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Pearson Education & Connextions.net Team to Develop an Innovative Multi-channel, Multi-lingual Customer Service Solution
Posted: 5/7/2002
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CONTACT: Donna Arbietman
407-926-2403
darbietman@connextions.net
Orlando, FL – (May 6, 2002) – Pearson Education, a part of Pearson PLC (LSE) and the world's leading educational and professional publisher, has partnered with eBusiness services outsourcer Connextions.net to design, develop and provide Web-based, multi-channel customer service in multiple languages to international customers of its Longman e-learning division.
Privately owned Connextions.net specializes in integrating and providing leading-edge eBusiness technology, Web-enabled customer service, fulfillment and supply chain management to clients including Nextel, Mercedes-Benz U.S.A., Olympus, EarthLink and JPMorgan Chase.
Pearson Education, which designed a global e-learning tool for studying English as a second language, launched its Longman English SuccessSM pilot Web program in March 2002, helping adult learners of English develop practical and effective communication skills online. Connextions.net is providing the information technology consulting, development and integration services required to manage customer service and technical support online, as well as the multi-lingual staffing to support customer inquiries in English and 10 other languages – Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and both Castilian and Latin American Spanish.
Connextions.net customer service representatives (CSRs) manage the international inquiries at the outsourcer’s Web–enabled contact centers in Orlando, Florida. They resolve issues ranging from computer configuration to using the online courses and teaching tools.
The program is designed to provide Longman English Success SM customers flexibility and choice in how they get answers to their questions. Customers have the option of requesting technical support in their native languages via e-mail, text-based chat or the telephone. Additionally, Connextions.net has built an extensive multi-lingual knowledge database, enabling customers to consult a continuously updated self-help section with answers to frequently asked questions in each of the 11 languages.
Developing the technical assistance, or “help” Web interface for the Longman site required extensive planning and careful execution in order to deliver prompt, accurate, courteous assistance to non-English-speaking customers from countries and time zones all over the world. Building the knowledge database that provides information to customers in their native tongues was a major element of the project. The project included using technologies that enable text-based chat in multiple languages, including the two-byte characters specific to Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
Connextions.net uses the Aspect Contact Server, a multi-channel communications software platform by Aspect Communications in San Jose, Calif., to deliver incoming contacts – via phone, e-mail or live chat support – to the appropriate CSR, based on which language the customer speaks, incoming contact volume and work load. This ensures that customers receive high-quality service consistently across all channels, as Aspect’s software intelligently prioritizes communications from Pearson’s customers for resolution in accordance with LES service level requirements.
“Connextions.net is helping us to develop a new kind of an e-learning environment,” said Rick Altman, vice president of sales and operations for Pearson’s Longman English Success division. “Their Web-based solution to a complex customer service challenge allows us to provide a truly customer-centric service to our international customers. Utilizing Connextions’ Orlando-based contact center is a much more cost effective and attractive alternative to operating multiple centers in multiple overseas locations.”
“Connextions.net is proud to work with Pearson and excited by the development of this truly ground breaking multi-lingual tool,” said Jack LeFort, founder and CEO of Connextions.net. “Being able to recreate the same multi-channel customer support environment we usually provide in English, now in all these other languages is a great technical achievement, and we look forward to adding more languages to the program. This is exactly the kind of initiative we specialize in, using people-driven technology to improve business processes and help our clients focus on what they do best. We view the relationship with Pearson as a strong endorsement for our outsourcing services and solutions and the enterprise-wide value they bring.”
About Pearson:
With offices in 33 countries, Pearson Education is the world's leading education business. Its brands include Addison Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman, Prentice Hall, Pearson Learning, Scott Foresman, and NCS Pearson. Pearson Education is the global leader in online learning with over 1,800 textbook companion Web sites, NCS Learn, the InformIT portal for technology professionals, and Pearson's Learning Network, the award-winning learning portal for parents, teachers, and children. Pearson is the global education business of Pearson plc (NYSE: PSO), the international media group. For more information, visit http://www.pearsoned.com.
About Connextions.net:
Connextions.net (www.connextions.net) provides outsourced eBusiness services, offering fully integrated and Web-enabled customer care and supply chain management solutions. Connextions.net enables leading Fortune 1000 companies – including Mercedes-Benz U.S.A., Olympus, Nextel, EarthLink, JPMorgan Chase, Cisco and Blue Cross and Blue Shield – to make the best use of their resources by trusting a partner with a proven track record of excellence and reliability.
Connextions.net is headquartered in Orlando, where it operates a state-of-the-art eBusiness campus featuring a 200,000-square foot computerized fulfillment warehouse, multi-channel call centers and an advanced data and Web hosting center.
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