Prospect, a professional trade union that focuses on representing scientists, managers, engineers, and a host of other specialists across hundreds of different sectors, recently made a change to their UC strategy. The group paired with GCI, a leading Managed Technology Service Provider to create a cutting-edge contact centre strategy based on the Enghouse Interactive Communications Centre.
The idea behind the new strategy is that the staff in the virtual contact centre will be able to offer more comprehensive support to more than 140,000 Prospect members, while the group continues to reduce their overall expenses. The system will replace a system of regional help-desks, and Prospect Union believes that they should achieve time efficiency improvements of at least 20%, while expanding their opportunities to offer more help to their customers, at a faster rate.
I spoke with Paul Xuereb, the Head of Information and Website Systems at Prospect Union, about the circumstances that sparked the decision, and where he expects the new collaboration to take the group in the future.
Why Did Prospect Choose to Create a Contact Centre System with GCI?
As a middle-sized trade union with 141,000 members, Prospect works to help members consistently with complex enquiries regarding all aspects of their professional life. For instance, their staff is there to handle questions about pensions, promotion procedures, company takeovers, maternity leave, and more. Currently, the group has around 14 sites, each featuring about 250 staff members on board to assist members as quickly, and effectively as possible.
Paul told me: “For the last year and a half, we’ve been planning to integrate a new phone deployment based on our decision to create the “TouchPoint” system. Basically, we’ve had TouchPoint in play for the last 3 months, and it means that about 10% of our staff now make up a contact centre for our members. The problem we had was that, as a union, we do a lot of mergers, and while our email is quite up-to-date, our phone systems were in serious need of an update.”
With GCI, Prospect Union have been able to completely overhaul their communications strategy, replacing 12 disparate phone systems within 17 locations with the Skype for Business platform. This has created an incredible opportunity for the Enghouse Interactive solution, which can integrate natively with Skype for Business, and ensure that staff around the Prospect Union can dynamically work to assist members when, and where they’re needed most.
Paul noted that Prospect had begun to look at communications programs last year, not necessarily with Skype in mind:
“When we went to our providers with the idea of a contact centre, they all spoke about third-party bolt-on options that didn’t seem to give us a complete solution. So, we went back into the field. We’ve been dealing with GCI for nearly 9 years now, and last year, they brought Skype into their system and told us that we could use SfB too. Since we were already familiar with using Skype for ad hoc system, it seemed like the best solution moving forward.”
What Was the Toughest Part of Your Digital Transformation Journey?
Obviously, overhauling an entire communication system, and switching from phones to Skype seemed like it must have been a huge task for Prospect. I was interested to find out how Paul felt about the experience, and what kind of challenges he had faced when it came to implementing the new strategy.
“We deployed over a period of about 10 weeks and trained staff individually in the new systems. For me, I think that getting the people and the training all on the right track was the toughest part. On top of that, taking away the actual desk phones and replacing them with headsets was quite a challenge too. People felt like they still needed a phone, but the truth is that they were just using these expensive devices as a fancy headset for Skype.”
For Prospect, the purpose behind removing desk phones from the office was to save money. Paul told me that not only could they get Skype for Business headsets for cheaper, but they felt they were getting better quality too:
“Mostly, we’ve been focused on helping people to understand the changes that come with Skype for Business. There haven’t really been any problems with the technology – instead, aligning the people and the processes have been the biggest part of the job.”
Prospect felt that using GCI was an obvious solution when it came to adjusting their communication strategy, and Paul even told me that the company was the “best ISP we’ve ever used”. Their information is now hosted off-site in one of GCI’s data centres, and Prospect feels confident about working with the brand going forward.
What Does the New System Mean for Prospect?
For Prospect, the whole process has been one of huge transformation and change. GCI has helped to simplify that change for the company, by allowing them to carefully, and strategically adjust the way they work: “The previous mix-up of different phone systems and communications solutions meant that we were constantly facing challenges with our UC. We couldn’t have implemented an integrated contact centre before – which is what we wanted to start doing this year. By deploying Skype for Business, we’ve been able to move everything onto the same platform for all of our staff.”
The Enghouse Interactive solution works seamlessly alongside Skype for Business to give Prospect the virtual contact centre they’ve been looking for, with everything from call routing to queuing available out of the box.
Paul noted that instead of members having to call the regional centre closest to them, the new system means that they can be routed directly through to one of the 25 specialists available, depending on the nature of their question:
“It means that members get faster, more customised answers and a more personalised service. We think that it will also help our desk staff to get around 20% of their time back, so they can focus on other parts of the job when not on calls.”
In a separate press release, the CTO for GCI, Mike Constantine announced that GCI is proud of their long-standing relationship with Prospect. After all, a connection of almost a decade is a long time in the IT industry. GCI’s position as a gold partner with both Microsoft and Enghouse Interactive put them in a unique position to offer Prospect the full end-to-end solution they had been searching for.
What’s the Plan Now, and Do You Have Any Advice to Offer?
Now that the Skype for Business and Enghouse Interactive solution has been implemented fully through GCI, I was interested to find out where Prospect would be heading next. Paul told me:
“We’re going to be looking at doing some training on group conference calling and video calling too. We’ve realised that it’s not just a launch then we’re done. For the next year or so, I think we’re going to be out, talking to and training our staff.”
Paul noted that the Prospect team is now communicating differently with users, and taking a new approach to the way they work with their members:
“I think that training is key because there’s no point in having a system that can do 90% more than the old phone system if your company’s just using the technology as a phone.”
In terms of key takeaways to offer, Paul said:
“We’re glad we deployed Skype because it fits into where we’re going as a business, but it’s not just about technology. Today, companies need to be more agile, and ensure they have the training required to help their staff take advantage of new strategies.”
