OREANDA-NEWS. Cloud-based solution leveraging proven technology from Avaya will help deliver best-in-breed customer experience.

 BT, one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, announced today a contract with Western Power, one of the biggest independent electrical grids in the world, for the delivery of a multimedia contact centre solution in Perth, Australia.

 BT’s solution, based on Avaya technology, will help Western Power further improve its award-winning customer service through the introduction of multimedia contact centre applications. Western Power and its customers will benefit from the flexibility in services and capacity offered by an on-demand Cloud-based platform. Customers will now be able to contact Western Power through a broader range of channels while benefiting from the same consistent world-class service across all of them, including fax, phone, email, social media, webchat or smartphone-friendly web forms. The customer experience will greatly benefit from this unified communications approach. It will help accommodate the preferences of all demographics and give the same priority and treatment whatever access point is chosen. This is designed to deliver a truly holistic approach to customer experience. The platform also allows Western Power to effectively handle very high call volumes from its customers by managing “avalanche scenarios” in case of sudden surges of requests, for example at times of natural disasters.

 Western Power has already been recognised for its customer service excellence with a number of awards, including the prestigious Gold Medal for National Customer Service Excellence awarded by the Customer Service Council of Australia.

 Ben Oxford, Section Head Customer Service of Western Power said, “A comprehensive and multichannel contact centre that can provide customers with an integrated experience is essential to our growing population.

 BT’s proven track record of managed services, strong reputation as a sustainable company, and the deployment of Avaya’s innovative solutions makes this an ideal partnership. We are aiming very high with this project and have full confidence in the BT-Avaya partnership to optimise technology to reduce operating costs and help us deliver the best service to our customers.”

 BT will provide Western Power the Customer Experience Platform (CEP), which is underpinned by Avaya’s contact centre technology. The CEP solution is an enterprise-class, secure and scalable platform helping organisations integrate latest contact centre technology. This solution is technically and commercially flexible, enabling Western Power to grow in both size and functional requirements.

 Kevin Taylor, President, Asia, Middle East & Africa, BT Global Services said, “This contract will bring Western Power’s customers a brand-new customer experience through a full-suite multimedia contact centre. In today’s competitive business environment, ensuring exceptional customer satisfaction is the key to success and we are proud to have Western Power among our customers.”

 The BT-Avaya platform provides for management of new and emerging channels through a single set of business rules. This includes standard integration of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites as well as Web chat, SMS and fax routing. The solution will give Western Power’s end-users a seamless, integrated customer experience across a wide variety of communications channels.

 Tim Gentry, Managing Director, Australia and New Zealand, Avaya said, “Organisations today need to be able to meet customers where those customers choose and how they want to communicate – whether this is via social media, SMS or over the phone. That is exactly what this partnership and technology enables – and by leveraging a Cloud-based solution, it does so with the flexibility and operational simplicity that more and more customers are demanding.”