ePLDT introduces virtual call center service
MANILA, Philippines, June 20, 2007 — ePLDT, PLDT’s information and communications technology arm, launched today a new service called Unified Contact Center Plus, a pre-integrated suite of cost-efficient call center applications that are easy to install and maintain.
ePLDT President and CEO Ray C. Espinosa said the huge cost of installation and maintenance of contact support solutions is prohibitive for many companies.
“The use of call centers (or contact centers) is now a norm for many companies across industries, to provide an efficient and cost effective way of reaching out to their customers and addressing their various needs. But while there may be traditional call center solutions that may be used today to support call centers, it has become increasingly evident that these traditional solutions may not necessarily address all of the growing business functions and processes that call centers today need – given the high capital expenditure involved and the complexity of installation and maintenance,” said Espinosa.
“ePLDT’s Unified Contact Center Plus aims to address these multi-function and multi-process requirements,” he added.
This new service is powered by Cosmocom’s Contact Center On-Demand technology. Cosmocom, a global leader in unified customer communications, is also the leading provider of Contact Center On-Demand technology worldwide.
“We believe our partnership with Cosmocom will help many companies hurdle the problems faced by traditional call center solutions,” said Espinosa.
The Unified Contact Center Plus, which is designed as a pure IP contact center solution, unifies seamlessly various multimedia and multi-channel capabilities, which are typically not possible in solutions that are not inherently IP-based.
This system offers a complete contact center suite that includes ACD, IVR, CTI, predictive dialing, and multimedia recording. It is also enhanced with various management applications such as CRM integration and call flow definition functions.
Multi-tenancy is also built into Unified Contact Center Plus and applies to every facet of the platform.
Espinosa said that as telecommunication companies provide more messaging services and move to more web-based customer self-service, it has become increasingly important for business to transform their call center to a unified multi-channel contact center – one that supports every contact channel in a unified way.
“As it was designed for multi-channel contact, the Unified Contact Center Plus solution provides all these interaction methods,” said Espinosa. “This system also maximizes agent productivity, minimizes response time for all contact types, and gives agents access to customer interaction history across all channels.”
Organizational changes like mergers, spin-offs, re-organizations and redeployments can affect the status quo of a traditional call center and have severe financial consequences.
Since Unified Contact Center Plus’s IP-based architecture is inherently virtual, this process is more cost-effective. It also entails the fast deployment of a virtual call center that allows agents in multiple locations to be managed and utilized as part of a single system image.
Given the latest trend in customer care towards offshore outsourcing of agents, a virtual call center solution like Unified Contact Center Plus can also help telecommunication companies make this move without compromising the level of service and disturbing the integrity of the application.
“With Unified Contact Center Plus, organizations enjoy speedy implementation and streamlined operations as well as reduced cost of integration, management and maintenance. It also allows companies to focus on their core business while enjoying expanded functionality in their contact center,” Espinosa explained.
Unified Contact Center Plus is now being utilized by organizations from a range of industries with a need for efficient customer management services, such as the tourism and finance sectors, telecom companies, and retail and manufacturing industries.