Prometric Delivers Superior Customer Service With Avaya Contact Center Solutions

BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - July 27, 2009) - Prometric, a global leader in technology-enabled testing and assessment services, selected Avaya contact center solutions to handle the vast volume of inquiries seeking assistance for a wide range of tests. Avaya's solutions enabled Prometric to streamline their contact center operations to achieve new cost-savings, while enhancing customer experiences for callers. With a global organization administering more than seven million tests a year on behalf of 450 clients, Prometric requires its customer service to meet any challenge with efficiency, speed and reliability.

Avaya helped Baltimore, MD-based Prometric implement customer service that delivers customization and consistency. In terms of customization, Prometric fields inquiries from customers with specific needs related to the language they speak or the type of test they are pursuing. Avaya's sophisticated routing capabilities ensure that Prometric customers get to the right agent to discuss an IT, academic or certification exam in North America, Japan or other regions.

In terms of consistency, the company needed to standardize call flows globally, so no matter what Prometric number someone calls, or language they are speaking, the menu options and 'call tree' flows are consistent. The first step for Prometric was to conquer the challenge of having 300 toll-free numbers coming into just one contact center.

"We needed contact center applications that delivered a more efficient approach," said Marc Hensens, manager of telecommunications for Prometric. "Avaya's unmatched routing capabilities assigned '1-800' toll free numbers to different contact centers, enabling us to support the unique needs of each client. We could serve individual customer requests, while helping to ensure similar experiences for everyone."

Avaya Self Service Brings Prometric Greater Efficiency and Accuracy

The choice to go with Avaya was made when Prometric identified critical customer service challenges related to its previous Interactive Voice Response (IVR) application from another vendor. IVR is a critical capability to Prometric, enabling test takers to schedule, cancel or confirm test appointments using automated self service. Its previous system was rife with administrative difficulties, had limited and unreliable reporting, and presented difficulties in verifying that service level agreements were being met.

Cost-wise, when Prometric sought to improve the system, it discovered that upgrading its existing vendor's IVR application would cost 5-10% more than replacing it with a new Avaya Voice Portal self service solution. These cost-savings, along with Avaya Voice Portal's ability to speed and improve the management and reporting of self service, impressed Prometric. Overall, the company calculates that the benefits and maintenance efficiencies gained with Avaya Voice Portal will save Prometric more than $17,000 per year.

"From a management perspective, Avaya Voice Portal is a tremendous time-saver," adds Hensens. "For example, a simple change function that required a half hour with our previous IVR system now takes less than a minute with Avaya Voice Portal. Furthermore, Avaya virtually eliminated the risk of inaccurate or incomplete reporting by basing reports on a single, consolidated server source. This enables us to provide a more professional report to customers, and ensure it's based on actual numbers."

Driving Greater Productivity From a 600-Agent Operation

With Avaya, Prometric saw an increase in productivity from its nearly 600 agents across 11 contact centers. In fact, the first day after Prometric's latest upgrades, the Baltimore contact center was hit with a snowstorm that kept many agents home. Because of the new system -- based on an Avaya Aura™ Communication Manager IP Telephony platform -- Prometric could seamlessly route calls to home-based agents, and keep productivity up despite many agents not being able to get to the contact center.

"Avaya has the best routing available, and my colleagues thank me every day for it," Hensens explained. "We need to enable test candidates to schedule tests or get counsel by reaching the person who speaks their language. Avaya's sophisticated routing effectively juggles multiple skill sets, while building in business continuity capabilities to help ensure that if one area or system goes down, we can simply route callers to another area. This keeps productivity flowing and customers satisfied."

Another factor contributing to agent productivity is Avaya Call Management System, which enables Prometric supervisors to monitor agent activities and shift agents as needed to address emerging issues. It also provides reporting views across different departments, since the Avaya system now integrates both IT and academic testing on the same system. This gives Prometric a simplified view into contact center staff activity, allowing supervisors to better manage staff and call volume issues, and ultimately improve customer service.

Avaya BusinessPartner Matrix USA helped Prometric implement its Avaya contact center solutions. This included integrating the company's important Baltimore location into the company's contact center framework, and incorporating Avaya Voice Portal.

For more information on Prometric, visit: www.prometric.com

About Avaya

Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems. The company provides unified communications, contact centers, and related services directly and through its channel partners to leading businesses and organizations around the world. Enterprises of all sizes depend on Avaya for state-of-the-art communications that improve efficiency, collaboration, customer service and competitiveness. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

Contact Information: Media Relations: Jonathan Varman 908-953-6432 jvarman@avaya.com