7C
Company: Point to PointCustomer: 7CSubmitted by: Eclat Marketing7C is Europe’s leading provider of e-CRM managed services.
Founded in 1998, it now employs more than 1,250 staff at its facilities in London, Swindon and Pembrokeshire. Boasting revenues in excess of £25 million, 7C provides multilingual call centre facilities to customers in more than 60 countries worldwide. The company’s impressive list of blue chip customers include: Vodafone, Virgin, Dun & Bradstreet, UPS, AT&T and the RAC.7C has long prided itself on harnessing leading edge technology to give their clients a competitive edge. The company’s advanced CRM technology platform allows them to convert service calls into genuine sales opportunities and the company ethos is one of being flexible and responsive to client’s wishes.Against such a background Jonathan Tee, Technology Implementation Manager for 7C was tasked with reviewing the company’s desktop requirements and installing a solution that would provide fast and simple application deployment when and where it was needed, whilst minimising the support burden on his technical support department.
“We had a lot of people carrying out similar activities but, as each user tended to have slightly different desktop configurations the task of managing the population of PC users was becoming extremely onerous”, commented Jonathan Tee.To assist him in his search, Jonathan enlisted the support of Point to Point, a value added reseller specialising in server-based computing solutions. The company chose Point to Point because they were able to demonstrate a clear track record for successful server-based computing installations and they were selected from a shortlist of three potential resellers. Point to Point was tasked to design a solution that would allow speedy, simple deployment of a range of applications including both customers’ own custom-built applications, standard Microsoft applications, email and a terminal emulation program plus Lucent CMS – a software designed to monitor agent activity on the Definity PABX.
One particularly tricky issue was the integration onto every agent’s desktop of a solution from Witness Systems Inc.The Witness software records voice from the switch and combines it with screen information from the desktop which is stored in a central SQL server database which can then be replayed by the 7C quality team to monitor the work of every agent. A thorough analysis of 7C’s requirements against the solutions proposed by Point to Point resulted in the selection of Citrix MetaFrame with Microsoft Windows TSE as the server based software combined with desktop hardware from Netier.Netier SLs replaced standard PCs on 350 desktops in the Swindon call centre as well as an additional 50 in the Pembrokeshire call centre. The clients were connected to Compaq Proliant 5500R servers – four in the Swindon site and two in Pembrokeshire.
Each desktop was pre-configured with the Witness agent embedded on the desktop devices. This capability ensured that the support department would be able to remotely access desktop devices to deploy new software or resolve technical difficulties without moving from their desks.Furthermore, due to the fact that it was now possible to centrally administer and control which applications each user had access to, the time and effort required to manage the users was vastly reduced. “We selected Netier thin clients because they were able to support the Witness software as they are based on the Windows NT operating system rather than Windows CE like many of their competitors. We liked the scalability they offered, particularly the option to install a videoconferencing card in the spare slot to turn them into video-conferencing terminals should we so wish,” explained Jonathan Tee.The whole project from initial consultancy and design through to implementation and post sales support has been managed by Point to Point.
7C’s Johnathan Tee attributes the success of the project to be largely due to “Point to Point’s professionalism and exceptional product experience”. He added, “Point to Point’s assistance has enabled us to deploy our first thin-client project successfully, on time, and to budget. I wish all projects could be this painless!”The next phase of the project will see the roll out of Netier SL desktops and Citrix MetaFrame throughout the organisation. ” The major advantage we perceive from our server-based computing solution is it provides us as a business with a competitive advantage. Traditionally it has been necessary to create large, centralised call-centres to deliver the economies of scale needed to support the high cost of technological investment required.
By reducing the cost per desktop, and enabling centralised management of remote users we are now able to site our call centres in smaller locations closer to our clients or the available workforce.A second business advantage is the ability to set up a call centre project from scratch within days rather than months, which is something our clients will derive direct benefit from. This offers us a clear strategic advantage as a result of our investment in this new server-based technology which we find particularly pleasing,” concluded Jonathan Tee.
