Harmony
 

When does Project Harmony finally kick in? The reason why i ask is that i've been receiving two bills since starting with NTL
One for broadband and one for television. Recently i had to use my phone line to send a fax. Now imagine my surprise when i received another bill for the grand total of 7p!
So when will Harmony finally kick in so that i can receive just one bill which will take into account all products that i have with NTL?

Re: Harmony
 

I wouldn't hold your breath-I have been told (by an ntl associate) that it is nowhere near what it's cracked up to be, & basically amounts to a complete waste of time & money by ntl.

Re: Harmony
 

Not so Neil.

It's definitely happening, and the final regions to get it will be the former Cable & Wireless regions. That's scheduled for October this year, though it is likely to be a bit later than that. I should know, because when that happens I get made redundant.

It is actually a pretty reasonable system, if you'd used some of the archaic crap it is replacing in some regions you would realise how much better it actually is.

It already runs both the supply and billing of Cable Modems (SACMs) in former Cable and Wireless regions.

It *will* happen. Too much is at stake now for it not to.

Re: Harmony
 

Yup. All products are now supplied and billed through the Harmony system in the South Central and Cambridge franchises.

Re: Harmony
 

Yes, in Cambridge we have just moved to Harmony billing.

However, I am still billed separately for TV+phone line rental, phone calls and internet access! All that has changed is the layout of the bills, my customer numbers and who the Direct Debit is payed to (NTL Triangle instead of NTL Cambridge).

Re: Harmony
 

Same here as bob,
Got a new style of bill, have had for a few months, but still getting two bills, one phone, one internet.
According to ntl I'm in the South Central region.

Re: Harmony
 

There are now only two ntl regions...South Central & London North.

Re: Harmony
 

So what good has Harmony done for this customer then?

Re: Harmony
 

It's provided a more stable, more robust billing solution. It's also meant that, once it's implemented nationwide, there'll be no more 'sorry I can't see your account as you are through to the wrong region'.

It will also mean an end to all the nonsensical 'I can only help you if you are ex-Cable & Wireless' stuff that I have to keep posting on here. Although I'll have left the company by then anyway, but it will help others.

I am also unsure that the 'three bill' thing is permanent. I understand that at some stage in the rollout, these bills will become single, it's all to do with databases and the like. I am not certain on the plans for that.

It's an intensely complex operation, moving from about 14 different billing systems to just one.

Re: Harmony
 

Well I'm not looking forward to Harmony simply because I've been put off by Sabs, it's so unstable :erm:

Re: Harmony
 

You been reading the PR blurb Mark? ;)

Re: Harmony
 

I'm not looking forward to harmony because I lose my job.

However, ICMS was unstable when Cable & Wireless first introduced it to all the former companies they had bought, in its early days it was up and down like a yoyo, now it's as robust as they come.

SABS will end up that way too. Each new upgrade causes issues, which then gradually get fixed. I've dealt with quite a few people on the Harmony development team and I know personally how focused they are on making it stable.

There'll be frustrating times ahead no doubt, no one gets more frustrated than me as my colleagues would happily confirm before walking off to punch me in the head, but I *am* confident it'll end up nice and stable.

Re: Harmony
 

No...see my other post. I have dealings with the Harmony team and I'm also a 'superuser'. I know quite a lot about the front end of SABS and what it does and doesn't do, or should and shouldn't do.

It sure seems painful at the moment, and it makes you want to throw computers around at times, but it will get there and it will be stable and reliable.

The most recent upgrade seemed to be particularly troublesome but it is stabilising now and has been much better the last week or so.

You would have to see some of the archaic legacy billing systems to realise how much better it will be. My own region uses ICMS, which I quite like, but even that is about as user friendly as DOS. In fact, less so!

Re: Harmony
 

That's all well & good Mark (& genuinely no offence meant here), but in true ntl style, you haven't actually answered my question! :D

What I want to know is how the customer I referred to earlier is better off under the great Harmony when he is still getting 2 x bills each month? :confused:

Re: Harmony
 

Fair point that...and I did mention earlier that I understood the 'seperate bills' thing is not a permanent situation. I hope not anyway.

I heard mentioned some time ago that initially Harmony simply provides an alternative 'common' interface into the existing different databases, which would explain the seperate bills. I am led to believe that part of the project involves all these databases eventually moving into a single one. However, that info was some time ago and I don't know how reliable it is. I will try to find out next week if I can!

It would certainly not impress some of the ex-Cable and Wireless customers who currently get one bill for all three services, to suddenly have three!

Re: Harmony
 

Because after more upgrades have occurred, the customer will only get one bill. This will be possible with harmony, but was not possible with the old billing systems.

straight enough answer for you? :D

Re: Harmony
 

Better. ;)

So when (for example) can that customer expect to just start receiving one bill MB?

Re: Harmony
 

no idea sorry... i don't know which harmony upgrade will implement this, but i will try to find out.

Re: Harmony
 

So the billing systems are not quite in harmony yet but will be sometime in the future - at least I have got something still to look forward to ;)

Re: Harmony
 

Harmony is for the benefit of NTL the only benefit to the customers will be as Mark stated no matter what area you call they will have access to your records.

