WATER TENDER

Thames Water is planning to replace its 70-plus analogue telephone systems with a managed IP service.  In a tender document, the company says it has about 3,000 fixed telephone users and about 3,500 mobile phone users across 140 sites.

The tender invites bids for three lots, including managed call centre technology for 800 call centre users and provision of SIP trunking and fixed line voice and fax minutes over SIP.  It says that any agreement would be for up to seven years.

A spokeswoman said: “We are reviewing a number of options to strengthen our customer services capability and enhance our customer experience.”

NEW APPOINTMENTS

Infoserve, based at Leeds Bradford Airport, has appointed Tony Martin as operations manager.  He was formerly IT project manager at IQ Business, a software development company.

Infoserve recently opened a second office in Leeds which has 24 staff, a number forecast to grow to 50 within six months.  Another 100 staff are at the company’s site in Darlington.



Tina Slade has been appointed manager of Mercer’s customer relations centre, based in Chichester, and is responsible for managing the company’s customer care service across the UK.  Ms Slade has joined from Niagara Healthcare where she was contact centre manager. Prior to this, she was a senior customer manager at Norwich Union.

The customer relations centre was opened last year to support members of its clients’ pension schemes in the UK.

COFFEE CALLS

Nestle has opened a 40-strong call centre to handle enquiries about its Nespresso coffee makers.  Based on the fifth floor of the company’s offices in York, it was expecting to hire another 18 staff by Christmas and a total workforce of 73 by 2012.

NEW OUTSOURCER

Ventrica, a new outsourcer, is hiring staff for its 134-seat call centre in Southend.  It was founded by Dino Forte, MD, who was a co-founder of Converso Contact Centres.  He said clients included a software firm and a cosmetics company.