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Ocean Business Solutions
was founded in 2004 as a
small telesales
operation selling mobile
phones and telecoms
solutions to consumers.
From these humble
beginnings, the
Birmingham based company
have taken massive
strides and grown
rapidly by consolidating
their position as a
primary reseller for
mobiles and expanding
and diversifying into
other areas to provide
high levels of quality
in these newly emerging
markets. Managing
Director, Mohammed
Mashedi, is optimistic
regarding further growth
of what is now an all
round telemarketing
operation with both
outbound and inbound
calling capability. |
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The Business Challenge |
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The environment in which
Ocean Business Solutions
operates is extremely
competitive and
companies that use
services provided by
call centres demand full
transparency and
accountability. Employee
churn is another factor
within the industry that
all call centres must
deal with. Therefore,
should the correct
technology not be
deployed and an agent
left the company, their
knowledge would depart
with them. |
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The primary business
challenge faced by Ocean
was simply to be
productive and
competitive enough for
larger organisations to
consider them as a
supplier for their
outsourced telemarketing
operations. Mohammed
Mashedi explained: “We
were contacting leads
via a manual phone
system which served our
purpose for a while as
the operation was small.
However, as we started
to grow the business and
our own knowledge curve
grew, we realised that
we were not operating as
effectively as we could
be. We found we were
coming across masses of
dead data and our agents
were not talking to
customers anywhere near
as much as we would have
liked”. |
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Ocean grew from the
initial set up of four
to 30 within a couple of
years. It was now
apparent that they
needed to deploy call
centre dialling
technology that could
overcome these
shortcomings. And at
around this time,
regulatory control was
tightened to protect
consumers from ‘silent
calls’. Therefore, the
chosen technology would
have to be implemented
to operate within the
new legislation. |
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Why Did Ocean Business
Solutions Choose
TouchStar supplied by
Daviker? |
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1. Bespoke Solution
Based Around Business
Needs |
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Ocean conducted their
initial research for a
call centre solution
provider via the
Internet. They were
presented with a wide
array of solutions and
short-listed a few of
those companies
including Daviker and
their TouchStar system, who
in turn visited Mohammed
and company director
Abdul Kauser to
demonstrate their
solutions. Initially
they agreed to trial a
competitor product based
on it being the cheapest
on the market. However,
they quickly discovered
that this product had
none of the
functionality that they
required and was hardly
the ‘leap forward’ they
required to really grow
their business and was
subsequently returned.
At this point Ocean
spoke to Daviker
again. |
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Mohammed was forthright
by saying: “We thought
we could get everything
we wanted by choosing
the cheapest option but
within a couple of days
it was blindingly
obvious it couldn’t. We
had been very impressed
with Daviker at the
initial pitch stage.
What set them apart from
their competitors is
they looked at our
business first and
proposed a solution
based around that. Other
companies who came
simply gave us their
proposals and expecting
our business to fit
around that.” |
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2. Referrals by Other
Call Centres |
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Ocean was also
impressed with
Daviker’s growing
reputation in the
call centre
industry. Mohammed
added: “We asked
around, we believe
in referrals and
people coming back
to us were very
positive about
both TouchStar product and the
Daviker surround services
and support that
goes with that. It
seemed to us that
Daviker
could be more like a
business partner
than simply a
software supplier.” |
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3. Advanced
Scripting that is
Easy to Develop and
Change |
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Other ‘clinching’
factors included the
wealth of knowledge
presented by the
Daviker salespeople
that introduced
Mohammed and Abdul
to the array of
scripting possible
on the TouchStar
system. Mohammed
stated: “The
scripting was very
important and a
system to develop
and change scripts
at the click of a
couple of buttons
was needed. In
addition, the
capability to add to
the system, the
scalability, was
also there. The
TouchStar call
centre system really
seemed to give the
best value for money
with an array of
features at a very
good price.” |
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4. Support 24 Hours
a Day, 365 Days a
Year
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Daviker’s offer of
24 hours support,
365 days a year was
something Mohammed
felt was a major
point of
differentiation: “To
be able to speak to
someone at any time
of day or night is
brilliant. Also, the
guys are UK based so
they understand us
better and it gives
us the opportunity
to build a
relationship with
the guys at the
sharp end who in
turn form a complete
understanding of our
business.” |
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5. Increased
Productivity and
Sales |
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Daviker implemented
the fully compliant
TouchStar blended
call centre system
complete with ACD &
IVR, intelligent
scripting, call
recording and
reporting at Ocean
Business Solutions
in a matter of days.
