Datacom is one of Asia-Pacific's leading IT-based service providers, operating across New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines. It designs, builds and runs IT systems and processes for businesses across key market sectors including healthcare, local government and education. Its Datacom Connect team manages customer contact for a large Federal Government client, assisting consumers with inquiries through phone, email and webchat channels.

Datacom Connect handles consumer enquiries for a large Federal Government client across phone, email and webchat. The enquiries are complex and the programme carries a strong focus on compliance, so the team had to quickly develop an understanding of the client's products and services and articulate relevant knowledge to consumers accurately.

The team wanted to raise the consistency of the answers being provided. Any system it selected needed to be adaptable and able to deliver information in a clear, readable format. Previous attempts had not worked: Senior Operations Manager Dean Fox said the team had tried various internal solutions, including SharePoint and plain Word documents, that did not seem to have an impact. Those tools were not adaptable and did not give the team the control it needed to get information out to staff.

Datacom was also looking for a tool that would continue to develop and mature alongside its own knowledge management practice, rather than a static repository.

Datacom Connect selected livepro, a knowledge management platform built for customer service centres, to give agents a single, consistent source of answers. Fox said it was encouraging that the team could go on a journey with livepro to improve its knowledge management over time.

The rollout was paired with a combination of other measures, including governance and operations frameworks. Datacom used the livepro implementation as an opportunity to enhance action planning, soft skills and standard contact centre skill building. Learning and Development incorporated livepro into all training, so staff navigate the system to access information rather than memorising large volumes of detail.

livepro's feedback function gives agents a say in how knowledge is delivered, which supported enthusiastic user adoption. Its version control and workflow controls make quality assurance easier, and the team can track behavioural trends behind individual knowledge pieces. livepro is now a key component of Datacom's continuous improvement process, with a charter of improving both customer and employee experience.

Datacom continues to work with the livepro team and is developing a Best Practice Knowledge Management Team to further enhance the level of service it provides to its clients.

• 17% reduction in average handling time: 51 seconds saved on a five-minute AHT
• Faster speed to competency, with livepro built into all Learning and Development training
• Enthusiastic user adoption, with agents shaping knowledge delivery through the feedback function
• Easier quality assurance through version control, workflow controls and tracking of behavioural trends
• livepro embedded in Datacom's continuous improvement process for customer and employee experience