Success Stories

Call Center Provider Adds Robust Voice Offerings

Nexus recently helped Knoah Solutions, Inc., an offshore call center provider, meet the demands of a large Internet Service Provider (ISP) client by delivering voice capability for 250 customer service representatives.

Knoah Solutions (www.knoah.com), with offices in San Rafael, California and Hyderabad, India is an offshore outsourcing company providing the best multi-channel customer service and technical support for technology products and services, enabling U.S. call center quality at competitive offshore prices.

Ralph Barletta, Executive Vice President of U.S. Operations and a co-founder of Knoah Solutions, conducted a thorough evaluation over the course of several months before selecting Nexus for this deployment.

"We had a large, existing client that wanted us to provide customer service representative support via voice, in addition to our e-mail and chat services, but not until we proved we had the infrastructure to support complex voice call handling," says Barletta. "Delivering this infrastructure was critical to keeping this customer and to winning future business."

Nexus has a proven methodology that takes all of its clients through a requirements-gathering process. This helps ensure a thorough understanding of the call-flow and business processes. Nexus can then design a complete solution all the way through the network environment and security components of the client's business.

According to Mr. Barletta, Knoah had to demonstrate to its clients that it had the infrastructure in place to handle their needs and at the same time not be required to pay for excess capacity. "The converged solution enables us to better manage bandwidth utilization and traffic. Other vendors wanted us to pay upfront for a large solution that we wouldn't need right away."

With a solution in place that utilizes Cisco CallManager call processing software, Cisco Unity unified messaging, voice gateways, and Cisco IP phones for 250 agents, Knoah Solutions now has a flexible environment and robust infrastructure that can meet the demands of nearly any client. "We now can present and deliver to potential clients a world-class view of our operation at both the staffing and the technology level, and they know that we have the system capacity to handle any issue that comes up," says Barletta.

"As a flexible organization that looks for new ways to solve business problems, we're committed to our clients throughout the entire process," says Jeanne Farrenkothen, Application Sales Consultant for Nexus. "Our strength is our capability to not just sell, design and implement a solution, but also support it long after deployment. That's a very strong differentiator for us."

Nexus Assists Leading Healthcare Organization

Managed care organizations within the healthcare industry must provide superior service to their members. Members and providers require that these companies provide up-to-date information whenever an inquiry is made. To do this, companies must invest in cutting-edge technology that is fast, reliable, and flexible.

Read More Care1st Health Plan (www.care1st.com), founded in 1996, is a managed healthcare organization with locations in California and Arizona. In California, Care1st is contracted with L.A. Care Health Plan to provide health benefits to over 150,000 Medi-Cal recipients.

After several upgrades to their Toshiba system with no further expansion possible, a decision was made to invest in a new system. Initial inquiries were made to several manufacturers. After a seven-month evaluation period, NEC Unified Solutions was selected. The next task involved choosing the right company to implement the NEC solution.

Given the growth Care1st had previously experienced and the future growth anticipated, Nexus proposed an NEC 2400 IPX with Zeacom Q-Master ACD and Corus Voicemail. "We felt that the solution we offered not only allowed for future expansion but also provided Care1st the ability to perform changes to the system on their own," says Phil Mills, Nexus Account Executive. "Because Care1st depends on its call center for member interaction, we felt it was critical to ensure that the solution also provided reports on all call center activities."

"Three companies offered the NEC solution, but ultimately, we chose Nexus because we felt they were upfront with us regarding the total solution. Other companies seemed to be giving us only a partial picture of what we needed," says Jade Bulante, Systems Manager. "Nexus knew the application extremely well, to the point of answering any question before we even asked," says Barbe Mulvihill, Network Support Analyst. "They took the time to learn our business, and made suggestions to fit our specific needs."

With the selection process completed, the focus then shifted to implementing the solution. Kristin Ross and Ted Karas, Nexus associates, managed the implementation process. "I cannot say enough good things about Kristin and Ted," says Bulante. "They were there for us the entire time. They arrived early, left late, and worked weekends to ensure everything went well. They worked with our team to ensure that we were comfortable with the system. The entire process was done professionally."

With the solution now in place, Care1st is enjoying increased productivity from its employees. "We now have the ability to make changes to the system on the fly without having to call anyone to do it. This is especially important to us because many of our employees move from location to location within our office on a consistent basis," says Mulvihill.

Bulante adds, "As a company, Nexus is extremely customer-oriented. I was so satisfied with Nexus' work that I recommended Nexus to a local hospital. That hospital just recently purchased the same solution we bought from Nexus. Keep it up!"

Top University Seeks Assistance from Nexus

Education is one of the most important applications for the transfer of knowledge and information. Kennedy-Western University (KWU) recognizes this and strives to provide its students the latest in cutting-edge technology.

Kennedy-Western University (www.kw.edu), founded in 1984, provides busy professionals with convenient and flexible methods for earning Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate level degrees. KWU was a very early user of and advocate for distance learning, an educational approach using modern telecommunications technology that has now become universally accepted among American colleges and universities.

