Big deal brings IP to 30,000 call centre seats

THE Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which has one of the world’s largest call centre operations, has extended its contract with British Telecom for another three years.

Using IP, BT has installed nearly 22,000 call centre seats, a figure which is expected to rise to just under 30,000 this year.

The work includes local and wide area networks and conferencing, including video.

BT says its DWP systems handle 2m-plus calls a week and up to 3m during peaks.  Of these, more than 400,000 calls a day are handled by call centre staff.

The contract extension, worth about £237m, includes units such as Jobcentre Plus, the Pensions, Disability and Carers Service and the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.  DWP has about 113,000 over more than 1,130 sites.

In another move, BT has begun a five-year project to save £65m a year in property costs.

It is called P28, the number of sites it will close.

In the summer BT announced it was bringing back about half of its overseas call centre operations; these are likely to be housed in existing space.

BT currently has 86m sq ft in the UK, costing £1bn a year in rent, rates, utilities and services.  It plans to reduce this by using breaks in leases and not renewing others.