Press release

Orchestra booms through demand for sophisticated outsourcing contract solutions

• Innovative west country customer contact firm uses ntl:Telewest Business to deliver highly personalised customer service solutions
• ntl:Telewest Business services used to create platform for managing contact with millions of constituents and customers
• Bristol-based company uses communications to expand business across the UK.

6th July 2006. ntl:Telewest Business, the supplier of communications services to the public and private sectors, today announced that Orchestra, a Bristol-based company that handles customer contact outsourcing contracts for Government departments and major companies, is using its advanced communications services to deliver sophisticated customer contact solutions.

As consumers and constituents have increasingly higher expectations of the number of ways in which they can make contact, Orchestra is expanding its business rapidly through demand for its highly personalised and closely managed customer contact solutions, including debt management, e-marketing, printing of security-sensitive documents and contact centres that seamlessly use SMS and web chat as well as traditional voice methods.

Orchestra’s customer contracts are restricted by confidentiality clauses but typical assignments are for Government departments needing to manage correspondence with millions of constituents and large financial services companies needing to maintain ongoing relationships with UK customers. The company, which employs 280 people, manages these services from offices in Bristol and Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.

Orchestra was founded as a printing business in Gloucestershire in 1947 and grew to become a customer fulfillment organisation handling large outsourcing contracts. The onset of the internet and advanced voice contact systems has enabled the company to develop an innovative delivery platform for a multitude of sophisticated communications services. This enables it to introduce services to new customers quickly, while ensuring that the systems are flexible, scalable, robust and always available.

By treating all communication with each customer as an event, Orchestra ensures that every element of its outsourced programmes is logged, tracked and audited, and so avoids the pitfalls of frustrating the public through inappropriate correspondence. ntl:Telewest Business, as the sole communications services supplier, has worked with Orchestra to build its service delivery platform using managed internet leased lines, advanced and regular non-geographic number services, inbound call management and a leased line to connect the company’s two sites. These services ensure that the sophisticated levels of customer contact can be supported continuously and the systems have the in-built resilience to overcome any degree of network outage.

“Our solution truly empowers the customer to engage with us, using whatever method they choose. This includes for example the ability to ‘self serve’ with online functionality or offline using automated speech recognition.”, said Andrew Bunnett, Group Operations Director at Orchestra.

“Orchestra is striving to be a true innovator in delivering outsourced customer contact services that are carried out to rigorous quality standards and are in line with how the customer wishes to receive and send material. ntl:Telewest Business’ services, combined with the expertise and dedication of its team, have enabled us to create a robust platform for providing those services and so are helping to accelerate the growth of our company.”, he said.

“The challenge of keeping customers happy today requires a level of intricate contact that was unthinkable just a few years ago. They have high expectations and communications services need to support a degree of personalisation that make the likes of mass mailing seem very primitive.”, said John Cunningham, Director of Business Markets, ntl:Telewest Business. “Orchestra is an innovative business that is being enormously successful in securing government and private sector outsourcing contracts by delivering sophisticated customer contact solutions through advanced communications.”

About ntl:Telewest Business

ntl:Telewest Business, part of the UK’s second largest fixed-line telecommunications company, is a leading communications provider to businesses, public sector organisations and service providers in the UK. It delivers a complete portfolio of voice, data and internet solutions nation-wide.

ntl:Telewest Business sales and support teams are located across the UK, in close proximity to our customers, as part of a commitment to deliver superior customer service.

ntl:Telewest Business delivers services over the Group’s £13bn investment  in its state-of-the-art infrastructure giving business customers access to the largest alternative network in the UK.

ntl:Telewest Business is trusted to provide critical communications to high profile customers including: Heathrow's Terminal 5, Birmingham City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council.

For further information go to http://www.ntltelewestbusiness.co.uk/

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