Under the contract, Avaya will supply voice and data solutions as well as cabling solutions "to create an Internet Protocol (IP)-ready telecommunications hub" at SPH's new corporate headquarters at Toa Payoh in central Singapore.
The investment covers the setting up of a 200-seat contact center to handle sales for SPH's classified advertising section, and includes some of the solutions that will be used for the contact center. The latter includes Avaya's CenterVu Advocate, Intuity Audix, CentreVu Call Management System and IP Agent.
"The contact center (which is expected to be operational by year end) will be IP-enabled and has the potential to leverage (on) IP networks in Singapore to handle incoming and outgoing calls," said Avaya regional managing director (Asean) Tom Cheong.
Cheong was speaking to Singapore.CNET.com today at CommunicAsia 2001, one of Asia's premier telecommunications and IT events. Organized by Singapore Exhibition Services Pte Ltd, the show runs from June 19 to 22 at the Singapore Expo.
According to him, SPH will be using Avaya's call distribution system, CenterVu Advocate, to distribute calls to contact center agents based on their language capabilities, level of experience and skills. This system would thus allow SPH to integrate contact centers for its English, Malay and Tamil newspapers.
With Avaya's Intuity Audix voice messaging system, employees of SPH can use their personal computers to access their messages, including voice mail, email or faxes. "With voice response, it allows users to listen to their email and faxes when they are on the move."
"With (these) new solutions from Avaya, SPH can take on increased call handling capacity and connect calls faster to contact center agents," Chong claimed.
He added that the local media giant would also be using its CentreVu Call Management System to "monitor and track the overall performance of the contact center."
The contact center will also support telecommuting. Cheong said that by using a system called IP Agent, contact center agents will be able to choose to work online from home.
On further enhancements to the systems, he said Avaya's solutions would allow SPH to provide Web-based media bookings for their advertising customers in the future. This means that advertising clients would be able to maintain and check their accounts on the Internet.
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