The CEO of the National Electricity Regulator (NER), Dr Xolani Mkhwanazi, officially launched the NER Contact Centre today, 2 March 2004 at the organisation`s offices in Pretoria. The purpose of the Centre is to further streamline the NER`s business operations. This decision was made in line with the Regulator`s continued commitment to improve its customer interaction points and to ensure that its stakeholders and other relevant audiences have access to a communication channel that is easily accessible and effective.
"Creating a single point of contact for staff and customers became an imperative undertaking for us to further improve our service offering," says Dr Mkhwanazi. "A robust and managed product implementation such as a call centre, provides staff with a centralised internal resource that correlates customer information accurately, effectively and efficiently. This process in turn, allows us to obtain a thorough understanding of our customer`s requirements, to ensure improved service excellence through all elements of our business."
The selection process for the project consisted of an in-depth evaluation of over ten consortium bidders by the NER. A consortium consisting of Atio Corporation, arivia.kom and e-Centric was awarded the contract to implement the project. The consortium was chosen due to its high evaluation score pertaining to its skilled capabilities in technology innovation, internal process management and training. "All three organisations have specific skill sets that we felt were required to ensure a successful implementation of the project," says Andre Geldenhuys, IT Manager at NER. "Atio Corporation provided the telephony platform and technical expertise that was superior to any other bidder. E-Centric provided excellent people management skills and arivia.kom brought the system integration expertise required for a successful project implementation."
The call centre project will be implemented according to a two-phase approach. Phase One will constitute the launch of a six-month pilot in NER`s head office in Pretoria, beginning next month.
This pilot will allow for voice (telephone) services only and will ensure that any challenges that may arise in the call centre are overcome before the role out of phase two, where the call center facility will be launched to market and implemented throughout all NER offices, nationwide. Phase Two will include voice, fax, e-mail and short message service (SMS) capabilities. "This multimedia approach will enable the NER to facilitate and alleviate any public facing queries efficiently and effectively.
Additionally, by implementing a two phase approach, we will ensure a smooth process is in place before the NER goes live to customers," say Gasant Jacobs, Business Development Executive at Atio Corporation.
Through this commitment, the NER has not only increased its awareness and processes to all stakeholders but will also be increasing its staff compliment to ensure its communication remains transparent, reliable and efficient. "This project not only represents our dedication to ensuring that the energy and mineral industry stakeholders, those mainly being within the public domain, are adequately represented and informed at all times, but also compliments our strategy of job creation and economic development in South Africa," concludes Geldenhuys.
"Atio is proud to be associated with a regulatory body that not only values its stakeholders input but thoroughly understands the business processes required to implement strategies to support this stance," says Jacobs." We are confident that this call centre implementation will bring about an increased back office structure for NER staff to improve productivity, which in turn will bring about a more streamlined customer interaction process."
Sipho Yeni, divisional managing executive of arivia.kom, comments that arivia.kom`s capabilities and track record in the energy sector is a strategic value add to this important NER call centre project. "A key outcome of this call centre implementation is that we will assist NER to continuously improve its service delivery to its customers," says Yeni.
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arivia.kom is a leading South African IT company operating throughout Africa, with the proven ability to implement customised, integrated IT solutions and provide services at whichever global location our clients may specify. Our end-to-end services and solutions generate significant business advantages for our clients. Through operating in a transparent, straightforward manner, providing a Single Point of Responsibility for account management, and being able to access a national footprint and large expertise base, we simplify the complexity and reduce the risk of IT for our clients. We have a thorough understanding of the market sectors in which we focus and an impressive track record as proof of our capabilities.
ATIO Corporation
Already known as South Africa`s call centre supremo, ATIO offers so much more. Our two semi-independent divisions - each dedicated to a particular field of IT and commerce, can transform businesses into 21st century multi-channel enterprises by leveraging traditional channels and customers through mobile solutions, contact centres, quality and revenue assurance services in the GSM environment and unified communications.
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