Welcome to Market Focus, a newsletter prepared by C3 for its corporate and public sector customers. In this issue we are pleased to inform you of the latest enhancements to our IVR and multimedia platforms, Apcentia and SeTeCa. Both products have now both been fully integrated with BT’ Wholesale’s IP Exchange platform.

Secondly, we have recently been granted the environmental award, IS0 14001, something that has only been given to one percent of organisations in the UK.

We have launched new administration software for “LookOut call,” our automated lone worker safety system. Why not find out more by signing up to a Free one-week trial of the service?

Finally we share with you our plans for developing a new visual programming editor for our enterprise and corporate sector customers.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter and if you have any points you would like to raise, I would be happy to hear from you. John Wood, Joint Owner, C3.

C3’s products integrate with BT Wholesale’s IP Exchange platform

The expansion of IP telephony is making it increasingly difficult for traditional service providers to remain competitive in a multi channel world. Other communications channels such as SMS or Instant Messaging, mean that profit margins for TDM-based value added telephony services are slowly being eroded. However the expansion of IP telephony is also presenting many businesses with some exciting new commercial opportunities.

In order to help our customers remain competitive in this changing market, C3 has integrated its IVR and multimedia platforms, Apcentia and SeTeCa, with BT Wholesale’s award winning operability platform “IP Exchange”. This means that our customers can now take full advantage of the lower interconnect costs of an increasingly IP-centric world and launch and develop automated telephony services quickly and cost effectively.

Secure IP Exchanges are important for the growth of VoIP services and following a series of successful trials that began in 2007, the GSMA has given permission to a small number of operators, including BT Wholesale, to provide secure IPX services to third-party organisations.

The integration of our products with IP Exchange gives our customers the ability to handle both inbound and outbound IP and TDM traffic, taking full advantage of cost savings where appropriate, which has resulted in a number of commercial benefits. Larger companies can effectively become “operators” in their own right. All they have to do is request appropriate number ranges from Ofcom and bill the carrier accordingly. Smaller organisations can become virtual network operators (VNOs) and run their services on sub-allocated numbers supplied by BT.

Out payments on IPX services are much more lucrative that those delivered over traditional TDM telephony networks, making the delivery of different VoIP services much more appealing to smaller companies and large organisations alike.

Other benefits of our IPX integrated platforms include the following:

• Scalability -  allowing customers to start small and expand as their business grows
• Competitiveness    – smaller organisations can effectively compete against larger network operators, which results in more diverse services that are better value for money
• Better connectivity – our IPX integrated products support the industry standard SIP protocol
• Greater market share – customers are no longer limited by the availability of E1 circuits neither are they bound by geographical boundaries and can take advantage of global opportunities
• Improved efficiency –  customers do not have to invest in expensive network cabling in order to launch new services
• Increased profits – profit margins for IP originated services are much more lucrative than TDM ones

Says John Wood of C3: “We are really pleased to be given this approval because it will provide commercial benefits to our client base by introducing higher margins to existing applications, while at the same time extending the type and reach of services provided by our customers. It will also encourage entrepreneurs to launch new innovative applications because they can control billing themselves and will be able to see the benefits of their efforts almost immediately. “

As with all C3 products, our new IPX- integrated platforms support multiple communications channels, including SMS, IM, 3G and SIP, in voice and video formats, from one core infrastructure. They also interface with network operator and network independent billing mechanisms and are fully PCI DSS compliant. To find out more then call us on +44 (0) 1223 427700 or send an email to sales@c3.co.uk
C3 granted environmental award ISO 14001

Following an assessment by an independent body, QMS, Quality Management Systems, C3 is pleased to announce it has been awarded ISO 14001 certification.

Only one percent of businesses in the UK have been successful in obtaining ISO 14001 certification to date. This prestigious award is supported by Government and is recognized in over 150 countries world-wide.

Says John Wood of C3: “We are delighted with the result. We have always been very proud of the products and services we offer our clients and the way we conduct our business with regard to environmental matters. We make every effort to ensure we supply eco-friendly solutions that will help our customers reduce their carbon footprint. Our efforts have finally been recognized by independent experts who are used to judging ISO standards on a daily basis in a wide variety of trades and industries.

