Small Business

Situation

• BackCheck is Canada's leading and largest provider of employment screening, serving thousands of clients
• The company collects and manages a vast amount of highly confidential client and employee information that must be protected
• Clients need immediate action, so calls must be answered live and IT systems must be up and available at all times
• Different clients require different skill sets, and callers were sometimes having difficulty reaching the team member most qualified to serve them
• The company's exceptional growth required a bigger and better IT infrastructure and a more streamlined business application

Approach

• TELUS recommended an Avaya contact centre switch, with intelligent routing to ensure all calls go to the right team member or to the next most qualified person if any team member is unavailable
• Based on the success of the TELUS voice solution, BackCheck chose a fully managed TELUS infrastructure solution to cope with growth in its IT needs and ensure uptime and availability
• All IT systems and data are now housed at the TELUS Internet Data Centre in Calgary, where comprehensive security, full redundancy and uninterrupted power supply are guaranteed
• As a further vote of confidence in TELUS solutions, BackCheck selected TELUS National Application Solutions to redesign its business application.

Business benefits

• BackCheck is able to build solid relationships between its clients and team members
• Whenever they call, clients know they will reach their regular contact or a similarly qualified team member
• BackCheck team members no longer have to spend time re-routing calls picked up at random
• BackCheck agrees with Avaya estimates of 20% or more in productivity increases
• The company's IT infrastructure and data are protected by full physical and virtual security
• In the event of a disaster, BackCheck team members will have access to their systems and data from remote sites
• The solution is infinitely scalable, monitored around the clock and proactively managed for guaranteed availability
• Over the long term, BackCheck anticipates 20% in IT savings
• Because BackCheck is also working with TELUS on updating its business application, the company is assured of seamless integration with its IT infrastructure and phone switch.

Solution

Vancouver-based BackCheck has every intention of remaining Canada's leading and largest provider of employment screening services.  To do that, the company insists on providing its thousands of clients with exceptional service, from the initial order through to completion.

"Our style of business demands that a live person answer each call," says Stephen Dinesen, BackCheck's VP - Technology & Business Development.  "We have a custom procedure that allows us to get quality references on our clients' prospective employees - and part of that procedure is getting calls to the right people."  So when the time came to upgrade its phone system, BackCheck wanted a solution that would do more than assign a distinct phone number to each team member.  It also had to be capable of redirecting calls to the next most qualified person if any team member was unavailable.  TELUS recommended an Avaya call centre switch, giving BackCheck the functionality it demands, together with scalability to accommodate the company's rapid growth.

The solution has more than proved itself.  "Our employees don't waste time picking up calls meant for other team members," says Dinesen.  "While it's hard to peg a number on it, I know that Avaya talk about a 20% increase in productivity.  I certainly wouldn't argue with that.  And our clients know that they won't be left on hold while somebody they've never spoken to before tries to locate the right person.  It also increases the quality of our references because it's easier to build a relationship over the phone when you get through to the person you want to talk to right away."

BackCheck has been growing rapidly and in 2006, its IT infrastructure needed to be upgraded significantly.  "We have a strong internal IT infrastructure," explains Dinesen.  "But the time had come to start replacing things.  We made the decision not just to go bigger, but to go better too, in our ability to manage IT.  The best way to do that was through a managed infrastructure solution.  "Another attraction of looking outside the company for IT management and hosting was the fact that any fully-fledged provider would have its own redundant systems and backups to ensure business continuity under any circumstances.

Backcheck spoke to a number of providers and received detailed proposals from all of them.  "TELUS provided a very consultative approach," Dinesen says.  "They brought some great people to the table to discuss our options and they demonstrated that they have a lot of strength in planning.  Like us, they plan to succeed."  Based on the TELUS approach and BackCheck's positive previous experience with TELUS, the decision was simple.  All of BackCheck's IT infrastructure is now housed at the TELUS Internet Data Centre in Calgary, where it is fully managed and proactively monitored around the clock.

"Our projection is to decrease IT costs over time," says Dinesen.  "We anticipate about 20% in IT savings."  But for BackCheck, business value isn't only to be found in hard savings.  The company handles vast amounts of vital and highly confidential data and must have the assurance that its systems will always be available.  In addition to full physical and virtual security, complete redundancy and guaranteed uninterrupted power supply, the TELUS solution includes industry-leading Service Level Agreements to assure uptime.  And if a disaster ever strikes BackCheck's head office, the company's team members will be able to access their systems and data from an alternative location.

TELUS and BackCheck are currently also working on updating the company's own in-house business application to provide more functionality.  "It's a major advantage to have the TELUS National Applications Solutions Group working together with their IT group in Calgary because they can ensure that the systems they design are optimized to our data structure," Dinesen says.  "And by having everything in one place, we can facilitate ensuring that the Avaya switch is fully integrated."

This same thinking is behind the decision to have a single point of contact for all of the company's IT and communications needs.  "TELUS comes to us with great advise when we need it and they're very flexible in how they work with us." Dinesen says.  "What's more, they're a local client too, which is why we consider them to be a logical provider whenever we need technology solutions."