Back to Case studyTTBS builds PRI-Based Phone Setup for a Leading Insurance Service Provider Based in Mumbai
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The organisation, headquartered in Mumbai is one of the fastest growing insurance companies in India. It has a paid-up share capital of more than 600 crores and its founding partners include two leading national banks.
The company is known for meeting the requirements of diverse customers with easy-to-understand, reasonably priced and well-serviced insurance products. These include various term life insurance plans, retirement plans, child support plans and savings plans.
Concerning its recruitment policies, the organisation readily embraces diversity and acknowledges its employees’ opinions in shaping workplace practices and processes. It has been recognized among ‘India’s Best Workplaces in BFSI’ five times by the Great Place to Work® Institute and was also listed in India’s Best Workplaces for Women in 2021.
The insurance firm needed a reliable telecommunication interface for multiple voice and data channels. Its existing telephone and internet connectivity could not cope with the growing business requirements, which is why it contacted Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS) for a more evolved solution.
After reviewing the features of our Primary Rate Interface (PRI) service, the company’s IT managers found it easy to deploy and manage. They also appreciated that it includes an end-to-end Service Level Agreement (SLA). After delving further into the pricing factor and TTBS’ prior experience in configuring PRI solutions, the IT managers decided to purchase it for their organisation.
Business Challenges
The insurance company had multiple telecom service providers for its PAN-India branches. However, the level of service provided by these vendors was not always satisfactory as downtime issues had become frequent.
Besides improving the connectivity between branches with more effective use of voice applications, it was necessary to upgrade the on-call solutions for customers. The existing telephone lines were unreliable due to poor voice quality and frequent call drops. These lines were not backed by any SLA.
Some other limitations of the existing setup that made it essential to switch to a digital PRI service were:
- While the company had been expanding its office network, the existing voice and data services could not support employees’ simultaneous usage of PSTN lines for voice calls and digital applications for data transfer
- As the services were not SLA-backed, the technical support provided by the vendor was weak and there was no failover option for the continuity of operations
The company was also unhappy with the high operational costs of its telephone structure. Invoices from multiple service providers were complex to understand and they did not include any credits against the downtime faced by the team.
TTBS Solution
To give the company more useful telephone technology without disrupting its existing infrastructure, TTBS deployed its PRI lines. With this solution, the company could use every single phone line for 23 simultaneous calls and one data channel for audio-video conferencing and other internet-based applications.
As PRI lines are digital in nature, the voice communications in the organisation was not dependent on congested Internet Protocol (IP) networks anymore – this led to an improvement in the audio quality. Call drop issues were eliminated and employees could also transfer files through messaging applications more efficiently.
The implementation of the PRI solution helped the insurance company on other fronts too:
- PRI lines enabled up to 23 simultaneous phone calls on each link along with the usage of conferencing applications, but also improved the security of data transmission over their physical infrastructure – the system was not exposed to internet risks
- The organisation could also align its PRI lines with IP phones to support the usage of fax machines and alarm systems in a hybrid IT environment
- If any of the Direct Inward Dialling (DID) numbers on a PRI line was busy, the call now landed on the next available number – this helped the organisation to ensure that all calls made to a particular department were always attended
- TTBS provided an SLA-backed service with round-the-clock on-call support and defined timelines for rectification of problems if any
We also provided a redundant PRI circuit for failover benefits. If any channel faced downtime issues, the communication could be directed through an alternate route to help the business maintain its phone and data operations. If case of delay to resolve the concern, the organisation was entitled to credits as stated in the SLA.
Benefits
- Ease of setting up multiple extensions to facilitate DID service in different departments
- Simplified billing structure with an integrated invoice reflecting the total amount for all channels
- Automatic call distribution to available extensions if the dialled extension is busy
- Multiple communication features provided by a single PRI line, reducing the dependency on data services for online applications
- Better customer experience due to superior voice quality on a digitally powered phone line
