"The results have been very insightful," said Hosam F. Zoheir. "In the first two months of the contact centre set up we were able to increase the size of our database by 300%, and we are continuing to compile data related to the best performing students in Saudi Arabia.’’ ‘We also experienced numerous contact centre performance and productivity improvements. For instance, Call abandonment rate decreased 68% and service levels increased 24%,’ he added.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 5th 2009 – A unique contact centre has been launched in Saudi Arabia to support MAWHIBA in enhancing service levels and increasing efficiencies. Established in 1999, MAWHIBA’s vision is to foster a creative society with a critical mass of gifted and talented young leaders who are innovative, highly educated and well-trained to support the sustained growth and prosperity of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To achieve such vision, MAWHIBA developed a comprehensive strategy to establish an innovative and world-class education system for gifted students across the Kingdom.

Located in Riyadh, MAWHIBA’s 15-seat contact centre is powered by the award-winning Altitude Software solution which provided the Saudi Foundation with a wealth of advanced IP contact centre features such as voice portal as well as unified centralized monitoring, queuing, routing and reporting.

 Strengthening Next-generation Workforce in Saudi Arabia

 Saudi Arabia is the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula with a population of 27.6 million. The Kingdom is today facing a unique set of challenges as a result of a number of national and international developments such as its recent admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO), a fast-growing youth population and an increasing international competition for talent. These developments necessitate a transition to a more knowledge-based society in Saudi Arabia and one of MAWHIBA’s missions is to nurture giftedness and creativity among the Saudi population so as to make such transition a success. In order to support this mission, MAWHIBA has already launched over 23 educational programs related to technology, electronics and engineering sponsored by leading organizations such as Saudi ARAMCO, King Saud University and King Faisal University.

The Riyadh-based contact centre is at the core of such programs. Most incoming interactions received today are from students, graduates or post-graduates interested in enrolling into MAWHIBA’s specific internships, summer educational programs, IMAGEN service, SHAWER service or Mawhiba Prizes and contests. The contact centre is also handling numerous calls from international organizations to launch, host or sponsor a specific event or program with MAWHIBA. “Through this project, MAWHIBA aims to serve gifted students in Saudi Arabia with advanced contact centre services. The long-term objective of the project is to provide a proactive, comprehensive and varied set of services open to all MAWHIBA’s partners. This successful project was the culmination of a fruitful cooperation between MAWHIBA and Altitude Software,” commented Eng. Faisal A. Al-Fohaid, MAWHIBA IT CIO.

 “We decided to set up a contact centre after a comprehensive research carried out within our organization on how to deliver service efficiently,” said Hosam F. Zoheir, Projects Manager & ERP Consultant at MAWHIBA. "Our contact centre today competently manages all incoming interactions and a single number is all that is needed to check the status of an internship application or to ask for specialized educational consultancy.”

 Contact Centre Performance

 The new contact centre set up was specifically designed to help Mahwiba enhance service levels and increase efficiencies by enabling to schedule call backs; provide real-time monitoring; manage call lists for targeted training and internship programs in KSA; simplify access to caller information where for instance a complete background of graduates is available. The integrated Altitude contact centre system also provides a single interface that links the call interaction and skills-based routing information directly to the data screens in Microsoft CRM.

 "The results have been very insightful," said Hosam F. Zoheir. "In the first two months of the contact centre set up we were able to increase the size of our database by 300%, and we are continuing to compile data related to the best performing students in Saudi Arabia.’’ ‘We also experienced numerous contact centre performance and productivity improvements. For instance, Call abandonment rate decreased 68% and service levels increased 24%,’ he added.

 The Mahwiba contact centre project was successfully deployed by the Altitude Platinum partner in Saudi Arabia, part of blue mena group. Yasser Aoudi, Managing director of blue mena in the Kingdom, said that he considered the Mahwiba project entirely consistent with the development and modernization plans for Saudi Arabia. ‘’We are proud to be part of this program, which offers key services to support education innovation in the Kingdom’’ he added.

‘’We are delighted that Mawhiba is using world-class contact centre technology to provide numerous students across Saudi Arabia with professional internships to complement their formal education. We look forward to supporting such great initiative that will help strengthen KSA's new workforce generation,’’ commented Riadh Boukhris, Altitude Software MENA President.

The Altitude uCI (Unified Customer Interaction™) suite has a ten year plus track record of outstanding results in contact centres worldwide, having won over 25 Industry Awards for Innovation and Performance in the last few years. The solution provides businesses with a wealth of advanced contact centre features in about 60 countries worldwide, with a fast-growing presence in Saudi Arabia. The Altitude uCI suite architecture is unique to the industry with a single language and editor to all media interactions simultaneously and in real-time on IP-PBXs and/or traditional PBXs.

About MAWHIBA

King Abdulaziz and His Companions’ Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (MAWHIBA) was established in 1999. MAWHIBA’s vision is to foster a creative society with a critical mass of gifted and talented young leaders who are innovative, highly educated and well-trained to support the sustained growth and prosperity of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To achieve the vision, MAWHIBA developed a comprehensive 15-year strategy to establish an innovative and world-class education system for gifted students across the Kingdom. This gifted education system will be introduced in schools governed by, but operated in parallel to and independently from, the Ministry of Education (MoE). MAWHIBA has outlined seven additional objectives that will be achieved by implementing the strategy. These objectives are divided into three groups: 1) improve and extend offerings in gifted education; 2) raise society’s awareness on education and innovation; and 3) contribute to the sustained growth of the Kingdom.

1) Improve and extend offerings in gifted education. Improve and expand on the suitable educational opportunities for gifted and talented individuals throughout their lives, regardless of their background:

·                     Provide high-quality programs along the entire life cycle from early childhood to adulthood to foster gifted individuals throughout their life.

·                     Ensure giftedness programs are cumulative to provide a comprehensive development journey for gifted and talented students.

·                     Make programs available to all gifted individuals with no restrictions arising, e.g., from socio-economic background or geographic location.

2) Raise society’s awareness on education and innovation. Raise overall awareness about the importance of giftedness and creativity in society:

·                     Win and secure buy-in of all major stakeholders and decision makers to safeguard ongoing support for the implementation of the strategy.

·                     Communicate broadly to anchor the importance of giftedness and creativity in society and raise the profile of MAWHIBA and its programs.

3) Contribute to the sustained growth of the Kingdom. The broader goal of MAWHIBA’s strategy is to contribute to the sustained growth and prosperity of the country:

·                     Provide programs for a significant fraction of Saudi students to shape the class of future leaders of Saudi society.

·                     Ensure the relevance of programs for further developing the Kingdom by selecting and focusing on the right subjects and support the development of the required skills.

More information at www.mawhiba.org.sa

For more information:
Altitude Software MENA
Lea Del Rosario
Phone: +971 4 391 8880
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