SA`s latest financial services provider, Virgin Money, says by using voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology it has been able to save at least R1 million in set-up costs, and predicts dramatic ongoing savings.
Going live at the time of Virgin Money`s South African launch on 26 June, the company`s Sandton call centre seats 230 agents, dealing with what CEO John Maxwell has described as unexpected demand from local consumers.
Leon Deist, project manager for call centres at Virgin Money, says while the costs of setting up the call centre`s infrastructure came to about R12 million, this is probably 10% to 12% less (due to labour and server infrastructure costs) than it would have been if more traditional forms of networks were used.
Long-term savings are difficult to quantify, he says, but adds that one can imagine how much more cost-effective the VOIP service will be when making internal calls that link to other call centres on the Absa data network.
"The technology is stable, and it is also easily scalable," he notes.
Virgin Money`s call centre saw peak traffic in the first few operational days of about 9 000 calls per day, but this has tapered to 5 000-6 000, adds Deist.
Using an Avaya and Nortel environment, he argues that using VOIP in the local area network means the Virgin call centre uses significantly less server infrastructure and hardware than a traditional call centres.
Related stories:
Virgin Money grows call centre
Share