Press Release

C3i Europe Has Developed a Steady IT Environment In Order To Meet Its Clients High Requirements*

Sofia, Bulgaria – March 31, 2009

*Published by CIO Magazine, Bulgaria, March 2009
www.cio.bg 
All rights reserved

C3i’s technology and outsourcing services help life sciences organizations dramatically improve end-user effectiveness while lowering the total cost of deploying and supporting a clinical or CRM environment. Only C3i provides a complete portfolio of business consulting, systems implementation, technology training, multi-lingual help desk, performance optimization and workstation management services. C3i has global operations centers in the United States, India and Bulgaria.

“Currently, C3i provides help desk support for over 35,000 commercial and 90,000 clinical end-users in the Life Sciences industry. Through our success over the last 15 years, we have established a custom Life Sciences’ call tracking system which has helped us to achieve high service levels and cost reduction and over 90 percent satisfaction from customers”, explained Svetoslav Georgiev, Senior Operations Director of C3i Europe.

In order to deliver the high quality services in the field of technical support, the company has highly intelligent and technological environment, which is actively used in performing the day to day business for its clients.

“We work for many and different clients – software developers, Contract Research Organizations (CRO), Pharmaceutical companies, Patient organizations. All of them have their own requirements for us but they all pay significant attention to the overall satisfaction of their customers, so do we. Still the specific scope of their business determines also some additional levels of details which they are particularly interested in”.

The Software developers are interested in helping them identify the bugs in the systems and the things which cause problems or difficulties to their users. For the CROs it is important if the end users (i.e. medical professionals) are set technologically to participate in the clinical trial. On other hand the Pharmaceutical companies, where the chain practically ends do care for all of the above as well as for the reliability of the entered data. “In order to perform the best of our abilities we need   to have exceptionally steady IT environment. Our clients have requirements to be met, therefore we can’t afford to have an IT solution and use it, unless it has been through the necessary validation stages. They insist on us following certain processes , having concrete plans regarding when and what is implemented as far as the systems we are using and the latest developments   we are introducing. Our business and IT plan is focused mainly on our clients’ needs”, stated Mr. Georgiev.

The services which the company offers are practical solutions to different issues which occur when software is used by physicians and specialists involved in clinical trials. Following a single incident lifecycle there are many systems involved.

The company has an intelligent solution which distributes the emails and the incoming calls according to the languages which the employees speak. When we have an incoming email it is automatically distributed to the employee in charge of the particular client and speaking the certain language. “With each of our clients we have a service level agreement (SLA). Usually we undertake the engagement to work on an incoming case and give an answer to the client within less than two hours. However we have cases which require exceptional attention within the first 15 minutes after they have been received. At the same time a deadline is being tracked by the system and if the deadline is not kept, the system alarms the supervisors and the management, so they know the particular case needs more attention from a higher level”, explained Mr. Georgiev. 

The phone calls are being routed to the analysts through different phone numbers depending on the country from which the calls enter in the system - for each client and country a unique number exists. Thus if the client is presented in 50 different countries there will be 50 different phone numbers only for this client. These numbers are toll free in all the countries involved.

“As for the telephony we use proven technology providers. When the phone call enters into our system it is detected by its number from which country and client it comes. After that the customer who is calling has option to choose the language on which he prefers to conduct the call - for example if the caller is from Canada he may choose French or English. After the choice is been done the system transfers the call to the analyst who has the needed skills and works in the department which is in charge of that client and also speaks the language chosen from the customer. In a situation if a call stays on the queue for more than 2 minutes an alarm message is being received by the management” - says Mr. Georgiev.

All phone calls which are conducted from the Help desk analysts are being recorded. This is one of the requirements of the company’s clients. The technology which we use is VoIP and the phone conversations are recorded as voice electronic data so that they can be also re- listened. They are archived in a separate system and are accessible for a predefined period.

The company uses also a Knowledge Management system (KM) – its platform could be also integrated to the other systems if needed. “As we work with many clients it is of great importance for us to have this significant quantity of accumulated knowledge kept in an electronic format. The system has a user- friendly interface. When the analyst is not competent about the problem of his customer he can use the KM system and to search with key word or phrase in the database. This way he has on his disposal the whole information collected in it for the raised issue.

The 10 most frequently asked questions on the topic are displayed at the first click. In most of the cases the analyst finds there the answer of his issue as the problems are very often identical. The KM system is very useful because the analyst has the possibility to deliver prompt decision to his client. During the above mentioned process the information is entered into a CRM system based on Oracle’s Siebel platform. The solution is web based and is accessible through specific URL addresses worldwide. Information concerning emails, telephone calls,   interactions is kept in there.” It is being modified in order to meet the demanding industry which we support. Practically every case we work on is entered in it. “- Mr. Georgiev explained.

Essential for the organization is the availability of the multi level access solution. The aim is to have different access rights for different employee groups during the case solving. The first level employee group (the HDA = Help Desk Analysts, level 1) can create different assistance requests and can close them but cannot reopen an already closed case. The next level of employee groups (HDA level 2) can do this – they have the right to edit already closed cases but no one can delete them.

“There is an audit of the records and the trails left (audit trail). This is an important feature for a company like ours, which works within the life sciences industry. We need to have the possibility of showing the whole case history if needed as a proof, for all cases that we deal with. In practice all cases are tracked by time, level of access and by certain employees working on a particular case. Currently in Sofia we process 15 -20 thousand cases per month”, - we have been told by Mr. Georgiev.

Using the functionality of the CRM software, large volume of information is collected and used for different analysis and checkups, aiming to serve the client’s needs or the needs of our company. It helps in the decision making – how to work more efficiently and effectively, are all processes the ones we should follow, how are they structured, where are the weak points, and if yes – how to eliminate them.
 
“All data and analysis presented to our clients are precise and detailed. We make an assessment of the technical environment of hospitals which will take part in a certain medical trial. For example – 100 hospitals will participate, only 90 of them have the required equipment for the trial. For the other 10 hospitals it is important to find out what are their difficulties – concerning the hardware, software, the internet access or others. We act proactively, in cases with difficult issues. If we get a green light from our client we ship the technical equipment, provide the internet infrastructure, and of course we do it globally! Our colleagues at C3i in Denville (USA) do the assembling work of the computers and the shipping worldwide, which gives the opportunity to the doctors to take care for their job and leave the technology sourcing to us”, explained Mr. Georgiev.

The CRM solution as well as the other systems are constantly being upgraded and changed. These changes are performed by the IT department in the company following a strictly defined process of development which is documented duly and in details (system development lifecycle). If a client starts a process of integration and his requirements cannot be resolved by the current functionality of our systems they are adapted so that they can ensure the service and the quality of the respective work processes.
 
“In any of these cases the information required back from our partners varies. When we start to work we must be sure that we have the most adequate way to save and archive the collected information. Our success (at great extension) is based on the flexibility and adaptability to the needs of different types of clients equally in technical and business aspect. The changes derive from our clients’ needs but they also follow definitive business logic as they are evaluated and prioritized from business point of view internally.” – ended Mr. Georgiev