SAN JOSE, Calif., May 10, 2010 - AUSTAR, a subscription television provider in Australia, and TeleTech, a global business-process outsourcing company based in Colorado are realizing significant increases in productivity, reduced costs and improved customer care by deploying Cisco Contact Center collaboration solutions. Using Cisco® technology, AUSTAR reduced its costs by 11 percent and has increased its self-service transactions by more than 300 percent. TeleTech has improved delivery capabilities for both inbound and outbound services, decreased the average handle time for some of its largest clients, reduced contact center telecommunication costs and reduced launch time for new contact center associates from 45 days to 14 days.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise allows companies to integrate inbound and outbound voice applications with Internet applications such as real-time chat, Web collaboration and e-mail. This integration enables agents to support multiple interactions and to access client information, improving customer service and reducing contact center costs. Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal combines open-standards support for speech with intelligent application development and industry-leading call control to deliver personalized self-service to callers, either as a stand-alone interactive voice response system or one that is integrated with a contact center.

Facts / Highlights

• AUSTAR:
• AUSTAR is a leading subscription television provider in Australia, delivering digital satellite services to 740,000 customers. AUSTAR turned to Cisco to deliver a unified contact center solution that would enable the company to reduce costs, increase customer intimacy and improve agent productivity when assisting subscribers.
• AUSTAR processes more than 2.4 million customer interactions annually. Using Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise and Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal, AUSTAR has helped reduced contact center costs by 11 percent while growing its customer base significantly.
• Successful self-service transaction volumes have increased by more than 300 percent, supported by the advanced customer service strategies enabled by the implementation of the platform.
• Through Cisco technology, AUSTAR customers receive a highly personalized experience that has helped the company win a number of nominations and awards from the Queensland and Australia telecommunications associations.
• TeleTech:
• TeleTech, a leading global business-process outsourcing company based in Colorado, turned to Cisco to expand its capabilities, improve customer satisfaction, increase efficiencies and reduce the total cost of ownership of its managed contact center platform.
• Using a single platform, the company deployed Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise and Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal to meet multiple client needs.
• TeleTech was able to increase customer self-service to 30 percent for a major financial services client by deploying automated interactive voice response functionality. This resulted in the deflection of 1,350 calls per day.
• For one client, the company launched an outbound message campaign in less than 24 hours delivered to nearly one million customers. TeleTech supported another outbound program that involved dialing 13 million customers using over 4,000 associates across multiple delivery channels.
• The system enables the company to reduce hardware and software costs; provide 24-hour contact center support from onshore, offshore and near-shore locations; temporarily increase capacity when needed; and add new customer-interaction channels.
• Using Cisco Unified MeetingPlace®, the company has remotely interviewed, hired and trained more than 2,000 work-at-home associates. The technology can be used to train up to 400 people at the same time via virtual classrooms.
• Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise helps businesses segment customers and monitor available agents, which enables the effective management of resources within the contact center. Managers can pull in teams from other locations during busy periods to help ensure that customers are not kept waiting.
• The Cisco Contact Center technology sends each customer to the most appropriate resource anywhere in the enterprise, based on real-time conditions such as agent skills, availability and queue lengths.
• Wherever an agent is based, Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal sends a rich set of call-event and customer-provided data to the targeted agent desktop as a contact arrives, personalizing service and increasing efficiency.
• Comprehensive customer profiles are also sent to sales representatives using Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise, which provides contact-related data, such as the dialed number, calling line ID, data submitted on a Web form and background information. Presence integration can be added to improve agent performance and knowledge-worker expertise.

Supporting Quotes:

• Carol Kline, chief information officer for TeleTech:

"Through Cisco we have been able to enhance our current contact center technology and ensure that our associates are prepared when dealing with customers which ultimately means less waiting time, efficient resolution and overall improved customer service."

• Dean Walter, CIO, AUSTAR:

"Cisco provides us with the call center technology we need to continue our company's success. As we service more than 740,000 individual customers, we need to ensure we meet their needs and provide ongoing support no matter where they are located or what they need. Cisco enables us to deliver on our commitment of excellent customer service."

• John Hernandez, vice president and general manager, Cisco Customer Contact business unit:



"The Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise builds on current call center investments to integrate voice and Internet applications, offering businesses new ways to communicate with their customers. The feedback we have received from TeleTech and AUSTAR so far has been exceptional, and we are focused on continuing to build and deliver the right technologies, services and support to help our customers achieve their goals."

Links / URLs:

• Cisco Unified Contact Center
• Cisco Unified Communications
• Cisco Collaboration and Communication

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Tags / Keywords:

Cisco, Unified Communications System Release 8.0, Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise, Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal, contact center, collaboration, unified communications, enterprise instant messaging, presence, CVP.

About Cisco Collaboration

From award-winning IP communications to mobility, customer care, Web conferencing, messaging, enterprise social software, and interoperable telepresence experiences, Cisco brings together network-based integrated collaboration solutions based on open standards. These solutions, as well as services from Cisco and our partners, help promote business growth, innovation and productivity. They also help accelerate team performance, protect investments, and simplify the process of finding the right people and information.