Swiss Life has installed a new voice and data network capable of supporting VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) at its newly-built, £10 million customer call centre in Liverpool's Albert Dock.
The new call centre communication network is based on Alcatel's OmniCore 5000 and Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 technology and links 600 users across six UK sites. All employees can access identical information regardless of location. Remote and home workers will be supported by VoIP.
Tim Wheeler, computer services manager at Swiss Life, says: "We were looking for an infrastructure that would provide considerable cost benefits today and allow us to upgrade in the future, without the need to replace the entire network infrastructure...We can now deploy soft, digital and analogue phones on the network and support remote working, but retain the option of implementing full VoIP in the future."
He says the Alcatel network will allow easy call-centre expansion and migration to a multi-media contact centre when required.