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Select
Select Group in the UK
166 offices, 14 autonomous UK companies within the group, £2,000,000 annual telephony spend.
The challenge
Select's objective was to reduce costs and improve the overall efficiency of its telephony. Select needed to find a single supplier that could satisfy the varying demands of the 14 companies within the group. With this in mind, the central management team devised a formal and demanding review process to appraise potential suppliers. The industry's major providers and carriers were invited to present their solutions, the key areas being, reduction of costs, resilience, innovative inbound call routeing, making the best use of existing equipment and possibly the most important aspect, support and the ability to work as a partner, not just a supplier.
The solution and roll out
Being an independent telecommunications company, Sky Blue was able to tailor a routeing profile for each company and in some cases, specific to the site and traffic profile
SkyBlue won the contract at the end of 2001 and commenced the roll out in January 2002.
We created a project plan to connect all lines at all sites within a period of 4 weeks, allowing 2 weeks to address any connection issues and resolve any other problems that could occur. During the project implementation SkyBlue carried out various site surveys. The results identified that many BT lines were not in use and therefore further cost reductions were available.
At the completion of the overall implementation, 4 different UK carriers were in use and the projected savings were in excess of 30%.
Results
By the end of 2002, the annualised savings were 38%.
Since rolling out this project and delivering the high level of service the contract demanded, Sky Blue has worked closely with Select regarding the provision of ADSL services and the selection of a cost effective Mobile Network provider.
‘We are a group of 14 businesses in the Recruitment sector operating across the UK from a total of 166 offices. At the start of 2002, we contracted for telecomm voice services from Sky Blue. Sky Blue won the contract over major players like Worldcom, Colt and Cable and Wireless based upon their presentation, referrals and their willingness to ‘partner' us.
At this point we are thoroughly pleased with the services we have received from Sky Blue. We are a very demanding organisation and Sky Blue has satisfied all of our demands. Barry Pitt and his team have delivered everything Sky Blue promised and more. They are our partners in every sense of the word and have gone more than the ' extra mile' to ensure our voice services are all they should be and what we need.
Problems – of course we experienced a few problems during implementation and an occasional issue arises from time to time, as we fully expected they would. The important thing, and the thing that pleases us most, is the speed and the ease with which these problems are resolved. Throughout the group, all of our companies have found the making the phone call to Sky Blue is the hardest part of the process – and the only thing they really have to do.
The only difficulty now is expectation we have as to the acceptable level of service we expect from other vendors. Sky Blue is the benchmark by which we will measure all others. I unreservedly recommend Sky Blue to anyone looking for alternate service provider of voice services'.
David Vaillancour
Select Appointments (Holdings) Limited
ITS
ITS Caleb Brett
ITS Caleb Brett is an industry leader in providing important laboratory and inspection services to key global industries. The company has 360 offices and 196 analytical testing laboratories worldwide.
The challenge
When Sky Blue first became involved with ITS, they were already using least cost routeing. The savings compared with BT were substantial, the difficulty ITS had was resolving the service problems which from time to time occurred. ITS found itself in the trap that many commercial users find when they have moved away from BT, i.e. when they call the service provider they are told it is a BT line issue and when they call BT they are told it's a service provider issue.
The dilemma facing ITS was, if they reverted to BT it would be financially onerous, but on the other hand, going about finding an alternative service provider with exemplary service levels would not be straight forward.
The criteria ITS set for potential suppliers revolved around three key points:
1. The existing charges must be reduced.
2. A service level agreement must be offered with pre- determined time to resolution and fault processing clauses set in place.
3. At any time ITS felt the line quality was not acceptable an alternative carrier must be immediately available.
The solution
By using a combination of carriers, Sky Blue could reduce the charges over and above the competitive prices already in place with the incumbent supplier. Sky Blue offered a service level agreement, which met the criteria laid down by ITS and also provided reference sites. This allowed ITS to gain a degree of comfort and verification of Sky Blue's ability to deliver. A multiple carrier facility was offered to give the resilience ITS demanded.
The roll out
The multiple carrier facility was achieved by a combination of PABX programming and dialers. This gave the best mix and match of services to achieve the optimum pricing and it also gave the resilience required.
