Last checked at 30 Apr 2010 07:00
30 April 2010
Eckoh plc
("Eckoh" or "the Group")
Eckoh proves resilient in volcanic travel disruption
Flight information service succeeded in helping over 40,000 stranded passengers
Eckoh, the UK's largest provider of hosted speech recognition services, and the Group's strategic partner BT, successfully handled a dramatic increase in calls to its client's flight information services during the travel chaos following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, and consequent cancellation of all flights to and from the UK.
On Thursday 16 April 2010, the first day of flight disruption, calls to the Heathrow Airport flight information service doubled, whilst volumes for Gatwick Airport increased to six-times the usual amount. Call volumes continued to remain high during Friday and levelled on Saturday through to Tuesday with all flights being cancelled. The call traffic rose dramatically again from Wednesday 21 April as flights resumed after the six-day shutdown.
Eckoh's contract is for the provision of flight information services that allow callers to obtain real-time flight status information for all flights into and out of Heathrow and Gatwick. By using an on-demand hosted solution, the service was able to deal effectively with the sudden dramatic increase and fluctuation in call volume and duration resulting from the disruption to air traffic. Equally, the scalability and capacity of Eckoh's carrier-grade platform ensured that all calls were answered and current information provided.
Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer of Eckoh, said: "Eckoh's solution and platform capability means that we have the capacity to deal with heavy demand when there is an unexpected and exceptional call spike. We are pleased that we were able to assist stranded passengers at such a critical time, which demonstrates the strength of our solutions and validates our clients' confidence in the service Eckoh provides."
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
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 BT
BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries.
Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.
In the year ended 31 March 2009, BT Group's revenue was £21,390 million.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt