Outsourcing makes things more efficient!
Vattenfall is a European energy company with approximately 19,000 employees. For more than 100 years, they electrified industries, delivered energy to people's homes and modernised our way of life through innovation and collaboration. They now wants to make it possible to live fossil-free within one generation.
Need
In connection with Vattenfall's decision to move its head office from Råcksta to new premises in Arenastaden in Solna in 2012, it issued a tender and Responda Group won the contract to manage the company's switchboard.
Solution
The switchboard was entirely outsourced to Responda Group, which could offer a complete switchboard function with professional receptionists, round-the-clock monitoring and efficient handling during peak loads. After a couple of years of successful collaboration, Vattenfall decided in the summer of 2014 to also extend the assignment to include the Ringhals nuclear power plant and, at the end of 2014, also the Forsmark nuclear power plant.
As part of its quality assurance work, Vattenfall and Responda Group entered the Swedish Telephone Switchboard Championships. For two consecutive years, we reached the final and achieved a joint 2nd place in the category ”Switchboards with more than 8,000 extensions”. This year, we won, with the citation:
”When you call this company, you are met by telephone operators who handle their matters in an exceptional manner. The professional approach is striking. In the ”More than 8,000 extensions” category, a clear winner surged ahead, and that is Vattenfall/Responda Group.”
Effect
”To be able to maintain the same quality as we do through our partnership with Responda Group, we would need to work with internal overcapacity. With outsourcing, it simply becomes more efficient, as Responda Group are experts in the field. But it is also important to ask yourself, what does switchboard telephony mean for our business, do we have our referral database in order, sufficient competence to support, etc.? You outsource the task, but not the responsibility for the systems, which is important to remember. Then, of course, you must demand availability from the supplier. I also think it is important to include the training of the switchboard operators in the agreement so that the right competence and information reach the operators.
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to our friends at Responda. Thanks to professional project management and dedicated telephone operators, I find it a very positive experience being a customer of Responda Group.” – Ulla Stolt, Vattenfall