Date: 2002 Solution:   Communication system with integrated Call Center Product:   Ericsson BusinessPhone 250, Call Center Supervisor and Assistant Market:   Europe Country:   United Kingdom

Oxford University Press is the world's largest university press, publishing over 4,500 titles annually in over 50 countries. Their corporate mission declares a desire to be recognized as the best publisher and distributor of education, college and reference books in the region. 

The overriding objective at OUPANZS is operational excellence and continuous betterment. The enterprise's strategy was to build a Call Center that would help to coordinate the operations of the various departments in meeting the demands of customers. OUPANZS was insistent on acquiring a solution that was so flexible, it would easily and cost-effectively accommodate their changing and growing needs. The Ericsson reseller in Melbourne is called Ericsson BusinessPhone Center. They sell communication systems, applications and data networks which they integrate into an existing infrastructure. The challenge was to enable OUPANZS to deliver the highest levels of customer service by establishing work processes, systems and operations that are continuously refined and bettered.

The choice was clear: BusinessPhone 250 from Ericsson with integrated Call Center, in conjunction with Call Center Supervisor (CCS) and Call Center Assistant (CCA) applications. This flexible contact center solution is capable of supporting sophisticated work processes and changing organizational demands. OUPANZS's BusinessPhone Call Center has been designed to enable dedicated Customer Service Representatives to receive calls coming in to the Higher Education, Education or Trade service lines. Priority levels have also been assigned so that the Representatives can access all three areas without having to specifically log into a line when there is a "call waiting". On top of this, a lower level of priority can be assigned as and when necessary, thereby making it possible for staff to perform other tasks like maintaining the SAP database system and building their e-commerce business. Needless to say, the BusinessPhone system works alongside OUPANZS's core database and other e-commerce systems such as their website and EDI systems.

The BusinessPhone solution has seen to it that 92% of all calls coming into OUPANZS are answered within 20 seconds. Moreover, less than 1% of all incoming calls are abandoned and when this occurs, you can be sure that an agent calls the customer back immediately. Fact is, OUPANZS is fast becoming the preferred distributor of educational, academic and reference titles. They stand for uncompromisingly high standards of production and a wide range of interests. Today they are able to guarantee their customers a delivery time of 2 days - a dramatic turnaround from when it used to take them 2 weeks. And with BusinessPhone at the heart of their operations, they have managed to heighten efficiency levels by an incredible 30%. To Marie Varrasso, Head of distribution, efficiency levels have never been better, and she elaborates, "Now it is possible to measure performance in the way we want to, as well as to decide on issues like whether we need more staff at peak times. Performance and capacity reports are very useful for the CCS. Interestingly enough, senior management has shown a lot of interest in the statistics, like for example, when the reports show that 65% of an agent's capacity time is free!"