CASE
STUDY
Avaya helps to develop Affinion
International’s contact center a long-term collaboration
Challenge
Solution
Affinion requires a permanent telephony solution
with faultless reliability in order to perform the
contact center functions it carries out on behalf of
its demanding clients. Its collaboration with Avaya,
which began in 1998, has enabled Affinion to leverage
a robust infrastructure, which gives its clients total
customer satisfaction.
Beginning in 1998, Avaya has set up a telephone system
structured around servers, with automatic call distribution
(ACD) positions, and on which several programs have
been implemented over the years, as and when new
requirements have come up.
Value Created
• Redundant, secure and perfectly sized architecture to deal with the increase in volume of incoming calls.
• Very reliable hardware, no failures in ten years of operation.
• Wealth of operational tools - statistics on the network.
• Ease of programming for new campaigns thanks to Avaya VDN and Vector step tools.
• A global level of service that is optimised and highly satisfactory.
• The possibility to run projects with the European head office and other subsidiaries thanks to Avaya’s
international presence.
Telephony - the vital foundation of
Affinion’s relationship marketing
operations
“Telephony is strategic for Affinion. Our mission is to
Affinion France specialises in relationship marketing.
Operations Director at Affinion France and Benelux.
It designs, implements and applies loyalty programmes,
which are integrated into its clients’ offerings.
manage the entire customer relationship from a distance.
Since the telephone is our main vector for contact, we
need a faultless telephone system” states Thierry Sutter,
The contact center Affinion has put in place over the
years now consists of 70 positions split up by level of
Most of the companies for whom Affinion develops
expertise with integrated back-office services (classic call
and runs these programmes belong to the banking and
and conference functions). The contact center comprises
insurance sectors. The operational services developed
two main teams - a first line call centre (15 staff, 12 skill
by Affinion complement the contracts offered by these
areas) and a second line travel agency (40 staff, 14 skill
companies to their clients - value-added services
areas). Opening times are as follows: Monday 09.00 to
accompanying account agreements, telephone assistance
20.00, Tuesday to Friday 08.00 to 22.00 and Saturday
products (blocked payment cards, cancelling cards, lost
09.00 to 17.00.
credit cards), insurance products, animation products
(games, competitions, events, etc.), additional chargeable
services. Another important part of Affinion’s activity is
acting as a travel agent (reservations, holidays, weekend
breaks) within the scope of the products integrated into
its loyalty programmes.
Consequently, the success of the programmes and
services offered by Affinion mainly rests on the quality
of its telephony since the public currently makes contact
solely by telephone (Internet channels will be developed
in the near future).
A fruitful collaboration with Avaya
since 1998
The history of Affinion’s telephone system illustrates the
company’s desire to put solutions in place right from the
outset which could respond to demands that were likely
to change quickly and permanently.
“I’d just started at Affinion in 1998 when it decided to
look at its telephone infrastructure, following the signing
of an important contract with a French bank” explains
Thierry Sutter.
avaya.com/emea
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At the time, the telephone system, an Alcatel system
dating back to 1988, was not sufficient to meet coming
changes in technology. The decision to use an Avaya
Perfectly sized infrastructure to meet
any challenge
solution was made quickly as it offered major technical
The technical characteristics of the system installed
advantages and enabled the call centre to double in size
respond perfectly to Affinion’s needs and currently
in just a few weeks.
provide complete satisfaction.
But, in addition to the strict technical specifications, the
“We’ve proven that, using this solution, we can easily
Affinion project presented specific constraints.
respond to the sharp increases in workload experienced
Firstly, the company’s objective was to put in place a
by our telephone system” adds Thierry Sutter.
durable solution that could primarily follow its clients’
In fact the infrastructure has enough bandwidth to
changing needs easily, whether from a quantitative or
support 150 ports. So the addition of cards is rather
qualitative point of view. From the beginning, it needed
exceptional - it can be done for particular events. For
to have the ability to respond immediately using the
example, in 2004 when we carried out a move which was
hardware installed as well as anticipate the potential
able to take place in just one evening, the system was
needs of Affinion’s clients and future workload increases
operational again immediately.
generated by new contracts.
