CB Richard Ellis is the world’s leading commercial real estate advisor with more consultants advising more customers than any other property firm. The firm is an industry leader and has scooped the coveted Business Week 50 – that publication’s list of best performers across all industries – for the third year in a row and is the only commercial real estate company to earn a place on this year’s chart.
The company’s EMEA phone network alone comprises of 3,500 extensions and is maintained by a six- strong switchboard team that deals with around 2,000 calls a day. The team was having to deal with constant enquiries from network users, as Coral Finch, Switchboard Supervisor, explains: “Users were always asking us to look up numbers or to tell them who’d just called, because they didn’t recognise the phone number.” Finch’s team also needed to constantly update switchboard directories, which also impacted on call response performance.
Accurate and timely handling of calls is a critical task, as in CB Richard Ellis’s business environment knowing who has called, and when, can have legal ramifications if information is disputed between parties. Additionally, some instances of abuse of the phone system, such as staff making unauthorised international calls from conference rooms, had been noted. The incumbent call logging systems simply did not have the functionality to meet the firm’s needs prompting senior IT managers to evaluate a number of replacements before selecting Tiger 2020 Pro, incorporating the ‘View My Calls’ module.
The new system logs every call and places it in the right category with the ability to run a report on any phone worldwide. The system also helps combat fraud by restricting international calling from open areas such as conference rooms and provides detailed call analyses across the entire company. Each employee can also view an accurate log of all his or her inbound and outbound calls over a 3 month period via a simple web browser interface.
However, where the system has quickly paid for itself is in dispute resolution. “One colleague said it stopped him from being sued,” explains Finch, “A client insisted they had rung him to cancel an important meeting, and with Tiger View My Calls, my colleague could prove that no such call was made on the day stated, and he avoided legal action as a result.”
The highly automated nature of the solution has helped the switchboard team use its time more productively by freeing them up from chasing up internal call enquiries and running manual reports. The combination of reduced call abuse, increased accuracy in call handling and settlement of legal issues has helped the firm maintain its reputation for excellence within its industry.