Achieving Results Through Instant Insight

A case study with Credit First National Association & Inova Solutions

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Corporation, Credit First National Association (CFNA) provides credit card services to thousands of the company's retail and commercial clients. With a growing business, CFNA realized the importance of collecting, integrating and distributing information to various levels of staff in a fast-paced environment. CFNA turned to Inova Solutions in 2007, then again in 2009 for a customized solution.

Phase 1

The Challenge

In 2007, CFNA identified several key performance indicators that were hard to access, consolidate and share with call center teams. "As our business matured, we needed real-time data on service levels and call volumes to properly manage the business," said Al Policy, CFNA's President and CEO. "We found it difficult to quickly handle changing conditions in the contact center."

"We also wanted an easy, effective way to communicate with our employees about everything from call queue information, company performance, project updates and procedural changes to motivational team messages and weather reports. This hadn't been easy because we have a multi-shift call center and a lot of part-time staff."

In essence, because CFNA staff could not see data in real-time, they couldn't quickly shift workloads and resources. This drawback affected productivity, as well as CFNA's ability to deliver optimal customer service.

The Solution

CFNA searched for a vendor partner that would provide expertise, products and services to ensure the best results. "We wanted flexible, high-end displays to hook into our existing systems and evolve with our changing needs," Policy explained. "We chose Inova Solutions because they're forward thinking and had the right products. The integration call center software is very flexible and the displays offer a wide variety of layouts with text, graphics and videos. The displays are so easy to modify that we update them all day long and rotate views depending on the center's needs."

CFNA installed twelve 40" and 46" LCD displays with digital signage software for its call center of 150 people. The plasma screens delivered high-impact information proven to create a highly responsive environment.

The displays were connected with Inova LightLink®, Inova's middleware product that delivers instant, consolidated data from multiple sources.

The Results

The installation process was fast and simple. And CFNA experienced notable increases in productivity, customer satisfaction and employee morale almost immediately. "Now that everyone can see instant data, productivity has improved," Policy said. "It's amazing how motivated front-line reps are when they are empowered with information to efficiently provide the best service."

Phase 2

The Challenge

By 2009, CFNA had been utilizing digital signage displays and software for two years. While they were pleased with the system, their needs had evolved since the first implementation in 2007.

In addition, CFNA wanted to ensure that their team was maximizing their utilization of the digital signage software's rich set of features and functionalities. They needed guidance on how to create views that combine effective messaging, quality multimedia content and real-time data to improve productivity in the contact center. In particular, CFNA sought a quick and easy way to send ad-hoc messages to the digital signage displays.

Lastly, the equipment that controls the digital signage displays was originally set up physically near each display for ease of implementation. However, it became necessary at CFNA to relocate this equipment to a remote location for security and maintenance reasons. They asked Inova Solutions to aid them in this transition.

The Solution

CFNA chose Inova Solutions to help them with these new requirements because of their positive experience with Inova's service and support during the first implementation in 2007. After evaluating CFNA's floor plan and employee workstation locations, Inova's Display Planning Consultants recommended adding six 40" LCD displays to the current configuration to allow for maximum visibility. This brought the total number of screens in the center to 18.

Inova also provided training and consultative services to help the CFNA team maximize their ROI. Inova's Training Manager and Systems Engineer visited the contact center to analyze their utiliization of the system and make recommendations tailored to CFNA's specific business goals.

To satisfy CFNA's messaging requirement, Inova developed a new feature in LightLink that allows Inova administrators to create and send messages on an ad-hoc basis quickly and easily. To take advantage of this new feature, CFNA upgraded to LightLink 5.7, the latest version of middleware that drives digital signage.

Finally, Inova was able to help CFNA relocate their digital signage PCs to a secure, remote location. "We provided the necessary signal distribution hardware to allow six PCs in the secure room to drive individual or multiple displays remotely via CAT5/6/7," said Clint Vess, Sales Engineer at Inova Solutions.

The Results

CFNA is now well-equipped to use the Inova digital signage system to its fullest potential and to effectively communicate real-time information throughout its contact center.