TIM Enterprise flush with success

The customer

South East Water became the UK's second largest water company as a result of the merger between South East Water and Mid Kent Water in December 2007. The organisation now covers eight principal sites and 55 water stations and supplies more than 565 million litres of drinking water each day to more than 860,000 customers.

The requirement

"A key factor to the regulatory approval of the merger between South East Water and Mid kent Water was that we could achieve significant efficiencies which could be passed on to our customers. We're using telecoms to power this efficiency drive by rolling out the advanced digital network and moving to an IP infrastructure for our call centre.", said Jamie King, IT Services Project Manager, South East Water.

King also states, "All voice and data traffic has now been consolidated into a single advanced digital network. We have rolled out a Cisco solution across all sites to replace legacy PBX's across all sites.

I had used Tri-Line's call logging solution at Mid-Kent to log a number of legacy switches and was very aware of their forward-looking approach. We were using an alternative supplier at South East and I was keen to see what both would offer in terms of an integrated solution across all sites."

The solution

Tri-Line's new TIM Enterprise has been designed with new technology in mind and the upgrade to Cisco unleashed a host of new features that we were able to embrace.

We did take the opportunity to look at alternative call loggers at the same time as sourcing our Cisco, however we found that the object-based directory available on TIM Enterprise to be unique. Although it sounds like a reltively minor feature, it allows us complete flexibility in how we set up and maintain our directory and it was possible to mimic our own set-up completely. It was also incredibly easy to administer as we phased users over from old legacy switches to the new Cisco switch. This would not have been possible to the same extent with any other product we looked at.

We initially choose Tri-Line's TIM Enterprise call logging solution for several reasons, not least of which was the willingness of the team at Tri-Line to listen to our requirements and incorporate our feedback into their development process. We were even more impressed once we extended it across a much larger network, when the power of their enterprise solution really comes into its own, stated King.

As part of the roll-out, South East Water is also bringing its contact centre back in-house and it was vital that we could get accurate up-to the minute stats on these.

The Benefits

As well as providing the vital call-logging statistics we require across all current sites, TIM Enterprise allows us to add customisable Display boards at any point in our organisation. This means we get up-to-the second info and it's completely futureproof as it allows us the option of adding additional displayboards anywhere at any time for no additional cost. We can also add more extensions, switches or sites at a very reasonable cost.

We have the ability to monitor calls to company mobiles as well as calls on our Cisco PBX allowing true cost control across all telephony spend.

As an organisation we are keen to implement technology-led solutions that offer real cost benefits. Tri-Line's TIM Enterprise also gives us the facility to set up an unlimited number of wallboards, leaderboards or display boards at any point in our directory which is ideal for hands-on management. Even better, these are included in the package so we don't have to keep digging into our pockets every time a new requirement appears. All boards can be viewed remotely via any standard web-browser so we have full visibility from anywhere at any time, even from our PDA if stuck in traffic! This fits in perfectly with our policy of empowering staff with greater access to information both within its contact centre and out in the field.

As part of our on-going maintenance we get automatic updates which include any new features added to the product. We recently upgraded some of our display boards to include the customisable panels and live RSS feeds. The fact that all software and support is included under our standard maintenance makes a pleasant change from those suppliers who seem to suddenly start charging for everything once our initial investment in the platform is made.

The Future

"We have a very close working relationship with Tri-Line, more akin to a working partnership than a supplier/client relationship. They have always been happy to listen to our specific requirements and actively encourage feedback for incorporation into the product. I am personally convinced that one of the reasons Tri-Line's products are so successful is because they are developed around the needs of real users rather than being based only on the perceptions of what a development team believes is required or a salesperson thinks is saleable! I could not recommend TIM Enterprise or Tri-Line highly enough."