Premiere Global Services
Premiere Global Services recently took the decision to modernise their in-house communication systems to provide additional capacity, functionality and enhance business efficiency.
When Premiere Global Services (PGS), a leading provider of niche conferencing solutions, outgrew their existing telephony system at their Asia-Pacific regional headquarters they were faced with a decision process confronting many organisations today.
This case study examines the path taken by PGS, the choices they made and the outcome. Unlike many case studies, there is nothing particularly unusual about the individual tailored solution – it is actually quite similar to many implemented today. Accordingly, it should offer universal appeal to those organisations who are currently considering upgrading their communication systems.
PGS’ existing PBX was at full capacity, manufacturer support was coming to an end and replacement parts for repairs and expansions had become increasingly difficult to obtain.
Planned growth in the Sydney office and expansion across the Asia Pacific region coupled with a need for an advanced distributed contact centre also drove the need for a new integrated platform.
Faced with the challenge of choosing the right vendor and integrator, PGS prepared a detailed requirement specification and invited a number of parties to submit proposals.
It was important that the chosen infrastructure was obtainable across the Asia Pacific region with the appropriate regulatory approvals for connection to local carrier networks. Once implemented, it was mandatory that these systems be able to become part of their global network and be administered from a central location.
With the requirement specification highlighting the importance of security, survivability of remote sites, expandability and advanced contact centre applications, it was likely that an enterprise class system would be the best fit solution.
Whilst an “office class” system appeared to meet the needs of PGS, they found that “enterprise class” systems offered substantially more in terms of networking, redundancy, security, functionality and extensibility.
The decision to step up to an enterprise class platform was made easier when the submissions were received and there was insignificant cost differential between the favoured office system and the richly featured Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise solution proposed by BTAS.
Premiere Global Services chose an Alcatel-Lucent Solution supplied by BTAS Pty Ltd.
The solution implemented for PGS consisted entirely of products and applications from the Alcatel-Lucent range and included:
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Distributed OmniPCX Enterprise communication servers with embedded voice messaging
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OmniTouch Contact Centre
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CCdistribution and CCsupervision contact centre applications
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OmniVista management package
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Centralised screen based console, and
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Alcatel-Lucent 9 series telephones.
The entire solution was supplied and implemented by local systems integrator BTAS Pty Ltd, an accredited Alcatel-Lucent Premium Business Partner.
With a limited budget, the first phase of the implementation has allowed PGS to leverage their existing wide area network to link sites via IP to immediately enable:
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Centralised management (changes are immediately broadcast across the network)
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Attendants have visual status of all users (local and remote)
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Access to the ‘dial by name’ feature to all networked users.
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Distributed contact centre agents and supervisors
Additional functionally will be added once planned investments to upgrade the existing wide and local area networks have been completed.
The Alcatel 9 series phones were supplied for all business users. They offer outstanding voice quality with wide band audio, full duplex and hands-free conferencing with acoustic echo cancellation. The telephones also include the unique user-friendly dial-by-name function.
After some weeks of operation, Stuart Parker, PGS’ Business Technology Manager for Asia-Pacific commented - “The ease of use of the functionality on the handsets has been good. It is really only after you use them for a while that you can gauge their ease of use. The majority of users have found the new handsets easier and better to use”.
Contact Centres have become an integral part of many organisations strategy for providing efficient, flexible, self-service transactions to all prospects and customers regardless of media access.
The supplied system is equipped with advanced call routing to allow PGS to establish a distributed contact centre with multi-function agents across its Asia-Pacific locations.
Equipped with Alcatel-Lucent’s OmniTouch Contact Centre applications CCdistribution and its companion CCsupervision, PGS will benefit from advanced features such as look-ahead routing and skills based call flow management. The supervisor module offers state-of-the-art real-time monitoring of all objects - pilots, queues, groups, etc.
As part of a carefully planned migration strategy, the solution has been configured to allow for the seamless integration of CCEmail, the Alcatel OmniTouch e-mail management system which collects, classifies and routes incoming emails using the OmniTouch advanced call routing rules. This will allow PGS to treat e-mail contacts in exactly the same manner as voice calls, ensuring that the correct priority is assigned and the contact is routed to the most appropriately skilled agent. Additionally, the subsequent integration with leading brands of workforce management systems has been allowed for in the plans.
PGS required the ability to make day to day moves, additions and changes across the network from a web based application. Additionally, they required that the application be available to a number of simultaneous users.
BTAS supplied Alcatel-Lucent’s OmniVista, which is an open network management application suite, an essential tool for PGS’ administrators in their day-to-day tasks such as configuration and accounting. Options such as incident management, animated topology and VoIP performance management will be added at some time in the future.
The network management applications are tightly linked with the OmniPCX Enterprise. The applications operates in a client server environment, and are accessible from anywhere though a Java supported web browser with the appropriate security access controls.
The OmniVista product family provides network management for both Alcatel communication servers and data networks.
Of course it is not just about product, the knowledge and the skills of the integrator together with their service capabilities were uppermost in the mind of PGS - “The choice of integrator was a significant factor in the decision. The quality of the pre-sales presentations and the response to the request for tender document gave us much more confidence that BTAS could deliver a successful implementation over the other vendors” said Stuart Parker.
PGS viewed the proposed converged solution as mission critical to its business. Accordingly, it was essential that the implementation be carried out, and supported by, a System Integrator with competencies across the full range planned applications.
With phase one of the project now completed, additional functionality such as integrated messaging, presence and chat, can easily be added to the Alcatel platform often with just the addition of software licences. The flexible network topology design means that additional sites across the region can easily be added to the network.
Premiere Global Services are delighted with their new solution and feel confident that the solution they have chosen is the right one for their business, not just for today but for well into the future.
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