Ocean were
immediately
impressed with the
speed in which the
system dials and
subsequent increases
in productivity.
Mohammed went on to
say: “Obviously
there was an initial
capital outlay and
as a businessman, my
instinct thought of
any such outlay as a
potential risk.
However, I needn’t
have worried as
within days it was
apparent the system
was going to more
than pay for itself
as sales increased
dramatically.
Furthermore, any
concerns about OFCOM
regulation were also
unfounded as the
system easily dials
within the law.” |
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6. Blended Outbound
and Inbound
Functionality |
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They were equally
impressed with the
systems capability
to handle inbound
and outbound calls
simultaneously.
Mohammed added: “We
had recently started
an inbound function
and it was important
that the system was
‘blended’ in that it
could also handle
inbound calls and
switch inbound
agents to making
outbound calls at
less busy times.
Until the solution
was provided, we
didn’t realise how
simple this would be
to operate. It is
impossible for
agents to make
mistakes!” |
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7. Complete Solution
from a Single
Supplier |
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Daviker also
provided network
services (LCR) for
Ocean Business
Solutions as part of
the overall
solution. Mohammed
agreed that having
all their call
centre needs served
by a single supplier
helped streamline
their business
processes and as
time has progressed,
the relationship has
been solidified to a
true partnership. |
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8. Accountability
and Versatility |
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The system provided
all the elements
Mohammed was looking
for. He added: “In
terms of MI,
reporting and call
recording, it’s
second to none – we
have since won a
reseller agreement
with a major high
street telecoms
company that we
would not have won
without such
accountability
features.” TouchStar
has also proved
adaptable as Ocean
have diversified
into other business
arenas and founded a
second company,
Total Refund Ltd,
that specialises in
debt management
services, IVAs and
reclaiming mis-sold
insurance policies.
Mohammed stated:
“The versatility of
the system has meant
we can use the same
agents to operate in
all our business
areas and obtain
maximum economies of
scale.” |
| Implementation |
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Implementation was
completed within a
single week without
the need for any
agent downtime.
Mohammed was
impressed with the
commitment shown by
the Daviker
engineers: “They
were here before
anyone came in and
were here after
everyone left! They
really did make sure
the work was done in
the absolute minimum
of time. And when a
small part of the
hardware kit was
missing, there was
no panic and it was
immediately
couriered from their
headquarters and was
with us within a
couple of hours!” |
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The Daviker
engineers went on to
show both the
management staff and
agents exactly how
the system worked
and how to make best
use of it: “They
made it look easy,
showing us the
basics of how the
Administrator and
Supervisor functions
worked and a little
bit on scripting.
They hold free of
charge training
sessions every month
and we can attend as
many as we like – we
now send any new
administrator level
staff on the course
as part of their
induction.” |
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Features and Benefits of
TouchStar Connect |
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Ocean Business Solutions
has experienced the
following results and
benefits since
implementing a Daviker
Solution with a
TouchStar Predictive
Dialling system: |
- Their agents talk time has trebled.
- A huge increase in sales meant a very quick return on the investment.
- A system that fully complies with and exceeds all OFCOM, DMA and FSA regulations.
- The ability to report with detailed statistics from all campaigns in real time has made management of the call centre business more focused.
- Flexibility to build campaigns in a variety of sectors has allowed new products to be introduced.
- A seamless integration with their current accounting system which meant streamlined business processes.
- Free training on an ongoing basis, has continually updated staff expertise.
- 24 x 7 x 365 UK based engineering support proving invaluable when requiring advice at any time of the day or night.
- An appointed expert business development manager to optimise use of the technology.
- A suite of value added services (including network services, cabling, headsets, data backup, data management, etc) has meant they have to make one single phone call to one supplier.
- Ability for further developments as their business grows.
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Mohammed Mashedi
concluded: “Daviker has
helped facilitate the
growth of Ocean and the
diversification with
Total Refund. We feel we
have a reliable business
partner that genuinely
does care about us and
bends over backwards to
serve our needs. They
have taught us to work
smarter and in following
that philosophy Ocean
has become a major
player in the call
centre industry.” |
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Copyright 2009 Daviker
Limited. All Rights Reserved.