May 29, 2007

Macfarlane Telesystems Provides Contact Center, CRM for Council

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Industry observer Julian Goldsmith has reported a partnership of ten local authorities in Staffordshire, England "has saved millions by consolidating its procurement processes."

Staffordshire Connects -- a joint venture focused around providing customer services, Goldsmith says -- has "invested in contact center and customer relationship management technology on behalf of the local authorities from Macfarlane Telesystems, reaping an initial saving of £1.8 million by buying together."

He notes that up to £1.4 million per year "will also be saved on joint maintenance and operational costs, once the CRM system is able to resolve 80 per cent of service requests at the first point of contact."

One of the leaders of the group, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, has already seen a return on their investment, managing to reach a first-time-resolution rate of 85 per cent.

A couple years ago Macfarlane Telesystems and Lagan announced the integration of Macfarlane's CallPlus Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and telephony product with Lagan's Frontline Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to create new advanced functions for contact center and customer service staff.

The new product was implemented by several local authorities including Salisbury, South Hams and North Kesteven District Councils, and Lancaster City Council.

The Macfarlane/ Lagan integration meant that Lagan Frontline CRM users, typically customer service advisors, could control a broad range of CTI and telephone functions, from inbound call control to screen-based dialing, messaging, conference calling and on-demand call recording, using a telephony toolbar embedded within Frontline itself.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) Net.  For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)	X
CTI or computer telephony integration is the linking of computing systems with telephone systems. The caller is connected via telephone companies to a customer ACD-PBX. The ACD-PBX passes the teleph...more

(source: http://news.tmcnet.com/news/-macfarlane-crm-/2007/05/29/2667366.htm)