Unisys Africa has introduced ABS.Net, a centralised, multi-channel business appointment booking system that enables resource searching and reservation at point and time of contact.
Designed to improve customer service quality and enable compliance with the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act (FAIS), which requires the licensing of all financial advisors, the solution provides businesses and financial institutions with a tool to ensure that representatives allocated to specific customer enquiries or consultations are appropriately qualified for the subject under discussion.
"In any competitive service-delivery environment, the ability of the service provider to maintain a consistently high level of service quality is a significant differentiator," says Dave de Villiers, sales executive: ETC Global Financial Services, Unisys Africa. "ABS.Net is an enabler of consistent high-quality service and compliance."
In designing ABS.Net, Unisys incorporated capabilities for appointment booking and maintenance; working patterns and availability; follow-up flagging; and multiple activity views. Appointment booking and maintenance ensures that all the elements necessary to enable the scheduling of an appointment are available, including customer and advisor details, the appropriate channel, a facility in that channel and the desired time. Where any travel is involved, the tool provides for travel time before and after the appointment.
Working Patterns provides the facility to identify times and locations at which advisors are available for customer appointments. These patterns can be structured for periods ranging from one to six weeks and include periods during which advisors will not be available, such as holidays, vacation, illness, internal meetings and training. The tool also provides the facility to block out times or days as "unavailable", thereby preventing potential conflicts.
"Using multiple activity views, each advisor can view a diary from the perspectives of scheduled appointments, unavailable bookings or available time; while managers can view operations to determine use and effectiveness per product or service grouping, geographic region and resource," De Villiers says. "ABS.Net provides the business with a toolset to improve the effectiveness and use of costly human resources through ensuring the effective use and profitability of advisors-time and real estate; enabling time and location flexibility for customers; and ensuring FAIS compliance."
Microsoft performed an assessment of the .Net elements of ABS.Net and reported that the Microsoft .NET framework and development tools are used effectively and in line with recommendations and best practices endorsed by Microsoft.
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Unisys is a worldwide information technology services and solutions company. Our people combine expertise in consulting, systems integration, outsourcing, infrastructure and server technology with precision thinking and relentless execution to help clients, in more than 100 countries, quickly and efficiently achieve competitive advantage. For more information, visit www.unisys.co.za
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