Johnnie Walker goes hi-tech - January 2007

How to use a call centre isn't always obvious. What would a portfolio of liquor brands want with one, for example?

The alcoholic brands managed by local liquor distributions company Brandhouse are now only a mouse click away. André Pasman heads up the outfit's new call centre, and says that the outfit's new technology - which had already been running for two months at the time of writing - has already changed the way the company operates. A project set to run over the first half of next year is intended to enhance this further, by taking back-office functionality and putting this to use at the front end. Now, the company has the kind of sales transparency that it previously could only dream about.

Brandhouse was formed in 2004 by Diageo, the world's largest alcoholic beverages group, in a joint venture with Namibia Breweries and Dutch brewing giant Heineken. Its portfolio includes in excess of 40 brand names, including J&B, Bell's, Smirnoff, Heineken, Windhoek, Guinness, Baileys Irish Cream, Captain Morgan Spiced Gold and Black Label, and Jose Cuervo.

Stand up, fall down

Previously, the company's call centre telephony technology was unreliable, Pasman says. "We had a telephony system in place that was not delivering (sufficient) value." The system was down several times a year. He says that the old system lacked stability, transparency and there was no way of measuring service levels. "As a consequence, we couldn't improve skills."

In January 2006, Brandhouse appointed a consultant to determine the exact role that the call centre should play in its organisation. "If you looked at our call centre at the time, people were not sure of our strategy going forward."

With a scope document outlining its requirements in hand, the company put out a request for proposals. A shortlist of four companies out of the nine that expressed interest was based on its requirements for stability, transparency in terms of reporting, and scalability. "We needed a tool that would provide the team with the opportunity to become the external arm of the sales force." ATIO made the cut, says Pasman, based on the fact that both companies shared core values.

"Often, with an IT solution, you get dumped with a product, but don't know if it will work for your business," he says of how the companies' partnership differed from the norm.

Phase one, which went live on 17 August, is a standalone call centre technology model that currently does not interface with Brandhouse's SAP system. However, between November 2006 and the end of the first half of 2007, the company aims to complete integration.

Tech stuff

ATIO's MD of Interactive Communications Solutions, Andre le Roux, says that Brandhouse went with Customer Interaction Centre (CIC), which was custom fitted by ATIO through its platinum partnership with Interactive Intelligence. Technology embedded in the system includes a workforce management tool, advanced automatic dialling, multimedia resource load balancing and on-screen recording capabilities.

The company, he says, knew that it needed IT to help it be more competitive. This made it easier to provide a platform that would enable it to communicate with its customers through a web portal, voice or SMS. "People often talk loosely about using many channels such as voice and SMS, but Brandhouse thought through future deployment and how they would get their customers' buy-in," Le Roux points out. He says that deploying multiple forms of communication, such as a web portal, SMS ad voice, is being done by following a phased approach, which allows Brandhouse's customers to get accustomed to the different forms of communication.

The CIC system, says Le Roux, was sourced from Interactive Intelligence and the call centre is fully integrated based on open standards. This allows Brandhouse to mould the system to suit its exact requirements as they change. Facilitated through standard application protocol interfaces, the system can be integrated to other applications such as Oracle, SAP and Microsoft-based systems. Because open standards were used, staff are not limited in terms of what computing equipment or the type of headset they use. Headsets can be wireless, or plugged into desktop or laptop, says Le Roux. In addition, since the system makes use of IP protocol, staff could be enabled to work from home if that fitted in with the company's policy.

The end result, he says, is that the client can provide more information than usual from the back-office to the call centre agent.

The consolidated CIC platform includes interaction management capabilities for telephone calls, faxes, e-mail messages, internet text chats and web call-back requests. The entire system is underpinned with an integrated voice-recording system, allowing for quality monitoring and training. However, Le Roux says that it can also be used as a standalone PABX system. ATIO has already installed a similar set-up in a financial firm with 1000 seats, as well as a similar system for a 500-seat government department. The system is also installed in about 14 African countries.

Quantum leap

Already, Brandhouse has seen the benefits. Pasman says that the system has not fallen over once since going live and is living up to its rating. "All of a sudden, we have transparency." He says that the company can now monitor calls to determine what type of calls are coming in and going out. This will allow the organisation to add value to the calls. "Now we need to challenge the processes and turn non-productive calls into productive calls," Pasman adds.

This is where phase two comes into play, which will also provide the company with the opportunity to clean up its database.

Brandhouse customer liaison manager Wayne Brunsden says that the company previously had no visibility in terms of calls coming in, and reporting was inaccurate. This made managing calls in and out impossible, he says.

Some 45 people, all of whom fulfil varying roles from telesales to credit control, staff the company's Johannesburg-based call centre. On Monday mornings, however, it's all hands on deck as orders pour in. This, says Pasman, is when everyone handles the task of answering the phone. In future, the system's functionality will allow Brandhouse to proactively influence call patterns. However, the system's functionality goes beyond that. "We have a great opportunity in terms of the outbound dialler." The dialler, he says, can be used for campaign management and as a distribution mechanism.

Brandhouse now also has an opportunity to interpret the data and turn it into meaningful information. Pasman adds that this will allow the company to expand its footprint, pick up on brands that are not moving in certain areas, and promote and sell brands into defined target markets.

Pasman says that the call centre, which used to fulfil a predominantly data-capturing function, is now fully integrated as part of the commercial team. "If you combine the technology with the market support, commercial support and proper training, the possibilities are endless."

Christmas traffic

Pasman says that one of the immediate benefits is that he now knows that Brandhouse needs more staff as the pre-Christmas rush seems to have started early. Generally, the mad rush starts in the middle of November, but a week after visiting the centre for this interview, Pasman intended appointing another 12 staff for the temporary peak period.

ATIO's Le Roux says that peak periods are catered for as ATIO has provided an on-demand licence that means Brandhouse only pays for extra capability when it needs it. The arrangement negates the need for the company to buy extra software licenses and sit with unused assets during off-peak periods.

Le Roux says that the system allows for traffic monitoring and prioritising of traffic. This makes dealing with peak periods easier as it effectively irons out traffic. For example, agents would deal with voice calls first, and perhaps leave non-priority e-mails and SMS until the afternoon, when traffic has slowed to a trickle.

The company is still drilling down through the information and looking at ways to make the data work better, but Brandhouse seems to have a clear idea of exactly where the information will eventually take it.

Sipho Masinga, who heads up Brandhouse's IT and information systems, says that the company's aim is to align IT to its business strategy. "You can't just align from anywhere. You can't just shoot for the hip," he says of the need to first stabilise the environment. Once SAP is fully integrated with the CIC system, the company will be able to move forward with this goal of having a fully integrated IT system that supports its core function of sales.