How Connect Overcame Complex Transformation Challenges During COVID-19.

At Connect, our expert team solved complex contact centre challenges during COVID-19 that the larger OEMs and SIs couldn’t. Discover some of the problems we’ve helped our customers overcome, and find out how we help our partners build best-fit solutions for their customers.

Managed Services has been at the core of Connect’s proposition for years, from managing legacy UC and CX platforms to solving modern contact centre challenges during COVID-19 with cutting-edge cloud-based solutions. Put simply, we solve the Contact Centre challenges that the OEMs and larger SIs can’t.

This is why organisations such as Avaya, BT, Capita, CenturyLink, Colt, Five9, NTT, Verizon, and Vodafone partner with Connect for transformation and managed services. Our unique tools, jeopardy management processes and experienced teams — bundled in our Stabilise, Enhance & Transform (S.E.T.) methodology — provide value to both our partners and their customers.

So let’s paint a picture. You’re managing a large MS Teams transformation for your organisation, and then the pandemic creates unexpected contact centre challenges. Connect found both customers and partners feeling vulnerable and exposed. How do you respond?

Think fast, talk fast, and act fast.

I refer back to my favourite movie, Pulp Fiction, where Mr Wolf (played by the brilliant Harvey Keitel) helped main protagonists Jules (Sam L Jackson) and Vernon (John Travolta) out of a real crisis with his three-step model: think fast, talk fast, and act fast. As a Solution and Managed Service specialist, Connect is very similar; this is our secret sauce.

The UC and CX infrastructure that we manage for our customers is key to their business, which is often a key part of the primary services that the nation depended on during the lockdown.

As a business, we at Connect moved to a 100% remote working model a week prior to the UK government mandating this. Our customers didn’t notice — and why would they? Our remote monitoring tools and systems continued to operate from the Cloud, our processes had been tested and all our employees can work from home.

During this time, many customers’ profiles increased. Two of our global customers, running on Avaya and Cisco US systems, were in the global race to prepare Coronavirus vaccine and testing kits respectively. Their proactive service continues.

Helping our customers innovate during COVID-19

During this period, big retail came to the fore, with shelves emptying through panic buying, and delivery and click and collect slots becoming increasingly rare. New thinking was required. Morrisons led the way with the Food Box (basic essentials delivered next day to your door). Connect deployed a new omnichannel CX cloud platform in days to assist this innovation, enabling the British public (particularly the vulnerable) to access essential supplies fast.

Last year, we created a new Amazon CX platform for Britbox in weeks. Today, in the new normal, when Mr Wolf says “act fast”, we’re talking a matter of days. We repeated this for Northumbrian Water, helping them stay in touch with customers via WhatsApp, as well as via email and online. This helped NWL support concerned customers when they had basic utility challenges during the lockdown.

Moving away from the domestic, a number of our international customers had global transformation programs running as lockdown took hold. In response, we swiftly moved their employees to Microsoft Teams, new global SIP networks or upgraded their office/factory infrastructure and security systems to cope with the change.

How Connect handled international contact centre challenges during COVID-19

COVID-19 was a truly international phenomenon. At the time, Connect was helping a global food manufacturer transform to Microsoft Teams in Africa.

The plant-based food manufacturer still had high global demand for its products during the pandemic. However, it was in the middle of transforming to new cloud services and had a deadline that, if not met, would cost them hundreds of thousands in penalties. The deadline was rapidly approaching, and the business was desperate to avoid a hefty fine. Despite these unprecedented circumstances, Connect delivered for the customer.

The company’s factory in Ghana had to be transformed over a weekend in early 2020. The products were ready in neighbouring Kenya. The local engineers were primed. Then, the Ghanaian government announced the lockdown. This could have scuppered the whole plan.

Recognising the urgency of the pending lockdown, and thinking and acting fast, we sent out one of our engineers to drive the equipment from Kenya to Ghana overnight, while the rest of the team slept at the factory. The transformation was delivered to plan over the weekend, meaning that by the Monday, the manufacturer was fully functional and able to avoid the hefty fine.

Why Connect for your contact centre challenges?

If you have a UC or CX transformation challenge, you need a trusted, dedicated partner. At Connect, we have years of experience delivering bespoke technology solutions to help our customers gain efficiencies and solve their business challenges. Our ability to think and act fast allows us to take any tough crisis in our stride.

Our ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certifications demonstrate our commitment to providing exceptional service and for solving contact centre challenges during COVID-19 for our partners and customers

The Connect team of highly trained experts, with an innovative approach and willingness to go the extra mile allow us to create match-fit solutions to real-life UC and CX problems every single day. So you can feel rest assured you’re in safe hands.

If your business is facing contact centre challenges, get in touch with Connect to discover how we can help.