Commercial Credit Adjusters Owe a Communications Debt to Vertical

Commercial Credit Adjusters Ltd.

Background

One of the largest accounts receivable management services companies in Canada, Commercial Credit Adjusters (CCA) collects monies owed to large accounts, including major utilities and service providers. The company’s communications system supports more than 200 users and up to 12,000 calls per day. More than 185 CCA collection agents place a huge volume of outbound calls on behalf of its clients—requirements that would push the limits of any  communications solution.

CCA had experienced a marked increase in business and expanded its headcount by some 20 percent to manage the added volume. New employees came into the organization using a range of equipment, from desk phones to PC-based soft phones to personal mobile devices. With business activity  on the rise, CCA found itself in a serious predicament, with no way to efficiently streamline and unify communications across its network. CCA’s original Centrex system provided no connectivity between branches, unified voice mail, or any call center features. The bare-bones system made it difficult for employees to transfer calls and access supervisors when they needed assistance in resolving callers’ complex billing issues.

In addition, since CCA operates nearly around the clock, there was no room for downtime should the system fail. Its previous system had no facility for backup. If CCA were to suffer an outage and lose track of its customer data, it could mean the loss of millions of dollars.

Solution

To meet its needs, Constant C Technology Group, CCA’s long-time technology provider, proposed a Vertical Wave IP unified communications platform.

“CCA can now deliver a full range of features throughout its network via the Wave’s singular licensing model,” noted Jason Kolaski, president and CEO at Constant C, which is also located in the Winnipeg area. “The Wave’s core ViewPoint presence and call management interface enables CCA’s employees to quickly connect, communicate and collaborate in real-time, regardless of their location, with features such as secure enterprise-wide instant messaging—one of the features the company relies on most heavily.” The IM capability helps agents answer callers’ questions more easily, and IM traffic is logged and archived alongside the rest of the communications data.

ViewPoint’s presence management technology allows agents to locate and include an available supervisor on a call at all times, so callers aren’t inadvertently transferred to an administrator’s voicemail. A “Monitor, Coach and Join” feature was also incorporated to allow supervisors to listen in to calls whenever necessary to observe activity.

Company-wide reporting was provided through Wave’s Call Reporter application. This data makes CCA management aware of trends such as peak call times, number of dropped calls, call durations and other activities. This gives the executive staff the information needed to adjust workflow according to key performance indicators. The system also allows agents to organize their calls according to client groups for easy management.

Disaster recovery was another critical element of the solution. The Wave’s Live Image application automatically backs-up all the system’s communications data on a daily basis. Should there ever be a network outage, CCA’s entire system could be restored in a matter of hours.

Results

CCA has been impressed by both the Vertical platform’s functionality and its delivery model. “We appreciate that Wave is a total one-box solution, which streamlines both administration and costs,” said Derek Cherewick, vice president at CCA. “Competing systems required multiple licensing fees and servers. The simplicity of Wave’s licensing model delivered a suite of applications under one contract, as opposed to other vendors, which offered escalating costs for a variety of features.”

Reporting has been greatly increased, enhancing company-wide accountability. Detailed activity reports are now submitted to upper management on a regular basis, which wasn’t possible with CCA’s legacy system. With the Wave’s built-in Call Recording application, recordings can also be forwarded to a supervisor, so individual agent performance can consistently be reviewed. The system’s recording and call logging capabilities also ensure CCA remains in compliance with strict industry regulations governing caller interactions.

In addition, with the Wave IP, CCA has been able to utilize its existing hardware, as well as leverage BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) strategies, to reduce costs and increase productivity. Employees have access to the same advanced calling features regardless of the device they choose, including digital phones, IP desk phones, soft phones, or mobile devices.

“We’re very satisfied with Wave’s visual interface and the platform’s ability to organize call data by user groups,” Cherewick reported. “It gives us visibility into client service across the company. Wave is an all-around powerful solution that significantly contributes to our objective in becoming a more efficient and responsive company.”