Benefit Management Inc. Meets Regulatory Compliance Requirements and Improves Customer Experience With
Toshiba Strata CIX Phone Systems

MISSION: Vision for Call Center Efficiency
Michelle Kaiser, vice president of Information Systems for BMI, identified the need for a business telephone system that would:

• Provide BMI’s client companies with highly effective and quality relationship management services;
• Answer the need for organizational efficiency and productivity and support BMI’s profitability;
• Meet strict government regulatory compliance requirements;
• Effectively handle the 13,000+ monthly incoming calls;
• Increase call center efficiency by improving call handling, routing and reporting;
• Provide the ability to add remote call center agents for a low cost;
• Allow for custom call center reporting;
• Improve customer service within the call center; and
• Provide 24/7 reliability, with zero down time.

In recognizing these needs, Kaiser turned to Nex-Tech, an Authorized Toshiba Dealer located in Hays, Kansas. Nex-Tech has been an Authorized Toshiba Dealer for more than five years. Mark St. Peter, sales representative at Nex-Tech, recommended Toshiba’s Strata® CIX™ IP business telephone system and Strata ACD call center solution for BMI’s robust needs.

Solution: Toshiba Strata CIX Exceeds BMI’s Goals
Installed by Great Plains Communications, the telecommunication system at Mid-Continent Instruments includes two Strata CIX670 IP business telephone systems in Kansas and California, which are networked over IP using Toshiba’s Strata Net.

Installed by Nex-Tech, BMI has a Toshiba business telephone system that consists of:

• A Strata CIX670 business telephone system at the BMI headquarters in Great Bend, Kansas;
• 20 IP phones connected via Strata Net over fiber at BMI’s second location;
• 100 digital telephones at the Great Bend headquarters, plus Call Manager software for all call center agents;
• Additional IP phones to support remote workers;
• A total of 96 digital station ports and 16 IP trunks;
• Strata ACD Call Center solution with TASKE reporting and OAISYS® Tracer recording solutions;
• Strata MAS with Auto Attendant and Centralized Voice Mail; and
• Network eManager® for remote management of all systems.

Result #1: Helps BMI Meet Regulatory Compliance Requirements
With the government’s ever-changing and increasingly strict reporting requirements for third-party administers of benefits, BMI must be able to provide detailed, custom call center reports. With healthcare reform, the requirements have become even more stringent. Utilizing Toshiba’s Strata ACD Call Center with TASKE reporting and Tracer recording solutions, BMI is able to meet the mandated regulatory compliance.

Call center improvements include being able to report on call logs by type of call, call log codes, routing to agent based on type of call, prompts to the user, and more. BMI uses call recordings made using the OAISYS Tracer solution for compliance as well as agent training. Having the call recordings improves training for both new and existing employees and helps resolve any issues related to benefits management.

Result #2:Improved Call Center Efficiencies
BMI has call center agents at two locations: the company headquarters in Great Bend, and BMI Campus 2, also located in Great Bend. Agents can easily log into their groups, making it efficient for BMI to hire remote agents when the need arises. BMI has a total of 18 call center groups with 44 ACD sub-groups that are manned by 74 agents and seven supervisors. Seventeen groups are set up to handle specific government pools. A separate commercial group handles calls for the non-government customers.

Using Toshiba Call Manager, agents have the customer information they need on their screens and can easily call for help from a supervisor using the “Chat” function for instant messaging. More than 13,000 calls go through the BMI telephone system every month, with peaks of 16,000 calls per month during renewal periods. The Toshiba Strata ACD system helps BMI agents efficiently take care of every customer while also meeting compliance requirements.

Result #3: Seamless Networked Environment
Utilizing Toshiba’s Strata Net IP networking solution, BMI is able to seamlessly network its Strata CIX670 business telephone system with its main location at Great Bend and the second remote call center agents using Call Manager. This centralized system allows for a centralized call center and centralized voice mail across all locations. The Great Bend location also has data center replications for system redundancy, a requirement for government regulatory compliance. Four-digit dialing between locations also helps improve internal communication since the system is fully networked across the sites.

Bottom Line: BMI Meets Compliance Regulations and Improves Call Center Efficiencies With Toshiba IP-PBX
The new Toshiba Strata CIX telephone systems have helped BMI meet its communications objectives, including:

• More efficiently and effectively meeting government regulatory compliance requirements;
• Doing more with its call centers, including improving call handling and routing, custom reporting, call recording, and utilizing the Chat feature between supervisors and agents; and
• Improving the customer experience for its callers as they can more quickly route to agents who can assist them with important information on-screen using Call Manager.