Clients' Request Again Leads Outsourcer to N-Focus
ER Solutions Inc. has chosen N-Focus on two separate occasions as a solution for providing real-time access to clients via the web. ER Solutions is a national receivables company with over 50 years of experience. They now operate five outsourced call centers comprised of over 1,500 professionals, providing consumer accounts receivable management services. Early in 2006, one of the company's call centers in Renton, Washington, began working with a client who requested reporting capabilities that exceeded those of the center's current solution. After reviewing alternatives, ER Solutions chose N-Focus to meet the client's specific needs, including the need to provide a real-time window or view via a web-browser into the call center's operations.
Months later, a portion of this client's services was transferred from the Renton, Washington, location to their center in Atlanta, Georgia. However, this site did not have the capabilities to provide the client with a window into the call center's operations. This time, ER Solutions needed to look only at a success in the recent past to find the right solution for the call center.
Following the successful implementation of NetLert's N-Focus call center reporting solution at ER Solutions' headquarters in Renton, Washington, N-Focus was again chosen to continue providing a window via the web into call center activity at the Atlanta call center operation. This location was already equipped with Avaya's powerful CMS data collection software. CMS, however, did not offer a reporting mechanism that would give the client liberties to view their specific call center data or to monitor and track service level agreements in the manner required by their client. Similar to Washington, the need to restrict access for the client to view just their own activity was a top priority for the Atlanta call center. Again, N-Focus was chosen as the solution that would enable the client to securely access and view their real-time call center statistics via the web.
ER Solutions also needed to implement a solution that followed suit with their corporate IT management goals, predominantly the proactive reduction of IT management expenses. They needed to be able to locally support and administer call center reporting software in Georgia from their Washington headquarters. The only way to achieve this goal was through the use of a 100% web-based product that could be accessed from any location with Internet access. Similar to the first implementation in Renton, setup was quick and easy in the Atlanta call center. According to Derek Whitaker, Director of IT, "Our Atlanta personnel were already familiar with CMS data, and because N-Focus reports mimic a great deal of this data, very little training was required to begin using N-Focus [in Atlanta]."
Very little effort was required for ER Solutions to get N-Focus running at the Atlanta location. As part of their original Maintenance and Support schedule, ER Solutions was entitled to all upgrades of N-Focus. Upgrade 3.6.0, multiple PBX support, allows users to link various locations that can be administered from a central location. ER Solutions received the multiple PBX license upgrade via email and was easily able to access the Atlanta location.
Because of the unique N-Focus web-based architecture, ease-of-use, and data restriction capabilities, two locations are now easily accessible for both ER Solutions and their client. According to Whitaker, "N-Focus gives ER Solutions a powerful competitive advantage in the marketplace that will allow the company to attract and better serve more customers."
About NetLert
Based in the mountains of Western North Carolina, NetLert produces a variety of communications and reporting tools for the contact center industry. The company initially offered its enterprise level instant messaging solution, NetLert IM, but has continued to evolve, focusing on developing and refining new software products. Today, NetLert is uniquely positioned in the market place, providing innovative products based on leading-edge technology to contact centers of all sizes. For more information, please visit www.netlert.com.
About ER Solutions
For information regarding services provided by ER Solutions, contact Glenn Nies, Director of Sales and Marketing at gnies@e-r-solutions.com.
