About Collection Bureau of the Hudson Valley, Inc
Collection Bureau of the Hudson Valley, Inc (CBHV) is a 3rd party collection and debt recovery agency based in Newburgh, New York, which runs campaigns for clients all across the United States.
Since the early 1990s, CBHV had been using receivables management software developed by Quantrax Corporation. Running smaller campaigns and dialing in preview mode (a single account being retrieved when the agent is ready and screen-popped for his/ her approval), each agent had his own set of accounts to be followed up, and the system went through them one by one.
Development
During the early 2000s, Sytel and Quantrax worked together to integrate Sytel’s call control with the Quantrax collections software. This involved not only a tight software integration but also negotiation between quite separate systems; Quantrax on the IBM AS/400 (now known as the i5), Sytel on a standard Windows server. The joint system, branded as ‘I-Tel’, was released in 2003.
Installation
In 2007, keen to leverage the proven productivity gains of automated call control and predictive dialing, CBHV decided to upgrade to the new system.
While CBHV continued working as normal, Quantrax built and tested the substantial new system onsite.
The results
Since installation, CBHV has enjoyed the benefits of
- automated inbound call queuing and routing
- IVR capability for inbound and outbound
- a scripting tool to both design and run IVR call flows
- predictive dialing
- outbound preview calling for particularly sensitive accounts
- call recording, retrieval and playback
CBHV currently log 230,000 agent minutes per month, 99% of which is controlled directly by the I-Tel system.
Commenting on the system’s IVR capability, Collections Manager Debbie DiRubbio said
“Designing IVR flows can be such a pain. The Sytel Scripter product takes a lot of this pain away by providing a visual design tool that provides logical branching, data access and the ability to integrate directly with card payment systems. Now IVR systems can be setup in a fraction of the time it used to take, and updated on the fly.
“One of the key benefits of the Sytel Scripter is being able to set up virtual agents and move them around without having to stop and restart the system. This means we can respond quickly to peaks and troughs in demand.
“Plus the new IVR system almost doubles our account turnaround. All the automated features allow us to get through more accounts in a shorter time, increasing our bottom line and allowing us to be very competitive in the marketplace.”
Regarding the dialer module, Ms. DiRubbio commented
“One of the biggest advantages of the new dialing system is that accounts are now dialed for a pool of agents, in anticipation of any of them being available to take a live call. This is a far more efficient way to get through our account load – in fact it’s about 4–5 times faster! And having bad numbers, etc, dealt with automatically without even involving an agent makes far better use of our agents’ time.”
Chief Operations Officer Kurt Najork added
“Quantrax have been very responsive to our needs and requests. And when our situation has demanded immediate attention, they have worked closely with Sytel to provide a fast solution.”
