Cape Town-based switch IT, in conjunction with Duxbury Networking, has successfully completed the implementation of a distributed Mitel IP telephony call centre for Dental Information Systems (Denis) (Pty) Ltd, South Africa`s leading dental medical aid administrator in Cape Town.
Denis offers a unique dental management system to enable healthcare managers, medical funds, administrators and insurers to effectively control dental costs and ensure that only appropriate, quality treatment is administered. By accumulating extensive patient clinical history, the Denis system creates an electronic tooth chart per patient against which every claim is verified, specifically to reduce the potential for over-billing and inappropriate or excessive treatment.
"We were approached by Denis to source an interactive voice response (IVR) application to manage the vast number of calls they were receiving from dentists wanting to retrieve standard information. These calls were placing huge pressure on their call centre agents and they needed to alleviate this traffic," said switch IT`s managing director, Maria Pizer.
After investigating the call centre processes and taking into consideration the exceptional growth experienced by Denis, a complete upgrade of the call centre was recommended. The Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP) with embedded automated call distribution (ACD) and voicemail for messaging options was installed. The Mitel Call Centre Management Solution including the Management Information System (MIS) solution was also implemented, while Mitel 5200 IP phones and conference units as well as Mitel enterprise manager completed the installation.
After the successful implementation, Denis opened a second contact centre, mirroring part of the existing infrastructure. Both systems work transparently across Diginet circuits with the Mitel Enterprise Manager application centrally managing both systems.
"Planned future enhancements include cost saving options such as SMS to clean databases and improved customer services and marketing, least-cost routing (LCR) on outgoing calls, as well as a new product that will give up to 40% savings on incoming 0860 call traffic," said Pizer.
"From a service assurance perspective, Denis has created full Internet Protocol telephony (IPT) redundancy across its newly established multi-site platform, made possible mainly by the seamless technology integration," said David Carolus, general manager at Denis.
"Performance levels were benchmarked and then exceeded, while also being accurately measured and verified. Feedback from our clients and service providers has confirmed that not only are we doing more transactions but we are also fulfilling higher level quality requirements as well, confirming that we have made the correct decision," said Carolus.
"During recent times the Western Cape has experienced significant power outages that have stalled many contact centre operations. As a result of good forward planning and a full incorporation of disaster recovery rationale, disruption to Denis clients has been insignificant since calls were simply and effectively routed between sites as the rolling outages progressed," continued Carolus.
"The support and guidance given by switch IT to Denis in making the final decision has proven to be invaluable as it has allowed Denis to make quantum leaps in terms of its near instantaneous migration from a mediocre type contact centre to a multi-site class leading facility," concluded Carolus.
Andy Bull, director for Mitel South Africa, said: "Denis is a wonderful success story based on entrepreneurial vision and the use of information and communications technology for competitive advantage and customer service excellence. We are very pleased to have been selected as their telecommunications technology partner to assist in enhancing customer service."
"At switch IT, we aim to build long-term relationships with our clients and we pass our knowledge of industry standards and products on to them for their and our benefit. Weekly training sessions, to update and keep our knowledge base current, are attended by all switch IT consultants," concluded Pizer.
Share