For the third year running we’ve also been given a Gold award by BenchmarQ for providing excellent quality of service and customer care to our customers, so to be granted ISO 14001 certification as well is a real honour.”

Peter Gamble, who undertook the assessment for QMS Quality Management Systems, paid particular tribute to “the investment in people and training that enables C3 to provide an efficient and environmentally friendly service to its customers.

New administration software for C3’s automated lone worker safety system

Advances in telecommunications and increased broadband connectivity is resulting in more and more of us working away from the office, either working from home or visiting customers in the community. People no longer need to travel to the office in order to do their jobs – provided they have a mobile phone and access to the Internet they can work from virtually anywhere.

These changes in working practices have resulted in changes to legislation. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Health and Safety Offences Act 2008 places responsibility on both employers and employees to ensure that adequate safety procedures are put in place and are conscientiously adhered to.

C3 has been involved in lone worker safety for more than ten years and provides automated lone worker safety systems and emergency response solutions to many different public and private sector organisations.

Our automated lone worker safety system, LookOut call, is currently used by more than 10 000 lone workers in the UK. It gives them a highly reliable means of ensuring that colleagues are instantly alerted if they are overdue from an appointment or if emergency assistance is required.

We have recently overhauled LookOut call’s administration software,  used by team leaders to ensure it is being used to its full potential,  which has made the product even more user-friendly.

 Key features of LookOut call’s new administration software include: summery information clearly displayed on the home screen, a “live view” of all lone workers using the system and most importantly, “real time” details of any current alarms in progress.

Other features of LookOut call’s new web administration software include:

• Easier management of all aspects of administrative tasks, including updating responder details, lone worker details, workgroups and incident alerts
• The ability to create additional logins, allowing administrators to grant nominated staff restricted access, so they can independently manage their own teams
• The ability to easily produce a comprehensive range of detailed reports, including ‘non-usage’ and detailed alarm traces, including some with additional ‘drill-down’ information

To find out how LookOut call could benefit lone workers in your organisation why not sign up to a no-obligation one week trial of the system? Call us on 01223 427717 or follow the link below to find out more.
http://www.c3.co.uk/free-demo.aspx

C3’s new visual editor

As telecommunications become increasingly versatile and more web-centric, the programming languages used to develop different types of telephony applications are changing also. Some are becoming less complicated and increasingly visual, comprising web based templates and “drag and drop” functionality.

The current economic climate is putting financial constraints on many organisations, making it harder for them to justify the funds needed to pay advanced programmers to develop and schedule, or make changes to applications that are perceived to be straightforward.

 To reflect these changes we would like to inform customers of our plans to launch a new visual service creation tool.
Our new visual editor, known as Fusion, will allow our customers to schedule services by creating a flow chart diagram of “nodes”, properties and links. It will run on a Windows PC, communicate via an Internet connection (no more mapped drives or ODBC connections to worry about) and will support all existing IVR functionality.

As with our existing programming software, customers will be able to use our new editor to develop and schedule interactive services themselves, or will be able to work in partnership with our support team to develop more complex, bespoke applications.

In the fullness of time it will be made available to our Voicemail client base as an upgrade to our popular Narrator product, offering far more functionality and significantly reducing the time taken to create and manage scripts.

We are really very excited about this development and look forward to sharing more information with you over the coming months.

Welcome to Market Focus, a newsletter prepared by C3 for its corporate and public sector customers. In this issue we thought we would take a look at some of the changes taking place with regards to the provision of social housing, and what C3 are doing to help local authorities and housing associations achieve new targets set by the Government.
 
We have another case study to share with you – GFM Ltd, one of the UK’s leading multi-service business agencies, has been using our IVR technology to deliver a whole plethora of IVR based “self service” applications for more than 10 years.

We are really pleased to announce that we’ve been given a Gold award by an independent organisation, BenchmarQ, following an 88% customer satisfaction rating.
 
