News: Customer Management, Call Centres, Russia, CEE: Using the help of Russian IT firm AT Consulting, the Chicago-based multi-channel knowledge applications company InStranet has won a contract with major Russian mobile phone giant VimpelCom-Communications.

InStranet will deploy its Contact Centres in Line (CCIL) application at Vimpel’s ten call centres and 50 retail stores. CCIL will now be the knowledge management component of VimpelCom's customer service desktop platform, where it will be used by 7,000 call centre agents and retail store employees, spanning nine time zones to support a customer base of 50 million subscribers.

"With CCIL…we expect to reduce call times, increase service levels, and reduce costs," said Leonid Kramarenko, Customer Care Director at VimpelCom. "We're impressed with the collaboration efforts between InStranet and AT Consulting, and with the aim of fast deployment we are excited about empowering our agents with both transactional information and knowledge from a single desktop environment."

"Telecommunication companies in Russia and throughout the world face strong competition," said Jean-Nol Grandval, VP & General Manager, Europe and Asia Pacific for InStranet. "For a service provider like VimpelCom to remain a leader, they need to empower their agents with the right knowledge to solve any customer issue accurately and quickly. Together with AT Consulting, we look forward to helping VimpelCom succeed with this important customer service initiative."

* VimpelCom, which was the first Russian company to list on the New York Stock Exchange, provides mobile phone services in Russia, Ukraine, and many of the post-Soviet Central Asian republics, including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.