Moving into a new office can offer plenty of challenges. There always is the option of bringing your old equipment with you, but for American Founders Life Insurance Co. (AFLI), an antiquated phone system wouldnt help move the business forward, particularly in such an important area as customer service.
Glen Pederson, director of networks for AFLI, says the carrier had to make a difficult decision on whether to go with a voice over IP (VoIP) system, a PBX system, or a mix. The companys hub network was limited, and there were issues of bandwidth with the imaging system. With that in mind, we looked at this as a great opportunity to upgrade our infrastructure completely and be ready for the future of voice over IP and integrated applications into the call center, says Pederson.
The carrier looked at three options, one of them Alcatel, which offered the mix that AFLI liked. In the Alcatel solution, all the pieces actually work within the phone system itself, as well as in the voice mail, says Pederson. They werent extra pieces.
Pederson approved of what Alcatel had to offer, but he faced a tough sell with management because the management team was more familiar with some of Alcatels competitors. [Alcatel] has some niche markets it is a big player in, and it is putting a lot into research and developing new solutions, says Pederson. All its solutions seem to be toward convergence. What clinched the deal, though, was a visit Pederson and his boss took to Alcatels Carlsbad, Calif., headquarters late in 2002. We met with all [the Alcatel] people while we were discussing our options, he says. That helped make the decision easier. Thats when we got over that who are they? thing.
Once the decision was made to turn to Alcatel, Pederson says the two sides worked together to find what would work best for AFLI. Being a smaller company, we didnt need a big box, he says. Alcatel had a box that offered dual managementall the features you would find at a big company for a smaller company like ours.
The OmniSwitch 7700 system from Alcatel is a PBX system, but it also does IP, according to Pederson. You can use it either way, he says. You can take a phone, slip an enabler on it, and bam, that phone is now an IP phone if you need it to be.
The biggest installation issue for Pederson was changing the thought process of AFLI users who were accustomed to a different system. [Alcatels] concept of phones and the way call centers work was different from [the previous vendor]. It took me a good three months to let go of the concepts I had in my head on how the phone system works, says Pederson.
The new system has advanced VLAN capabilities to segment different groups within AFLI. The call center uses an imaging system to view documents on the computer screen when call center reps receive a customer call. This allows them to access information immediately and answer questions in real time.
Pederson is excited about the future prospects with the new communications system. The old system worked well, but he adds, We do a lot of third-party administration. If we wanted to roll something in for a big customer, we would have had to buy something else to make that happen. Now we can integrate things without changing the whole system to do it.
One other advantage is the system is very intuitive, according to Pederson, an important factor in a business segment that has a high turnover rate. We spend less time teaching people how to use it than we did before, he says.
Declining to disclose costs, Pederson says the company had no choice but to make an investment, since the home office was moving from Phoenix to Scottsdale, Ariz., earlier this year. I was able to say this system will be able to do these certain things at this particular price, and weve been able to hit all the things we promised.
CaseFile
The Problem: Moving into a new home meant finding a new communications system.
THE COMPANY: American Founders Life Insurance Company
WEB SITE: www.americanfounderslife.com
IN-FORCE INSURANCE: $2 billion
The SOLUTION: OmniSwitch 7700 from Alcatel
WEB SITE: www.alcatel.com
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