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Systems integration and software development company, BroadSource, has integrated a call centre and communication platform for ConnectEast, operator of the EastLink toll road in Melbourne.
The platform combines two Webex solutions, Webex contact centre and Webex calling, as well as additional features like SecureCall by BroadSource, a cloud integration tool that prevents sensitive information, such a credit card details, from being stored or processed in a system.
Eventually, the toll roads operator will include artificial intelligence (AI) integration with Cisco’s AI tool to provide generating conversation summaries, analysing interactions, and automating routine tasks.
ConnectEast’s contact centre plays a vital role in its daily operations but was hindered by limitations in the legacy on-premises systems, including geographic constraints, licensing challenges and insufficient support for digital channels.
This project dates back to 2018 when ConnectEast collaborated with BroadSource to modernise its communication systems.
With strict Victorian government key performance indicators, such as answering 90 per cent of calls within 20 seconds and maintaining payment card industry data security standard compliance for credit card transactions, the outdated infrastructure posed a risk to compliance, efficiency and customer satisfaction.
BroadSource chief operating officer Jason Thals told ARN that it had identified a cloud migration was essential but staged the transition given the technology landscape was not mature enough during the time.
When Cisco’s Webex solutions became available, it was used to become centerpiece of ConnectEast’s modernisation plans.
Thals said after the solutions were integrated, ConnectEast needed to be able to take payments from customers over calls, this was critical to the operation of the road.
When its call centre went to the cloud, there wasn’t a reliable option for them to pause, resume recording automatically.
“It required a manual operation, and they wanted an automatic operation of pausing recordings whilst they were gathering sensitive information,” he said. “We introduced SecureCall to provide that automated means of securing credit card information so ConnectEast no longer needed to pause recordings.”
According to Thals, this allowed the call centre team to freely able to capture phone calls that then allows them to turn on Cisco AI functionality.
“They could then turn on call transcription of those recordings, they could then turn on analysis of the transcriptions, and that then allows them to trawl for topics to analyse and to therefore improve their procedures to deliver a higher quality service to the to the public,” he said.
Now that the platform is up and running, ConnectEast is exploring AI-powered tools such as Cisco’s AI Assistant, which includes features like generative AI conversation summaries promise to enhance agent productivity and response times.
EastLink’s technology director, Bill Advic, said he envisions a future where AI-enabled automation provides 24/7 service to further improve customer experiences which will continue to be provided by Cisco and BroadSource.
“This means, initially, online services like web chat and to look at sort of greater coverage of self-service options for the public when they choose to use it,” said Thals.
“The idea is for critical services like you know that you see a ladder dropped off a tradies car on the highway and that will be 24/7 for customer service they provide.
“[EastLink] wants to be able to provide both agent, assistant and self-service options. And the analysis that the analytics available through AI will allow them to identify opportunities to perform simple tasks automatically after the public.”
As for privacy concerns when it comes to AI technology, Thals said the consideration for any business is how they want to expose their data and what is the data they’re exposing.
“That’s the consideration of any business and when it comes to exposing private data and personally identifiable data, that’s the obligation of any company to restrict it,” he said. That means that the use of AI has to be a really carefully planned thing for any organisation, but particularly when you’re dealing with public information.”