Aditro Customer Services

Transcription

1 Success Story: IT and Business Services / Outsourcing Aditro Customer Services

2 Page 2 Industry...IT and Business Services / Outsourcing Aditro Customer Services...Turnover of 100 million Number of Agents... 1,500 in 14 sites Call Volume... Over two million inbound calls. and 500,000 outbound calls per month Aditro is the leading Nordic provider of IT-driven outsourcing solutions. Employing 4,100 people and with a turnover of 350 million, the business operates from 30 locations in seven countries: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Belgium and the Netherlands. An important business area, Aditro Customer Services, focuses on providing call centres, telemarketing and telesales services, and 24/7 customer support. It employs over 2,000 people and has an annual turnover of 100 million. Our main focus, probably 75% of the business and representing two million calls per month, is with inbound clients typically large accounts, explains Johan Johansson, Director of Service Delivery, Aditro Customer Services. Our outbound work is generally complementary business with those clients. Challenges In the Nordic region, the outsourced customer service concept has developed rapidly in the last 3-5 years, with existing businesses both large and small together with new market entrants fuelling a highly competitive environment. As a result, providers like Aditro are under severe price pressure, not least in the face of highly skilled buyers who are increasingly knowledgeable about the outsourcing industry and of the technologies available to support contact centre operations. This has led to demands to cut costs internally and reduce overhead wherever possible, whilst also increasing efficiency and productivity particularly in regard to agent utilisation and maintaining visibility and control over the business at all levels. Meanwhile, Aditro has grown through acquisition, resulting in a mixed technology and communications platform. However, all customer service systems relating to interaction management of telephony, , fax and chat are now being replaced by a Genesys platform that is 100% IP-based, using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). We don t want to be a price leader we want to be a performance leader, says Johansson. We believe that we should offer superior service, and that clients do not mind paying a little extra for a strong assurance of stability, quality and delivery. The tools we use to achieve outstanding service delivery are very important, and we want to maintain our position in terms of quality whilst controlling and reducing costs.

3 Page 3 We are under severe price pressure. The outsourced customer services sector is very competitive and we face skilled buyers who want the best deals and highest quality, with stricter SLAs and lots more KPIs than before not just average handling times, but sales targets, hit rates and more. Internally, we need to cut costs, improve efficiency and increase agent utilisation whilst never compromising our position as a performance leader. Genesys, and particularly the IP environment, is helping us achieve this. Ken Persson IT Director, Aditro Customer Services Solutions Aditro deployed Genesys Version 7.2, including Genesys SIP Server, in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. This centralised solution currently supports 1,500 seats, although it s likely to soon scale up towards 2,000 seats. Aditro has also implemented Genesys Inbound, Genesys Outbound and Genesys . A key reason for choosing Genesys was the company s ability to deliver a cross-border, highly flexible and truly open solution. Moreover, the fact that Genesys could also offer flexible financing made its proposition even more compelling. All Aditro sites are now moving over to the Genesys platform in a wide-ranging migration and core systems integration project. We started working with Genesys in 2001, says Ken Persson, IT Director, Aditro Customer Services. At that time we had a PBX-based installation and various integration issues, plus limitations in doing some things, like adding new functionality in a cost efficient manner. From we started to move from proprietary computer telephony integration (CTI) to a more open, standards-based approach. We started to see reduced integration costs and discover smarter ways to work. As far as I m concerned, SIP was a natural step to a nextgeneration IP-based infrastructure, to help us move our business ahead, continues Persson. Our vision is to provide the most transparent contact centre operations possible. We work very closely with our clients. Indeed, we share key performance indicators (KPIs) with clients and some have direct access to our real-time data. That not only helps with transparency but, by making it self-service for clients, also makes sense from an efficiency perspective, as we don t have to compile and send data to them. The Genesys platform enables Aditro to provide a superior service to its clients meeting service level agreements (SLAs), addressing KPIs and sharing valuable insights. Indeed, the openness and flexibility of Genesys has meant new business opportunities for Aditro, as Persson explains: A significant amount of outbound calling is for telcos, and customers today often make new agreements with mobile providers verbally. We built a recording and audio store solution onto the platform to record the relevant parts of a conversation, index it, then make it available to clients, all at no additional cost.

4 Page 4 Challenges The outsourced customer services and contact centre market has developed rapidly in the region in the last 3-5 years and is now hugely competitive Aditro s growth through acquisition created a diverse technology and communications infrastructure, with multiple platforms Aditro is under severe price pressure; it must keep prices down and control costs whilst delivering the highest levels of performance and quality Skilled client-side buyers have become very knowledgeable about the outsourcing market and the technologies available for contact centre operations Aditro wanted to increase efficiency, better utilise agents, maintain control of the business at all levels, and have the flexibility to meet a huge range of constantly-changing client requirements Results Genesys is an ideal fit for Aditro s business and its complex, multi-faceted requirements. Importantly, the Genesys solutions can be rolled out and modified over time without the need for a complete rip and replace approach. Johansson says, We needed an open platform so that we could deal with all of the processes associated with our clients needs, as well as our internal needs in terms of costs, efficiency and so on, and Genesys is the most open platform I ve ever seen. We also wanted to be sure we would get the scalability, security, uptime and economy in a platform that our corporate strategy required. He adds that having a single platform has also meant a reduction in technical support requirements and development costs. In addition to supporting Aditro s distributed operations with a single integrated platform, another key benefit is the Genesys solutions ability to flex and adapt to new business requirements as Aditro wins new contracts, plus the ability to support new business services, such as an application service provider (ASP) model that Aditro wants to bring to market. There s a huge difference between running an in-house contact centre and being an outsourcer, explains Persson. It s far more complex as an outsourcer we re constantly having to meet different, multiple requirements for clients. You have to be able to slice up your platform in so many ways and work as flexibly as possible. For example, this is a multi-channel environment, and requirements can vary from assignment to assignment. We do some blending involving and voice, and inbound and outbound voice, but we clearly now have the potential to do more. Agents productivity can also be actively managed against targets, such as reduced call duration, and they can see at any time if they are ahead of, or behind, a target. Reliability is another essential factor. We re under such severe cost pressures plus demands to be more efficient that we need a platform able to support all our initiatives in terms of both client-focused and internal processes, says Persson. Our contact centre offerings are core to our business. If a contact centre goes down, we stop earning revenue from that source. Therefore, we need the functionality to work as optimally as possible. With the help of Genesys, we ve been able to implement best practices into our system, adding new KPIs to help us avoid mistakes. The response from our agents has been very good.