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very merry Christmas and a prosperous 2010. Watch our video for a bit of festive fun. John Wood, Joint Owner, C3.

C3’s IVR software used by local authorities to facilitate the provision of social housing

Government has stipulated that, by the end of next year, the old “points” system for the management and allocation of properties used for social housing must be replaced with a new initiative, known as Choice Based Letting, (CBL). Choice Based Letting is intended to give social housing tenants more “choice” about where they live, in the hope that they will stay in a single property for longer periods of time, because they have been involved in the allocation process.

These changes mean that local authorities are having to manage their housing stock more efficiently and add more properties to their existing stock by working in partnership with private landlords. By having more properties available, local authorities are better able to help the more vulnerable, such as the homeless, refugees and those in temporary accommodation.

The initiative, however, has presented local authorities with certain problems associated with accessibility in the application process. They are obliged to advertise properties by different means, (the Internet, printed media, posters in public places), and tenants have to be allowed to apply for different properties by whatever means they choose – on-line by filling out a form, by phone, in person or by writing a letter.

The majority of local authorities already have IT-based housing management infrastructure in place for managing rent, repairs, vacancies etc and most of these solutions include facilities to advertise and apply for properties on-line as standard.

However, the Internet does not offer total accessibility and if local authorities solely rely on it for property application processes, they run the risk of alienating a significant number of residents – namely the elderly, those in rural areas where Internet coverage is poor, and those in temporary accommodation.

C3 has helped a number of local authorities make their existing choice based letting procedures more accessible, by providing them with a telephony interface that integrates seamlessly with their housing management software. This means that their response mechanisms are increased significantly and housing staff can see results to applications made via the internet and via the phone in real time from a single centralised database, thus saving a great deal of time and resource.

C3’s telephony interface is completely automated, is available to the public 24/7 and is accessible via land lines and mobile phones. If a prospective tenant wants to apply for a property they have seen advertised, they call a dedicated hotline promoted by the council and reply to a series of questions by pushing buttons on their phones. They have to provide some key information such as their social housing reference number, their date of birth and the property reference number. C3’s system collates all the relevant information and cross-references it with details stored on the councils housing management database. Caller are informed immediately if they are eligible for a property or not, and if they are, they are able to make an application immediately over the phone.

It has been proven that automating the telephone application process will reduce overheads, sometimes by as much as 90%. All routine calls are dealt with automatically, leaving busy housing staff to deal with the more complex issues.

C3’s call handling infrastructure can be integrated with many other self-service applications such as information hotlines and automated payment facilities. If you would like to find out more then please call +44 (0) 1223 427700 or send an email to sales@c3.co.uk

GFM use C3 IVR technology for a plethora of services

GFM Services Ltd, one of the UK’s leading multi-service business agencies, has been using Apcentia, C3’s mass call handling platform, to provide bespoke IVR and call recording facilities for many different marketing projects for more than 10 years. C3’s IVR software is used primarily to support specialized campaigns such as telephone-based fund raisers, outbound telephone interviews and specialist automated surveys.

Apcentia is an enhanced mass call handling platform used by network operators, service providers, private companies and the Public Sector to provide automated services such as automated information services or data capture for brochure distribution. It includes many other supporting applications such as robust call recording and data storage facilities.

GFM Ltd manages a diverse range of campaigns on behalf of its customers, including interactive sports or holiday competitions for many of the UK’s National newspapers or bespoke projects for large corporates and blue chip companies.

Their marketing and project fulfilment campaigns embrace all communication channels and the open architecture of C3’s bespoke IVR software means it can be seamlessly integrated into web based applications, as Rob McLaughlin of GFM explains: The Apcentia platform is very flexible and because we have access to the source code, we are able to integrate its IVR capabilities into other software solutions we use to manage online and SMS campaigns, thus providing consumers with multiple entry points to competitions and quizzes.

More specialist projects GFM Ltd has been involved in include the provision of IVR and call recording facilities for Greater Manchester Police and automated pharmacy testing services for CMP media.

