The Amadeus Information Technologies call center works from two sites: Moscow and Saint Petersburg. It receives calls from corporate clients in Russia, the Republic of Belarus, and Armenia. Over the years, the call center used a soft solution with limited functionality, so the call center staff faced a number of problems.

Firstly, technological limitations of the previous switching platform did not allow staff to unify the telephone communication system of the two offices, therefore from the very start both sites functioned as independent units. Since there was no single phone number for incoming calls, there was no common call queue, respectively; it was not possible to obtain generalized statistical data on call center operations, to plan its further growth. Besides, the system did not allow even distribution of the load between operators, as well as to use remote operators (e.g., operators working from home).

Secondly, the lack of the necessary functionality in the previous solution did not provide for the proper level of client service efficiency and quality. The softphone work screen did not display the status of call-center operators and employees in offices (on-site or not), thus, call transfers were carried out «blindly» leading to dropped calls. Moreover, there was no function of listening to voice messages while waiting for an operator to respond. As a result, clients were not getting answers to their standard questions via IVR and the load on operators increased. There was no function of exchanging text messages between operators, which complicated the real-time communication between employees.

Thirdly, there was no possibility of upgrading the existing solution. It would be much more expensive for the company to upgrade the existing call center software to obtain the required functionality than replace it with a full-featured solution with wide integration possibilities with third-party systems.

With a growing number of calls, these factors began to increasingly affect client service quality, reducing overall service satisfaction and client loyalty to the company.

To solve the indicated issues, it was necessary to replace the existing software with a fully functional soft solution, which, along with creating a single point for receiving and processing incoming calls would unite the geographically dispersed offices of the company into common information and communication system with a single numbering plan.

First and foremost, to implement the set tasks, it was necessary to find an alternative to the existing solution, the capabilities of which would fully meet the needs of Amadeus Information Technologies. Secondly, a highly experienced contractor was needed, since building a distributed call center was a very complex technical task. Considering the requirements of Amadeus Information Technologies, it was impossible to implement one without professionals.

When choosing a new soft solution, experts of Amadeus Information Technologies reviewed proposals from various vendors on the market including solutions offered by Russian and overseas vendors. In addition, they also considered references from integration companies and third-party reviews of competing solutions.

Ultimately, the client selected NAUMEN since the reliability offered by the Naumen Contact Center solution and its highly functional suite met all the requirements of the Amadeus call center. Moreover, the development company NAUMEN had extensive experience in building call-centers using their own product including distributed ones. NAUMEN experts provided an exhaustive description of each implementation stage and its purpose, which further guaranteed the delivery of the project on time.

Despite the complexity and a great volume of work, NAUMEN experts completed the project on time. Based on the Naumen Contact Center solution, we created a modern geographically distributed call center featuring a single point of incoming call service. We achieved all the established KPIs. The call center reached a qualitatively new level of client service.

Main effect from the project implementation:

• The average service and call logging time in CRM decreased by 30%
• The average time for clients to get the help and answers they need decreased by 15%
• The speed of call processing by operators increased by 20%
• The number of calls diverted to employees who are out-of-office decreased 30 times
• The number of dropped calls declined by 15%
• Up to 15% of calls are handled automatically, using IVR services
• The number of errors and the time spent by employees on call processing has decreased several times.

By implementing the Naumen Contact Center solution, Amadeus Information Technologies managed to vigorously enhance the operational comfort not only for operators but also for some other company employees in the main and remote offices. In addition to that, the company avoided overstaffing and minimized personnel and office equipment costs.

Fault-tolerant call center provided. A single call queue is continuously processed from the two sites. In the event of equipment failure at one of the call center sites (for example, in the Moscow office), the second site (St. Petersburg office) automatically switches to a stand-alone operation mode. Stand-alone operation of the sites is achieved through the use of three servers (main, remote, and back-up one) equipped with a specifically designed hot-swapping solution for calls. Data collected during stand-alone operations (statistical data, recordings of calls) will be synchronized once a communication link is restored. Thus, by using such back-up mechanisms of call routing the call center became fault-tolerant and the risk of client call drop was reduced.

Savings due to a single call queue being processed by operators from different time zones. The integration of geographically dispersed offices of the company into a unified data communication system allowed the client to involve first-line operators from other locations. In order to provide services to clients who live in different time zones away from Moscow and St. Petersburg three distributed (remote) workplaces have been established in various regions: in Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, and Minsk — where there is no Amadeus representation. This allowed the client to cut expenses for hiring new employees and to cut night shifts at the main offices of Amadeus Information Technologies.

Inter-operator load balancing in the call center is achieved by a flexible approach to call routing: incoming calls are automatically subdivided into target operator groups formed to cover separate projects and project groups. When routing calls within a group, priority of the project, call waiting time in the queue, and qualifications of the operator are taken into account. Operators get the necessary information about clients from the database of MyAmadeus system, which is integrated with the Naumen Contact Center IP call center solution. Up to 15% of all phone calls are now processed automatically using the IVR self-service functionality.

Call drop risk is lower, the promptness of a client receiving a response was ensured, partly due to IVR service. Call center operators of Amadeus Information Technologies are now provided with new functions lacked in the previous solution: the messaging function was introduced for operators; clients are now using IVR services. Call diversion to the corporate PBX became much more convenient since there is a status icon in the softphone (Available, Unavailable, Offline, etc.). All this allowed our client to avoid routing calls to operators who are out-of-office. There are helpful scripts and commands in English for managers of Amadeus IT Group S.A in company offices in Spain, Germany, and France.

User-friendly environment for clients. Yet one new service we made accessible to the company’s clients is the ‘We Will Call You Back’ button on the corporate site. Using this service, clients can request a call back to their phone numbers. In order to dial a client number, Amadeus operators will just need to click on a hyperlink received along with the notification of the request.

Improved monitoring and planning quality. NAUMEN experts implemented functions for generating various reports on call center performance: the real-time reports displaying the number of calls per queue, the average waiting time in the queue, the average call duration, as well as a graph of line workload and service statuses for incoming and outgoing calls; historical data reports displaying data for the requested period. By using these reports our client can perform a qualitative and quantitative assessment of call center performance and use this data to improve its efficiency. Along with these reports call center operators can receive notifications of critical events on communication lines, record conversations with clients, and make conference calls.

In the nearest future, the Amadeus Information Technologies call center is planning to increase the number of their telecommuting operators. Naumen SoftPhone that has been integrated into the My Amadeus business system would allow our client to involve remote operators by using already configured call handling servers.

Another challenge for the company is to increase the percentage of calls automatically serviced by IVR. For that accessible and user-friendly IVR services will be furnished. By using these services any client can get the information he/she needs without waiting for an operator to respond. The specialists of Amadeus — Information Technologies call center plan to develop new IVR-services on their own, using the convenient constructor of dialogs and IVR scripts — Naumen IVR Builder.

In the near future, the company plans to hire 20% more operators. An opportunity to increase the call center’s performance is covered by the Naumen Contact Center and will not result in serious investments or system reorganization. To increase the productivity of the call center (the number of simultaneously processed calls) it will be enough to add one more communication server, which will cover a portion of calls and will participate in the overall process of call balancing and distribution.

Floor 5, bldg 3, 35B Vorontsovskaya St, Time Center Business Center,
Moscow 109147 (Krestyanskaya Zastava, Proletarskaya metro stations)

Phone/fax: +7 (495) 145-90-45

E-mail: sales@naumen.ru