EDI call tracking made possible with FrontRange`s HEAT

Keeping an accurate record of around 10 000 calls per month in a highly sophisticated EDI environment involving eight million individual transactions per month is a hurdle that QEDI, a division of PQ Africa, could only overcome with FrontRange`s HEAT.

"It is vital in our industry to ensure that a totally accurate record is kept of all calls and data transactions," says Etienne Uys, technical manager at QEDI, a company that specialises in the electronic transmission of claims from medical practitioners to medical aids.

"In addition to this we have to maintain a system through which the medical practitioners themselves can call in for help with technical issues. Combining an account query function with a technical help call centre is no easy task, and without HEAT`s call logging functionality we would soon be overwhelmed," Uys says.

QEDI has 5500 client medical practitioners - doctors and dentists - countrywide and services them from offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban Port Elizabeth, and Bloemfontein. "We process the handling of the claim submissions between the doctors and the medical aids," says Uys. "The calls we receive are thus mainly from the medical practitioners dealing with queries regarding the submission, account status or technical problems they may be facing."

These technical issues can include such basic problems as modem malfunctions and dropped lines, right up to more serious software or hardware failures at the medical premises from where the claims are first submitted.

"When one of our operators takes the call, HEAT is used to log the caller`s name, the time, the date and full details of the query," Uys adds. "This is done primarily to ensure that we have a record in the case of later queries or misunderstandings, but also to build up a knowledge database for frequently asked technical questions."

Using skilled operator staff and HEAT`s database access - which includes access to internal company data - callers can usually get immediate answers to most of their account related queries and a significant amount of their technical queries. "Obviously some technical issues might have to be resolved by on site engineers but that is then escalated out of the call centre`s hands," Uys says.

Apart from maintaining an accurate record of all calls for reference purposes, QEDI has also recently started using HEAT`s reporting capabilities to start drawing out and classifying call types. "This will enable us to determine trends in call types, and take preventative action where possible," says Uys.

"If for example we see that certain technical problems are plaguing a specific region then we will be able to take the appropriate measures to fix the problem and thereby reduce the call load," he says.

QEDI has been a long time user of HEAT, having had a Dos version for several years before the installation of a Windows version in December 1998. The company is scheduled for an update to HEAT 6.0 when it becomes available early next year.

From the implementation side, the system was subject to a slight customisation process, says Dean Wolson, account executive at FrontRange Solutions who dealt with the Windows installation. "Because QEDI integrated their back office Oracle based data into the call centre functions, we had to allow for the importation of Excel and Access applications," Wolson says.

"After a workshop with the personnel at QEDI, at which we dealt with all the operational issues, they became self sufficient in all respects," Wolson says.