NTL inherited a shedload of different Subscriber Management systems and had to 'harmonise' them into one, that is what harmony is.

Re: Harmony
 

Ok...i left ntl a while ago now but i was involved alot in the initail harmony rollout in south central. As things stand at the moment they are moving everyone onto this database, however for ppl that were recieving 2/3 bills this will continue for the forseeable future. This is due to it being bloody impossible to move ppl that pay 2/3 bills by DD from different accounts onto one bill for obvious reasons as which DD instruction do they keep!?!? anyway for all those ppl that only ever have had one bill thats what they will continue to recieve but with a new account number and new layout!

But for all new customers in regions where ppl get 2/3 bills they are able once that region has gone to harmony to get one bill for their services. This is the big benefit from ntls point of view as alot of calls that were generated in callc entres that dealt with ppl that get more than one bill were from ppl that had just been installed and didn't understand their bills.

Neil to answer your question. The only way the customer is better of is due to the fact that he will (by the end of the year) be ale to speak to any call centre abt there account, which will reduce call queues and hopefully give ppl a better experience.

Hope that answers most things - as for Debs - don't worry I promise that when its all done and dusted Harmony will make your job easier!!

Any more questions ask away...but i did leave ntl a few months ago so may not be able ot answer the questions!

Re: Harmony
 

How long?

I'm still getting three seperate bills, TV/BB and phone.

I'm assuming Stafford comes under South Central?

Re: Harmony
 

Same here - we have had Harmony for nearly two months.

If you read the post above yours, you will notice that under Harmony, existing customers will continue to get separate bills, only new customers will get a single bill for all services.

Re: Harmony
 

An information system that's welcome by staff and actually appears to work? A consolidation project that actually results in improvements? Is the press aware? It's the next best thing to the second coming :D

Re: Harmony
 

So are you telling me, a system which could mean the end to me receiving three bills is not being put into full usage for present customers because NTL don't want to upset there customers?!?!

I want one bill, paid for on the day I request by direct debit. Can I as a customer of NTL for 4 years get this?

Re: Harmony
 

Probably not for a while... but if you left and then started as a new customer you could!

Re: Harmony
 

Neil I would like to think that this would be a latter phase of the Harmony project. Stage one which seems to be running to the end of the year is to get all billing on the same platform.

If I was looking at this project I would then be doing a first data cleanse for customers with multiple DDs set up to the same bank account. You could then write to them saying all these payments will be merged from date x. Most people don't have that many bank accounts so this would probably cleanse 90% of duplicate payment instructions and reduce NTLs costs by having less 20p DD processing charges applied by their bank.

Then you deal with the complex stuff, write a nice letter to the final 10% offering them a chance to combine their billing and have a single payment taken. Detail the current billing and tick options for the changes.

Will this happen? What will probably be the biggest roadblock in it happening is the NTL/TW merger in late 2005 which will result in all the TW accounts being migrated onto Harmony instead of dealing with the data problems above.

Re: Harmony
 

Sorry to go off topic slightly, merger in late 2005? Is this actually confirmed?

Re: Harmony
 

Not officially, but I think most people would be suprised if it did not happen.

Re: Harmony
 

So does anyone have any new information regarding all of this? :)

Such as, when will we see changes in Glasgow, and will I suddenly have 3 bills? ;)

Oh yes, and does e-billing work with harmony?

Re: Harmony
 

I can answer the second of these points.
You will still get as many bills as you currently do. This is because some people with 3 bills have 3 different payment methods, as such they have decided not to merge any billing, a new customer in an area where people traditionally got 3 bills will now get one, but existing customers will stay the same.
But as it is a firmwide application there will not be the problem of an overspill call centre picking up your call but being unable to see your account.

Re: Harmony
 

Two or three bills eh, I don't get any and they charged me twice for 8 months for it, then cut me off

Re: Harmony
 

I know NTL are not automatically merging accounts due to problems with different payment methods. However, would it be possible to request that NTL manually transfer one account (my telephone calls) onto another account (my TV and line rental) with my explicit instruction? Can somebody in customer service do this if I ring up and ask?

Re: Harmony
 

I am in a situation where I have two bills. One (which is paid by Direct Debit and is a fixed amount each month) covers the phone line rental, TV and Broadband rental. The other covers the phone calls and caller display (and varies each month). I pay the latter on the phone by credit card and have previously been told not to bother paying until it gets to £10 and have been doing this happily for the last 4 years.

However, I am now concerned about the new clause in the T&C:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=42457
I am worried that if I continue paying my telephone bill once it gets to £10 I will be hit by this fee so I will start to pay every month.

It would be easier if I could merge my telephone bill onto my other bill and just pay everything by Direct Debit. It is possible to request this?

Re: Harmony
 

The best thing to do in my oppinion anyway is to ring CS and

1. Ask about this charge and if it will affect you
2. If it will, enquire about getting all of your services billed by direct debit

P.S nice year and a half bump :)

Re: Harmony
 

Thanks! ;)