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Security Benefit Corporation turns to
Alexander Open Systems for
advanced voice and contact center solution
Situation
Security Benefit Corporation has achieved remarkable growth in
its assets under management, soaring from $8B in 1997 to nearly
$35B today. Unfortunately, its outdated network infrastructure
couldn’t keep pace with the company’s increased revenues, lines
of business, and national footprint.
Security Benefit required cost-effective connectivity and advanced
IP telephony solutions to connect its growing network of remote
offices and to maintain its exemplary customer service standards.
This meant building out advanced call center solutions, adding
centralized telephony management capabilities for remote sites,
and ensuring redundancy in its core network.
With its existing digital PBX lease expiring, Security Benefit
turned to Overland Park, Kansas-headquartered Alexander Open
Systems (AOS) and Cisco – companies it had worked with for
over seven years – for an IP solution that could support its current
needs and help accomplish its ambitious goals. Founded in 1992,
AOS has more than 210 employees in 10 offices covering six
states, and specializes in Local and Wide Area Networking LAN/
WAN, IP Telephony, Security, Storage and Managed Services.
Security Benefit knew firsthand the Cisco Gold Certified Partner
had the experience and expertise to satisfy its objectives.
Solution
AOS partnered with the Security Benefit IT department to begin
the IP telephony and IP contact center implementation in mid
2007 and establish a new customer-facing call center within the
company’s business process outsourcing line of business, se2.
To ensure a reliable, secure, and scalable unified messaging
platform, AOS and Security Benefit implemented Cisco Unity,
a component of Cisco’s unified communications solution that
enables easy access to e-mail, voice, and fax messages from a
single inbox anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
AOS then implemented Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, a
sophisticated customer interaction management solution that is
easy to deploy, easy to use, secure, virtual, and highly available.
This single-server, integrated “contact center in a box” provides
robust call routing, distribution, and management features, while
simplifying agent administration and increasing agent flexibility.
Results
Security Benefit is enjoying the many advantages of its new AOSimplemented
Cisco integrated IP network solution.
“The impact has been positive in every way,” says Kevin
Cohen, Vice President, Information Technology, Security Benefit
Corporation. “We now have a cost-effective telephony system that
can scale with our demands and enable us to quickly integrate
remote offices and individual users anywhere.
“Further, our business demands 99.999% reliability at the network
level for our call center, which is the most customer-facing aspect
of our organization. Our new solutions add reliability and security,
ensure maximum uptime and greatly enhance our disaster
recovery capability. Simply put, higher availability and performance
across the network means maintaining our high customer service
levels and moving the business forward to meet current and future
demands.”
Cohen concludes that both AOS and Cisco have delivered
on Security Benefit’s expectations from planning through
implementation.
“We value the AOS relationship a great deal,” says Cohen. “They
have a very talented team and have always worked to get us
the right solution at the best price. When you add in the breadth,
innovation, and quality of Cisco solutions, it’s a strong partnership.
I absolutely recommend both companies.”
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