Case Study: Travel Services Company (Outbound Telemarketing / Inbound Sales)

The client telemarkets to consumers across Europe, Asia, Canada and Australia to sell travel and vacation packages throughout the United States.

Goal of Operating Services Audit, Analysis & Optimization Engagement
Confirm that services are being billed properly, that the correct services are being used, that those services are configured correctly and to reduce operating costs where possible.

Services Reviewed
Network access circuits, inbound and outbound long distance, dialer and ACD configuration and call flow; and Internet access services.

Situation & Scope of Project
The client has been steadily increasing telemarketing headcount, operations and market share; and was expanding into new markets and was looking to improve operating efficiencies and reduce network service operating costs where possible. The client's internal staff efforts had reduced expenses through renegotiation of contracts; however, inventory of services had never been conducted and reviewed by an outside auditor. Pearl Logic reviewed the existing network service invoices and vendor contracts, conducted a master inventory of all services, and aimed to reduce costs where possible through optimization of services and verification of current costs.

Discovery
Audit and analysis efforts revealed that the current vendor was "Bill Stuffing" (adding unnecessary Surcharges & Fees), which added an additional 22% on top of existing long distance voice services. Pearl Logic also found that based upon the client's unique international traffic patterns; they were not in the correct international rate plan. Plus, the client's network access was not correctly configured and there was no disaster recovery or network diversity implemented.

Outcome
By eliminating excess services and reconfiguring with alternate vendors that better fit the client's unique needs, implementing new network diversity and disaster recovery options, Pearl Logic was able eliminate "Bill Stuffing" and reduce the client's overall Operating Services costs by 53.81%. Plus, Pearl Logic was also able to find a vendor that can provide international DID call origination from target market areas, for VoIP hand-off back to the client's ACD platform, enabling the client to appear as a local vendor within client's international target market.

Case Study: Large Dental Laboratory (Outbound Telemarketing / Inbound Sales)

From a Philippines contact center, using VoIP, the client takes toll-free number inbound calls from dentist offices across the United States, Mexico, and Canada and accepts orders for dental lab work; plus they telemarket to sell a wide variety of dentistry products that they produce. Goal of Operating Services Audit, Analysis & Optimization Engagement Find highly reliable VoIP service provider vendor to support IP voice services between the Philippines and United States, and to reduce operating costs where possible.

Services Reviewed
Local network access circuits in Philippines, VoIP hardware / dialer equipment, VoIP inbound, and outbound long distance services.

Situation & Scope of Project
Client was experiencing frequent service interruptions and numerous quality issues with their existing VoIP service provider, and needed to make a change as quickly as possible. Pearl Logic reviewed existing network service invoices for current costs verification; reviewe existing vendor contracts to determine potential agreement obligations, and/or penalties; find an alternate VoIP service provider; and reduce costs where possible through new contract negotiation of new services.

Discovery
Audit and analysis efforts revealed that the client had insufficient network bandwidth to adequately support call traffic requirements; VoIP dialer equipment was not optimally configured; the existing vendor was attempting to strong-arm the client into additional service contract obligations; and based upon the client's inbound and outbound traffic patterns to and from their target market areas, the client was not in the correct rate plan to minimize their costs.

Outcome
Pearl Logic expanded the network access into client's contact center in the Philippines; found a VoIP service provider vendor that has provided exceptional VoIP call quality service, plus outstanding post-implementation service support; guided the optimization configuration of VoIP dialer equipment; negotiated bi-lateral service agreement terms.

Case Study: Toll Free Number (TFN) Inbound Customer Service Contact Center

A Costa Rican client contracts with a number of enterprise customers across the United States as a BPO provider of customer service and help desk functions.

Goal of Operating Services Audit, Analysis & Optimization Engagement
Gain an understanding of client's existing 3rd party vendor environment, confirm that the correct services are being used, that those services are configured correctly; define network diversity and disaster recovery options; and to reduce Operating Services operating costs where possible.

Services Reviewed
3rd party hosted ACD services and toll-free number (TFN) inbound long distance services.

Situation & Scope of Project
The client's contact center is located in Costa Rica, they contracted with a 3rd party hosted ACD services vendor in Denver, CO. All TFN inbound calls were being routed to the Denver location via standard TDM circuits, where the calls would be dispositioned to determine correct ACD group and/or skilled agent and sent to the Costa Rica center via VoIP. The 3rd party hosted ACD vendor periodically experienced network service or platform issues, and therefore client needed network diversity and disaster recovery options. Pearl Logic reviewed the existing network service invoices for current costs verification; review existing 3rd party hosted ACD vendor contract to determine potential agreement obligations, and/or penalties; find a network diversity and disaster recovery solution to provide alternate call routing when hosted ACD vendor experiences problems; and reduce costs where possible.

Discovery
Audit and analysis efforts revealed that every time the 3rd party hosted ACD vendor had any service issue, it totally took the client out of business. We learned that in spite of the service challenges, client very much liked doing business with hosted ACD vendor and was not interested in totally moving off vendor services.

Outcome
Pearl Logic was able to find an alternate hosted ACD vendor in a totally different region of the country, using totally different network vender services, that could accommodate the client's sporadic TFN inbound call traffic, during times when the primary hosted ACD vendor experienced problems, and that could perform the same call disposition of determining the correct ACD Group and/or skilled agent and send those calls to the Costa Rica center via VoIP. Pearl Logic was also able to re-negotiate the primary hosted ACD vendor contract terms, on behalf of client to reduce the client's overall Operating Services costs by 26.2%.

Case Study: Large inmate communication services provider to correctional facilities across the United States.

Goal of Operating Services Audit, Analysis & Optimization Engagement
Confirm that the correct data networking services are being used, that those services are configured correctly with the correct amount of bandwidth is in place at each network node to accommodate client data traffic needs; and to reduce data Operating Services operating costs where possible.

Services Reviewed
127 Node nationwide MPLS network.

Situation & Scope of Project
The client contracts with correctional facilities throughout the United States to deliver "Telecom Managed Services" that meet the state and federal law requirements for service, quality and to record every single phone call originating from the correctional facility out to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The client accomplishes this by installing VoIP gateway equipment at every facility, routed all outbound calls through the VoIP gateway, which is in-turn interfaced with the MPLS WAN to route all call traffic to one of two data centers for recording and then sent out to the PSTN. Pearl Logic reviewed the existing network service invoices to verify current costs; review existing vendor contract to determine potential agreement obligations and/or penalties as contract nears expiration (such as auto renewal clauses, etc.); determine MPLS node bandwidth requirements; and ether find an alternate MPLS service vendor or re-negotiate with existing vendor to reduce costs where possible.

Discovery
Audit and analysis efforts revealed that client had been experiencing service issues with existing vendor and was very much interested in finding an alternate vendor; that the MPLS port at many locations was under sized to accommodate the data traffic needs the respective facility; and that they were being slightly over charged for their MPLS network

Outcome
This particular engagement is currently still in process. Pearl Logic only just completed the audit, analysis and optimization phase, and just recently provided the client with recommendation. However, the 127 node MPLS Operating Services recommendation that Pearl Logic has put in front of the client will significantly increase the port size of most MPLS nodes, and reduce the client's network operating costs by 16.7%, yielding an annual savings of $348,302.36; which includes the amortized costs of network conversion and implementation.