Johannesburg, 18 Jan 2005
Forward-thinking South African companies are preparing for deregulation in February by implementing the technology that will handle their computer telephone integration (CTI) needs now and their VOIP requirements in the near future.
Hymax Telecoms COO, John van den Munckhof, quotes two examples of clients taking this step by investing in Mitel integrated telecommunications systems.
"These clients have streamlined their telecoms so that when deregulation takes place, they will already be set up for IP and VOIP," Van den Munckhof says.
Lawyers` Access Web (LAW) is a specialist application service provider that operates within the legal and financial sectors. It provides a secure online means of delivering data and documents via a stable platform.
"We have 73 employees and needed a voice platform that could deliver advanced voice and call centre applications tailored to our operating environment and that could be integrated into our existing infrastructure," said LAW`s network manager, Suren Naidoo.
"We chose the Mitel system from Hymax because of their price and service and the functionality and ease-of-use of the product," he added.
"The system LAW chose is a converged VOIP solution from Mitel that delivers superior voice capabilities and features a migrating system and desktop features into a packet switched delivery model," Van den Munckhof explains.
One of its major attractions is that maintenance and configuration changes can be done in-house, eliminating the costs and waiting time associated with call-out of telecoms vendors for moves and changes.
And because the extensions are IP, people can be moved around the organisation without having to re-cable or reprogramme the system.
Matrix Vehicle Tracking, says general manager of operations, Bruce Nolte, has to respond to clients in the quickest and most efficient way possible.
Matrix was looking for a system that caters to its current telecommunications needs but could also handle the growth it is anticipating this year.
So the company installed a system that will ensure convergence takes place seamlessly.
"Our old system simply couldn`t cope with the volume of calls we were getting so our service levels dropped off," explained Nolte.
"As soon as we installed the Mitel system from Hymax, our service levels shot up, our processes were streamlined and our call centres became more easily manageable. The ease of functionality really made a difference to the way we do business," he said.
The company needed an application that had call centre functionality for its sales and response and service divisions so IP telephones have been provided to each desktop user.
The call centre application allows supervisors to access historical and real-time reports, and a 20-port auto attendant has been installed and programmed as a first point of contact on incoming calls. This enables clients to be routed to the correct department quickly and efficiently.
Another major requirement was voice recording as Matrix must to be able to retrieve a call in a matter of seconds if a dispute arises. To address this need, Hymax installed the Amethyst voice logger from Datatex.
"Forward-thinking companies are preparing for deregulation now by installing systems for VOIP and IP. This means by the time the law changes in February, they will be ahead of their competitors and staff will already be trained in operating the new systems," Van den Munckhof concluded.
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