We initially engaged Voco to assist us with our thinking on how to deal with the expiry of Westpac’s telecommunications contract and how we would deal with the then planned contact centre transformation in that context. Voco engaged with Westpac in a structured manner that allowed Westpac to determine the strategy it wanted to pursue (and how to do it) rather than being told what course of action should be followed. As a result, Voco wasn’t viewed as an external resource who would simply provide answers but as a key part of the Westpac team. Following that initial engagement, it was clear that Voco could provide the value Westpac needed to undertake a full telecommunications RFP. The overall engagement lasted approx 24 months and Voco provided value across a number of areas:

• Strategic thinking – this was the most valuable of all as it enabled appropriately framed decisions to be made. Examples include the initial sourcing strategy, how to deal with aging contact centre infrastructure and embedded intelligent routing for 0800 calling, decision making, framing key stakeholder meetings and a general sounding board for issues. As described above, the value came not only from the sound advice (which is taken as given) but also from enabling the internal team to learn and grow with its decision making. Voco’s thinking fully covered the realities of our business, enabling internal stakeholders to have full confidence in the team, the strategy and the overall outcome.
• Technical expertise – eg architectural, project management, pricing.
• Market reference point – there were a number of occasions where Voco was able to provide a view of how the market had dealt with specific issues (eg vendors’ relative market capability, disengagement fees). This was a highly valuable reference point.

Also important was the engagement style which was down to earth, easy to deal with, focused on getting the job done (not geared to getting the next engagement) and ensuring the success of the project.