When Microsoft South Africa`s new headquarters at Sunninghill, Rivonia open in September, they will include a brand new call centre facility comprising some of the latest PBX technology and Telkom facilities as well as the first South African installation of Nortel Networks` Symposium Express.
The new call centre represents a R2.1-million investment in Nortel Network`s Meridian Option 61C PBX and Symposium software supplied and supported by Nortel`s South African distributor, Grintek Telecom.
The new facility has been purpose-designed to ensure customers are connected to the right destination as quickly and as transparently as possible, including the technical complications of integrating the new system with the two outsourced call centre services that Microsoft uses to handle its in-bound support calls."We`ve done this by utilising and making plans to accommodate exceptional existing and upcoming technologies from both Nortel and Telkom," says Deon Hultzer, ITG network/system administrator, Microsoft South Africa."These include Symposium Express, which gives us a very user friendly, easy to use, yet functionally rich system and Telkom`s Primenet."Primenet allows Microsoft to create a virtual PBX. This enables inbound calls to be linked to Microsoft desktops nationally as well as to its outsourced call centre partners, Sykes and Wang Global and, possibly in the future, to some of its hardware partners such as Compaq and HP which are responsible for providing first line operating system support.
"It means our customers only have to make the one call and then we can re-direct to the appropriate person, rather than have our customers make a second call," he says. "Our focus is totally on one-call resolution."
Microsoft is also looking at future Telkom facilities such as an Automatic Call Distribution feature whereby callers can respond to a voice-driven menu at the Telkom side of the call rather than at the PBX."This effectively would give us free redundancy because in the event of a fault, the call can be re-routed without the customer knowing anything about it," says Hultzer.
Microsoft`s call centre previously situated at their Pinmill Farm headquarters was shared with Wang Global, who provides high level technical support to Microsoft customers on an outsourced basis. Initial calls, about 2 000 a day, are handled by a second outsourced service provider, Sykes, which typically resolves about 40% of the queries received. The balance of the calls - typically of a more technical nature - are re-routed to Wang Global.
By installing its new Nortel Networks Meridian PBX, which replaces the present equipment running Nortel`s Max call centre software - a forerunner to Symposium - Microsoft South Africa is falling in line with Microsoft internationally, which is standardising on Nortel systems. The move, in addition to delivering the latest PBX and call centre technology also allows for substantial growth and brings a new level of security to Microsoft`s network."We`re passionate about security," says Hultzer. "We prefer to have digital, rather than analogue extensions to each desk. The Nortel Networks system is totally digital, which means that, our network is not at risk, and we can control access very carefully."
According to Hultzer, Grintek Telecom`s technical expertise played a major part in Microsoft`s decision to appoint Grintek as system implementers. "In addition to technical know-how, any project like this entails a lot of close partnership work. Grintek Telecom has proved it can work closely with us," he says."To date the whole project has gone very well, which I think is due to the fact that both Grintek Telecom and Microsoft planned the entire project correctly.
"I accept that there will be teething problems, but being able to keep our old systems running while the new system is being implemented means that we can test everything before we go live and that when we do switch over, the transition will be seamless and the customer will only experience better service."
Wang Global will again be sharing Microsoft`s call centre facilities at the new Sunninghill headquarters, but this is expected to be a temporary measure until Wang Global acquires its own premises and the virtual PBX is implemented.
The new call centre will initially comprise 35 to 40 seats with the new PBX also distributing calls to Microsoft`s 130 staff. The implementation of Symposium Express did not entail any major re-training. "That was important to us. We didn`t want to spend time learning to use a telephone system instead of carrying out our core function, which is to help our customers," says Hultzer.
According to Hylton Tiedt, account manager for Grintek Telecom, among the benefits of the new Symposium Express solution are functions such as skills based routing, whereby the system will intelligently route calls to the agent with the appropriate expertise and skills level.
"It also includes powerful management reporting facilities on call trends such as the types of queries being received. This is a particularly powerful feature as a company like Microsoft can identify common problems very quickly and do problem resolution on the fly," he says.
The system also has remote system management features. Microsoft intends to exploit these to the maximum and is currently investigating managing the facility remotely from Germany where Microsoft`s Voice Administrator will be able to configure South African switches remotely as well as undertake tasks such as changing agent`s names and routing priorities.
"Symposium goes a long way to helping Microsoft`s goal of not only being able to manage its international call centre facilities remotely, but also to achieve commonality at all its sites," says Tiedt.
In fact, Microsoft`s new South African call centre is to be used as a pilot site for the implementation of a global monitoring and control system, which will help identify hardware problems at an early stage so that appropriate action can be taken before there is any downtime.
"The facility is to be managed remotely by a team in Germany," says Hultzer. "In the event of any problems, we can pick them up early and alert Grintek Telecom immediately so that they can come out to resolve them."
"The whole system has been designed so that any call that hits Microsoft is managed properly and that the customer gets to the right destination as fast as possible. In the event of a delay, the call is queued and then managed correctly so that the customer is kept informed and given alternate options," he adds.
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