About
Subscribe

Local is fast and flexible

By Warwick Ashford, ITWeb London correspondent
Johannesburg, 28 Jan 2005

[VIDEO]Locally developed Radical business management software has been implemented in what is believed to be the largest voice over IP solution in Africa, to provide a call centre to enable Standard to comply with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA).

"FICA has placed an unprecedented demand on and financial institutions," says Derek Hughes, CEO of DVT Business Systems Solutions, reseller of Rational software developed by Solutional.

FICA requires customers of banks and financial institutions to verify their identity and place of residence. "Financial institutions will, over time, be required to contact their entire customer base," says Hughes.

"Radical was a clear choice for Standard Bank`s FICA call centre because of its flexibility, local support, rapid implementation, easy integration into the bank`s database and relatively low cost," says Michael Deftereos, SBSA services manager of call centre specialist, Merchants, a Dimension Group company.

"Call centre solution providers that concentrate on the upper end of the market usually require lengthy implementation times," observes Deftereos. "Fast implementation and easy customisation were prime requirements for the FICA call centre."

[VIDEO]Deftereos says Merchants decided to outsource the implementation of Radical because it was more cost-effective than doing it in-house because of DVT`s shared-risk approach and fixed-price fee structure.

"DVT was able to implement, integrate and customise the Radical solution in under two weeks because of the open, standards-based architecture of the product and the fact that Solutional and DVT are both local companies," says Hughes.

"An important component of the Radical solution is its rules and forms editor, which contributes to its ability to adapt rapidly to changing business requirements," adds Hughes.

The FICA call centre is handling around 22 000 calls a day with a current implementation of 80 outbound seats, soon to be expanded to 120. Hughes says the Radical solution is suited to any call centre from five to 200 seats.

"Radical is also considerably cheaper than equivalent foreign products for which development costs would have been incurred in dollars," he concludes.

Share