Case study: Diabetes Australia speaks out

The Solution
DAV's market review resulted in the selection of the Interactive Intelligence Enterprise Interaction Centre (EIC) solution.

EIC is an all software IP PBX for mid-size enterprises that incorporates SIP, along with integration to Microsoft products.

Its key features eliminate the need for costly voice processing cards, while improving reliability and lowering overall costs.

As EIC is built on the core Interaction Centre Platform, it allows DAV to add applications to scale with future growth, including outbound dialling, screen recording, and workforce management.  

Applications include presence management; multi-channel queuing and routing; interactive voice response; speech-enabled auto-attendant; unified messaging; 'one  number' find-me/follow-me and multi-channel recording and scoring.  

The deployment was carried out by CPS Technology Group (CPS), an Interactive Intelligence Elite partner.  

"While the Interactive Intelligence solution itself had a range of attractive features and functionality, we were impressed by CPS Technology Group's consistent and professional approach to the project at hand, their technical skills and an appealing confidence in being able to do the job properly," said Popper.

The Deployment
For DAV, the project brought a significant change in technology and infrastructure for the staff.

Not only was there the implementation of the new multi-site IP Telephony system, there were changes to the organisational structure.

They engaged a project consultant to assist in firming up the specifications and overseeing the installation.

Workshops were held with each of the departments and CPS used these meetings as "discovery" sessions.

The design focused on the call centre as the core operational centre for DAV's business and an EIC Premium Server and Switchover Server were installed at the Greensborough call centre.

The Elizabeth Street head office was provided with an ININ Business Continuity Manager SIP Proxy .  

As part of the implementation, CPS delivered a new wide area network using Nextep's secure 'point to point' SHDSL services, providing 2m/2m bandwidth links to connect the Elizabeth Street and Queens Street offices back to the call centre at Greensborough.  

They also upgraded the DAV data network during the EIC installation, providing Allied Telesys POE Switches for the organisation's suite of Polycom handsets.

The Benefits
The database system has enabled the organisation to converge its IT and telecommunications infrastructure for the benefit of various applications, including customer relationship management.

"Our call centre staff responded to 84,000 telephone enquiries and processed thousands of NDSS orders for diabetes products, membership and fundraising enquiries, event bookings, Life! program information, and research requests," said Popper.

In conjunction with the technology came an increase in the training for the contact centre agents.

This resulted in a significant improvement in call response times and service measures for the call centre, such as the time taken to answer a call or abandoned calls.