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EPICCenter helps Service Provider, ATX improve service levels and retain customers while protecting its investment in the Coral phone system - 14 July 2005

THE CHALLENGE
In 2003 ATX recognized that their old ACD system was no longer meeting and supporting the company’s vision of excellence in support and service. “Our problem was a sweeping one. Our previous system was outdated and ineffective in every way,” says Sam Burton Vice President, Sales and Support Services for ATX. “We experienced poor call routing, inaccurate reporting data, incorrect real time observations, etc. We needed a new system from the ground up”. The hunt for a new Contact Center solution began in January of 2004. The Contact Center would serve the main service center in Caribou, Maine.

THE SOLUTION
In March 2004 after a quick but thorough review process ATX selected EasyRun’s EPICCenter. EPICCenter was selected because it offered a great value per price ratio and helped ATX retain their investment in the Coral phone system. As Sam Burton puts it in a concise way “we choose EPICCenter because of the price and its compatibility with our existing Tadiran phone system”. As a mid size business it was clear to ATX that they couldn’t afford a long implementation process. They needed to see results in a short time. A decision was made to start with a 40 agents call center and add an additional 80 agents at a later date.

The deployment process was swift. As Doug Zimmers, support manager for EasyRun describe it. “I arrived on a Monday at ATX to begin the installation and integration with the phone system. On Tuesday I began the configuration of the call center. ATX had already recorded the various announcements required for the IVR activities, so all I had to do was implement the call flow we had already mapped out during previous planning meetings. This was completed in several hours. We installed all of the supervisors and agent stations after lunch later that day. This took a bit of time with the Windows restarts and the tests. After all the agents were installed we performed some additional testing into the evening. Everything tested as planned. The system was completely installed, configured, and tested in 2 days. Wednesday we began setting up the training area and afternoon I was able to spend time with the supervisors going over the administration and the reporting package.

On Thursday we started with Agents training. We did 6 sessions of 1 hour each to train the entire call center personnel. This took all day Thursday. We cut the system late Thursday night, tested it with live lines, saw no problems, and left for the night. On Friday the system was live. “

In November 2004 Doug went back to expand the system to 120 Agents with 12 supervisors, with a Citrix Server migration and thin clients on 75% of the agents.

THE BENEFITS
ATX’ critical time start mid-December and ends on April 15th’. Shortly after completing the Contact Center ATX had the chance to put EPICCenter under the ultimate test. The combination of clear and accurate Real Time with tools to smoothly reassign agents to different queues and load balance the system contributed vastly to hightened service levels. “Compared to the previous year, call volume increased from 7000 to 10,000 calls a day while wait time was cut by 70%” C.B Smith, the Telecom Engineer described immediate results. The accurate Historical Reports enabled ATX staff to quickly analyze performance and trace bottlenecks and the clear Administration contributed to their ability to revise their system without the need for any external assistance.

The outcome, in Sam Burton words, is “vastly improved service. We now have a multi-faceted IVR and Call Routing System that gets calls to the right place the first time. For the first time, we have genuine skills based routing, which optimizes both the customer and the agent experience.”

With ATX, the bottom line results were quickly noticed. EPICCenter helped ATX to retain customers’ loyalty and increase their business. “We can say that we just had our best renewal season to date. EPICCenter certainly played a role in that.” Another aspect is the support level, a company so focused on delivering excellent customer service expects to receive it from its vendors. “EasyRun stands behind their product which I find rare” said C.B Smith “when ever we have needed them they have been there for us’. On June 2005 ATX expressed their vote of confidence in EPICCenter by adding 60 agents to a total of 200 agents in the Contact Center. A presentage of these agents will be offshore using VoIP technology.

ABOUT ATX
Founded in 1992 ATX is now one of the leading companies providing software and research materials for Professional Tax preparers. With approx. 300 employees spread over three locations ATX is committed to build premium quality tax software at a fair price, and to offer excellent support, especially during tax season. From October through April ATX add about 150 seasonal phone agents both locally and offshore.