VoIP 'prompted Capital One success'

Financial services company Capital One has attributed its recent successes to a communications upgrade using VoIP.

The Future of Work initiative launched by the firm has rolled out technology to improve the flexibility of its staff, allowing them to work in the office, on the move or at home using the same phone number over IP telephony.

"Our Future of Work implementation provides people with mobility options. They can work in any building and log in to their phone," Robert Turner, senior VP of enterprise technology operations at Capital One told TechWorld.

With the whole implementation of VoIP completed in just five months, Turner added that the Capital One system is "one of the largest VoIP rollouts ever in that amount of time".

The firm opted for a feature-packed service including call forwarding, voice mail, conference calls, hold functions and even the ability to set a time of day when phone calls would not be accepted.

Due to the myriad options available to staff, the service has become popular at Capital One with 84 per cent of employees saying they are "highly satisfied" with the VoIP system.

According to Mr Turner, the service has reduced costs, cut the amount of wasted time trying to reach staff members on the phone and simplified management.

But he highlighted that installing VoIP has allowed Capital One to boost its "real estate efficiency...by 50 per cent" - meaning that fewer people now need a permanent desk in the office as they can tap into the firm's IP PBX server from anywhere.