Logistics
Client context
Our client is a major shipping company with freight operations extending to over 150 countries worldwide. Its 80,000 employees manage the transportation of vast volumes of fresh and non-perishable goods across the world – both on land and at sea.
When Tiger started working with the business, a complex telephony system supported its global operations. The network was structured around 30+ different public branch exchanges (PBXs) – the legacy of each country controlling its own telephony and carrier relationships.
While guidelines and KPIs were in place for telephony management, expansion through several mergers and acquisitions had, inevitably, made the technology stack more complicated.
The decision was made to upgrade the whole telephony network to a Cisco Unified Communications (UC) solution, that would enable integrated call management for every site worldwide.
What was missing, however, was full understanding of existing traffic, which would shape how the upgraded UC system could operate to best effect.
Sector Logistics
Employees 80,000
Sites 150+
Location Global
Workplace analytics
- Consolidate UC data
- UC usage monitoring
- Fraud monitoring
- Cost control
Client goals
Our client wanted call information from its existing telephony system, to support the design of the structure and operations of its global UC solution.
The priorities were establishing a clear picture of call volumes in every location, understanding global traffic patterns and determining how telephony systems interlinked.
These insights would enable informed decision-making on the scale and structure of new UC infrastructure, the best way to manage traffic costs effectively and how much additional capacity would be required, in each location.
Once the UC solution was in place, the business also wanted real-time workplace analytics, to understand call traffic levels at different times of day and year, to monitor whether UC tools were being adopted and to help them continually direct traffic in the most cost-effective way.
An additional requirement was setting up a series of proactive alerts, triggered by specific telephone numbers and call patterns that, typically, indicate fraudulent activity.
Tiger response
We installed our workplace analytics software, Tiger Prism, to gather the necessary information on our client’s existing telephony system.
Tiger Prism is vendor agnostic, which ensured we could work directly with the 30+ different PBXs in place, as well as build-in data collection from satellite systems used in remote locations.
The data analytics we provided helped our client understand where additional bandwidth was required in the new UC solution and to determine a least-cost call routing system.
Tiger Prism continued to provide analytics as the UC solution was installed. We worked with the client to collect data from the full Cisco estate and to inform ongoing UC upgrades.
UC adoption and usage levels were monitored, which helped the business to promote further uptake and drive the return on its technology investment.
Managers in each location received ten reports that provided all the trend and person-specific analysis they needed. Trunk utilisation and capacity reports were available for review by the central UC team.
Business impact
The information we provided on our client’s existing telephony system helped the company to establish a consolidated UC network.
With Tiger Prism in place across the network, our client also gained full visibility of UC usage and traffic patterns, accessible via our easy to understand self-service dashboard.
Automated reports helped local managers to understand call activity, individuals’ performance and how to manage resources. While central reporting informed least-cost call routing across the estate.
Further upgrades of the UC network were also informed by Tiger Prism data. Insights into usage and performance helped to build the business case for ongoing investment.