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Nortel Tapped by Geisinger for IP Contact Center
[March 01, 2007]

Nortel Tapped by Geisinger for IP Contact Center


TMCnet Contributing Editor
 
Nortel (News - Alert) announced that it has been tapped by the Geisinger Health System to obtain an IP Contact Center system, which will link 2.5 million people in its network of hospitals and physicians across 20,000 square miles. The system is part of Nortel's clinical grade Healthcare Solutions, which facilitates access to the group's practitioners and patients.


 
This upgrade to Geisinger's call center communications would build a single virtual contact center which will span wide geographical areas. The move will enable call routing automation of previously manually routed calls from agents at disparate locations, to appropriate representatives. Geisinger's new contact center capabilities also include immediate routing of calls to doctors' IP wireless phones, regardless of their location.
 
"We handle more than 9,000 calls a day across various call centers that staff 400 agents to perform various tasks," commented Gary Keefer, director of voice systems for Geisinger Health System. "With each of those calls averaging 2.5 minutes, it became obvious that we needed a solution that would enhance collaboration between the call center and doctors while making it faster for patients to get answers to their questions."
 
Geisinger is currently using Nortel IP wireless phones to enable physicians and other staff to communicate with the contact center and the patient from multiple locations. Keefer explained how these devices are working at Geisinger's facilities: "The flexibility that IP has brought to Geisinger is hard to express in dollars and cents. We can quickly and easily install IP phones where they are needed. Having that convenience to save a doctor even 10 seconds could be worth a great deal to Geisinger and its patients."
 
Nortel’s Contact Center's offering, which uses the Expert Anywhere feature, also includes the Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5100, the Nortel IP Phones, and the Media Processing Server (MPS) 500. Additional Nortel solutions implemented at Geisinger Health System include CallPilot Unified Messaging to help simplify faxing and reduce expenses and WLAN IP telephone handsets for wireless mobility.
 
Nortel had announced this week that it made two additions to its Healthcare Solutions suite: the Nortel Clinical Alarms and Alerts and Asset Tracking and Management. These two additions will feature VoIP amongst its mobile communications capabilities. The move will aid hospitals and other health organizations in providing its patients with better access to the staff and vice versa.
 
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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit her columnist page.


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