JAVA IS THE PLATFORM FOR TELECOM LEAP INTO HOMES

residential telephone service.

The Glasgow-based telecoms company - a subsidiary of ScottishPower - is installing Java-based customer care and product management systems as the mainstay of its new IT strategy.

The new Sun Microsystems platform is being introduced for the roll-out of the company's home and small business service. Company staff are already extremely enthusiastic about the flexibility and cost savings which it will bring.

ScottishTelecom will be using Java applications for a range of functions, including customer care, product systems and for the company intranet. As information systems manager Norrie Craig puts it: ''Frankly, it's Java or bust.''

The company is already one of Britain's leading telecoms providers, and since 1993 has established its own optical fibre network to provide services to many of the country's leading businesses, clearing banks, insurance companies, universities and public authorities.

When the residential service starts this spring, however, it will be the company's biggest single entry into the telecoms market to date. By using an aerial no larger than a dinner plate in homes, it hopes to win 100,000 customers in the first year.

ScottishTelecom decided that it needed to put in place a state-of-the-art infrastructure to handle the switch into this large and lucrative new market, and eventually decided to throw its weight behind Java and Sun Microsystems hardware. The plan is to eventually give all the company's staff a Sun network computer workstation.

Norrie Craig says that the Java platform was chosen for a whole host of reasons. ''It enables the use of network computers, delivers a web enabled environment and allows centralised control of the client. It is cheaper all round, more flexible, and truly open.''

The first part of the company to get the new operating environment will be the call centre, which will be used for complete care of the customer, including marketing, advice, product selling customer queries and fault handling.

Every last piece of the customer-care applications will be written in Java. Craig added: ''Anything that is on line needs to be Web-enabled, and the tool to do that is Java.''

The new customer care system will be used for a wide range of sophisticated functions. It will, for instance, contain scripting to help talk the operator through the selling of products, and will be able to record information on customers.

The fact that a Java-enabled intranet is being used will mean that anyone within the company will be able to pick up a phone or answer and record a customer query, so helping to smooth efficiency and keep customer waiting time to a minimum.

In addition, all billing information will be available to customer care in the Web's HTML format. This will allow staff to see the accounting history of the customer. The eventual aim, according to Norrie Craig, is to build an Internet solution which will allow ScottishTelecom clients to access and pay their own bills.

Craig is enthusiastic about other benefits which Java will bring to his company. Another advantage, he adds, is that they can capitalise on the innovations of their marketing team enabling, for example, consolidated billing.

''A single, or consolidated, bill, across a range of products and services, is the holy grail of the telecoms business. This gives us a distinct advantage and lead over our competitors, who are severely hindered in this quest with their large legacy systems.''

He adds: ''In ScottishTelecom the customer comes first. It is therefore essential that we provide them with 24 hours a day, 365 days a year operation. We felt that with the known reliability of Sun equipment, this was assured.

''We were also well aware of the volumes of transactions continuously streaming through telecoms businesses these days, and how quickly business can ramp up. With Sun, the flexibility, scaleability and power is there. It will allow us to handle millions of customers if need be.''

While the company intends to switch from PCs to Java network computers, it accepts that this cannot be done instantly.

Craig again: ''We have an investment in PCs, and we can't simply throw them all out overnight. But they do present us with a real problem. We have a continuous stream of build, maintenance, fault and conflict difficulties. A PC breakdown requires a complete rebuild and reinstall of both hardware and software - that's if we have any in stock! If a network computer goes down, you simply plug in another one.''

While an advocate of Java, Craig is also a realist, and he admits that the adoption of a technology which is very much state-of-the-art has not been without its stresses and strains. ''There have been some glitches - Java is not perfect, and some strange things have happened. But I really do think that the pain has been worth it. When you are this close to the leading edge, you simply have to accept that sort of thing.''

He admits that he finds the whole concept of Java computing tremendously exciting. ''There is no doubt that there are risks, but it is a great thing to be involved in. We are a very young company, with a lot of clever people in our business who have some exciting ideas about what technology, and especially computer technology, can do for us. Telecoms companies cannot exist without IT, and we are trying to make the technology work for us.''

ScottishTelecom is also pleased at the cost of its new investment, and even more at the very low level of ongoing costs.

''We are now well on our way to a completely Web- enabled environment, from desktop through applications, and a complete systems infrastructure, where we can add products and services exceptionally quickly by adding a couple of Java programs. Our Sun hardware is also completely scaleable.''

Sun's Eddie McCusker, who is the account manager on the project, says he regards the contract as an extremely important one for the company. ''This is one of the first implementations of the network computer as the desktop, and certainly the first in Scotland.

''We are very pleased that ScottishTelecom, who are one of our major customers in the UK, decided to go down this route.''

The Sun reseller charged with the task of managing delivery of the hardware and supplying additional services is the Glasgow company Computers For Business, which is part of the Lancashire-based

P & P Group PLC.

Jack Anderson, the business manager associated with the project, is also convinced that Java's capabilities will suit ScottishTelecom perfectly.

''We recognised it was going to be right for them. We whetted their appetite for it and they decided they'd like to take a closer look. It wasn't an overnight decision, but they did decide to go with it.''

So what persuaded them?

''I think it was the fact that it had the ability to manage information easily. The network computer is also easy to manage. Let's say you're running a call centre with 100 people. If one of those units goes down, you just plug another one in. They liked that.''

The Glasgow computing firm Gamut Technologies has also been involved in the project. The company is a Java development specialist and designed the system architecture in conjunction with Scottish Telecom.

Gamut's business development director, George Knox says: ''This is a fully functional, transactional, mission-critical system that traditionally would be in a client-server environment. By writing it in Java, we are pushing the boundaries of technology and expertise.

''In a business like ScottishTelecom's, having the flexibility to be able to deliver quickly is fundamental, and Java will bring that. It's an important, leading-edge project which will give them competitive advantage.''