IBM Japan Ltd. has announced a five-year Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) contract with Japan Automobile Recycling Promotion Center to transform and deliver the processes associated with the refund of the motor vehicle recycling fee to the owners of used cars exported overseas.

From 1 January 2005, Japan introduced the Automobile Recycling Law* which requires vehicle-owners to pay a once-off fee of between 7,000 to 65,000 yen (US$65 to US$600) to cover the recycling costs associated with their vehicle. When a vehicle is exported as a used car, the owner is then eligible for a partial refund of the recycling fee.

Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will provide administration as well as contact center operations and repayment services to support the refund process.

To be serviced from IBM's Okinawa delivery centre, IBM will apply its contact centre tools and methodologies to improve customer service and transform the refund process. The administration and contact center capabilities will be expanded by early 2006 to include web-enabled transactions and advanced telephony services.

"IBM Japan has a strong track record in the delivery of contact center services and payment capabilities through our ibm.com business model," said Masatsugu Shimono, Vice President of BTO, IBM Japan. "Our Okinawa delivery centre will handle incoming enquiries from vehicle-owners requesting their refund, and the outgoing transactions required to make that payment.

"IBM's consulting and technology expertise will enable us to continuously transform these processes to deliver improvements in the delivery of customer service, while minimizing costs," he said.

This agreement follows an earlier project where IBM Japan implemented the processes and IT infrastructure to support JARC's collection and administration of the motor vehicle recycling fee.

*The Automotive Recycling Law is a Japanese government initiative to reduce wastes and meet the rising cost of recycling chlorofluorocarbons, airbags and automobile shredder residue.

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