The Customer
Name / Business: Local and central governments via Network Services 3
(a Crown Commercial Services (CCS) framework, which allows UK public sector organisations to access a range of services from closely vetted suppliers including network solutions, communication services, connectivity to cloud-based data and applications and audio and video conferencing amongst others)
Locations: Two main sites in the UK
Service: Microsoft unified communications solutions, i.e.: Microsoft Teams Telephony and Contact Centre solution
The council was seeking to deliver a high-quality and differentiating customer experience, engaging with a Unified Communications and Contact Centre partner, who could bring their organisation innovation and expertise, to help realise their strategic vision and add value.
The Challenge
- Stringent tendering process need to be won first
- Existing telephony platform delivered a service for two main personas only: Regular user – used a standard set of telephony features for them and more complex users – used telephony and contact centre environments, primarily through voice calls
- Standard and complex telephony functionality needed to be available both onsite and remotely, enabled through use of a single device, without the need for traditional handsets or other additional equipment
- Structured and well documented approach to the implementation project, including full details with regard to the recommended migration and testing methodologies, ensuring that key stakeholders were fully engaged throughout the whole process of deployment
- Existing significant investment into Microsoft Technology, with all users licensed for Microsoft 365 using E3 licensing & Microsoft Teams deployed across their estate during the Covid pandemic
- Microsoft Teams was primarily used for instant messaging, audio and video calls internally, but without full enterprise voice enabled for users
The Goals
- Drive improvements in service for internal users and external customers
- Help reach their operational service delivery objectives and hence strategic goals
- Improvement in efficiency and timeliness of service with less time spent on calls and contact centre activities and reduced administrative process timelines
- Better compliance and accountability of services with increased automation of processes and a more secure platform
- Enhanced management information to enable regular, pro-active analysis of data by the telephony and contact centre teams, contributing to a more pro-active and strategic service offering
- Increase in both employee and customer satisfaction, as a benefit of improved contact centre self-service experiences
The Solution
Full Microsoft Teams based telephony system with certified and integrated Contact Centre solution:
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Deployment of Microsoft Phone System to allow Microsoft Teams to become a fully featured Private Branch Exchange (PBX) and use Direct Routing for Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) connectivity
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Deployment of new contact centre functionality: Anywhere365 Dialogue Cloud platform
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Design, built and configuration of new platform to deliver a fully integrated and certified Microsoft Teams experience for the 60 agents
Steps:
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Symity worked closely with the ICT and Contact Centre teams to capture the use cases from within the existing environments
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Based on this: designed a more modern service for the organisation, ensuring that key improvements in customer experience both internally and externally would be realised
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A hybrid project management approach was utilised, with PRINCE2 methodology used for the implementation phase with an Agile style used for configuration, setup, user acceptance testing (UAT) and training
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Existing phone numbers were retained and migrated to the new telephony platform, plus case specific contact centre data was migrated from the current system, including all historical data
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Testing strategy: included unit testing, system testing, accessibility testing, UAT and non-functional testing which would incorporate penetration testing
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Go-lives were carefully planned to ensure that there was no interruption of services for the organisation and its customers
The Results
- A successful deployment of enterprise voice for Microsoft Teams was completed to schedule, using the Direct Routing as a Service (DRaaS) from Symity together with a fully certified contact centre solution using Microsoft’s Connect method for Anywhere365 Dialogue Cloud
- As an enterprise grade omni-channel dialogue management platform, Anywhere365 Dialogue Cloud has enabled the central government organisation to see true benefits in terms of an elevation of customer experience, with efficiencies seen across all business units that touch the contact centre solution
- With no impact to the operations of the client, following an extended Early Life Support (ELS) period, the services were handed over into Business as Usual (BAU) support, with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) underpinning the delivery of ongoing support from Symity’s Service Desk Team
- Subsequently Symity have continued to work closely with key stakeholders at the government body to explore several new use cases to drive improvements in customer service
- Once adopted, these will see further enhancements in terms of the automation of processes and a greater ability for those using the public services delivered by the organisation to self-serve
This project has yet again proven Symity’s track record of delivering high quality services to meet the distinct needs of organisations.