A significant UK based professional services provider, with 21 offices and employing over 16,000 partners and staff was in a position to look for a strategic partner who had extensive experience of the design, deployment, adoption and support of Microsoft Teams certified Switchboard and Contact Centre technology. The existing platforms used by the business were in need of modernisation to be able to drive improvements in customer experience and dialogue management for the clients which they served.
This UK organisation was part of a much larger global network of professional services firms, who provide audit, tax and advisory services to help national and international companies and organisations (both public and private) negotiate risks and thrive in the varied environments in which they do business. The global service provider operates in over 150 countries and territories and has approximately 200,000 people working in member firms around the world.
Passionate about the high quality of services they provide to their clients, they expected the same from their new technology supplier, with best value expected as well as the minimisation of commercial risk to the organisation through the deployment of any new platforms. The professional services client always looked to provide marketing leading solutions, delivering business value and innovation, whilst developing strong relationships with their suppliers which are built on mutual trust and respect.
It was imperative that the new technology proposed would meet a range of strategic objectives, these would fundamentally change how customer service was delivered for the organisations clients through the contact centre function. As a consultancy Symity needed to be mindful of how existing use of their platforms was being operated but look to deliver key improvements for their business, rather than just replace the switchboard and contact centre like for like.
Investment in Microsoft Modern Workplace technologies had already begun within the business, with Microsoft Teams being used for enterprise voice across a single global Microsoft Teams tenant. The new contact centre needed to be certified for Microsoft Teams, facilitating a full move for the company to the adoption of a wider Microsoft unified communications strategy for their employees.
The proposed solution needed to support the current mode of operation, which was heavily voice centric, but also enable the transformation of existing services to a future mode where it was anticipated that voice would constitute a smaller number of interactions as omni-channel dialogue management became a more common method for customers to communicate with their business.
The business wanted to simplify the route for customers reaching the desired destination within the organisation, enabling first time resolution of issues where possible. Using new dialogue channels such as virtual agents (bots), self-service capabilities and automation, those contacting the organisation for professional services would receive the desired information more efficiently.
A key requirement of the new contact centre was that it offered integration with the organisation’s workflow management platform and also there Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems which consisted of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce. Finally the solution needed to offer enhanced management information and analytics, this needed to include real-time trend details relating to the performance of interaction handling by agents.
To enable the professional services company to reach their business goals and drive efficiencies, Symity selected the Anywhere365 Dialogue Cloud Contact Centre platform as the most appropriate solution to deliver on all functional and non-functional requirements. Anywhere365’s solution had core voice features which would enable the organisation to realise the desire for Microsoft Teams Telephony integration, plus with it’s omnichannel capabilities the Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) offering would offer opportunities for newer more modern modes of communication with their customers.
The project would see the enablement of 120 contact centre agents including 12 supervisors, with a further 6 switchboard operators activated who would benefit from the deployment of the Anywhere365 Attendant Console product. With Microsoft Teams Telephony already utilised across the business, the existing Session Border Controllers (SBCs) were connected to the Anywhere365 Dialogue Cloud service to support calls into the Contact Centre, Switchboard and also allow calls to be routed to Microsoft Teams and the existing Skype for Business environment where required.
Engaging with key stakeholders across the organisation, a design workshop was delivered to evaluate existing call flows and ensure that benefits were seen in the build of new workflows plus agree on user acceptance criteria. Expertise was also provided to the internal IT team in terms of knowledge share with regards to the contact centre environment set up and guidance give with regards to the SBC and SIP integration requirement.
A full range of adoption and training was provided to contact centre agents and attendant console operators, so that they had extensive knowledge and skills across the Anywhere365 products before go-live was completed, including supporting documentation and adoption collateral. With system acceptance testing completed, as the first Unified Contact Centres (UCCs) went into production Early Life Support (ELS) services were provided to ensure a smooth transition to Business as Usual (BAU) operation.
Anywhere365 Dialogue Cloud Contact Centre and Attendant Console was successfully deployed according to the mutually agreed timeline for the work, impact to normal operations was minimised and stakeholders across the business were extremely pleased with all services delivered by the Symity project team. A key factor in the success of the project was the alignment of personnel between the business units at the organisation and Symity experts, this enabled effective communication and collaboration during the project, ELS and into operational support.
The client now has a complete and robust Microsoft Unified Communications solution through the integration of the Anywhere365 Dialogue Cloud Contact Centre platform, certified for Microsoft Teams and utilising the Connect mode of connection. Significant benefits to the organisation have been realised through the realisation of this single communication platform, with improvements in the speed and resolution of customer queries through integration with ServiceNow and the existing CRM systems.
Routes for customer interactions with the professional services organisation have been dramatically improved, the implementation of new Skill Based Routing (SBR) workflows has seen a reduction in the time to resolve inbound queries and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores across the contact centre have increased. Using Microsoft PowerBI reporting and analytics are available to supervisors and management, so that operations can be adjusted to suit the volume of interactions being received. Due to the ease of setting up new agents, additional resources can easily be added to the contact centre and shifted to particular UCCs without the need of intervention by their internal IT or ticket requests to Symity support.
Symity continue to work very closely with stakeholders across the organisation beyond traditional support services, more advanced dialogue management is in the process of being tested for full rollout, this will include the handling of customer requests by bots across a number of business units, negating the need for human intervention driving further time and cost savings. Together Symity and the business and driving innovative improvements in service which will enable the differentiation of quality customer service within the professional services sector which they operate in. Anywhere365 Dialogue Cloud has provided a modern and certified Microsoft platform to the organisation, as newer Artificial Intelligence (AI) become part of the product portfolio, Symity will look to help the organisation reap the benefits which it will clearly provide.
