Rogers Wireless Goes Anywhere
When a bank or major retailer wants to issue a new credit card, setting up the software to process the transactions can be a huge task. How huge? When she lands the contract, Debbie Gracie-Smith is inundated with about 10 resumés in the first 24 hours. That's enough to clog the average wireless handheld account but not hers.
As president of CRATOS Technology Solutions Inc., Gracie-Smith subscribes to a Rogers Wireless voice and e-mail package for her new BlackBerry, with additional storage capacity for attachments. It can hold all the resumés as well as the time sheets that 40 independent consultants send her each month. The other reason, she says, is her hectic travel itinerary. For the last two years, CRATOS has landed all its business with large banks and retailers in 20 countries outside North America, earning it a nomination for this years Ontario Global Export Awards. Gracie-Smith is constantly on the road, selling CRATOS services, assembling project teams and following up with bimonthly visits.
With Rogers Wireless, wherever she is, she simply turns on her BlackBerry and it registers automatically with the local carrier, extending all the advantages of voice, wireless email and mobile Internet service. And Rogers has roaming agreements around the world. Calling locally or calling Canada, it's equally straightforward. "I dont have to preface numbers with the international dial codes when I'm calling home,"says Gracie-Smith. "It automatically does that for me."
The next foray for CRATOS will be on two fronts: establishing expertise in smart card technology arriving from Europe and undertaking full production support for international card transactions."It's a good challenge for us,"says Gracie-Smith. "We'll need to beef up our client server and our security systems,but at least we're already accustomed to working globally. Wireless has helped us do that."
Rogers Wireless continuously invests in its network quality to extend and improve its reach, for example, completing a national roll out of GSM/GPRS coverage at 850 MHz for better rural and in-building coverage.