The latter produces medical publications for training pharmaceutical staff and course exams are conducted over the phone using C3’s robust IVR software. Students call a dedicated number and log into the service using a unique ID number. They work their way through a number of course modules and answer a series of pre-recorded questions by pressing buttons on their keypad. Their answers are collated stored on Apcentia’s robust database and they are given a full round up of their performance and a pass mark for each module at the end of the call.

GFM has also project managed many fund raising campaigns to help those effected by conflict or natural disaster. In 2005, they were invited by the BBC’s Disasters Emergency Committee to compile and manage a telephone-based fund raising campaign following the Tsunami disaster of South East Asia. They were able to put appropriate infrastructure in place to manage the campaign within 24 hours and, using C3’s IVR software, they were able to handle in excess of 125 000 calls and process more than £3M in donations in the first three days of the campaign. GFM have run many other fund raising campaigns since then, including disaster appeals for Darfur, Asiaquake, Niger, Bangladesh, Burma and the Congo.
C3 receives a Gold award following 88% customer satisfaction rating

We are pleased to announce that, for the third year running, we have been given a Gold award by independent company BenchmarQ for providing excellent quality of service and customer care.

BenchmarQ contacted a number of our customers and asked them a series of questions about C3 as an organisation. They were asked to provide feedback about our products and services, our marketing material and the helpfulness of our staff.

At C3, we pride ourselves on providing our customers with the highest levels of customer service so we are delighted with the result.

Further more, for the first time ever, we have received a 94% customer satisfaction rating for “LookOut call”, our mobile phone-based lone worker alert service – which equates to a Diamond rating.

Says John Wood of C3.“We are really pleased with these results. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers who took the trouble to respond to the survey by giving us such good feedback and we would like to assure them that we will all do our utmost to maintain the high standards we have set ourselves over the months and years ahead”
 
Comments made by some of our customers:

“I have always found, when dealing with them, to be a “can do” company. From the first day I spoke with them they have always said, “let’s have this done”, or we can achieve this. They have always been very friendly and helpful”

“They are really good people to work with and I haven’t had any problems whatsoever”

They help you in the most friendly and professional way possible. They are an absolute joy to work with!”

Merry Xmas and a happy new year

Last, but by no means least, we would like to wish all our readers a very merry Xmas and a successful 2010.

Welcome to Market Focus, a newsletter prepared by C3 for its corporate and public sector customers. In this issue we thought we would take a look at PCI compliance and what it means for public and private sector organisations that provide automated payment services to their customers. As a result of some high-profile fraud cases, the credit card industry has introduced a new standard, known as PCI DSS, to ensure that all credit card merchants are trading securely and protecting consumer data. In order to ensure that our customers’ automated payment solutions meet the necessary requirements, we have developed an affordable PCI compliant solution for IVR and web billing.

We have two case studies to share with you:

• The RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf people) is using our IVR software to provide self-help hearing checks – to date almost half a million people have taken the test
• Phumelela, South Africa’s largest horse racing and tote betting company, is using C3’s multimedia platform to run live 3G video streaming services

To finish off, we thought we would share with you our tips for writing good IVR scripts. C3 has almost two decades’ experience in the telecoms industry. We’ve developed bespoke IVR solutions for many different customers in that time and we’ve learnt a lot of lessons along the way.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter and if you have any points you would like to raise, I would be happy to hear from you. John Wood, Joint Owner, C3.

C3 develops PCI compliant solution for IVR and web billing

C3 has developed an IVR and web billing solution that fully meets the requirements of the credit card industry’s ‘PCI Data Security Standard’ (PCI DSS), introduced in June 2007 as a result of some high-profile fraud cases, to ensure that all merchants are trading securely and protecting consumer data.

PCI compliance applies to any company accepting credit card payment via the phone or web, or when the customer is not physically present.  Credit card billing is used routinely to pay for a huge range of goods and services – ordering groceries, booking holidays, paying household bills, Council Tax, parking fines, or paying for TV licences, to give but a few examples.

