Dimension Data creates `best practice` contact centre at campus

The relocation of the Dimension Data Customer Interactive Solutions (CIS) Managed Services Division from Sandton`s CBD to The Campus in Bryanston, has afforded the company an opportunity to create an interactive customer management facility that complies with global best practice in every respect: technologically, ergonomically and aesthetically.

Countdown to the move of the 300-seat contact centre, scheduled for mid-August, began in earnest in early-July. However, actual planning started more than 12 months earlier and involved far more than the logistics of the move - itself a highly complex operation designed to ensure uninterrupted service to the 30 companies which have outsourced their contact centres to Dimension Data.

Dimension Data`s CIS Managed Services Division was one of the first local organisations to set up a full-service interactive customer management facility in SA. This combines traditional call centre services with fully integrated multimedia, catering for all possible customer touch-points. Functionality includes Internet-enabled customer management such as co-browsing, page push and voice over IP, although this latter feature is not used due to current regulatory restriction.

"A contact centre is not just an office with desks and telephones," says John Alberti, managing director of the Managed Services Division. "It`s an environment which has to accommodate a large number of people working in very close proximity, often under extremely stressful circumstances. International research has shown how important it is to ensure the physical environment does not contribute to agents` stress."

So while all office buildings at The Campus are virtually identical, structural changes were made to the top floor of the Imola building which houses CIS Managed Services. The most obvious change was the construction of a massive outdoor balcony - to accommodate large numbers of agents all taking a work/smoke break at the same designated time.

In addition, because of the high density of workstations, the floor was suspended to accommodate the cabling; and the roof was restructured to allow the vast, 2 400m2 open plan space (that`s about half the size of a hockey field) to be unobscured by pillars and supports. Around 1 700m2 of this space is devoted to the call centre itself - enabling a multiplicity of configurations to be effected, as and when required.

"Our goal was to create an environment that is cheerful, airy, spacious and bright - yet also very practical.

"In our old premises, the call centre was spread over two floors and across numerous physically separate sections. This made expanding and contracting agent groupings to accommodate project peaks and troughs extremely difficult. With the new open plan set-up, we will be able to shift agent workstations around at will," Alberti explains.

Moving the entire contact centre operation into these new premises required planning of military precision.

For every step of the operation, a fallback plan has been designed to accommodate any unexpected glitches.

So, for example, the main Avaya telephony switch was replicated at the Sandton premises. The two switches ran side-by-side until engineers were satisfied that the back-up switch was working properly. Only then was the permanent switched turned off and relocated to The Campus where it was installed, switched on and subjected to rigorous testing. All this took place a month before the actual move date.

The relocation of the core data Cisco 6005 switch followed the identical procedure: duplicate, test, move, install, switch on and test. Similarly, the server racks were moved and installed at The Campus weeks before the actual move - leaving only the physical relocation of the computers to be completed.

"In effect, we have planned the move in such a way that our systems will be offline for no more than three hours in the middle of the night. And even then, the facility will remain live with agents available to answer calls during this `down` period - they just won`t be able to access data on the servers while they are being transported between locations," he says.

"At any time during the cut-over process, we can switch between the Sandton and Bryanston backbones. However, as we don`t have to cope with installing new equipment, we significantly reduce the risk of failure. We know the equipment installed at The Campus works.

"In fact, we have planned the move in such a way that we don`t have to reconfigure any part of the system. What`s in Sandton is literally being picked up and plugged in at The Campus.

"We have even retained the -2000 range of numbers which means all that`s changing with regard to the telephone numbers used by our clients, is the prefix. If a caller used to dial 722-2012 to reach the Sandton facility, they will simply have to dial 575-2012 to reach the same service or extension at The Campus.

"In effect, the new contact centre at The Campus is technologically identical to the facility in Sandton, which has won accolades for its capabilities and proficiency. What`s different is the environment in which this technology is housed: it`s an aesthetic and ergonomic showpiece of international best practice," Alberti concludes.