Case Study


The Client
National Savings and Investments (NS&I) started life in 1861 as the Post Office Savings Bank, a Government backed savings scheme aimed at encouraging ordinary wage earners to 'provide for themselves against adversity and ill health'.

Best known for its Premium Bonds and Savings Certificates, NS&I recently launched new products and a high profile marketing campaign, which resulted in a significant increase in demand. NS&I currently has annual sales of over £12bn, with over 30 million customer accounts.

The Challenge
Following a pioneering Public Private Partnership agreement signed in 1999 with Siemens Business Services, National Savings and Investments transferred 4,000 staff over to Siemens and saw an ambitious modernisation of its business operations and IT infrastructure.

But with customer service at the core of NS&I's operations, a leading-edge and resilient contact centre operation is particularly vital, and with increased consumer demand leading to the establishment of two new purpose-built call centres in Blackpool and Durham, it was clear that an urgent review of the organisation's current telephony system was required.

Siemens Business Services turned to Redstone Converged Solutions, whose reputation for contact centre support and its knowledge and experience as an Avaya Gold Partner made it the ideal partner for the project. Redstone instilled confidence in Siemens from the outset, with a tight two-month build and installation plan and seperate contingency strategy.

The Solution
Redstone Converged Solutions proposed a number of complementary solutions, based on Avaya's IP telephony products. They included the installation of a new, 85-seat contact centre, an upgrade of the existing contact centre infrastructure, some bespoke call recording solutions and three new contact centre wallboards.

As an existing Avaya user, the integration of the new facilities into NS&I's current system was seamless, providing enhanced functionality, capacity for future growth and robust resilience, with up to 99.999% reliability. With call recording of particular importance to the financial services sector, Redstone also installed the latest call recording technology solutions from NICE Systems, allowing NS&I to capture calls easily and analyse them for potential inefficiencies, customer service service training and dispute resolution.

It was imperative that NS&I's service continued without interruption during the installation of the new telephony system and Redstone's engineers worked closely with Siemens to ensure a seamless switchover. As a result, not a single call was lost during the project and all deadlines were met.

The Outcome
Prior to the expansion of National Savings and Investments' contact centre operations the organisation was handling 2 million calls annually, a figure which has now increased to over 3.5 million calls. In addition to increased call capacity, NS&I was able to improve its efficiency, reduce costs and provide greater flexibility across its operation, in the knowledge that Redstone Converged Solutions and Siemens Business Services have planned for the future of the organisation and allowed room for growth.

Redstone Converged Solutions has since been contracted to provide technical and maintenance support for the contact centres. Adam Martin, System Planner for Siemens Business Services comments:

“The whole Redstone approach to managing client relationships is based upon its understanding of individual needs and business drivers. The proactive approach and willingness of the Redstone team to go the extra mile for us and learn about our business has ensured that they now play a key role in our ongoing strategy for the contact centre operation.”

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