Initially weekly visits from the Sky Blue account manager were arranged to ensure that all concerned were happy with the services provided.
Results
Substantial savings were made on all outbound traffic from the moment the service was set up. The service level agreement has always been met and generally it has been exceeded. ITS seem very happy with the style of account management, Sky Blue take immediate ownership of any issues that may occur, through to resolution, also their account manager is always available for them.
Since connecting with Sky Blue Telecom in February 2001, I have made considerable savings compared to my previous call carrier, whilst maintaining an exceptionally high level of service. In addition to this I refer to Sky Blue Telecom in all matters relating to my telecommunication requirements and find their advice to be accurate, impartial and informative.
The level of Account management provided by Sky Blue Telecom is always reasuring and yet unobutrusive. I know that I can rely on Sky Blue Telecom when it really counts.
On those occasions when I have contacted Sky Blue Telecom with specific faults, they have immediately taken ownership. Their response has always been quick whilst keeping me informed as to the nature of the problem and likely timescale for rectification.
I have no hesitation in recommending Sky Blue Telecom both as a reseller of alternative call carrier services and independent consultancy.
R.S. Worley
ITS Regional Communications Manager
ZENITH INSURANCE
Formed in 1937, Zenith has a solid reputation within the insurance marketplace for its broker distributed motor and commercial insurance products. The company has a call centre and operates from several sites.
The challenge
Following a successful management buyout in 2000, a new corporate culture was introduced. Telephony was one of the key areas identified for review, Zenith wanted to improve the management and control of inbound calls, audit the current telephone infrastructure and reduce overall costs.
It soon became clear that Zenith needed to combine products from several carriers to meet their objectives.
Following a rigorous appraisal stage that eliminated several carriers, Sky Blue was selected for expressing a willingness to take a consultative approach, for being a single supplier with multiple carriers and for the ability to provide a network based IVR service.
The solution
The initial part of the project would be to set up least cost routeing on all available outbound lines, at the same time a comprehensive survey of each site would be undertaken to establish a record of all lines and equipment. The existing 0870 numbers would be ported from BT and Sky141 would be set up to generate credits from the inbound traffic.
The next stage would be to develop an inbound call strategy, using network based Interactive Voice Response (IVR) services to pre-route calls by department.
The roll out
The application of least cost routeing proved straightforward using a combination of PABX programming and dialers. More recently, the whole operation has been underpinned by the application of Carrier Pre-Selection. A multiple carrier set up provides further resilience, offering immediate alternatives should there be any technical issues.
Following the site surveys, cost savings were immediately made as unused lines and services were terminated.
The initial 0870 National Rate Numbers ported from BT were followed with additional numbers overlaid on the complete DDI range. In total there are in excess of 230 National Rate Numbers in use across the business.
The IVR service increases the speed of service for clients calling Zenith. There is a simple range of options giving a choice of three departments. The service is flexible and allows the voice prompts to be changed on line by Zenith's own systems manager.
Results
Outbound call costs have been reduced by more than 35%
Line rental and other BT charges have reduced and are received on a single bill.
Inbound calls via the National Rate Numbers account for over a quarter of a million minutes per month. With Sky141 operating on this traffic, the savings to Zenith are substantial, on occasions the credit the inbound traffic generates is greater than the cost of outbound calling. Also Zenith's management benefits from being able to view inbound traffic online, broken down by calls received, calls answered, and calls lost as well as total minutes handled.
Zenith has had a working relationship with Sky Blue Telecom since September 2000.
Having originally benn engaged solely to reduce outgoing call costs. Sky Blue have since provided solutions for our inbound services via a series of Non-Geographic Numbers, offered consultancy where hardware/software is concered and assisted in the overall management of all telecoms related issues within the Zenith Group.
As they promised, Sky Blue Telecom have reduced our costs substantially whilst providing a range of options which have directly benefited our business and ensured that we remain competitive with our own market sector.
Their pro-active 'partnership' approach to Account Management has made them an intergral part of our business strategy and I would have no hesitation in recommending their services to any interested parties.
We look forward to a continued and prosperous future in the safe hands of Sky Blue Telecom.
John O'Shea
Managing Director - Motor Division
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