The Enterprise Solutions division of Siemens Telecommunications, in collaboration with Alcatel, Telkom and CTI data solutions, has successfully rolled out phase one of a centralised telephony management system (TMS) for JSE-listed retailer, Woolworths. Although still in its early stages, the project has, since its inception last August, increased cost savings for Woolworths by as much as 30%.
Faced with the task of handling and servicing customer and supplier calls across all departments and cost centres throughout the Woolworths network, the Woolworths Telecommunications department were in search of a centralised management system to provide the most accurate and efficient performance stats and billing reports.
This was no easy feat when confronted with a network spanning some 1500 users in Woolworths House (head office) alone as well as the Woolworths Campus environment - including SRG house (Woolworths Financial Services), Plein Park and Golden Acre - and the chain of over 150 stores throughout SA.
The pilot project kicked off in June 2000. It was crucial in bringing together the various collaborating parties, with the common purpose of coming up with a business solution to match Woolworths' requirements. Phase 1, which involved rolling out the telephone management system in the campus environment, commenced at the end of June 2000 and is now complete. Phase two, which will cover all the major stores, is expected to be operational by the end of 2001. Phase three, expected to be completed during 2001, will see the final completion of the TMS across all Woolworths stores
The purpose of the required centralised telephone management system was two-fold - to provide performance stats and billing reports. The performance stats play a vital role in managing traffic volumes and the efficient, client-friendly running of the call centre environment on a day-to-day basis. Based on the information gathered, for example response times of user groups and call transfer times, both everyday tactical and operational decisions are made as well as strategic decisions on, for example, network capacity planning. Billing reports for a large company like Woolworths needed to be both accurate, up-to-date and tracked separately across all user groups - per department, per cost centre and historically to the individual user.
Says Woolworths Telecommunications Manager, Keith Pieterse: "One of the biggest challenges faced was the task of physically collecting information from the hybrid environment of PABX's and other active network components, and getting the system to work together. This was made more difficult by the general lack of information at our disposal, because of inadequate performance stats from the past."
Problems with the billing system previously in place at Woolworths were numerous. Working on a Unix-based (4755) system the reports took as long as 24 hours to pull, information was often inaccurate, reports were substandard and they were unable to cost Telkom's Primenet (a software-based, intelligent, voice network which permits the use of the public telephone network resources to establish a VPN). It was also not possible to draw historical data from the Unix systems or the subsequent Wintel system.
After analysing the Woolworths needs requirements thoroughly, Siemens Telecommunications proposed replacing both the Unix-based and Wintel systems with the Proteus telephone management system.
Proteus, developed by CTI data solutions, is a powerful, easy-to-use 32-bit call management software application, which captures and records data on incoming and outgoing telephone calls from the PBX, and automatically interprets this into professional management reports. The reporting features of Proteus are used for cost allocation throughout the company, to increase the telephone network efficiency, to monitor the quality of service to customers over the telephone, verify telephone bills, monitor call traffic activity and to identify abuse and fraudulent use of facilities.
"After a lengthy evaluation process, Proteus was offered as the best solution for Woolworth's primarily because it fitted their business needs to well," says Siemens Telecommunications product manager, Andrew Stoltz. " Proteus calculates all calls made and bills them separately so that call costs can be broken up to the many different departments. In addition, the billing system installed at Woolworths is tailored for Telkom SA and costs Primenet by allowing for a flexible discount structure.
"The installation of Proteus saw an immediate improvement in billing accuracy as well as a significant improvement in the accuracy of performance stats. The new telephone billing system produced, over a three week trial period, only a 0.1% error margin, where the industry norm is a 10% error margin," Pieterse explained.
"The Proteus system is windows based and so has a user- friendly interface and report layout. Information can also now be broken down into 30 standard reports with the possibility of customising other reports, which may be required, in future. Accurate billing is of the utmost importance to the financial controllers and cost centre holders and has made their jobs that much easier."
Another major advantage, Pieterse says, is the Proteus' ability to interpret information. "A very necessary function of any IT solution is to leverage infrastructure to provide a financially attractive option. By using this interpretive tool, the environment can be managed and income generated through returns on investment.
"Since its onset last year, the project has been an enormous success, bringing significant cost savings to Woolworths. In the campus environment, where most calls are made, the Proteus telephone management system processes 25 000 incoming calls and 30 000 outgoing calls. The billing features are highly accurate and the performance stats play a major role in managing the call environment. The wealth of data information provided has assisted Woolworths in planning for the introduction of cost saving measures and, in addition, plays a role in staff performance appraisals and in combating telephone abuse," he continues.
Says Telkom Corporate Account Manager for Woolworths, Nigel van Ysendyk: "Proteus has proven a very successful management tool - subsequent to the product being launched, the interest Proteus has raised in the customer base has been quite substantial."
"Siemens provided a good support network throughout phase 1 of the project and assisted also in providing skills training to Woolworths staff, such that the first-level maintenance of the TMS will be done by contractors at Woolworths," adds Pieterse.
"My long-term vision following the successful completion of this project, will be to have created a significant number of job opportunities, through the processing and management of vital, extra information," he concluded.
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