Although PCI compliance is not yet compulsory, credit card companies are forcing the hand of merchants by imposing higher transactional fees for non-compliant operators.  Breaches of compliance can also result in severe fines and the withdrawal of the merchant codes necessary to trade. 

C3’s PCI compliant billing solution interfaces with all main clearing houses (BT Buynet, PayPal, Netbank, etc), enabling any online merchant to create a billing solution which better protects them and their customers’ data.

It works by collecting all information relevant to a card transaction, typically the credit card number, address validation (AVS) and the 3-digit security code (CV2) and forwarding this to an appropriate clearing house, depicted by application libraries, in order to receive payment authorisation.

All the collected processing data is stored on an approved PCI complaint hardened encrypted database and any future access to the data or transaction is indirect through unique transaction or user codes.  This is stored along with the customer’s credit card details so they can be traced if there is a query relating to the transaction and a refund needs to be given.

C3 is currently in discussion with a number of its customers about PCI compliance and is developing a bespoke IVR system for BT agilemedia.

Says Paul Scott, Head of Sales at BT agilemedia: “Online credit card fraud remains a huge issue, so ensuring our IVR billing systems are fully PCI DSS compliant means that we’re doing the right thing to protect the interests of our customers.”

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) use C3’s bespoke IVR to provide “self-help” hearing checks

Deafness is a problem that affects people the world over. In the UK almost 9 million people suffer from hearing loss and statistics show that deafness affects one-in-two people over the age of 65.

In order to create awareness about the severity of the problem, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), Britain’s largest charity working with people affected by deafness, launched a “self-help” telephone-based hearing check on Christmas Day 2005. Since then almost half a million people have completed the check and have taken the first steps towards getting appropriate help. In March this year, the service was made available for the first time in Welsh and was launched by the popular folk singer Max Boyce.

The service has been developed using bespoke IVR technology provided by C3 and BT agilemedia. At the time an IVR based solution was the only cost effective way for the RNID to provide such a service to a potential 9 million callers.

The test itself only takes five minutes to complete and can be accessed via any land line. The service is not available from mobile phones because of high interference levels. 

To take the check, callers dial a number promoted by the RNID and listen to a pre-recorded message that tells them how it works and what to do. Before beginning the test, they are asked to confirm their age and gender using their telephone keypads.

The test itself is very straight-forward: callers listen to sequences of randomly selected numbers and confirm their answers by pressing buttons on their phones. The check has been designed to replicate noise levels people might experience in real life, such as a crowded room, and it becomes increasingly difficult to discern the numbers as they work their way through because the back-ground noises are increased for each level. All the answers are stored on the IVR system’s back-end database so that appropriate results and advice can be given to callers at the end of the test and usage reports can be generated for the RNID.

The hearing check is also available online and can be found by visiting the RNID website, www.rnid.com

Comments Mark Downs, Executive Director, Science and Enterprise, for the RNID, “We are really pleased with the IVR solution provided by C3 and BT because it allows people to take the test from the privacy of their own homes. People who suffer from hearing loss are often reluctant to take action but this system allows them to check their hearing anonymously and get the help and advice they need. It takes, on average, 15 years for someone to accept that they may have a hearing problem – we are very keen to reduce these time scales and provide the appropriate help and advice!”

The service has been so successful with the general public that the RNID has been asked to develop tailor-made “self-help” hearing tests for a number of commercial organisations. 

In principle they are very similar to the standard check. Employees dial a dedicated phone number provided by BT, or internal extension to access the service. For companies that operate across multiple sites, employees are requested to enter their location code, provided by human resources.

Again, as with the conventional test, employees listen to some basic instructions, provide relevant employee information, (their work group or department), and have to correctly identify groups of different numbers. They are given appropriate advice about what they should do at the end, which may be to contact human resources.

These phone-based hearing tests are very important for industries with high noise levels because they help them comply with health and safety legislation and the Noise at Work Act, by ensuring that employees are monitored regularly and that appropriate measures are put in place to protect people’s hearing.

The RNID hopes that one million people will have taken their “self-help” check by the end of 2009.

