Tellumat Telecoms, the business communications arm of the Tellumat Group of technology companies, is spreading its business process-enhancing effect as far as Nigeria, as it takes the call centre of mobile service provider Starcomms to the next level.
Bennie Langenhoven, Managing Executive of Tellumat Telecoms, explains that the relationship with Starcomms goes back six years, when Tellumat first deployed its locally-manufactured ISX/Convergence PBX as the backbone for Starcomms's call centre. At the time the ISX provided a platform for 20 agents.
"Since then, Starcomms's business has grown exponentially, requiring a more powerful call handling platform," says Langenhoven. "Technology moved on too, and they also wanted new capabilities, specifically, advanced call management functionality."
Tellumat Telecoms account manager, Bob Engelbrecht, says this has resulted in two phased upgrades by Tellumat of its own solution, with a third under way.
1. Three years ago, Tellumat upgraded the call centre switch to an Inter-Tel Axxess platform, for which it has exclusive sub-Saharan distribution rights. The upgrade took Starcomms's call handling capacity to 40 agents, dealing with a subscriber base that had grown to 100 000.
2. Then, a year ago, with the user base at 150 000, Starcomms required licences for another 40 agents, as well as Tellumat's CallView call management software, distributed with all Inter-Tel enterprise products. This included an ACD (automated call distribution) Wizard, which allowed supervisors to view call queues and query individual agent accounts, to track their activities (and productivity).
3. The current phase involves moving Starcomms to bigger premises, as its agent population grows to 140. In addition, the company's CallView Gateway was upgraded to include multimedia (an initial five seats), with agents now able to field e-mails as well as voice calls.
Of the latest upgrades, Manoj Vashisht, Starcomms marketing director, has the following to say: "It has been of immense importance to our customer growth and regional and cross-border expansions. Firstly, it enabled us to accommodate many calls on the IVR platforms.
"Secondly, our five-line Inter-Tel phones have given us the option of monitoring and recording conversations for feedback, audits, training and quality assessment. And the availability of DNIS [dialled number identification service] has promoted efficiency and relationship management between agents and our customers.
"Thirdly, ACD reporting has been quite exceptional, since we could capture all the required metrics in most of the regions we covered, planning for our shift patterns and for blending of agents.
"All in all, says Vashisht, customer service improved by personalisation of calls, reduction in handling time and projections on call traffic," lending credibility to Inter-Tel's positioning as an enabler of business process improvement.
"Starcomms began using the Inter-Tel platform almost four years ago," says Vashisht. "We've found it to be scalable and flexible, allowing faster time to market and introduction of new features, to better service our growing subscriber base.
"We use it not only for inbound voice support, but also successfully for 3G data and value-added services support, as well as outbound VIP initiatives. We were further able to choose the features we need in line with our size and growth plans through the years, thereby using our capex effectively and managing our cash flow accordingly."
As part of the agreement, Tellumat effected skills transfer to Starcomms engineers, leaving a legacy of engineering competence on the platform that will ensure the solution's sustainability.
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