Virgin Group’s cosmetic and jewellery business, Virgin Vie at Home, has introduced IP-based technology to improve communications between consultants and support staff.

The organisation installed a Mitel 3300 IP communications platform (ICP), which is being managed by Echo Communications, in just two weeks in time for the busy Christmas period.

The 50-strong team at Virgin Vie’s contact centre handles order, invoicing and marketing queries from a network of 12,000 independent consultants across the UK who sell the products.

The Mitel Your Assistant has been integrated into the contact centre and provides agents with a software-based phone for efficient call handling. Mitel’s interactive contact centre application allows team leaders to access up-to-the-minute information about call volumes, queues and agents performance, and a routing system directs callers to the appropriate agent.

‘We had an analogue system that worked well but it ran on hardware that was 10 years old and at the end of its supported life,’ said Ian Chapman, IT director at Virgin Vie at Home.

‘We decided to move to an IP system because it is future proofing what we do. In the past there may have been concerns over the reliability of IP technology but now it is proven and exploits our investment in our network following an upgrade to improve business continuity.’

Chapman says business benefits include sophisticated call routing to the right operators, IP voice recording technology and simplified administration.

‘We can record every call, which is great from a customer service point of view, and in terms of administration there is a nice browser-based interface for making changes to agents’ details, which does not require dedicated expertise as it did with the analogue system,’ he said.

Chapman says the company is evaluating Mitel teleworker technology to enable contact centre staff to work from home.

‘We operate in an area of relatively low unemployment and with broadband in the home we could support home working, which would help us in recruiting and retaining staff,’ he said.

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