Giuseppe Venturini, Director of VOIspeed Limited, explains how changing the telephone system can be incorporated in a company\'s Business Process Re-engineering strategy.

1. 7 Factors a new Phone System can influence
within Business Process Re-engineering
Giuseppe Venturini, Managing Director of VOIspeed Limited, explains how
Giuseppe Venturini
changing the telephone system can be incorporated in
MD, VOIspeed Limited a company's Business Process Re-engineering strategy.
Business Process Re-engineering is a branch of 3. The use of Resources
management studies that looks at how the operational Call-centre operators, receptionists, telephone lines,
processes of a business can be re-designed to improve phones, faxes and printers whose behaviour and use
business performance. In today's telephony market we can be streamlined to eliminate surplus resources.
grow accustomed to the recurring questions concerning
telephone tariffs or cost of hardware and maintenance. 4. Serving existing Customers
However, the savings achievable by rethinking existing How many times is a customer kept needlessly on hold
business processes are usually far greater than any for too long and how many customers does a company
discounted call tariffs can ever achieve and VoIP lose simply because they are not given the right
technology can contribute significantly. attention in a timely fashion? This in the long run reflects
negatively on the company's brand, culture and
Telecommunication networks have always played an customer service.
important role in BPR as they are a key enabler for a
company to modify the existing way of working, 5. Acquiring new Customers
collaborating and transferring information. With a new generation telephone
system even a small business
As a sales person, it is key to understand the real cost can run telemarketing or fax
drivers behind the operations of a business and the marketing campaigns with a very
factors affecting business profitability. These forces can limited budget. Furthermore, by
swing a client's decision making process in favour of a integrating the phone system
specific provider and enable the sales team to build a with a CRM platform the sales process can be managed
value proposition that is unique and more compelling more actively, providing real-time statistics on how the
than any competitors. sales team is performing.
Let's look at the factors that a telephone system can 6. Sharing of Information
influence in order to increase business profitability: The old 'status lamp' in many IP phones where a green
colour meant that someone was available (NB: even if
1. use of Time not physically at the desk) or red meant he/she was in a
2. use of People's Skills meeting, is being replaced with advanced systems
3. use of Resources providing much more meaningful information.
4. serving existing Customers Employees can now see if people are really available to
5. acquiring new Customers take calls and in case they are not why they are
6. sharing of Information unavailable (i.e. on a meeting, at lunch, out to see a
7. sharing of Corporate Values client) or what is the best way of contacting them
(switchboard, direct number, mobile phone, email).
1. The use of Time
Where employees work faster and phone operators 7. Sharing of Corporate Values
manage calls quicker, the Giving access to a higher degree of information within a
efficiency of a business company enables employees to develop a sense of
improves too. There is more to it 'togetherness' that helps an organisation operate as one
though: routing calls within team. Imagine the time when an employee in Edinburgh
remote offices using a unified had to dial their '020' number only to speak to their
communication platform, for colleagues in London. That did nothing to help
example, means that employees cohesiveness. Now employees in different hemispheres
can connect with each other of the globe can talk to each other for free at a click of a
faster and customers can receive timely pre-sales and mouse or simply see if they have gone to work that day
after-sales services. or not, exactly as if they were in the same office.
2. The use of People's Skills It is worth noting that as part of any larger BPR
Skills-based call routing enables a company to maximise exercise, the introduction of a new phone system for a
the use of its best resource: people. Therefore calls can company should help reduce the number of redundant
be routed within the company to the right personnel who business processes rather than increase the efficiency
can deal with the enquiry best, based on their of processes that do not add any value to the business.
competences, skills and technical background. In this regard, all objections brought forward against
common BPR strategies still hold true.
Giuseppe Venturini: prior to founding VOIspeed Limited, Giuseppe worked in innovation management consulting
within the Cambridge industry cluster helping technology companies to commercialise their Intellectual Property on
international markets. With over 15 years of industry experience he advised SMEs and larger companies like Rolls
Royce, MBDA and EADS Astrium to establish strategic partnerships to launch new technologies. An enthusiastic
entrepreneur, his past career also includes engineering positions at Motorola and Alcatel in designing speech
compression and layer 1 radio-transmission algorithms. Giuseppe holds an MBA from Cambridge University (UK) and a
Master's Degree in Electronic engineering from Ancona University (Italy).
Copyright © G. Venturini 2011