1. Customer Profile
Investing in IP Communications Call Center
Publix Employee’s Federal Credit Union (PEFCU) invested in Cisco’s IP Contact Center (IPCC) to
provide an efficient call center that integrates with their existing banking application. IPCC meets
current business needs and enables future enhancements by providing an XML-based platform
that delivers IVR integration to Symitar and other applications. PEFCU further utilized Cisco’s IP
Telephony platform to converge their voice and data networks in a cost effective, supportable
model that scales with their future business needs. PEFCU selected Coleman Technologies, Inc.,
a Cisco Gold Partner that specializes in IP telephony and call center integration, to perform all
system engineering and provide implementation services.
Background
A regional employee based credit union in the Southeast United States; Publix Employee’s Federal Credit Union
offers a wide range of investment options as well as providing premium banking options for their customers. With
more than 200 employees at its seven locations, the credit union provides high service levels and aggressively seeks
to increase the services available to their membership.
Current services available include an Internet website from which members can manage their accounts as well as
find information about the credit union’s programs, remote telephone teller services and an Interactive Voice
Response (IVR) system from which members can manage their accounts. Future services include full self service
kiosks at mini-branches, complete speech recognition for their IVR and video teleconferencing from mini-branches to
loan officers and tellers.
PEFCU’s wide area network is comprised of a label switched IP network over Frame-relay. It is configured as a hub
and spoke, with all sites communicating directly back to the Corporate Headquarters. Each circuit has 128k reserved
for voice traffic to Corporate. Each branch office is equipped with LAN and WAN equipment as well as Nortel based
phone switches.
Challenge
PEFCU made the decision to staff a call center of tellers to better handle the volume of calls they were receiving from
members. PEFCU was looking for a solution that would provide a robust platform, including skills based routing,
computer telephony integration including screen pops to Symitar data, access to historical reporting and, perhaps
most importantly, would scale as their business expanded. At the same time, PEFCU wanted to unify its disparate
phone systems, build a unified dial plan, and converge the data and voice networks to leverage the bandwidth
available on its existing wide area network (WAN). Finally, PEFCU was seeking a more robust telephony system,
including unified messaging and automated call distribution (ACD), that would provide a higher level of customer
service, enable inter-office call transfers, and position the credit union to integrate voice and data services with new
applications designed to increase productivity.
A complete telephony system forklift, however, was not in the cards. The call center solution had to seamlessly
integrate with their existing voice switches, providing a unified dial plan and provide name and number caller ID to all
stations. All calls would pass through their existing phone switch and terminate to the system via 3 ISDN PRI circuits
from the existing switch. The existing phone switch would be responsible for all call detail records (CDR) as well as
providing phone service to the remainder of the handsets not included in the call center. Finally, as with most
projects in a production environment, existing phone operations could not be disrupted during any system transition.
Solution
PEFCU engaged Coleman Technologies Inc. (CTI) , a system integrator specializing in IP telephony and call center
integration,, to provide engineering design and implementation of their call center solution. CTI has completed
numerous implementations similar to this effort and has developed a system engineering methodology for
implementation, including requirements analysis and design trade studies, that leads to implementation success and
high levels of customer satisfaction. Accordning to Karen Sullivan, Director of Information Technology at PEFCU,
“CTI’s project management and service methodologies were integral in making the call center project a complete
success. They were thorough in interviewing our staff for requirements and worked to meet every need ahead of
schedule.”

2. After completing the requirements analysis, CTI proposed a solution based on Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice,
Video and Integrated Data) and IP Contact Center Express. The system provides a robust contact center solution
designed for mid-sized environments that provides ACD, IVR, and computer telephony integration on a single
platform. Cisco is the only vendor that offers a complete IP telephony system, including centralized or distributed call
processing, remote management, and unified messaging. The Cisco solution also leveraged the existing data
equipment, cabling and WAN, reducing deployment costs.
CTI voice-enabled PEFCU’s existing Cisco network with voice modules in Cisco routers. CTI upgraded to Ethernet
switches to deliver inline power to Cisco IP Phones, then installed Cisco Call Manager servers. After the initial
installation, CTI integrated the Call Managers with the existing Nortel Option 11 PBX using ISDN PRI. A unified dial
plan preserves existing phone numbers while enabling internal four-digit dialing between branches. At remote sites,
incoming calls are received and routed by Cisco routers. After converging the dial-plans between the two voice
systems, the IPCC servers were installed and configured. System tests occurred throughout the process to verify
operation. In parallel, CTI trained PEFCU staff on system operation. A cutover was planned on a low volume call
day to enable CTI to provide onsite support to the call center agents. A phased cutover was implemented which
allowed PEFCU to gradually ramp up call volume to its agents.
A two-server Call Manager cluster provides centralized call processing for the call center in Lakeland. Sullivan said
“Cisco’s solutions for Voice over IP and IP Contact Center are truly best of breed. Their products have exceeded all
of our expectations and the ability to integrate with Symitar has provided us with a platform to roll out all of our self
service applications. The manner in which IPCC Express integrated with our legacy applications minimized
development time and prevented us from having to redesign our back end systems. The solution was very cost
effective, providing us with a return on investment in less than 18 months.” This centralized call processing
architecture will be distributed to all sites in the future, easing administration and further reducing operations costs.
Backup voice service at remote branches are being enabled through Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony
(SRST) software.
Cisco IPCC Express is the ideal solution for this call center because it is cost-effective and specifically designed for
small- to mid-sized centers that need advanced features. The call center operates with full staff from 7:30 am to 5 pm
Monday through Friday and averages between 3000-5000 calls per day. IPCC Express allows PEFCU agents to
receive screen pop ups with customer data in Symitar and IVR allows PEFCU members to be quickly routed to the
proper destination.
Incoming calls are answered by the IVR providing menu driven choices to members. Members are given the option
to enter their account number for faster service as well as have options to redirect to different departments and
individual extensions. Members waiting in queue also have the option to transfer out of the queue or continue waiting
for an agent. Cisco IPCC Express call tracking and reporting features assist with predicting appropriate call center
staffing because it provides a real-time call view including hold times, average call length, and number of calls.
Results
The Cisco IP telephony network implemented by CTI gives Publix Employee’s Federal Credit Union more flexibility
and redundancy than it had with their previous PBX and key systems. Call quality, an initial concern, is at least as
good as the legacy system . The IP contact center provides an ACD with integration to primary customer
management software while XML integration allows the organization to provide automated IVR banking services to
credit union members.
PEFCU is positioned to lower recurring costs and administration overhead by further deploying IP telephony to their
headquarters and remote branches. Management plans to fully deploy all self service applications to the IVR and
plans to leverage video teleconferencing to provide full service banking kiosks using the AVVID infrastructure.
Ultimately, PEFCU is providing higher levels of customer service at lower costs, keeping investors and members
happy.

3. Figure 1. Cisco IP Communications Network at Publix Employee’s Federal Credit Union