Last checked at 29 Mar 2010 07:00
29 March 2010
Eckoh plc
("Eckoh" or "the Group")
Eckoh expands presence in the water industry
New contracts with Northumbrian Water and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, and renewals with two existing customers
Eckoh, the UK's largest provider of hosted speech recognition services, is pleased to announce that the Group has been selected by Northumbrian Water Limited and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water for the provision of real-time card payment services. In addition, Eckoh has successfully renewed two of its existing contracts with water companies for a further three years.
The contracts are for the provision of real-time card payment services, which allow callers to make payments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. EckohPay, a real-time secure card payment processing service, is proven to reduce the volume of repetitive calls to contact centre advisors while decreasing operational costs by up to 90%.
Two new contract awards for Northumbrian Water and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water
The Northumbrian Water and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water contracts are to provide callers with the ability to make payments of water charges using debit or credit cards, on a 'no-wait, no queue' basis. The contract with Northumbrian Water, which also encompasses Essex and Suffolk Water, went live at the end of February 2010. The service for Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water customers will be deployed at the end of March 2010. The contracts have a length of one-year and three-years respectively.
Two contract renewals secured for a further three years
Eckoh has successfully secured contract renewals with two of its existing clients in the water industry for a further three-year period. These services include the provision of a telephone payments solution and the deployment of a web payments facility. Both services are on target to have successfully handled above the expected level of transactions by the end of the initial contract in March 2010.
Water companies are facing a number of challenges including increased costs and prices, technology changes and emerging environmental and regulatory pressures. Eckoh can deliver not only a user experience that exceeds expectations but also help address Ofwat's DG9 measures on the effectiveness with which water companies deal with incoming telephone traffic and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer of Eckoh, commented: "Automating card payments is a fast and effective way for contact centres to maximise productivity, decrease costs and deliver a great customer experience. That's why we've developed the EckohPay product, which has already generated significant interest and orders, as evidenced by these recent water industry contract wins and renewals. We're expecting it to become a key product for us in the coming months."
Eckoh's recent water industry contract wins and renewals demonstrate consumers' acceptance to use an efficient and secure automated self-service solution to pay their bills. Eckoh has considerable experience in successfully delivering real-time card payment solutions, with EckohPay processing over £100 million in transactions per annum. The service is fully hosted on Eckoh's secure and resilient carrier-grade platform, which gives clients the confidence that a greater capacity of calls can be handled during peak calling times.
Ends
Enquiries
Eckoh
Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer
Adam Moloney, Group Finance Director
www.eckoh.com Tel: 01442 458 300
Corfin Communications
Harry Chathli, Claire Norbury Tel: 020 7977 0020
Seymour Pierce
Jonathan Wright Tel: 020 7107 8000
Notes to Editors:
About Eckoh
Eckoh is the UK's largest provider of hosted speech recognition services, with over 7 years of experience in successfully deploying speech solutions. These allow our clients to efficiently manage their contact centres by replacing the more repetitive calls with an effective and intuitive automated service. Our solutions address high volume service requests including billing queries, delivery tracking services, travel timetable checks or transactional payments at a fraction of the cost of a live agent and on a 24 hour a day basis.
Our carrier-grade platform has the scalability to handle over 650,000 calls an hour and up to 8,000 simultaneously. Our platform has the capacity to manage even the most dramatic and unexpected call peaks, making it the most scalable and flexible speech-enabled platform in Europe. All of our clients' automation requirements; from speech, SMS, web to touch tone IVR are met via a single infrastructure, protecting them from the need for large scale technology investment - now or in the future.
Eckoh formed a strategic business alliance with BT in 2003. Working in partnership we have helped 20 clients across the financial services, government, utilities, retail & distribution, telecoms and travel & leisure sectors to transform their business operations through the introduction of hosted self-service solutions.
For more information, visit: www.eckoh.com
About Northumbrian Water Limited
Northumbrian Water and Essex & Suffolk Water are part of Northumbrian Water Limited, which is a member of Northumbrian Water Group (NWG).
Northumbrian Water Limited serves a population of 2.6 million people in the north east of England with water and sewerage services and 1.8 million in the south east of England where it provides water services trading as Essex & Suffolk Water.
For more information, visit: www.nwl.co.uk
About Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water
Welsh Water is the sixth largest of the ten regulated water and sewerage companies in England and Wales. Responsible for providing over three million people with a continuous, high quality supply of drinking water and for taking away, treating and properly disposing of the wastewater that is produced, we are fully committed to delivering best quality service at least possible cost.
Welsh Water is owned by Glas Cymru a single purpose company with no shareholders and is run solely for the benefit of customers. This corporate structure ensures that all financial surpluses generated are retained and reinvested for the benefit of Welsh Water and its customers.
For more information, visit: www.dwrcymru.com