Candy Manufacturing Company

The Challenge…

A candy manufacturer with both a call center and a help desk had a requirement to add a visual message alerting system to enhance communications within their Information Solutions (IS) Department.

Specific Requirements:

Display Avaya ACD statistical information on LED reader boards in the help desk area.
Place reader boards at key areas within there IS organization to be used as a communication vehicle for system outage management; also, to link to tools that currently exist within their environment, such as Remedy, Tivoli and others.
Provide communication to desktops using the same messaging software tool.

The Texas Digital Solution…

An initial conference call was executed to document the company's specific application and needs. A product information packet was delivered to the company in advance, highlighting the QuickCOM Enterprise solutions provided by Texas Digital (TD), along with connectivity documents for Avaya and Remedy.

Upon the company's review and confirmation of QuickCOM's ability to meet the project's requirements, an on-site product presentation was scheduled to demonstrate the capabilities of the QuickCOM solution. The product presentation was specifically tailored to match the requirements of the project with that of the QuickCOM solution and to demonstrate the return-on-investment for the customer.

Upon completion of the company's review process (which included presentations by two competing products), the company issued a request for proposal (RFP) with complete hardware and software requirements for the project. Texas Digital then provided three quotations reflecting different display sizes (based on size ranges the company had requested), along with responses to the specific project requirements.

After the project was awarded to Texas Digital, a purchase order was issued and a deployment plan was documented to ensure a successful implementation. Texas Digital then assigned a support manager to the project, which, in turn, made contact with the customer-assigned project manager. Both parties drafted a project launch plan with delivery timelines. The Texas Digital support manager provided a pre-installation guide that detailed the installation process and items that would be required prior to installation of the system. Due to the scope of the project, a pre-installation conference call was arranged to discuss the implementation requirements.

Services provided by Texas Digital included the following:

Held pre-installation conference call
Tested and shipped required Message Display Units (MDUs) to customer
Installed and configured QuickCOM Enterprise software at customer's site
Post-installation wrap-up to ensure the projects objectives were met
Conducted QuickCOM training
Provided post-installation support

Customer provided the following services/equipment:

Computer for QuickCOM Enterprise, network card and necessary modems
Serial and network connections, as well as other sources to the QuickCOM PC
Uninterruptible power (UPS) for the QuickCOM computer
Power at each message display location
Data cables from all MDUs to the QuickCOM PC
Dedicated personnel for training with the QuickCOM Enterprise System

Improvements Since Installation…

The company's system administrator commented, " QuickCOM is a simple, easy-to-use solution that continues to meet our needs. With QuickCOM, the company has reduced our abandon call rate from 10% to less than 5%." QuickCOM enables agents to know exactly how many calls are in the queue and what their current wait time is. Management staff is better informed on current issues and is consequently more able to respond appropriately. QuickCOM has also empowered the company to communicate informational and system messages throughout the organization, ensuring that appropriate people are notified in a timely manner. The company recently deployed a QuickCOM interface with Remedy's help desk package to show open tickets to agents and has also implemented Quick RECEIVEi to broaden their communication scope and increase service level effectiveness.

A Simple ROI from a Client's Perspective…

The customer's investment for the QuickCOM solution, which met the specific requirements of the project, totaled approximately $48K. (Due to the customer's company policy, actual return dollars was not released.) This company continues to benefit from faster event resolution, rapid redeployment of resources, reduced abandon call rates and increased service levels. The company's system administrator has praised QuickCOM as a terrific productivity enhancement tool and has plans to expand the use and integration of the QuickCOM solution to meet the company's ongoing communication needs.

Excerpts from Customer's Justification…

Faster Event Resolution:

An event happens, but because it's the third shift and the operators are watching a lot of different terminals, this alert blinks silently on an unwatched screen. Your business starts to lose money. Every second before the event is identified and resolution begins is wasted time. That wasted time can be measured in data center lost productivity, but the real loss is business-wide! Determine the amount of system users' time worldwide that is wasted before an event is noticed, and you have the measure of the payoff that QuickCOM brings.

'Faster Event Resolution' is time saved responding to events because personnel are alerted immediately to system events that require their intervention.

Avoided Calls:

When the screen goes blank, is picking up the phone the most productive thing to do? Without QuickCOM, it will take a lot of people a lot of time to find out what is going on. Sure, you can have them call in and get a recorded message on your VRU, but that takes time. QuickCOM saves everyone the time required to make calls and listen to the responses—because QuickCOM communicates in machine time, not in human time.

'Avoided Calls' is time saved when people do not have to place calls, wait in queues, listen to recorded messages or talk to help desk personnel to learn about system status.

Rapid Deployment:

When the system is unavailable, how much time passes before a decision can be made to move to an alternate task or mode? And when the system comes back up, how easy is it to ensure everyone goes back on immediately? QuickCOM gives clear, precise information about system status instantly, so your personnel are always productive.

'Rapid Redeployment' is time saved when system users are able to immediately move to other tasks during system outages and return to their PCs as soon as the system is available again.

Revenue Retained:

Your business depends on your customers, and management has made significant investments in resources to serve those customers more efficiently and effectively. When businesses have to deal with temporary outages of information resources, it is critical that those who deal with customers have the clearest, most precise information about system status possible; otherwise, your customers may go elsewhere. In customer call centers, dealers, branches, distribution

centers and service centers, superior service means happy customers. And when there's a problem, outstanding service means clear information. Think of the revenue you could retain by providing your customers the most up-to-the-second system status information available!