Case Study: Challenger Group

Challenger needed to upgrade from its incumbent, on-premises contact center solution to a cloud-based platform that would empower its agents and supervisors to seamlessly work from anywhere. Implementing CXone let Challenger more easily implement and adjust workflows across its contact center teams without the need for intervention from IT, as well as more easily source direct feedback from customers, leading to more streamlined processes and improved customer experiences.

01 Before

Adapting to new ways of working

Prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic forcing organizations worldwide to shift to remote work environments, Challenger needed to transition its contact center workforce from its on-premises legacy system to a cloud-based solution that would empower its employees to work from home. Challenger had also recently acquired a bank prior to the implementation that needed to be supported and transitioned to a single, centralized solution.

02 Desire to change

Work and report from anywhere

Challenger’s incumbent system was complex and had severe limitations, which were emphasized when the organization needed to send contact center agents to work from home with operational equipment including physical handsets at the outset of the pandemic. Challenger wanted to do more with its contact center than it could using the existing on-premises solution.

To modernize its operations, Challenger recognized the need for a cloud-based solution that would not only empower its agents to work from anywhere, but also support its supervisors to monitor and evaluate agents seamlessly regardless of location by delivering comprehensive visibility and reporting capabilities.

Challenger also needed a solution that would help it consolidate its existing contact center operations with its newly acquired banking contact center and centralize its operations to streamline processes. In addition, it also needed a solution that delivered Salesforce integrations and that would support it as multiple business units came onboard.

To meet its requirements, Challenger also needed a solution and implementation partner that would support it in meeting a tight, three-month deployment deadline.

“CXone was the clear choice for Challenger because it’s built and optimized for the cloud and offers more maturity than other solutions on the market. CXone lets Challenger’s agents work remotely and deliver consistent customer service regardless of location with little more than an internet connection and log in information. It also lets Challenger’s contact center agents deliver seamless support to Challenger Bank as needed.”

John Havranek

Head of IT, Infrastructure & Enterprise Systems
Challenger Group

03 NiCE solution

A cloud-native platform

After assessing the contact center vendors in the market with cloud service capabilities, Challenger selected NiCE’s CXone Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS) solution and engaged NiCE partner Optus to support its implementation and facilitate the expedited rollout within the three-month timeframe. CXone was identified as the ideal solution to meet Challenger’s needs because it was built and optimized for cloud. This set CXone apart, as it demonstrated a greater level of maturity compared to more traditional vendors that were migrating from on-premises to cloud-based solutions.

CXone also offered integration with Salesforce Classic, which was essential for Challenger, as well as the capability to futureproof and scale with the business as it moves to Salesforce Lightning. Additionally, NiCE’s CXone platform provides Challenger with increased flexibility and scalability for its contact center operations, while also supporting a remote workforce.

04 Results

Achieving streamlined processes and simplified onboarding

Since implementing NiCE’s CXone CCaaS solution, Challenger has achieved a number of key benefits across its operations that are directly related to the cloud-based solution. Its primary benefits include the ease with which the contact center team can configure and customize the system directly without the need for IT support.

For example, Challenger’s contact center team can more easily implement and adjust workflows directly. This means that, as changes to workflows are required, such as contact center team updates, managers can self-serve without needing to involve IT. This makes the onboarding process much more streamlined for new staff and helps the contact center team be more agile in responding to any team or process changes.

The way the NiCE CXone CCaaS solution is set up and modularized also makes such changes easier for the Challenger team as they can be directly actioned and managed by different business units, including the contact center, also without the need for direct involvement from IT. In addition to streamlining processes for the contact center team, this also lets the IT team focus on other business-critical tasks.

Beyond this, CXone also facilitates more customizable and comprehensive reporting for the Challenger team. The contact center team can manage customizable reporting directly from the CXone solution, which ensures the team has access to near-real-time data that can be used to drive actionable insights and improve the overall customer experience. This is essential to the success of the Challenger contact center team. In addition, Challenger can manage post-call surveys for customer feedback from directly within the CXone solution. This delivers essential information to the contact center team that can be used to deliver improved customer experiences and drive business success.

05 Future

Expanding business use

Since its initial CXone deployment, Challenger has moved its reception staff onto the CXone platform in addition to its contact center agents. Challenger has also experienced user growth of approximately 50 per cent and can seamlessly add and remove agents from the platform as needed. This ease of use will let Challenger continue to expand the use of CXone throughout its business as and when the need arises for areas of the business that are not already using the platform.