FrontRange Voice enables telephone-based self-service, and makes other FrontRange software products accessible over the telephone. From several modules of FrontRange, The Co-operative Group has selected problem, change, SLA, asset and incident management modules.
The Co-operative Group includes food, financial, travel, pharmacy, funeral care and legal services. It recently agreed to acquire Somerfield for £1.565bn on a cash-free debt-free basis. Somerfield operates approximately 880 local grocery retail outlets across the UK. The combined food business is expected to operate more than 3,000 grocery stores and generate net sales of about £8bn. United Co-operative integrated with The Co-operative Group in 2007.
FrontRange Voice will enable the co-operative society’s support hotline to automatically identify the caller and location when a customer makes a call. The shop assistant then logs the problem, and transfers it to the relevant party. The Co-operative Group expects reduction in call waiting and break-fix times due to the voice module.
Colin Bennett, head of change and delivery at The Co-operative Group, said: We wanted to ensure that the IT system could deal with a range of enquiries on a 24/7 basis, and offer a self-service option that could reduce calls to the IT department staff. The last thing we want is customer facing staff waiting on hold to report a service problem when they could be helping customers. FrontRange Voice makes ITSM far more accessible to our employees.
Initially, the FrontRange Voice will be used by 150 support desk staff, to serve more than 90,000 employees across the UK.
