Cable&Wireless creates ‘One Contact Centre’

Cable&Wireless has implemented the UK’s first ‘on demand’ Internet Protocol (IP) Contact Centre for Thames Water.

The ‘on demand’ nature of the solution gives Thames Water the flexibility to increase or decrease the number of staff resources on call as business conditions change – without the need for significant investment in agent licences. As part of the contract Cable&Wireless will deliver ongoing network support for the utility company.

The flooding in South England in the summer of 2007 affected Thames Water’s customer contact centre in Swindon, resulting in a temporary loss of service. With 13.5 million water and waste customers, it wanted to ensure this never happened again, so Thames Water set about replacing its legacy system with a new, fully resilient integrated platform, which would enable them to deliver improved levels of customer service.

Cable&Wireless’s hosted IP Contact Centre solution provides both contact centre services and IP telephony to the whole of Thames Water’s Swindon centre. It integrates Thames Water’s contact centre and back office staff, resulting in more than 800 colleagues now being on one network – all customer interactions can be managed from a single network. Combined with a range of new staff training initiatives, this has removed the traditional separate working approach between front office and back office staff by creating ‘One Contact Centre’.

The new IP-based system also gives Thames Water the ability to leverage the existing Call Recording and Workforce Management applications, which delivers flexibility to increase the number of agent staff in response to demand peaks. The ‘on demand’, pay-per-user approach helps Thames Water control operational costs in line with the volume of consumer calls to the contact centre. So if there is a surge in demand, additional resources come online to ensure minimal delays for its customers. Likewise, if call numbers drop, agents can be deployed to other areas of the business. This reduces both cost and operational complexities and, more importantly, improves customer interactions.

The system has also improved reporting mechanisms, making the collection of vital statistics simpler and less time consuming.

Mike Tempest, Customer Services Director at Thames Water said: “The new converged IP environment delivered by Cable&Wireless has transformed the way we work and the levels of service we provide to our customers.”

He continued, “The Hosted IP Contact Centre service monitors, in real time, the status of all users logged on to the platform so customer calls are delivered to the right agent at the right time. As the contact centre gets busier, we can bring in additional resources from the wider, one contact centre team to ensure our high levels of service are maintained. For the first time, contact centre managers are freed of the commercial constraints traditionally associated with this area, and can now flex their resources as required.”

Jim Marsh, Chief Executive Officer, Cable&Wireless Europe, Asia & US, commented: “We understand Thames Water’s need to deliver a great service at all times to its 13.5 million customers. The IP-based contact centre platform, hosted on the Cable&Wireless network, enables companies to replace legacy infrastructure with a single platform to manage all their customer interactions.  Working with a major utility such as Thames Water further cements our position as a leading provider of contact centre services.”