Delivering unified communications solutions for improved customer service, Nortel has delivered a 'virtual' contact center for MDA (News - Alert) that allows its staff to field calls from any customer anywhere in the country. When MDA decided to switch from an old analogue phone system to IP telephony the company consulted Nortel (News - Alert) and its Platinum nPower channel partner Commander.

 

Nortel and Commander's solution for MDA National includes a range of Nortel voice, data and contact center products that includes Nortel's flagship unified communications platform, Nortel Communication Server (CS) 1000, Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch (ERS) 5520s, Nortel Call Pilot for unified messaging and Nortel's comprehensive contact center software suite, Contact Center 6.0, Nortel Multimedia Communications Server (MCS) 5100 software for voice and video conferencing from the desktop, and Nortel 1140E IP handsets.

 

With this deployment MDA gets benefits such as a complete IP-based 'virtual' contact center that allows customer inquiries from any Australian city to be easily directed to the most appropriate staff member regardless of their physical location, multimedia communications for click-to-call audio and videoconferences among staff in different offices and unified messaging for mobile staff to easily retrieve e-mail and voicemails remotely.

 

By contracting a single vendor like Nortel for all its communication and networking needs, MDA could achieve an improved level of functionality and integration at an affordable price by contracting multiple vendors and multiple installers to come up with the same solution.

 

“A high percentage of companies in Australia are considered small-to-medium businesses, often with fewer than 100 staff but still running multiple offices spread across thousands of kilometers just like larger corporations. The challenge for them is having the same advanced communications tools as their larger competitors to connect their staff into single, cohesive organizations at a price they can afford. The challenge Nortel overcomes is delivering solutions that not only unify our customers' communications, but also make it easy for staff and customers to connect with each other, be it by phone or video, and in real-time.” says Mark Fioretto, general manager, Enterprise Solutions, Australia and New Zealand, Nortel.