5 Page 5 Results A consistently high performing, exceptionally flexible and genuinely open platform taking in multiple sites and cross-border locations Reduced costs and lowered overheads, enabling Aditro to better compete in a competitive market without compromising on either quality or performance More targeted, effective and responsive services can be provided to Aditro s clients, improving revenue for the business Improved utilisation of agents with greater productivity and flexibility in agent deployment and call routing based on, for example, specific skill sets and client/contractual requirements While agent performance was previously very difficult to measure, Aditro now has clear metrics on how they are performing Aditro can effectively pursue its strategy of being the performance leader in outsourced contact centres and customer services in the region The Genesys platform provides the technology and capability to increase productivity, enabling Aditro to maintain profit levels Johansson adds, This wasn t only about changing technology, but also about changing how we implement new practices and improve productivity. Persson agrees: We had problems before in measuring our business and how we worked. Now, we have clear figures, in black and white, on how our people are performing. We re still rolling out the platform and there s still a lot to do in the region for example, delivering new IP-based softphones but the platform is clearly successful and everything looks good, says Johansson. As we move forward, a big focus will be on using the platform to further reduce manual work in the contact centres, putting new business models in place aimed at optimisation and covering areas such as call avoidance. We have to continue our drive to be more competitive and to better utilise our agents who, after all, cost 10 times more than computers. Our platform will help us work smarter to, for example, use an automated selector to call people whose subscription may have terminated, to decide who it makes sense to try to win back based on their customer profile, then route calls to agents with noted win back skills. That is, using Genesys to route calls based on a business decision. We are already deploying more intelligence in service-level routing, using more of the functionality in the product. And our Genesys platform is helping us win business, concludes Johansson. Potential clients are very interested in it. My feeling is that they are far more knowledgeable today and they know what a Genesys platform stands for. The market has matured and people are looking for just the sort of multi-channel approach that we can now offer. I also believe Genesys helps us generate revenue in terms of the throughput, service levels and productivity it supports. It s definitely helped us improve service levels, and it s interesting to note that, despite big price pressures, Aditro Customer Services is maintaining profit levels. As a key part of all the work we ve been doing internally, the Genesys platform is definitely helping us achieve that result.

6 Page 6 Solutions Genesys provides the only IP contact centre solution that uses a completely open architecture to support virtually any hardware or software platform, regardless of vendor. Genesys Customer Interaction Management (CIM) Platform processes, routes and reports on interactions and related activities based on a company s specific business criteria. It manages and provides a universal view of each and every customer interaction. Genesys SIP Server fully scaleable, the SIP Server can support up to 30,000 IP agents for effective use of virtual contact centre agents in branch and remote offices. The centralised approach provides the consistency, security and virtual integration needed to tie together multiple sites and departments. Genesys Outbound drives increased productivity and customer satisfaction, enabling the call centre to create, modify, run and report on outbound campaigns. Genesys Inbound delivers better management and faster resolution of incoming customer queries through intelligent call routing, plus easy integration with CRM applications and corporate databases. Genesys provides enterprise level management capabilities. Compatible with a wide range of third party servers, it leverages the power of the Genesys platform to manage high volumes of inbound and Web-form queries. Genesys Worldwide Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, is the world s leading provider of contact center and customer service management software with more than 4,000 customers in 80 countries. Genesys software directs more than 100 million interactions every day, dynamically connecting customers with the right resources self-service or assisted-service to fulfill customer requests, optimize customer care goals and efficiently use agent resources. Genesys helps organizations drive contact center efficiency, stop customer frustration and accelerate business innovation. For more information: visit us on the Web: or call GENESYS or Genesys is the World s #1 Contact Center Software Company Global leaders in 28 industries answer the call with Genesys, including: > Over 40% of the Global 500 > 21 of the world s 25 largest companies > 63 of the world s 100 largest companies > 18 of the world s 25 largest commercial banks > 7 of the world s 10 largest insurance companies > 7 of the world s 10 largest high technology companies > 16 of the world s 20 largest telecommunications companies > 4 of the world s 5 largest airlines > The world s 10 largest automotive companies Americas Corporate Headquarters Genesys 2001 Junipero Serra Blvd. Daly City, CA USA Tel: Fax: info@genesyslab.com Europe, Middle East, Africa EMEA Headquarters Genesys House Mulberry Business Park Fishponds Road Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 2GY United Kingdom Tel: Asia Pacific APAC Headquarters Genesys Laboratories Australasia Pty Ltd Level 17, 124 Walker Street North Sydney NSW 2060 Australia Tel: v.1-02/08-u.s. Genesys and the Genesys logo are registered trademarks of Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. All other company names and logos may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby recognized Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved.