Tellumat partners with global communications giant

Tellumat, a South African telecommunications and electronics company, has announced a partnership with global business communication giant Inter-Tel, to distribute Inter-Tel`s advanced communication solutions in SA with immediate effect.

According to Tellumat`s MD, Rasheed Hargey, the partnership will address the need in the South African business systems market for sophisticated and flexible communication platforms, especially in the area of contact centre solutions.

The Inter-Tel platform, with its application of Internet Protocol (IP) and voice over IP as core processes, allows for cost saving in telephony networks. "The increased market activity and business opportunities since the liberalisation of the telecoms market has finally allowed us to realise the full value of this strategic alliance," says Hargey.

"The Axxess platform from Inter-Tel is effective as it increases productivity and efficiency," adds Hargey, "for example, when a call centre agent finishes making a call, the system, through power diallers, automatically dials the next number on the database which saves the time as opposed to manually searching for the number."

The system also enhances a company`s CRM by allowing end-users to retrieve information and follow up with orders made and enquiries by clients, to name but a few.

Multinational corporations are being encouraged by the South African government to locate their call centres in the country. Although competing with India in this space, SA`s rand-based employment costs, time zone overlap with most European countries as well as accent comprehensibility makes business sense to European organisations that are looking to make call centre investments in the country.

"Over the past few years, the offshore availability of skilled labour and reduced costs has motivated some of the world`s biggest corporations to move their customer call centres away from Europe and North America to other parts of the world," explains Inter-Tel Europe`s MD, Chris Harris. "With a number of potential business transactions already under way, Inter-Tel Europe and Tellumat are already witnessing an indication of things to come."

Harris says: "The rapid explosion of call centres in SA has led to an increased demand for solutions that provide a platform for efficient business communication - a requirement that the Axxess platform addresses superbly."

Harris goes onto say that Tellumat has been established in the South African market for many years and has extensive skill sets which Inter-Tel is confident will assist it in rapidly ramping up Inter-Tel sales in this marketplace.

Inter-Tel`s Axxess Converged Communication Platform is an open architecture software-based system designed to meet the telecommunications needs of businesses of all sizes. The Axxess system can be configured for users who require less than 32 extensions through to upwards of 30 000 extensions seamlessly networking up to 63 unique brand locations.

Hargey believes this is a very exciting time for communications in SA.

"The advanced applications delivered by Axxess will provide us with excellent opportunities to expand our business. We see this as a great partnership. Our own long-term presence in the South African market linked with Inter-Tel`s track record of delivering up to the minute technology and applications can only prove to be a winning combination."