Unity4 Brings Cloud Based Contact Centre Business to New Zealand

-- Creating up to 150 jobs and a unique work from home model

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, June 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Unity4, Australia's largest at-home contact centre outsourcer and technology provider today announced it is expanding into the New Zealand market, with a goal of creating up to 150 jobs utilising a unique work from home model.

Dan Turner, Unity4 Chief Executive Officer Global, says New Zealand is the second international expansion for the self-funded innovative contact centre technology company, which recorded compound annual growth rates of 21% in 2012.

"This is a very exciting development for Unity4. Last year we employed over 500 people in the United Kingdom and Australia, and have brought our proven work from home model and leading cloud based contact centre technology to New Zealand.

"Recruitment is well underway. To date we have more than 20 agents, from all over the country, all working from home, as and when it suits them. We have welcomed our first technology client, Flight Centre, and are very close to finalising negotiations with three others.  We are confident that many more kiwi companies with a need for innovative, cost effective contact centre services will come on board in the coming months."

Unity4 has a large portfolio of international clients including (Wales Air Ambulance, Energy Australia, The Red Cross, Aegon and News Ltd) and is organized into two divisions; contact centre outsourcing - where clients fully outsource using Unity4's home based agents and proprietary call centre software -- and contact centre technology.

Contact centre technology division clients use Unity4's cloud contact centre software to manage both inbound and outbound campaigns as well as email, webchat and social media.  The flexibility of the solution allows clients to manage massive peaks in volume, easily integrate with multiple existing systems and delivers real time reporting to meet the varied needs of clients with multiple locations.  There are currently more than 2900 active users on Unity4's RapportCMS platform worldwide.

Research agency Gartner estimated that by this year at least 75% of contact centres will utilise software as a service to help run part of their operations.

The advantages of Unity4's cloud-based contact centre technology cloud deployment are many, Turner explains.

"Customers reduce their capital and maintenance costs, because they no longer have to buy expensive hardware or software, and pay only for what they use. While this reduces outlay, it doesn't comprise on security, reporting or flexibility.

"Our services are hosted in the most secure data centres in the world and our telephony partners are leaders in their field. We also make use of advanced technology to provide superior remote monitoring in real time. So no matter where the client is, they can check the performance of their campaigns, as they happen.  We can set up quickly and up-scale even faster to accommodate large projects. Clients may choose to run their bricks and mortar centres utilizing our platform or send a percentage of their agents to work from home.

"From our experience in Australia and the UK, we know the people working for the outsourcer are far more productive than the industry standard because they are working from home, when it suits them. Our team has much lower staff turnover which in turn, reduces cost," says Turner.

Working from home is a foundation of Unity4's outsourced business model, which was founded in Sydney in 2000. In 2008 the company estimated it had reduced carbon emissions by more than 2,000 tonnes a year through empowering its (then) 300+ staff to work from home.

Contact:
Dan Turner
CEO Unity4
dan.turner@unity4.com
+61-411-204-518