C3’s 3G video platform delivers “live” horsing racing to thousands

C3’s 3G video gateway is being used by South Africa’s largest horse racing and tote betting company, Phumelela, to power a pioneering new service which enables punters to use their mobile handsets to watch “live” horse racing and place bets 24/7.

Phumelela has now launched the service in full, following a successful three-month trial in which it was used by over 2,000 punters, with at least 200 people accessing it on a daily basis.

The 3G video platform, provided via C3’s South African distributor Atlantic Convergence, receives broadcast feeds from TellyTrack, Phumelela’s own TV channel.  These are then compressed and resized so they are suitable for mobile screen sizes. Horse racing fans can watch races on their phones, simply by video calling a specified number, and the content is streamed to their phones in real time.
 
While watching the live streaming content, callers can still access Phumelela’s existing voice betting service then return to the “live” video commentary when they have completed the call. 

TellyTrack broadcasts all national races and has access to coverage of major race meetings overseas, including the UK. The new 3G video application means Phumelela will be able to provide “live” race coverage and betting services to their customers around the clock and are not dependant on them having access to a TV.

As well as 3G video, C3’s multimedia platforms can also be used to manage IVR and SMS services from the same core infrastructure, giving organisations the power to monetise multiple communications channels.  

The potential for sports streaming is virtually limitless as it can be used to broadcast both live and pre-recorded highlights of sports such as football, cricket, rugby, boxing and golf.

Says C3’s John Wood:  “In South Africa where the cost of video calls are the same as voice, the streaming of live sporting events such as horse racing makes clear commercial sense for companies such as Phumelela, as they are providing additional value to the service other than just watching the event by allowing users to participate, irrespective of where they are.

Combined with IVR, 3G video streaming can enable gaming companies to run fully automated betting services 24/7 and with South Africa set to host the World Cup in 2010, I expect to see services such as this taking centre stage next year.”

C3’s top tips for writing good IVR scripts

We’ve all had times when automated call services have left us frustrated, going round in circles and never getting through to the right department.   These kinds of experiences are not only frustrating, but can also damage goodwill between the customer and specific brand or organisation.

However, IVR remains the most practical and economical way to manage large call volumes and routine enquiries, so it’s imperative that companies get the basics right when preparing an IVR script.

At C3, we’ve been supplying automated call handling solutions for nearly two decades to companies such as BT, Vodafone, GMTV, Marks and Spencer, BP Chemicals, Greenwich Council, Oxford University and Call Handling Services Ltd.

We’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way, so here are our thoughts on writing IVR scripts that will help rather than hinder your customers:

• Keep the process fluid – your callers’ requirements will no doubt change on a regular basis, so you might find it useful to have easy to use back-end software that will allow you to quickly modify your IVR scripts, so they continue to meet your end user requirements. Check which options are selected on a regular basis and if they are not used, then remove them or give different options.
•  Be concise – It is imperative that IVR menus are easy to follow. Prompts must be short and clear, so the caller is not left in any doubt about what to do next.
•  Limit the number of options – The number of options should be limited to a maximum of three or four. Callers won’t remember any more than that and will only get frustrated and confused, especially if there is no option to have prompts repeated.
•  Always offer operator assistance – remember to include fail-safe procedures, so if wrong buttons are pressed, your callers can talk to a “live” operator.
•  The human touch – make sure your voice prompts are friendly and sound real – People don’t like talking machines at the best of times, so if you give them robots you will really upset them!
• Location aware – Think about where your callers are calling from.  For example, would callers in South London be able to clearly understand a Geordie accent?
• Consider speech recognition technology – this can enhance automated information services if done properly but you need to think about how your callers will access your service. Speech recognition will give your caller a good user experience from a fixed line phone but not so good from a mobile, so it is important you take this into account.
• Be distinctive – make sure you use distinctive sounding words where possible and avoid using words which sound similar like “ship” and “sheep”.
• As with touch tone prompts, make sure people don’t get stuck in the loop and have the ability to “cut through” prompts – regular users don’t need to hear the navigational prompts all the time.