Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 25 | Page 15

NEWS Bionic selects Natterbox to deliver quality customer care during business expansion B ionic, a UK leading provider of comparison services for businesses, has announced that it has selected Natterbox’s telephony platform to unify and streamline its customer sales and service. Natterbox’s cloud-based system is 100% embedded within Salesforce, meaning data from phone calls can be captured and reported on more accurately – helping Bionic turn more leads into business during a time of exciting growth. Since 2007, Bionic (previously called Make It Cheaper) has been dedicated to saving UK businesses the time and frustration of sorting out their business essentials. It works with comparison website brands to ensure SMEs get the best possible deal on their energy, insurance, broadband and finance. Bionic is committed to being the ’smart way for SMEs to sort their business essentials, combining smart technology with world-class human service, so it is essential that it delivers a sophisticated and reliable communication experience to both customers and partners. As Bionic was rolling out Salesforce across the business, it became clear that its existing telephony solution was not capable of supporting the level of growth and speed of operation required. The company needed a fully Salesforce-embedded system to improve efficiency and deal with the high volume of inbound and outbound calls its agents handle on a daily basis. Bionic selected Natterbox for its unified phone system that can be easily replicated across the business – crucial for a company planning further growth through making acquisitions in the future. Natterbox will help Bionic successfully filter through all the calls from both customers and partners, thanks to features such as automatic skills- based routing. ///////////////// Nokia wins Deutsche Bahn tender to deliver world’s first 5G-based network for automated rail (FRMCS) standard, based on 5G, and sets the stage for the Digital Transformation of railway operations. Nokia is a leader in this market with extensive experience in providing GSM-R systems to rail operators in 22 countries, covering 109,000 km of track. Overall, Nokia has provided networking, cybersecurity, IoT and analytics solutions to 110+ operators for both mainline and metro rail. This project – to deliver the first 5G SA solution for rail operation – further emphasises Nokia’s leadership position. N okia has won a tender to test and deliver the world’s first standalone (SA) 5G system for automated rail operation in Hamburg, Germany. The project is part of Deutsche Bahn’s highly automated S-Bahn operation project. The Proof of Concept (PoC) will test whether 5G technology is mature enough to be used as the connectivity layer for future digitalised rail operations. The project constitutes an early and important step in the development of the Future Railway Mobile Communications System www.intelligentcio.com By 2021, as part of the project ‘Digitale S-Bahn Hamburg’, highly automated trains (with train drivers on board who keep safety responsibility) are expected to operate on a 23-kilometre section of the S-Bahn Line 21, starting at Berliner Tor, one of the main transport hubs in Hamburg. Part of the demonstration will include fully driverless shunting of empty trains in an area near Bergedorf station, based on the transmission of train control information over the Nokia 5G mobile network. The Nokia 5G solution is based on 3GPP standards for 5G mobile networks, allowing highly or fully automated trains to exchange relevant data with trackside equipment by 5G radio. This will have positive effects on cross-border operation, capacity of rail infrastructure, punctuality of trains and also on customer experience. INTELLIGENTCIO 15