Seeking a more efficient telecommunications solution for its internal staff as well as its student body, KWU purchased phone and voicemail systems from a local vendor. Both systems were made by different manufacturers. From the onset, KWU experienced issues with the phone system. "Calls were being dropped and the system would go down for hours at a time. This was not acceptable given that we depend on our phone system to interact with our current and prospective students," explains John Baumbach, KWU's IT Director. "To make matters worse, the vendor we purchased the system from could not correct the situation."

Seeking immediate assistance, KWU sought a company that not only could fix the phone system, but also support the voicemail system. Ultimately, KWU selected Nexus. Nexus was able to stabilize the telecommunications platform and minimize down time. Nexus also assisted with evaluating the system in place and offered recommendations for long-term growth.

After years of steady growth, KWU had outgrown its location. To coordinate with the pending move, KWU sought to upgrade its communications system. "We wanted a new phone system while keeping the existing voicemail system," says John Baumbach. "We naturally considered Nexus to assist us with this project."

Given KWU's growth, Nexus recommended the Cisco CallManager. Cisco CallManager is the software-based call-processing component of the Cisco IP telephony solution. "Not only can the Cisco CallManager interact seamlessly with the voicemail that KWU wanted to keep in place, it also offers true IP Telephony," explains Mark Wendler, Nexus Account Representative.

IP Telephony is the technology for transmitting voice communications over a network using open-standards-based IP. IP Telephony solutions use a single network infrastructure for the transmission of data, voice, and video traffic, delivering the business benefits of a converged network (increased productivity, greater business flexibility, and reduced operational costs) to businesses.

"We are immensely satisfied with the CallManager as well as with Nexus. Both our current voicemail application and the CallManager are functioning superbly," says Baumbach. "The cost of ownership is very low. We can perform our own moves, adds, and changes through a single server."

Local Water Agency Benefits from Nexus Solutions

The Mojave Water Agency (www.mojavewater.org) is one of 29 California State Water Contractors with access to the State Water Project. It was created by High Desert voters in 1960 and is governed by a seven-member elected Board of Directors. The Agency, in cooperation with other water districts is responsible for managing the region's water resources to ensure a sustainable supply of water for present and future use.

In early 2000, the Mojave Water Agency was in desperate need of updating its communications infrastructure. The solution in place was severely limited. The company had a Centrex-based phone system, different operating systems on users' computers, limited Ethernet connectivity, and a shared 56K internet connection for the entire company.

In August of 2000, Jesse Shelby, currently the Information Systems Manager at the Mojave Water Agency was contracted by the Agency to update the communications infrastructure of the company. With Jesse's assistance, the Agency created a plan to roll out its new solution in three phases:

• Phase One involved upgrading the network infrastructure with a new Ethernet backbone as well as connecting two other company facilities to the new backbone.
• Phase Two called for the expansion of the Agency's GIS (Geographic Information Systems) solution as well as the purchase of a new Voice over IP phone system that would eventually be tied to the new network.
• Phase Three involved web development and creating interactive applications for the Agency's constituents.

During the RFP process, the Agency realized that it could roll out phases one and two together within the calendar year. The Agency looked for vendors that could implement and support both the network and phone system components.

Two vendors initially met the rigid qualification standards. Ultimately Nexus' proposal of a Cisco Call Manager, Cisco Unity, Exchange server, and data network for both locations of the Agency won the bid. "Nexus spent a lot of time at our site. They made sure that we were comfortable with the solution they offered. Additionally, they are a CMAS (California Multiple Award Schedule) certified vendor, providing an additional level of assurance that they have taken the time and trouble to meet vendor standards set forth by the State of California," says Jesse Shelby.

"Once the bids were reviewed it became apparent that we could accelerate the implementation of Phase 2 of the Agency strategic plan and further minimize the projected timeline for a solid return on the investment. I strongly believe it was the information gathering through pre-planning and site meetings that Nexus performed prior to bid award that allowed them to make that possible. They went beyond the text of the RFP and dug into our systems and processes to determine the best possible fit," says Shelby.

Implementation of the new solution went even better than expected, according to Shelby, "We turned down the old system on Friday afternoon, switched over to the new circuits and systems that evening and we were open for business on Monday morning without incident. There were no issues whatsoever." Agency-wide training on the new VoIP system was performed on site in a classroom environment with real time equipment and situations the week prior to going live. Staff went from the training lab to the real deal almost immediately.

The Agency was so content with their new solution that it put together a vendor appreciation event for Nexus. "We were so satisfied with Bob McCook, our Nexus Account Executive and the rest of the Nexus team, that it was the least we could do," states Shelby.

With its new solution in place, the Mojave Water Agency was able meet its third phase requirements soon after implementation. Its systems were so improved, that the Municipal Information Systems Association of California (MISAC) presented the Agency with the Award for Achievement in Information Technology Practices.

"Now that we have a robust infrastructure in place, we can plan for powerful additions such as video conferencing to our company," says Shelby. "We have a lot more in the works, but none of this could have been possible without Nexus."