3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

Serco Global Services Americas is fairly well known throughout the hospitality and corporate travel fields as a contact center outsourcing operation. That means a lot of calls come through Serco's purview on a regular basis, as Serco provides much of a contact center's benefits without having to install all the necessary systems to run one. A few years back, Serco discovered the kind of value that call monitoring systems could have on its operations, and a recent change to XT Telemanagement offered even more advantage.

Back in 2010, Serco got started with call monitoring systems by bringing in Metropolis' OfficeWatch Ultra, a system that offered help managing the Avaya Aura Communication Manager system that was in place at the time. Since Serco had over 2,000 extensions to its credit, having a way to track all of these that was both simple and centralized had plenty of appeal. Since Serco bills for consulting time, and internal departments' budgets are charged for long distance time, having a way to keep track of all of that meant a clear bottom line impact for the company.

Fast forward a few years to 2015, and now Serco made the move to Metropolis' XT Telemanagement, which offered up a much more detailed picture of the call activity taking place throughout the entire call center environment. More options opened up as well; while OfficeWatch Ultra allowed reports to be presented in HTML, XT Telemanagement offers reports in PDF, Excel file, or even CSV, which means a step is saved in that the reports no longer need to be converted. There's a greater use of call routing that can be done, as a combination of Communication Manager and vectors allows calls to be sent to those with the correct training to handle said calls. There's also room to both capture and reveal new data about the calls made, which can be valuable in other applications.

Metropolis' own support staff recommends it well for any firm looking to get in on the action; Serco's CAB administrator Laura Dollinger noted that Metropolis' support staff was “...very willing to transfer knowledge with their customers.” Additionally, Dollinger considered the support staff more than willing to “...teach you how to do things.” A note of assent came from telecom manager Bruno Sannes, who offered up some comment, saying “They know what they need to do and will call us back after an issue is resolved…The online training sessions are also very helpful. We attended a training session on the new platform and learned tips and tricks.”

This combination of high-impact product line and excellent support certainly makes Metropolis a product line worth keeping in mind. Essentially, Serco appears to have been with the company in one way or another for the last five years, and taking advantage of the various offerings involved. That speaks to a company's value; why stick with anything for five years if it doesn't work? But it's clear that Serco's getting plenty out of this arrangement, whether it's in knowledge transferred or new capabilities offered.

Metropolis is demonstrating the way to keep a company interested over the long term, and Serco, in turn, is demonstrating the benefits of a dedicated systems provider. But through it all, the value of call monitoring systems shines through and gives us all reason to consider bringing such tools to bear.