December 2001 - Phoenix Technology Group, the Irish financial software provider has just completed a €2.5 million contact management and workflow solution for Colonial UK. Colonial is owned by Winterthur Life, the insurance specialist of the Credit Suisse group. The solution was chosen to streamline the company's customer contact requirements across it's UK offices.

The solution will improve employee productivity in Colonial by up to 30 per cent, by streamlining processes through which customer queries and policy applications are addressed, and by eliminating unnecessary and time consuming administrative tasks.

Phoenix installed its e2 end-to-end e-service solution (previously known as the IDT - Insurance DeskTop) - to automate the flow of work, to 155 administrators through a desktop based interface. As part of the solution phoenix also incorporated a number of customised extensions to facilitate its expansion to other parts of Colonial's operations.

"The key objectives were to improve response times to customer inquiries and policy applications in order to facilitate Colonial's growth plans within the business," said Niall Clarke, Chief Technical Officer, Phoenix Technology Group.

"The solution that we designed is geared towards speeding up the flow of work throughout the customer contact function in Colonial, eliminating unnecessary administrative activity, and improving overall employee productivity within the organisation," said Clarke.

The new system will result in a number of benefits to Colonial UK, Customer Service Representatives now have access to all customer information through a single desktop, removing the need to switch between disparate systems. A whole range of customer queries can now be answered over the phone in "one and done" tasks, which would previously have required a call-back or letter, and which in turn has greatly increased staff efficiency and service levels.

The system is aimed at eliminating the need for manual post sorting and distribution, which previously was the responsibility of team leaders. Team leaders can now spend their time completing more important tasks.

"We will boost customer service and reduce paper as a result of this project. The implementation was carried out within six months so we are already able to see both a rapid return on investment and a significant increase in productivity," said Stuart Campbell, project leader, Colonial UK.

About Phoenix Technology Group:
With offices in Dublin and London, Phoenix was founded in 1997. Phoenix delivers end-to-end contact and e-service solutions to global retail financial institutions. Phoenix is a leading provider of web-enabled solutions for multifunctional contact and service centres empowering organisations to manage complex service processes and high-volume transaction relationships with customers, brokers and suppliers regardless of the source media (paper, e-mail, e-form, voice).

Customers include AXA Sun Life, CGNU, Royal Sun Alliance, and Scottish Widows/Lloyds TSB. For more information, please visit www.phoenix.ie.