Alcatel-Lucent IP telephony solutions implemented by Swinton Insurance

Corporate IT Update, Feb 21, 2008

CORPORATE IT UPDATE-(C)1995-2008 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Communications solutions provider Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris:ALU) (NYSE:ALU) announced on Wednesday (20 February) that Swinton Insurance, a UK high street insurance broker, has deployed its IP telephony solutions across 450 sites to increase successful sales calls and ensure high standard of customer service.

The installation, providing over 3,000 insurance advisors with improved call handling capability, was completed by Alcatel-Lucent's business partner Amillan, a communications solutions provider.

According to the company, Swinton provides personalised service for its customers through its network of branches and ensures that enquiries from each of its 2m policyholders are handled locally. The IP telephony solution automatically routes each call first to the caller's local branch, or to a cluster of ten other area branches. As a result, transfers to the overspill call centre have been reduced by 40%. In addition, branch advisors' handsets can now display call type, providing improved market intelligence to focus on call handling.

The solution is based on the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise platform, OmniTouch Contact Center software and OmniVista 4760 Network Management platform. VoIP has improved internal communications and enabled free telephone calls among all Swinton sites and branches, resulting in estimated savings of over GBP100,000 per year, the company said.

In addition, the company said it purchased 50 licences for Alcatel-Lucent's OmniTouch Unified Communications suite to examine the benefits offered by unified communications and collaboration technology.

The value of the project is estimated at EUR2.5m.

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