Established in 1980, Tri-City Cardiology is a medical practice specializing in cardiovascular disease. Tri-City is widely known for its progressive and innovative approach to vascular services, heart and heart failure management. Its physicians are experienced in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of coronary artery disease, heart valve abnormalities, heart arrhythmias, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, peripheral artery disease and stroke. Based in Mesa, Ariz., Tri-City has five locations in the area, including clinics, administration and billing offices.
The Challenge. Tri-City Cardiology needed a telephone system that could handle more than 14,000 calls per month and provide around-the-clock reliability as well as redundancy across five locations. The system also had to link all five sites and allow Tri-City to have a mix of IP and digital telephones on the same system. Tri-City further wanted to expand its call center capabilities; one of the key goals was to have calls route to agents in each of the five locations. Finally, Tri-City’s IT team wanted to be able to oversee systems administration remotely for all five locations.
The Solution. Tri-City Cardiology turned to Phoenix-based Copper State Communications, an authorized dealer for Toshiba’s Telecommunication Systems Division for more than 28 years. Joe Radetich, major account executive of Copper State Communications, recommended the Toshiba Strata CIX IP business telephone system and Strata ACD call center solution because it would deliver the reliability, redundancy, backup and call center features Tri-City needed.
Copper State Communications installed a Strata CIX670 business telephone system at Tri-City’s headquarters and Strata CIX670 systems at its four other locations – all in Mesa. It also installed Strata Net, which connects all locations via IP. The deployment required more than 265 Toshiba digital and IP telephones across the locations. In addition, Copper State put in a Strata ACD contact center solution with Toshiba Strata Call Manager softphones, OAISYS Tracer call recording solution and TASKE Reporting. A Strata MAS with auto attendant, unified messaging and other applications also were added to the single-server solution. Network eManager provides for centralized remote management of all systems.
The Result. Tri-City said its communications objectives have been met. First, every call gets through to an agent, helping to improve customer service. The call center also has seen less agent turnover because of improved call handling, recording, reporting and more. At the same time, customer service has improved due to enhanced call routing and other functions. And Tri-City has been able to cut down on costly service call time, thereby saving money.
