Harvey Nichols relies on Proteus

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Harvey Nichols relies on Proteus.

Founded in 1813, Harvey Nichols began its legacy as one of Britains finest up-market department stores when Benjamin Harvey opened a linen shop in a terraced house on the corner of Knightsbridge and Sloane Street in London.

The business was passed on to Harvey's daughter in 1820 where she went into partnership with Colonel Nichols to sell oriental carpets, silks and luxury goods alongside Nichols linen collection. Over time the chain has expanded its presence internationally. Harvey Nichols continues to lead the way in retail, and has been recognised for its cutting edge advertising campaigns.

Standing as an international flagship department store, Harvey Nichols has its Head Office in London, with a number of stores, restaurants and operational centres worldwide. As such Harvey Nichols required a call management solution that delivered comprehensive reporting functions, as well as having the ability of monitoring the quality of VoIP traffic. Internal and external calls needed to be logged and allocated to the correct store or cost centre. Access to the data in real-time, and the ability to extract information in various detailed reports was an essential requirement from day one. The drive was for Harvey Nichols to further improve customer service, cut call costs and ensure that its telephony network is running to its full potential.

The Requirements

Harvey Nichols sought a solution that would be cost effective in implementation and maintenance, whilst complementing the existing infrastructures, and accommodate any future infrastructure changes or enhancements.

A call management solution that would:

       log all calls internally and externally for quality and security purposes
       monitor expenditure
       ensure quality of VoIP calls being delivered over the network
       log and track emergency calls
       for concessionary benefits, allocate which lines are being used by each department or outlet within each store for Harvey Nichols to bill back accordingly

 
The Solution
Harvey Nichols identified the Proteus Quality Management System (QMS), as a comprehensive call management solution that met all of their requirements.

With user friendly navigation, the application comes equipped with a graphical front-end dashboard to give a constant real-time overview of call information and VoIP traffic quality. Proteus QMS allows users to gain optimum performance from their VoIP network. Ideally for Harvey Nichols, it gives the ability to reliably monitor large volumes of VoIP traffic across multiple sites, thus allowing managers to understand the traffic characteristics and proactively react to any potential issues. Proteus QMS is designed specifically with ease of use in mind, specifically for users who require the ability to click through and drill down through historical call records and VoIP quality reports.

Essentially for end users, Proteus QMS has the ability to integrate seamlessly into existing systems without the need for extensive training. The user-friendly web interface allows Harvey Nichols Operational Staff to have statistics and reports delivered directly to their desktop, allowing them to take ownership of telephony costs, employee productivity and network efficiency.

The IT Operations team at Harvey Nichols use Proteus QMS as a core application in their day to day work, monitoring calls and analysing where any extraordinary activity takes place on the network. An instant notification is sent to the team when any anomalous activity occurs on the system.

The Benefits

Lee Smith, IT Operations Manager at Harvey Nichols comments: The ability to monitor the cost of calls is essential, especially when we have so many members of staff, multiple sites and various concessions. The real benefit with Proteus QMS however, comes from the email alerts and the automatically scheduled weekly reports. The ability to generate ad-hoc reports at any time also made Proteus QMS a very attractive proposition. We use the system to ensure customer service is not being affected, and to ensure that staff are not abusing the telephone system whilst at work. Initially we were getting many email alerts every day to highlight this kind of activity, now I am lucky to get one email alert a week.

The inbuilt Call Cost Calculator allows Smith and his team to identify the cost of calls geographically. They then use this data as a form of intelligence; ideal when negotiating calling plans with their chosen service provider. Smith explains: Having a comprehensive call management solution has allowed Harvey Nichols to ensure efficient service over the telephone, and in doing so, cut costs. We are currently using Proteus QMS to examine internal call traffic between out sites. By regulating this kind of call we hope to cut further costs.

Harvey Nichols prides itself in offering the highest levels of service for its customers. As well as ensuring calls are executed in a professional manner, they also want to ensure that calls are answered promptly by staff. With Proteus QMS, Senior Management have the ability to ensure customer queries are being dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Smith commented Proteus QMS gives our network team a clear view of how the entire VoIP network is being utilised and as such, have the ability to alert security staff if 999 is dialled. When an emergency call is made over a VoIP network it is essential that the originating location is immediately identified so that appropriate support can be directed to the correct location. Furthermore, the IT Operations team rest assured that Proteus QMS will raise an alert if there is any activity that indicates that the system is being hacked.

Proteus QMS offers us so much more than a typical call management solution. Not only does it allow us to bill each outlet within our stores accordingly, and thus keeping our telecoms costs down to a minimum, it also allows us to rectify issues as and when they occur. Proteus QMS acts as a clear indicator of where we can improve customer service.