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Verizon Business Helps American Red Cross Improve Emergency Relief Efforts

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 12:00 CDT

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Aug. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Red Cross has entered into an agreement with Verizon Business to more rapidly and efficiently provide aid to individuals affected by natural disasters and other major events.

Verizon Business will provide an advanced Contact Center Service solution to help the Red Cross improve its emergency response for disaster victims. Verizon Business can route calls to Red Cross disaster relief agents located anywhere in the United States. In addition to the advanced call routing solution, Verizon Business will provide the Red Cross with wide area network connectivity, managed network services, toll-free Enhanced Call Routing, an interactive voice response service, Contact Center Professional Services and customer premises equipment (CPE).

"This is an exciting example of how hosted call center technology can transform the way the Red Cross delivers services to its clients," said Nancy Gofus, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Business. "Our portfolio enables the Red Cross to more quickly and efficiently provide emergency assistance to impacted Americans."

Once fully implemented, the Verizon Business service will support the call handling and case processing of as many as one million claims from eligible Red Cross disaster clients over a 10-day period. Disaster clients will call an event-specific, toll-free number that Verizon Business will route to call centers and work-at-home agents, including U.S. veterans and disabled Americans who will answer calls on behalf of the Red Cross from locations across the country. The system will also screen callers for eligibility based on Red Cross requirements and provide information to eligible callers to receive emergency Red Cross assistance during a catastrophic event.

This service will help the Red Cross meet its disaster preparedness objectives enabling it to answer as many as 120,000 calls and to process as many as 100,000 individual cases each day.

Verizon Business' Contact Center Solutions offers a broad portfolio of interaction management applications, services and equipment to help organizations optimize their customer service and support. These solutions can be designed for contact centers of all sizes -- from single-location centers to operations encompassing thousands of geographically dispersed agents.

About Verizon Business

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications , is a leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large business and government customers worldwide. Combining unsurpassed global network reach with advanced technology and professional service capabilities, Verizon Business delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. For more information, visit http://www.verizonbusiness.com/.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at http://www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

Verizon

CONTACT: Carolyn Tyler, +1-303-390-6593, carolyn.tyler@verizon.com

Web site: http://www.verizon.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/618232.html

Source: PRNewswire

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