Testimonials- ista North America
|
iVoice™ Efficiency Delights ista North America
ista North America (www.ista-na.com) needed a reliable and leading-edge Interactive Voice Response solution to replace an older system. ista began their search and assembled a list of several voice response vendors found on the Internet and recommended by business affiliates. "For me, what really set iMessaging apart from the rest was the excellent follow-up and follow-through of our sales representative. Follow-up was always consistent but not intrusive," states Michelle O'Dea, IT manager for ista's US operations. "In the final review, we had boiled it down to two products with similar costs and capabilities. We went with iMessaging because of the excellent service we received."
Once the decision was made to go with iMessaging's iVoice™ solution, the implementation team jumped into action to execute a very aggressive schedule that had been established by ista management. Those primarily involved in the implementation project included Mr. Ronnie Stepp, of Associated Systems, Inc. (ASI) (www.assocsys.com) (click here for a brief explanation of ASI's services), Mr. Jose Cintron, of ista's IT group, and iMessaging's technical team.
Ronnie Stepp, VP and Partner of ASI, is the vendor and consultant supporting ista's iSeries 400-based utility billing software (please see sidebar). To complete the implementation, the iVoice™ system needed to interface directly with ASI's EasiBill software, and Mr. Stepp was commissioned to program the voice application for ista.
Mr. Stepp summarized his introduction to using the iVoice™ APIs as follows: "After I reviewed the sample code and iVoice™ APIs, I expected the programming to be straightforward and the system to come up quickly. I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy the system did install and, of course, much of that was due to the involvement of iMessaging's technical specialist." Accelerating Mr. Stepp's learning curve with the system was iVoice™'s exclusive host-controlled design. The iVoice™ solution provided an environment where he could leverage his extensive iSeries 400 and RPG skills and background without having to be concerned with telephony issues.
Increasing the complexity of the project was ista's desire to consolidate two voice systems into a single platform. ista maintains two primary IT operations, one on the east coast in Jacksonville, Florida, and the other on the west coast in San Diego, California. Both sites run very similar operations, including the iSeries 400, ASI's EasiBill software and call center environments. Collectively, the team devised a communications architecture utilizing the iSeries 400's DDM (distributed data management) and ista's VPN. The idea was to have a single iVoice™ platform to service calls for both locations, with the added advantage of saving on the initial cost of the system, implementation and system maintenance.
Jose Cintron, ista's east coast Network Manager acted as the customer link for the project and notes, "I was very pleased with the speed and efficiency of the installation. iMessaging came in on a Sunday and installed the hardware in about an hour. We then worked with ASI on some programming issues for about 6-1/2 hours, and the system was up and running. On Tuesday, we had test calls going into it, and by Wednesday, it was already servicing customer inquiries for both locations!"
ista's voice response applications provide account status information to their client base of tenants from across the country. "The voice applications we use today are working very well, and the future offers unlimited possibilities," noted Mr. Cintron. "We are already in the process of adding support for Spanish, and we are considering the possibility of eventually passing all calls through the iVoice™ system to collect tenants' account numbers up front, thereby assisting our customer service reps in handling the calls."
Ronnie Stepp, of ASI, concisely summed up the iVoice™ implementation advantages in four points:
- "With the system using TCP/IP and batch jobs, it properly utilizes the iSeries resources, resulting in very low overhead.
- There exists a broad application interface and design potential with applications such as outage reporting, interface to a credit card clearing-house, service cut-ons and -offs and many others.
- iVoice™ came with great sample source code and ease of modification, as well as great backup documentation. We basically took the sample code, tweaked it for our use and were on our way.
- Most importantly, the assistance with setup, both on-site and through telephone support for the AS/400 and telephony issues, was superb."
The critical element of the iVoice™ implementation project was clearly the teamwork and focus provided by each of the respective teams of ASI, ista North America and iMessaging Systems. Without cooperation on everyone's part, the aggressive implementation schedule never could have been met. Total elapsed time from order to the time the system was servicing calls was 21 days!
"We are very happy that we chose iMessaging for this project," states Mr. Cintron, "There were a couple of other vendors out there that we could have gone with, but I definitely feel that iVoice™ has provided ista with the best solution available at a reasonable cost."
To arrange a demonstration of iVoice™, please contact our sales team by calling 866-iMS-LIVE, or sending an email to info@iMessagingSystems.com. Or, for more details on the advantages and benefits of iVoice™ - Advanced Interactive Voice Response - click here.
About
Associated Systems, Inc. (ASI)
Associated
Systems, Inc. is a software and service provider for the utility
industry, with products focused on billing, work order and
financial management systems. ASI clients include utility firms
in the water, electric, gas and multi-utility environments.
ASI products and services give utility managers the most sophisticated
tools available to manage billing services, administer effective
service work orders, provide good customer service and support
and improve their business processes. ista North America
is the largest user of ASI's EasiBill solution.
ista's typical monthly billings exceed 500,000 from ista's
east- and west-coast iSeries 400 operations.