FRONTLINERS deploys Sun Ray thin clients at Jeddah call centre

The new technology infrastructure, which includes the initial provision of 50 Sun Ray thin clients, will enable staff at the 24-hour call centre run by FRONTLINERS, to provide voice, email, fax and SMS outsourced solutions for different companies in the country.

Staff at the multi-channel, multi-lingual call centre which is staffed by Saudi nationals, can handle between more than 15,000 calls a day. FRONTLINERS customers will now be able to receive daily online reports and will also be offered data warehousing and business intelligence services as result of the Sun deployment.

"We needed a world class solution in place to support the requirements of our customers and give them the best that technology can bring in terms of security, productivity, and reliability" said Julien Durand, general manager, FRONTLINERS. "The solution we have implemented also allows us to provide value added services, differentiating ourselves from other operators in the Kingdom.

"System reliability and security were important considerations for us when we examined different vendors. Sun's offering, combined with the support and implementation plans of 3iSolution made them an attractive choice for us."

FRONTLINERS has installed 50 Sun Ray desktops and associated software, but senior executives at the company anticipate rapid growth for their services, and expect to increase the number of employees to 224 by 2006.

"The IT infrastructure solution in place will enable FRONTLINERS to provide its clients with a unique service," said Abdulrahman Al Qanzal, general manager, 3iSolution. "And as the business grows, and the number of employees increases, Sun's technology will be in place to support growth."

FRONTLINERS evaluated proposals from a number of other IT vendors, before opting for Sun, whose powerful and space saving Sun Ray thin clients and streamlined software solution matched the short and long term requirements of FRONTLINERS. The contact centre provider was able to evaluate a live mock-up of the solution at Tech Access' million dollar i-Force test centre located at its Dubai Internet City offices.

"Ensuring the constant availability of mission critical data is perhaps even more important for a call centre, where hundreds of requests for information, support and advice are made on an hourly basis," said Ahmed Farrag, Saudi Arabia country manager, Sun Microsystems.

"FRONTLINERS now has an exceptional IT infrastructure in place, backed up by dedicated service and support from 3iSolution, that rivals the very best in the Kingdom. We look forward to working with them in the future as their business continues to develop," he added.