Spescom DataFusion has recently delivered the latest Avaya technology to support 3iSolutions, a rapidly growing company in Cape Town that specialises in outsourced services for major corporations in SA and the UK.
With roots that go as far back as the 1960s, 3iSolutions is a company with an established data capture operation and to a growing extent, niche contact centre and related IT solutions. Specifically, it provides inbound technical customer services and outbound lead generation, telemarketing and research. It has also developed its own campaign management system which it sells and supports. Following the strong international trend towards BPO (business process outsourcing), this local operation provides support and services throughout SA and to some of the largest firms in the UK.
Spescom DataFusion was selected by 3iSolutions as its telephony partner and to supply one of the first installations of Avaya IP Office technology in SA.
"Avaya IP Office is an ideal product for SME (small to medium-size enterprise) business use," says Paul Fick, MD of Spescom DataFusion. "It has all the functionality of enterprise solutions and can be scaled to handle anything from a handful of lines to over a hundred. It also offers the latest convergent technology and integrates closely with voice, voice over IP (VOIP) and data networks."
Greg Love is one of three directors who run 3iSolutions. He is responsible for the IT infrastructure of the business and explains why his company chose Spescom DataFusion's solution.
"Despite being relatively new to the contact centre industry, we have extensive experience in the BPO industry, which has allowed us to anticipate and support new trends," he says. "Having built a solid operation for data capture services, the growth experienced in the outsourced contact centre meant that we had to select the right technology to answer our expanding business needs.
"After a considerable analysis of the available offerings, we selected Spescom DataFusion's Avaya IP Office proposal over three other products. Firstly, I had previously used the IP Office quite extensively in the UK and was extremely happy with its flexibility and performance. Secondly, Avaya has a very well respected position in international markets and the contact centre industry specifically, and finally, the proposal was a cost-effective and scalable way to implement the latest technology."
The Avaya IP Office solution - which was deployed in less than a week - is the 406 version, able to support up to 120 incoming digital lines. It can be paired with another 406 implementation when required or upgraded to the Avaya IP Office 412.
"We are experiencing phenomenal growth in the contact centre area and the scalability of this technology is essential," says Love. "It offers ease of use, simple management and administration and, because it is modular and configurable through its software interface, it will be easy to expand to meet increased demand.
"The Avaya IP Office integrates seamlessly between our computer workstations and telephones, interfacing with our Campaign Management System (Symphony). For outbound campaigns, we have developed a 'preview' dialler using the Avaya platform, thereby significantly improving the agents' productivity. We intend enhancing this functionality further with a 'power dialler' - a system that calls multiple numbers and selects the first one to achieve a connection, thereby minimising ring-time.
"Its ability to handle many digital lines is critical, since we use Telkom VOIP services to make our international calls. It also offers intelligent routing of cellular calls so that a least-cost connection is effected. Another feature which our own staff find invaluable is that it has a call-back function so that workers on the road can dial a single number and the system immediately calls them back.
"The service we have received from Spescom DataFusion has been simply outstanding. The Avaya IP Office is a perfect fit for us, managing our diverse requirements with ease and offering us a solution which we can expand rapidly and cost-effectively with."
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Spescom is a multinational technology innovator with direct operations in the US, UK and SA.
Spescom Limited is publicly listed on the JSE Securities Exchange, South Africa. Spescom Software Inc is publicly listed on the NASDAQ OTCBB: ALTS.OB.
Spescom addresses the information and communications technology market providing both products and solutions to connect to the network economy, as well as enterprise software to manage information and knowledge.
Specifically, Spescom provides solutions in the areas of access network; enterprise information management; multimedia transaction recording; broadcast; customer contact centres; and test and measurement.
Spescom markets its products worldwide through appointed partners and distributors under the eB brand for its enterprise software, and the DataVoice brand for its multimedia transaction recording solutions.
Spescom's global customer base consists of multi-national organisations including leading enterprises in the utilities, telecommunications, transportation, financial, banking and insurance sectors.
Worldwide, customers include Siemens, British Telecoms, Network Rail (formerly Railtrack), Lloyds of London, Barclays Bank, Abbey National Bank, WH Smith, Caterpillar, Bechtel, AmerenUE, Entergy, Bombardier, Ocean Energy, Sempra Energy, Telkom, SABC, Old Mutual, Eskom, Transnet and First National Bank.
For more information on Spescom, please visit www.spescomsoftware.com and www.spescom.com.
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