Press Releases

Budapest, February 10, 2000

The independent qualification agency SGS Hungaria, a member of the international SGS Group, has declared Matáv's billing system ISO 9001 compliant. SGS Hungaria completed the local audit of Matáv's billing system in December 1999. MATÁV is the third Hungarian telecommunications company to meet the requirements of the authorities and prove that our billing system is closed and accurate. (The first telecommunications company to meet the relevant ISO requirements was Westel 900 and the second, the First Pest Telephone Company /Első Pesti Telefontársaság/, both members of the Matáv Group.)

The development of the marketing systems and the improvement of the quality of their operations were both an internal need and an external requirement. KHVM and HIF have, for some time, been urging MATÁV to issue bills for its customers from a qualified system. The process started at the end of January 1999 with the mapping of the work processes. By March, the quality assurance manual of the marketing systems was completed, then came description of the processes and the development of the system. The pilot operation and the test audit were completed successfully in the second half of 1999. The marketing systems area was awarded the ISO qualification.

Over the past three years MATÁV continuously developed its billing system. In its service area, the company introduced a new system for keeping telephone service records and for call metering and billing. Subsequently, MATÁV tested and qualified the closedness and accuracy of its telephone exchanges and billing system according to British standards because no corresponding Hungarian standards were in place. This qualification meets the very strict West European requirements in the field. In the meantime, the company introduced a second billing system for the billing of data communication services. The ISO qualification has been acquired for the development and professional operation of these two systems.

The major advantage of the new quality assurance system is that customer bills are issued as a result of a regulated work process, they contain accurate information and an independent firm audits the system every six months. This enhances customer confidence in the company's billing system. In addition, MATÁV also meets the requirements of the authorities and, thanks to the ISO qualification, it only has to pay half the applicable quality supervision fee.

The system will be developed further and expanded to include the Data Warehouse activities that are currently being performed in the framework of a project.