Spescom has recently won a sizeable contract to supply a call centre solution to eQuals Group (Pty) Ltd, a leading group specialising in business process outsourcing.
This is a joint undertaking between sister companies, Spescom DataFusion and DataVoice, the call centre and voice transaction management operations of JSE-listed multinational Spescom Limited.
The contract is worth around R3 million for the first phase which provides facilities for 50 call-centre agents. The agents presently deal with customers across South Africa and the centre will eventually handle overflow calls from the company's international operations.
"The eQuals Group handles critical administration, such as dealing with claims, for its many corporate customers in the motor, insurance and financial services industries," says Paul Fick, MD of Spescom DataFusion. "Consequently, the call centres deal with large volumes of traffic and have to maintain real-time continuity with their CRM systems.
"For the call centre, DataFusion has deployed the latest Avaya systems, including IP phones for the back office. Spescom's DataVoice division has installed a voice-recording solution, integrated with the Avaya solution. This plays a critical role in verifying transactions, monitoring agents' activities and enabling the eQuals Group to access essential customer transaction information rapidly.
"Initially, the call centre will handle all the customer's local needs. In the future - following on the established trend for overseas companies to outsource their call centre requirements in South Africa - the solution can be easily extended to meet additional demands and provide handling of overflow from eQuals Group call centres overseas."
The DataVoice solution includes the latest Orion Professional E1 technology which has excellent scalability to meet the future needs of the customer. The eQuals Group has been utilising DataVoice solutions for the past six years and Orion for the last three.
All the new call centre technology will be used in conjunction with eQuals Group's existing infrastructure. According to Etienne Schmidt, project manager for the eQuals Group, this integration was a contributing factor for the selection of a call centre solution.
"Our primary need was to replace existing technology with a solution that could grow to meet future requirements," says Schmidt. "Having investigated a number of options, we determined that the Spescom solution's Avaya technology was the best choice to deliver the abilities and scalability we needed. It also offers superior reporting, which is a critical concern in our line of business.
"The eQuals Group has diverse business divisions handling different core business processes. We utilise 14 prime-rate ISDN lines and voice over IP connections between two of our offices in the same business park, which are completely integrated with our call centre solution.
"The use of Avaya systems provides a single platform, eliminating the difficulties of integrating previous systems that we inherited from acquisitions.
"The Spescom solution leaves us well-placed to handle current needs and provides an upgrade path as our business grows into the future."
Share
Spescom is a multi-national technology innovator with direct operations in the US, UK and South Africa.
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 & measurement.
Spescom markets its products worldwide through appointed partners and distributors under the eB(tm) brand for its enterprise software, and the DataVoice(tm) 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, First National Bank.
For more information on Spescom, please visit www.spescomsoftware.com and www.spescom.com
Editorial contacts