Postage optimisation saved millions

Telenor’s requirement was that customers should not notice the transition to business post and that payment deadlines should not be shorter.

Postage is a big item for many companies. Telenor Denmark managed to save two million Danish kroner a year by moving to business post, although it required a modification of the invoicing system.

Telenor’s requirement was that customers should not notice the transition to business post and that payment deadlines should not be shorter.

The company

Telenor Danmark was formed by the merger of mobile phone company Sonofon and broadband provider Cybercity. Sonofon acquired Cybercity in 2005. Four years later the companies were brought together under Telenor.
Telenor Danmark has more than 2 000 employees and is a part of the Telenor Group, which operates in 14 countries with a total of 40 000 employees. Telenor has about 20 per cent of the Danish mobile subscription market and 18.7 per cent of the mobile broadband market, i.e. pure data subscription. These figures are from the second half of 2009. The biggest competitors are TDC, Telia and Telmore.

The challenge

Telenor Danmark wanted to save money by using the business post service. It was incredibly important that customers did not notice the change in the form of payment deadlines being shorter. There were several problems when Telenor, working in conjunction with Stralfors, started to investigate the possibilities of making savings on postage costs. There were, for example, two different invoicing systems within Telenor – one for mobile customers with the old Sonofon and one for Cybercity’s broadband customers. Mobile invoices were compiled and dispatched on 12 fixed days in the month, broadband invoices every day. Mobile invoices were sent by 2nd class post, broadband invoices 1st class. These had to be adapted to one another.

The solution

The solution was a compilation mechanism that collected invoices from both systems twice a week. Three days a week, the letters were delivered to the Post Office. At the same time, the terms of payment were extended slightly for customers. Many departments were involved at Telenor in the project to capture various aspects and any potential problems.

The result

The new postage optimisation process involves a barcode next to each address on the invoices sent out. Apart from that, customers notice no change. The total saving on postage is estimated at two million Danish kroner a year, about ten per cent.

The future

Letters with invoices represent a large proportion of the letters sent each year to Telenor’s customers.
But a very large number of letters are also sent in connection with customers’ telephony and broadband orders. It is therefore natural that the next phase of the project – “Business Post!” – focuses on other customer letters. There are high expectations of achieving a similar saving here.

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