Friends Provident signs up to VoIP

Major UK life insurance company Friends Provident has turned to VoIP call services in a bid to improve its customer services and business continuity.

A new IP PBX platform has been installed across the firm's UK call centres and offices, covering some 4,300 telephone lines, with plans to upgrade systems in the Isle of Man and Germany by the end of 2008.

The insurer's network consultant Kevin Sharratt has outlined the reasons for the switch to IP as being down to concern over how the firm would survive a disastrous loss of its phone systems.

"In the event of a disaster, we will be able to set up virtual call centres because staff will be able to log in to any PC terminal and take calls," he told Computer Weekly.

The IP telephony service has been fitted with a system to link the company's database of customer information with incoming calls.

This will monitor the numbers that are attempting to reach Friends Provident and check them against the records, which will then be used by the system to direct the calls to their correct service agent - allowing the company to set a target for calls to be answered correctly within 20 seconds.