing various use cases. In addition to the technical implementation of a Black Friday promotion and recurring events such as birthday mailings, it also included complex upselling activities. The software manufacturer BSI won the competition, laying the foundation for a joint pilot project that has been successfully completed by now – the Digital Experience Platform BSI CX, live in the Swisscom enterprise cloud.

BSI comes out on top in “Next-Generation Marketing” pocathon

The crucial factor for Swisscom’s decision was the maturity and connectivity of the BSI solution. BSI implemented all the presented cases within its Digital Experience Platform exclusively, created automated customer journeys, and demonstrated straightforward interface integration. The test environment quickly conveyed realistically how much flexibility BSI CX provides in terms of customization for the specific solutions required for the cases – the team was able to set up necessary features and demonstrate their application to Swisscom in a spirit of partnership and collaboration. This ensured high marks for BSI on a technical basis. Yet, BSI also scored well on a personal basis by providing expert advice, demonstrating an in-depth understanding of the customer and presenting the best overall concept.

Successfully connecting BSI to existing interfaces

In November 2019, the two companies launched their joint development of the MVP project. Within the envisioned project length of 6 months, the goal was to create the technological prerequisites for mapping customers along individual customer journeys in the system, engage them in an automated manner by e-mail, text or phone, and deliver personalized thank-yous for their loyalty to them. While linking BSI CRM to various interfaces was a complex challenge during this process, it turned out to be the crucial puzzle piece for BSI, leading to the project’s success.

Further rollout is planned

The pilot phase was successfully completed in July of 2020, and the Digital Experience Platform from BSI has been operational and online in Swisscom AG’s enterprise cloud since then. As a result, it became possible to process more than a thousand subscribers in less than a month and send personalized communication to them via their preferred channel. As part of the rollout, the company plans to develop additional use cases and customer journeys in collaboration with BSI. The next steps are promising: “Given the size of our company, its various divisions and business units, it was important to us to have a fully integrated and automated system that would also be user-friendly,” explained Patricia Gross-Gonzalez, Director of the Next-Generation Marketing program at Swisscom Schweiz AG. “We have complete confidence in the BSI team, not only on a solution level but also on a human level. Therefore, we look forward to continuing to work together, completing new projects and jointly developing our future marketing vision.”