Thailand's Largest Mobile Operator Banks on No.1 Contact Centre Applications Provider to Deliver World-Class Service to Its 16 Million Subscribers

BANGKOK, Thailand, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Avaya Inc. , a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, today announced that it has successfully designed and deployed the Avaya Call Centre solution in a US$4 million contract with Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS), Thailand's leading provider of mobile network systems. Avaya was tasked to deliver the full scope of service, from solution design and implementation, through a five year maintenance contract, and since then, AIS has experienced dramatic improvements to call centre efficiency, productivity and customer service standards.

After a stringent selection process that involved many other global vendors, AIS selected Avaya to help implement a world-class call centre. The Avaya team set out to design and implement a call centre platform that met AIS' need for a more robust system, with greater bandwidth to effectively handle consistently large volume of calls. In line with Avaya's partnership approach, the contract also involves a 5-year support and maintenance agreement that will see both AIS and Avaya working closely to fine tune the solution to ensure AIS' business expectations are met.

"Agent efficiency, productivity levels and customer satisfaction have increased significantly, thanks to the Avaya system and we are enjoying business benefits that we did not with the previous system. We have not simply found a contact centre solutions vendor; we have found a true partner in Avaya, which has met our stringent requirements on call processing, routing capabilities, and seamless integration into our existing infrastructure, without compromising service to our over 16 million subscribers. In addition, we also saw in the Avaya solution, an opportunity to scale in order to support the more diversified needs of the Shin Group, of which AIS is a part of. Avaya has surpassed our expectations and we are confident of growing this relationship even further," said Ms. Vilasinee Puddhikarant, Managing Director of Advanced Contact Center Co. Ltd (ACC), a wholly-owned AIS subsidiary that operates all its call centers.

With Avaya's deployment of its highly versatile, flexible and interoperable solution that include Avaya IP Media Server/Gateway, Avaya Call Centre Application, Avaya Interaction Centre (multi-channel), Avaya Predictive Dialing System, and Avaya Call Management System, the AIS call centre today experiences significant business benefits that include:

-- Enormous flexibility and bandwidth in routing decisions. AIS enjoys higher capacity and load through an Avaya IP Architecture that provides a Media Server and Gateway with business continuity support. -- Reduced costs while increasing operational efficiency and effectiveness by supporting agent specialization and call centre consolidation. AIS previously operated its call centre through many disparate sites. With the Avaya Virtual Call centre, two main sites and five remote sites have been integrated into one centralized virtual IP Contact Centre, resulting in ease of management, reduced costs and more effective load balance flow between sites. -- Comprehensive set of administration, reporting and monitoring tools offer AIS a 360 degree view of its customer activity. A suite of extensive reports provide complete summaries and details across multiple sites and communication channels, allowing AIS to fully track, schedule and optimize it's resource deployment

"The partnership approach was key to the success of this project. Additionally our superior technology and solutions, in-depth knowledge and understanding of the local market helped the Avaya and AIS team formulate a highly effective solution that also quickly reaped a high return on investment," said Mr Sutas Kongdumrongkiat, Country Director for Avaya Thailand. "Being selected over other global business communications providers reinforces Avaya's leadership, vision and leading edge technology in the market, and highlights our ability to customize our solutions to meet customers' stringent requirements."

About Avaya

Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500(R). Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) telephony systems and communications software applications and services.

Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications -- and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -- Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya website: http://www.avaya.com/.

About Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited

Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS), a subsidiary of Shin Corporation PCL., is the established leader in Thailand's wireless communications industry after more than twelve years of services with its subscriber base of more than 16 million and market share more than 60%.

To date, AIS service network covers 795 districts (amphur) throughout Thailand, plus international roaming across in six continents. Additionally, indoor coverage has been greatly expanded in both Bangkok and the provinces. AIS has continuously enhanced and expanded its network in order to respond to the market and technological advances, whilst keeping abreast of consumers' growing demands and needs. It continues to integrate the latest in advanced technology and deliver more than just voice communication, with GPRS and EDGE technology.

AIS strongly believes that wireless communications bring changes to the way Thai people live their life, regardless of who they are and what they do. With endless communications possibilities, the quality of life is better. Visit our web site at http://www.ais.co.th/.

About Advanced Contact Center Co., Ltd

Advanced Contact Center Co., Ltd (ACC) was the first call center in Thailand and presently operates all the call centers of AIS. Originally a department within AIS, ACC was established as a wholly owned subsidiary in 2002. ACC's 1,500 inbound and 400 outbound agents handle an average of 1.6 million inbound and 200,000 outbound calls monthly.