Telecom outlines Manila fall-back plans
As trouble hits Vodafone NZ's offshored support, Telecom says it's already survived server disruption in the Philippines.
As has been well canvassed this morning, Vodafone has had to shut down the Cairo call centre that handled around one quarter of Vodafone NZ service queries.
Telecom's Philippines call centre contractor handles about one-third of its help calls, the company told NBR today (the balance is fielded by teams in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch).
So does Telecom have a fallback should Manila fall into political strife (as with the "People power" revolution of the 1980s, that saw the Marcos regime ousted), or natural disaster strike?
The worst had already stuck in the Philippines, Telecom corporate communications manager Emma-Kate Greer told NBR.
"The floods in 2009 caused significant disruption for our teams there," Ms Greer said, "[but] the company pulled behind them to provide support. Customers will not have noticed the impact."
It was a similar story after the Canterbury quake.
"Our continuity planning meant there was little interruption for customers as our teams in Christchurch were sent home and not allowed back into the CBD," Ms Greer said.
"Teams around New Zealland and our Manila teams came into work to assist with the significant spike in calls caused by the quake."
Telecom's Manila contractor usually deals with specific products and services, such as broadband support, the dial-up help desk and International roaming. However, the Canterbury quake experience showed that teams in different geographies can take over different support areas.
Asked if Telecom had any plans to reassess its offshore call centre operation in the light of Vodafone NZ's Cairo experience, Ms Greer said no. "We're happy with our current set up."
Chris Keall
Tue, 01 Feb 2011
Tue, 01 Feb 2011
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Telecom outlines Manila fall-back plans
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