Friends Provident moves to Internet Telephony

Insurance company, Friends Provident, is planning to fully introduce internet telephony in its UK business by the end of 2008, as part of a strategy called Six-Star.

The strategy aims to improve response times through the use of IT, providing improved customer service and business continuity at its UK call centres and offices.

The company has already migrated around 95% of lines in the UK to an IP platform and expects to complete migrations in the Isle of Man and at a new call centre in Germany, by the end of the year.

The IP telephony system links an incoming caller’s number to their details. This should reduce the number of transfers needed to route a caller to the correct service agent, with a target of answering calls correctly within 20 seconds.

The system will also support business continuity plans. In the event of an emergency Friends Provident will be able to establish virtual call centres, with staff able to log in to any PC terminal and take calls.

The company will use Cisco’s CallManager software to process calls and Genesys’s telephony and desktop software for agents to manage multiple channels of communication including phone, e-mail and web from their computer. Call quality will be monitored with software from Psytechnics.