KBC Peel Hunt provides corporate advisory and stock broking services to over 120 companies with a market capitalisation of between $300 million and $10 billion.
“Voice communication is an essential part of our business processes and continuity”, says David Flint, IT Director. “We cannot afford a glitch in the service whatever the cause.”
Initially, KBC Peel Hunt was looking for a business continuity system that would instantaneously and seamlessly recover 100% of its incoming calls and intelligently re-route them to alternative numbers. However, it soon realised that further commercial advantage could be obtained by combining a digital voice recording module with a business continuity solution and then extending the service throughout the whole company including its trading floor.
FSA regulations demand that all trading floor telephone conversations are recorded to document customer interactions for verification and compliance purposes, and in the case of dispute resolution, to provide definitive court evidence.
After extensive evaluation, KBC Peel Hunt chose a fully managed solution from GemaTech. The Business Continuity Manager (BCMLITE) and Secure Voice Recording (SVRLITE) products were selected, providing a robust and resilient solution offering the capability to recover calls, directly configuring DDIs to individuals and groups of individuals, whilst also providing remote management capabilities. “Remote management gives us more flexibility in support terms”, says Wayne Hopwood, Voice Analyst. “Our dealers have been known to work through the night and it is imperative that the phone system stays operational. Having a system that we can rely on is crucial to our business.”
KBC Peel Hunt is assured of continuous service because the GemaTech host system is sited at the local telephone exchange with a data link to both the company offices and its disaster recovery site as well as having independent web access. In a disaster recovery situation re-routing of the phone system can be achieved quickly from any remote internet connection. Any number of pre-configured call plans can be stored ready to be implemented at the touch of a button.
Every incoming and outbound call passes through the GemaTech system and is automatically recorded, regardless of how or where it is diverted – internally, to an external landline or to a mobile phone. “If an office call is diverted to a mobile or external landline, then the call is announced so that it can be answered appropriately, and the conversation is recorded, no matter how many diversions or transfers it goes through”, says Flint. Calls are recorded onto a server with terabytes of storage, enough Flint estimates, to last the company for five years, even with several thousand recordings being made each day.
“The benefit of the GemaTech system is that it offers continual communication and total management flexibility. If a problem occurs with the telephone connection calls are automatically re-routed either on an individual DDI basis or on a company-wide basis to mobiles or other locations, and we still maintain the protection of call recording”, says Flint. He also admits that the cutting edge GemaTech technology allows him and his team to sleep easier in their beds at night.