MANKATO, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 10, 2009-- HickoryTech Corporation (Nasdaq: HTCO) today announced the successful implementation of a multi-vendor billing and point of sale solution for Bluegrass Cellular, Inc. of Elizabethtown, Ky. The deployment included HickoryTech’s SuiteSolution^® billing and customer management system and point of sale software provided by Master Merchant Systems, LLC. This pre-integrated combination of products is now available to cellular providers nationwide.

“Our strategy was to replace an aging system with an integrated solution provided by vendors known for delivering depth of functionality in their area of expertise,” stated Keith Carter, director of customer systems at Bluegrass Cellular, Inc. “We selected HickoryTech and Master Merchant Systems based on their combined ability to meet our current and projected business needs.”

“Cellular and wireline companies have taken note of the strength of SuiteSolution to produce positive results, from efficiently handling customers in the front office to automating processes in the back office, and ultimately improving their bottom line,” said Lane Nordquist, president of HickoryTech’s Information Solutions Division. “Bluegrass Cellular valued the fact that SuiteSolution has proven itself in this industry as a solid performer.”

HickoryTech’s SuiteSolution bills for any combination of wireless, wireline or IP products and services. The system is designed to include open interfaces to pass information to third-party products such as point of sale, provisioning, facilities management and work force management. SuiteSolution is a web-based system including modules for customer relationship management, back office management, work flow management, tariff management, message processing, subscriber billing, web care, directory, and carrier access billing. It is available as either a hosted or in-house solution.

In partnership with Master Merchant Systems (MMS) and HickoryTech, Bluegrass Cellular deployed a scalable retail management solution that provides an intuitive and complete point of sale environment with accurate and refined inventory management. Master Merchant System’s solutions afford the added benefit of service agreement creation signed electronically at the point of sale and stored in a secure electronic vault.

“This provides carriers and retailers alike with a solution which ensures lower contract rejection though heightened access controls, availability, and security over paper contracts,” says Colin Kennedy, product development manager with Master Merchant Systems. “With a full featured point of sale including direct integrations to SuiteSolution, integrated payment processing, Flipswap trade-in program and the scalability to suit even the largest and most demanding customers, we’ve kept the sales level interface intuitive and linear to minimize the training costs associated with system use in the retail environment.”

The company’s ability to design and deploy the integrated HickoryTech/MMS solution has had a very positive impact in the Bluegrass environment which resonates from point of sale to management levels.

Headquartered in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Bluegrass Cellular has been operating in Kentucky for over 19 years with 21 company owned retail locations and over 35 authorized agent locations. A pioneer in the wireless field in the state’s rural areas, Bluegrass was the first to offer digital cellular service to Central Kentucky in 1998.

About HickoryTech Information Solutions—HickoryTech Information Solutions develops customer management and billing software for HickoryTech and distributes this software across North America for broadband, wireline and wireless companies. For further information, visit www.is.hickorytech.com.

About HickoryTech—HickoryTech Corporation, headquartered in Mankato, Minnesota, offers integrated communication products and services to business and residential customers over a regional fiber network. The company, founded in 1898, has approximately 430 employees. The Telecom Sector, with facilities-based operations in Minnesota and Iowa, offers local voice, long distance, high-speed Internet, digital television, and Internet provider networking services to residential and business customers. In addition, the Information Solutions Division develops telecom and carrier access billing solutions and customer management systems. The Enventis Sector provides Internet provider-based voice, data and network solutions to businesses across a five-state region. For further information, visit www.hickorytech.com.

Source: HickoryTech Corporation

HickoryTech Corporation
Jennifer Spaude, 507-386-3765