Managed Service Answers the Call
October 31, 2007 10:29AM
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"Inter-Tel's managed services program has lifted a huge burden off of our shoulders," says Mac Mclntyre, vice president of technology for GPA. "We don't have to worry about keeping current with certifications, upgrades, enhancements, or the confusion of dealing with multiple vendors. Inter-Tel takes care of everything for us."
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Built on a legacy of developing longterm relationships with customers and vendors, Group & Pension Administrators (GPA) considers its delivery of superior service to clients one of its biggest differentiators in the market.
Headquartered in Dallas, GPA is one of the Southwest's largest managers of health insurance and benefits pension programs, serving some 200 clients -- ranging from large multinational corporations to a myriad of small businesses -- by overseeing a comprehensive array of programs for more than 150,000 beneficiaries.
Businesses, patients and beneficiaries rely on GPA to pay claims, handle necessary paperwork, answer questions and provide comprehensive information as quickly as possible. Customer service underpins all its efforts, illustrated by a set of performance metrics that define how it assists customers, including:
# All incoming calls are to be answered in less than one minute.
# All customer e-mails are to be answered the same business day.
# Interactive voice response is used to provide fax-back claim verification to providers.
# Bilingual representatives are always available.
# Agents can be reached by pager during business hours for "patient waiting" calls.
GPA maintains a contact center in Dallas, as well as offices in both Houston and San Antonio. Approximately 100 agents are employed full time, with half of them working from home at any given time. In addition, GPA relies on several teams of mobile employees, including sales professionals and IT staff, who must remain in constant touch with both internal and external contacts.
"Our entire company is focused on only one thing -- are we meeting our customers' expectations?" says Mac Mclntyre, vice president of technology for GPA. "This philosophy is shared by those in executive management, our frontline managers and by our associates. We know that if we do well by our customers, we do well as a company."
To achieve its goals, GPA knew it would need the right technology to produce tangible results. It also knew that choosing, integrating and training its staff and servicing the right solutions could be an expensive and cumbersome undertaking, which is one of the primary reasons GPA sought outside assistance to manage its communications needs.
Outsourcing Cost Benefits
"We rely on many different communications technologies, ranging from PBX systems and contact center software, to unified communications software and fax technology," explains Mclntyre. "One of our biggest challenges was bringing in the right systems and solutions to improve our business processes without disrupting day-to-day activity.
"While purchasing all of these products and applications outright would be a significant financial undertaking, the greater cost would be in the time spent trying to integrate and manage all of these diverse tools," he adds. "Just in terms of keeping pace with software releases and new product versions, and ensuring that everything works together, would be a massive undertaking for our organization. We thought it would be prudent -- as well as cost-effective -- to identify and work with an outsourcing Relevant Products/Services partner who would be responsible for implementing and managing all of these elements." (continued...)
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