Siltek Telecoms, National PABX throw a life line to AIDS victims

Siltek Telecoms, together with accredited reseller, National PABX, have partnered with Life Line Southern Africa to set up a national AIDS help line call centre, using the Lucent INDeX solution.

According to Michael Aitken, MD of Siltek Telecoms, the centre's main aim is to cope with the ever-increasing number of AIDS/HIV-related calls received around the country, and set the standard for future methods of educating and offering counselling services to South Africans that seek the personal and anonymous nature of the telephone counselling, information and referral services of the AIDS Helpline.

Rosemary Arthur, national PRO and development officer of Life Line, explains that the need for the INDeX solution was borne out of the unique requirements of the non-profit call centre that regards itself as an 'emotional first aid station'.

"We needed a system that would accommodate the issues that make the Life Line AIDS Helpline operation unique. Unlike other commercial call centres, the AIDS Helpline is run by counsellors first and foremost, who are not necessarily computer literate or skilled in call centre operation. Furthermore, calls can last for up to 20 minutes each because of the extremely sensitive nature of the problems surrounding HIV/AIDS," she says.

"It was thus vital that we find a partner to provide the correct technology, training and support to increase the capacity of the project. When we approached National PABX, it was able to offer us an innovative, affordable, and stable solution. Moreover Arthur testifies to the fact that expertise, support and availability from both companies has been of great benefit in moving the project from a manual decentralised model to a centralised high-tech facility.

Rodney Venter, managing director of National PABX offers a similar perspective on the deal, "We suggested the Lucent INDeX to Life Line as it is well-suited to its specific needs. It is a stable, handles a large amount of incoming calls and has the necessary scalability for call centre expansion." He compares it to other call centre telephony systems, saying that competitive systems are expensive and designed for huge call centre environments that require high-tech software and support.

He adds that this is the only call centre system that allows 7 calls to be run simultaneously, whereas most other systems can only run a maximum of two calls at one time. "This meets the requirements of a call centre accepting calls from all over the country." Venter and Arthur agree that this is crucial as the need for counselling has no time boundaries.

Aitken goes on to explain that Lucent INDeX is a communications platform with multifunctional features, ranging from informal call centre working and seamless voice messaging, through to integrated voice and data networking. He adds the Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) capability as another feature. "This allows the computer to act as a call centre, accepting incoming calls and routing them to the appropriate device or person, handling all sorts of incoming and outgoing communications, including phone calls, faxes, and Internet messages," he informs.

"It is an advanced digital switching platform offering up to 1088 ports, even though users need as few as 10 extensions to experience the benefits of INDeX," he continues. "As all INDeX models share components and support the same applications, they're easily upgraded and therefore cut the total cost of ownership."

According to Aitken, further cost reductions are seen in on line rentals, call costs, hardware outlay and support as there is no need for additional router networks or ISDN lines.

According to Arthur, the Life Line AIDS Helpline call centre is being viewed by the Department of Health as a key component in combating the very real issue of AIDS in South Africa. US-based John Hopkins University, who is helping fund the project, sees it as potential 'best practice model' to be used around the African continent. Furthermore, the organisation hopes to incorporate the 'Stop Woman Abuse' line into the call centre as early as October.

Says Aitken, "This is not a quick fix solution - but rather a long term commitment. Siltek Telecoms is happy to assist in with something so crucial to the economic and social stability of the country." Training will be provided free-of-charge from Siltek Telecoms.

Along with US Funding Agency, USAID, (in terms of its bilateral agreement with the South African Department of Health), John Hopkins University (based in Baltimore), and support from Siltek Telecoms, the AIDS Helpline will become a blueprint for future methods of offering emotional support and raising awareness about HIV/AIDS.

"Not only has the project created jobs, offering salaries to former Life Line volunteers moving to the new national office call centre, as well as Department of Health-trained HIV/AIDS counsellors, it is a first in the non-commercial call centre arena, and one that can be adopted by other crises intervention counselling services," concludes Arthur.