FTI Touristik Reduces Costs with Virtual Contact Center Based on Nortel Technology
Frankfurt, Germany (ots/PRNewswire)
German tour operator Frosch Touristik GmbH (FTI) has set up an IP-based telephony and contact center network using solutions from Nortel(x) (NYSE: NT , TSX: NT). The Nortel solutions improve the efficiency of FTI's customer service by connecting its four locations into a virtual contact center environment where each call is directed quickly to the most appropriate agent regardless of their location.
"By switching to a single network for all our communication needs we have been able to reduce the operating costs for our telephony system by 25 percent within six months," said Frank Hobrecht, head of IT Systems at FTI. "We selected Nortel's IP Contact Center solution because its flexibility and cost savings didn't sacrifice the kind of high performance that is critical for handling extremely high volumes of calls quickly."
In addition to 270 travel agencies and a number of websites FTI also operates the TV travel shopping channel sonnenklar.tv. Thousands of calls are often received while the show is on the air and its new IP technology from Nortel ensures fast, efficient response by contact center agents to help build higher customer satisfaction.
"FTI can securely develop its services and rest assured that its communication platform will be ready to support the company's strategic objectives well into the future," said Michael Sicklinger, Key Account Manager, Nortel.
FTI's new, IP-based infrastructure was integrated seamlessly with the company's existing network and in part, replaces existing systems. It consists of the Nortel Communication Server 1000, the Nortel Contact Center software suite, IP telephones and softphones. The company has also opted for the Nortel Software Release Subscription Service (SRS) which provides a guaranteed price per user to cover all upgrade costs for the next five years. Around 200 employees at the FTI contact center in Munich, plus an additional 500 users at other locations, are benefiting from the new technologies. For example, the company's field sales staff can call the company at any time using a VPN connection and an IP softphone to access all telephony functions regardless of location.
To further improve customer loyalty, FTI now plans to make use of additional contact center platform functions such as fully integrating the customer database to reduce response times in the contact center and allow agents to handle customer requirements faster.
About FTI
With offerings for more than 60 destinations across all five continents FTI Frosch Touristik GmbH is one of the leading German tour operators. Based in Munich, the company employs more than 1,000 people worldwide. FIT is also present in Austria and Switzerland. Besides a comprehensive offering of holiday packages and individual travel arrangements, AIR-MARITIME Cruises, hired car broker DriveFTI and Germany's largest organiser of language tours LAL Sprachreisen complete the portfolio of FTI. Additionally FTI exclusively markets the holiday resorts of the Italian travel business Valtur in the German speaking countries. Moreover last-minute travel agency 5vorFlug, consolidator FTI-Ticketshop and the Touristik Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH (TVG), operating travel agencies on its own and franchised, belong to FTI.
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world's most critical information. Our next-generation technologies, for both service providers and enterprises, span access and core networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications, and help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people with information. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web atwww.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.
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Contact:
For further information: Sabine Werb, +49-69-6697-1906,
sabine.werb@nortel.com; Angelika Kempf, +44-1628-43-7340,
angelika.kempf@nortel.com/