Then in 2005, when a sister company came onto
In addition, as a subsidiary company Affinion France
Affinion’s platform. Cards were added, enabling the two
needed to respect the internal operating rules set by the
companies to work on the same Avaya server. Then,
European head office based in London with regard to
following the resale of this company, the cards were
budgetary decisions. Unable therefore to count on regular
retained, giving Affinion enough room to manoeuvre to
funding to upgrade its equipment, Affinion needed a
meet the regular increases in incoming call volumes.
long-term, flexible solution using which it could adapt
developments as and when its clients’ needs grew.
In 2007, the call centre coped with 130,000 incoming
calls and 70,000 outgoing calls in the first line call
These particular constraints were an additional factor
centre and 140,000 incoming calls and 80,000 outgoing
in Affinion’s choice of solution and were decisive in
calls in the second line call centre.
choosing telephony equipment. “With Avaya, we found
requirements” confirms Thierry Sutter.
High-performance thanks to flexible
ACD programming
The system installed has two central units and offers
The loyalty programmes that Affinion develops for
the advantage of secure and redundant architecture. It
its clients are varied, wide-ranging and increasingly
consists of an ACD for incoming calls, with voicemail and
sophisticated. Quality of service is important for
message routing to manage queues.
telephone agents who need to respond to a wide
the answers and solutions that exactly matched our
Using ACD to distribute calls automatically according to
skills works perfectly.
Outgoing calls (a third of all calls) concerns calls made
by agents to carry out services requested of them (tour
operators, credit cards, etc.). Upgrades (software, card
updates) are carried out regularly. Access to the statistics
tool is made over the network just like for other European
subsidiaries of Affinion. It consists of a pair of redundant
CMS (Call Management System) servers located in
England. All information about calls is fed into these
servers on a real-time basis and is then displayed on
eight wallboards in the French call centre.
range of queries from callers and perform at their best
when it comes to orientation, finding answers and
proposing solutions.
In order to follow the demands of its clients easily,
Affinion has over time been able to adapt and utilise its
telephone system with no major changes to its structure.
“At the end of the day, our teams are still modest in
size and we can hardly be using sophisticated and
expensive software. We also preferred to find an “inhouse solution” rather than install a complicated tool for
which the investment would have been hard to justify”
explains Thierry Sutter. Affinion therefore benefited from
an internally developed call routing and call qualification
solution using Avaya’s VDN and Vector Step tools.
avaya.com/emea
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“I consider Avaya as a leader who pushes the market forwards by proposing
highly innovative products. Their products are extremely well positioned, even
ahead of the competition. If I had to set up another call centre in another
company, I wouldn’t hesitate to go for Avaya equipment”
In order to guarantee performance, services are evolved
In fact, the main developments are forecasted for
with the programming of new campaigns, which happen
2008/2009 and will be started at a European level.
thanks to VDN and Vector Step tools. “We can easily add
A move to IP telephony is planned using a centralised
steps to complete any changes we need to make. We can
interactive voice server accessible on the network. All
programme all of our new campaigns like this” Thierry
the European sites will be able to connect via the Voice
Sutter continues.
Portal architecture. Avaya’s tools have been found to be
Even though that doesn’t stop Affinion from sometimes
outsourcing, as needs be, certain voice server
applications (for commands with processing of products,
quantities and account numbers).
All operations are now managed directly by telephone
agents and have a high success rate. To reach this
point, many hierarchical choices are integrated for
the orientation and guidance of callers towards the
perfectly suited to centralising the flow of incoming calls
and generalising virtualisation. This will allow calls to be
handled at all sites.
The project should be carried out at a European level for
all of Affinion’s subsidiaries and will be rolled out in the
French office as soon as it moves to IP Telephony.
