Britsh Gas parent Centrica has outsourced its call centre
communications network and converted it to Internet Protocol (IP),
in a move that will save thousands of pounds in administration
costs.
Managed network supplier Cable & Wireless will look after
Centrica's voice, data, and video communications over both wire and
wireless networks. .
Atul Hindocha, Centrica's transformation director, said the
10-month programme had three goals: to standardise on IP for
networking, to refresh the firm's call centre technology, and to
simplify the networking technologies.
"The cost saving was significant as a percentage of the IT
budget, but it wasn't the only reason to do the project," Hindocha
said. "In fact the new system future-proofs some of the older
equipment."
The networks service 16,500 agents in 112 UK sites, of which 60
have more than 100 staff, who take more than 10 million calls a
day. There are 14 dedicated call centres, two of which run 24x7.
These deal with calls for urgent activities such as gas leaks and
repairs to boilers.
The call centres serve residential, B2B and energy services
customers. The time-sensitive nature of the work meant that
Centrica could not afford any interruptions to the business. The
entire cut-over was finished on time in five days, without
downtime, Hindocha said.
The contact centres have various manufacturers' iPBXs running
Avaya's Communication Manager 5, the latest version of its contact
centre software
The new system allows calls to be patched through to field
agents via mobile phones and laptops as well as desktop PCs.
Centrica is testing an ISDN-based desk to desk video
conferencing application with the aim to improve communications by
adding the visual element, Hindocha said.
Customers may soon be able to use Skype to place videocalls to
the call centres, he said.