Rapid Response for Show Jumping

Harpenden, UK 7th April 2004

The British Show Jumping Association is the governing body of show jumping in Great Britain, formulating the rules and codes of practice under which all affiliated competitions are held. Founded in 1925 and operating from the National Agricultural Centre at Stoneleigh, their purpose is to improve and maintain standards of show jumping, whilst encouraging members of all standards and at all levels to enjoy fair competition over safe and attractive courses.

They manage more than 2,000 shows each year providing in excess of 2,800 days of show jumping for members of the Association riding registered horses and ponies.

The BSJA could be described as working within the service industry as every horse and rider has to be registered before they are allowed to compete. This means that the Membership and Registration department must process the 17,000 memberships as well as all the horse and pony registrations. The show department affiliates over 3,800 show days a year to the BSJA.

The need to deal more efficiently with the incoming calls from its members meant that the BSJA decided to review its entire communications strategy. All calls were being answered by the receptionist then manually transferred to the relevant extension. The volume of calls coming in meant that service levels were deteriorating.

Although happy with their existing Telrad telephone system, they needed to enhance the facilities whilst being sure that any system selected would be 'future proof' and offer a migration path for unified messaging, CTI and VoIP support.

Their key objectives were refined down to:
 

• Provide a quicker response to incoming calls from their members.

• Ensure that those calls were routed to the correct department.

• Improve the quality of service offered to their members.

• Reduce the amount of call backs required to members, therefore reducing call costs.

• Free up time for the Receptionist to be able to perform other administration tasks.
   

Following the review process, the BSJA appointed Nottingham based JK Telecom to upgrade their existing switch with the latest Telrad Connegy IPEX system.

Jacky Knightley, Press Officer of the BSJA commented "JK Telecom were selected as suppliers that we could have faith in. Following a system and operational review, they offered advice on the most cost efficient way to achieve our objectives whilst improving the overall quality of service to our members. We found the options available to us revolutionary; however these were explained professionally and in a way that we could relate to. With their extensive knowledge and experience with the Telrad range of systems JK Telecom proved their partnership by working with our IT personnel to improve our understanding and implement the changes over a weekend so as not to affect our business operation."

JK Telecom upgraded their existing system to the latest Unite IP C128 with an embedded emaGEN voicemail utilizing IPeX technology. The capacity has now been expanded to 30 Lines and 80 Extensions across their premises to support their 30 Office employees, 665 off site Officials, and 17,000 members. Future expansions of call centre capacity can easily be enabled via software license and future enhancements can be uploaded remotely.

One of the main aims was to improve the service and speed of communication with the members - this was done by utilizing the emaGEN voicemail script menus that allow callers to select the correct person or department to speak to, thus avoiding the frustration of members being transferred from extension to extension and in turn freeing up the receptionist to carry out additional administrative tasks. The Unite IP call center capability ensures that calls are queued correctly and comfort messages played to callers to ensure they are answered in the correct order.

The IPeX card also allows up to 10 different music sources to be played using standard Microsoft Windows .WAV files so that the music and informative messages played to members can be easily updated or customized.

Future plans for their system include Voice over IP links to event venues and the integration of their membership database into their call centre to make full use of Callviews media blending functionality.

Jacky Knightley continued "We were delighted with the upgrade as it has achieved all our objectives and enabled us to provide a far more efficient service to our members. We were very impressed with JK Telecoms proposal and their ability to implement it professionally and painlessly."

For more information on the BSJA, visit www.bsja.co.uk
For more information on JK Telecom, visit www.jktelecom.co.uk

About the British Show Jumping Association
The British Show Jumping Association is the governing body of show jumping in Great Britain, formulating the rules and codes of practice under which all affiliated competitions are held. Founded in 1925 and operating from the National Agricultural Centre at Stoneleigh, their purpose is to improve and maintain standards of show jumping, whilst encouraging members of all standards and at all levels to enjoy fair competition over safe and attractive courses. For more information, visit www.bsja.co.uk

Press Contact: Jacky Knightley: jackyk@bsja.co.uk | Tel: (02476) 698806

About JK Telecom
Jason and Kevin, the Directors of JK Telecom Limited have combined 45 years experience in providing Voice and Data solutions. Telephony is the UKs fastest growing sector and JK Telecom are geared to service all types and sizes of companies, some starting with only six extensions and others with a thousand or more. For more information, visit www.jktelecom.co.uk

Press Contact: Kevin Wright: kwright@jktelecom.co.uk | Tel: (0845) 3301590

About Telrad Connegy
A U.S.-based supplier of sophisticated telecommunications solutions, Telrad Connegy is a world-renowned strategic provider of converged and manifestly deployed IP platforms for enterprises of all sizes, business models, and dynamics.
A commitment to creative research and development the experience borne of over 50 years in the telecommunications industry anticipating changes in demands of today's competitive marketplace the agility and resources to act swiftly in a shifting technological arena. These philosophies join to ensure Telrad Connegy holds a competitive advantage in the telecommunications industry today and far into the future.

In conjunction with its broad global marketing interests in the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia, Russia, and Israel, Telrad Connegy develops and markets a diverse portfolio of innovative server-based enterprise solutions, including:

• IP communications platforms
• IT convergence pathways
• Wireless solutions
• Call Processing and Messaging applications
   

The all-new UNITe IP server-based platform, including the C Series and I Series, embodies the technological framework to support all delineations of Telrad Connegy's product offering  past, present, and future. This unparalleled migration strategy has made Telrad Connegy the unchallenged leader in investment protection, reduced cost of ownership, and creative application for more that 50 years.