Market Singapore Case Study

Mitel is making life easy for high-growth Singapore product brokerage and internet marketing company.

CHALLENGE:

• Market Singapore required a sophisticated communications solution to be ready in time for the company’s launch in September 2014.

SOLUTION:

• Market Singapore implemented a Mitel Unified Communications and Enterprise Contact Center solution to support 25 staff, including 10 agents in its customer service centre.

BENEFITS:

• Simple, rapid and trouble-free implementation.
• Remote administration of telephony and contact centre environment.
• Maintaining low operational costs.
• Ease of use enabling rapid onboarding of new staff.
• Scalability to meet rapid operational growth.

A communications platform primed for growth

Market Singapore opened in September 2014 with its official launch in November 2014 by its CEO and President, James H. Ridinger. Market Singapore is a subsidiary of Market America, a product brokerage and internet marketing company that specialises in one-to-one marketing and social shopping. Market America is currently in nine countries and also operates SHOP.COM, one of the largest online retailers for consumers worldwide, offering over 35 million products and services.

Since launch, Market Singapore has experienced rapid growth and currently represents more than 10 brands and over 300 exclusive lines, with a focus on self-help, nutritional, cosmetic and healthcare products. Further growth is planned for Singapore, and Market America is also looking to expand operations into more Asian countries.

“In our business, we have two core sales channels. One is through our e-commerce platform [sg.shop.com] and the other is a one-toone marketing arm,” explains Jojo Soh, Country Manager, Market Singapore.

With the majority of Market Singapore’s staff in customer-facing roles, establishing an effective communications solution was one of the key requirements as the company was preparing for its September 2014 launch. Market Singapore currently has 25 staff, including a contact centre with 10 agents, with plans for significant growth in the next 12 months.

“Singapore is the number eight territory that we launched as a full market country to service local customers and the requirement for telephony included customer service features to manage inbound calls,” said Jojo.

Cost, functionality and scalability

Market Singapore evaluated a range of unified communications and contact centre solutions based on functionality and cost. Considerable growth was expected in its first year of operation, so the solution also had to have the ability to meet expansion of the company’s operations both in Singapore and potentially into other countries in Asia.

“WE HAVE NOT HAD TO EMPLOY ANY LOCAL IT RESOURCES IN SINGAPORE TO MANAGE OUR TELEPHONY AND CONTACT CENTRE ENVIRONMENT, WHICH HAS HELPED TO KEEP OUR OPERATING COSTS DOWN.”

Jojo Soh, Country Manager
Market Singapore

Mitel was the clear choice on both cost and the ability of the platform to meet expected growth. However, it was a working demonstration of Mitel’s Enterprise Contact Center (ECC) solution that convinced Market Singapore that Mitel had the right unified communications and contact centre features.

Owing to the short timeframes for deployment, the project was completed in two phases – the first phase to ensure that IP telephony was fully operational in time for launch, then the second phase to complete the more complex ECC design to meet the requirements of Market Singapore’s contact centre.

The Mitel physical infrastructure, including voice switches and server hardware, is installed on site in Market Singapore’s offices. Maintenance for the Mitel solution is provided under a services contract, with day-to-day administration of the platform undertaken by Market Singapore’s own team.

"WITH A SMALL AMOUNT OF INITIAL TRAINING FOR OUR AGENTS, THE SHORETEL ECC SOLUTION HAS BEEN SIMPLE TO USE.”

A very easy implementation

Having a short timeframe to have communications established, the Mitel solution “was easy to install, user-friendly and there was not much for us to be worried about prior to launch,” Jojo states.

Since launching in September 2014, the solution has been very reliable and easy to manage, which has been ideal for Market Singapore’s business structure. The company has no IT support staff in region, instead using IT as a shared service with resources based in Market America’s headquarters in the US.

“We have not had to employ any local IT resources in Singapore to manage our telephony and contact centre environment, which has helped to keep our operating costs down,” says Jojo.

Market Singapore’s US-based IT team has been able to provide ongoing administration of the Mitel system remotely, with the assistance of local staff.

It’s in the contact centre itself where Market Singapore has seen the biggest benefits with Mitel, explains Jojo.

“With a small amount of initial training for our agents, the Mitel ECC solution has been simple to use. And from a supervisor’s perspective, it is very easy to monitor calls and also to generate and review reports.”

"WE WANTED TO START IN SINGAPORE THEN SHARE THE BENEFITS OF USING SHORETEL WITH OUR OTHER COUNTRIES.”

The biggest benefit has been in Market Singapore’s ability to expand. It’s very straightforward for the company to bring on a new agent – it just means purchasing an additional user licence, provisioning an extension, and conducting a short training session in the use of the Mitel ECC solution.

“If there is any growth in the contact centre, we do not have to worry about adding new tools or new software, because our Mitel solution is ready for that expansion,” said Jojo.

Future plans

Market Singapore expects growth to continue at the same rapid rate for the next 12 months, and Jojo is confident in the Mitel platform comfortably scaling to meet its communications needs.

Jojo is eager to see additional cost savings and other benefits from VoIP and Mitel’s single platform for its expansion into new countries in the future. As the only Market America territory with Mitel currently deployed, Jojo believes that Market America’s other locations will be watching with interest.

“We wanted to start in Singapore then share the benefits of using Mitel with our other countries.”