The advantages of Avaya
appropriate services. In terms of programming, many
The majority of commercial dealings with Avaya
VDN and Vector Step tools allow switching via touch
are handled from their head office in England and
tone menus. Other VDN and Vector Step programs
maintenance is carried out by a French company,
have also been set up to resolve queues and balance
JP Technologies, which is the correspondent of the
calls between the teams. This enables call routing
maintenance company Corporation Communication who
between several teams according to their availability
are retained by Affinion at a European level.
and provides an excellent level of service for callers and
greater effectiveness. “If the usual recipient of a call
is unavailable, we can still answer the call immediately
and put the caller on hold, providing him with a waiting
service until he can be transferred to the appropriate
person” explains Thierry Sutter. Established in 2005,
this queue management system intelligently balances
workload between the call centre teams.
Avaya assists on Affinion’s European
projects
The infrastructure has not yet encountered any major
disruptions, so, thanks to Avaya, Affinion has obtained
Mr Sutter feels he has “excellent contacts with Avaya.
Their international presence is important for negotiating
and setting up our European contracts. I can also find
out about their latest developments really easily. When
necessary, I’ve been able to visit other call centres
equipped with Avaya technology”.
Hardware reliability is another important element in
providing satisfaction. “We have a very high opinion of
the Avaya telephone system. It’s robust, reliable and
flexible. We haven’t had a single failure in ten years”
enthuses Thierry Sutter. “It’s just what I want in a
telephone system and what everyone forgets about!”.
permanent and complete satisfaction with regard to the
Finally, Avaya’s capacity for technological innovation is
operating services put in place. At the moment, there are
another important element which reinforces Affinion’s
plans to make more requests to the interactive server.
confidence. “I consider Avaya as a leader who pushes the
“After a provisional outsourcing solution, we’re now going
market forwards by proposing highly innovative products.
to make better use of our voice server using an Avaya
Their products are extremely well positioned, even ahead
solution” comments Thierry Sutter.
of the competition. If I had to set up another call centre
in another company, I wouldn’t hesitate to go for Avaya
equipment” concludes Thierry Sutter.
avaya.com/emea
About Affinion
Affinion, based in the US, is a global leader in relationship marketing with over 3500 collaborators and more than
110 million end clients who use their products and services daily throughout the world.
The European division has its head office in London and covers five countries: France, Germany, Italy, Norway and the UK.
Based in Villepinte, near Paris, subsidiary Affinion France also operates in Benelux and celebrates twenty years of French
presence in 2008.
Affinion designs, implements and manages loyalty programmes for clients with vast client networks such as banks and
insurance companies.
It has expertise in several professions and boasts a range of complementary competencies to help propose and implement
its various innovative loyalty tools. It develops client relationship programmes by relying on the integration of its different
knowledge areas: design and management of key programmes underway, adapted to their clients’ positioning and the profiles
of their end clients.
Affinion International’s wish is to offer each of its clients extensive expertise as well as reliable and effective solutions which
generate added value and extra revenues in the relationships that the brand has with its own clients.
About Avaya
Avaya enables businesses to achieve superior results by designing, building and managing their communications
networks. Over one million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE® 500, rely on
Avaya solutions and services to enhance value, improve productivity and gain competitive advantage. Focused on
enterprises large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable IP telephony systems, communications
software applications and full life-cycle services. Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with
business applications - and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services - Avaya helps customers leverage
existing and new networks to unlock value and enhance business performance. For more information about Avaya,
visit www.avaya.com/emea.
Applications
Systems
• Software Call Centre Elite
• Server with 150 ACD positions, of which 70 are in
the call centre
• Audix voicemail system for all administrative positions
• Oracle V8 and Voice@work V4.6
• Avaya Conversant IVR
• Two Call Management System (CMS) (one of which
acts as a back-up) located in England
• Display of statistics on wallboards (eight PC screens)
in the two teams
© 2008 Avaya Inc.
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