Replaced incumbent solution to improve Dforecasting and resource management

Extended employee self-service for agent Davailability, shift preferences and holiday requests

Improved real-time flexibility Dto adapt agents’ schedules to meet fluctuating demand

GMT Corporation, a leader in contact centre workforce management, has announced that Eurostar, the high-speed passenger rail service linking the UK and the Continent, has chosen to replace its existing scheduling software with GMT Planet™.

This implementation will provide Eurostar with improved forecasting and resource management to match variable in-bound call demand. It will also empower team managers with visibility to business and performance goals to support scheduling decisions and provide agent holiday and shift request self-service for the first time. The rapid implementation will support Eurostar’s goal of achieving and maintaining maximum productivity from its contact centre operation.

1.7 million travellers used Eurostar during the first quarter of 2006, with sales up 7% on the same period last year, reaching £125 million. Eurostar’s UK contact centre based in Ashford, Kent, processes all UK consumer and agent telephone bookings, supports all online reservations and administrates Eurostar’s Frequent Traveller programme with a full-time workforce of over 200 agents. Its previous scheduling software lacked the real-time flexibility to adapt agents’ schedules to meet fluctuating demands during each working day.

Previously, the operations team resorted to using large numbers of complex spreadsheets to work around the limitations of the former system. These were time-consuming to maintain and due to the volume of data,

prevented the immediate access to valuable management information and key performance indicators such as agent adherence. Faced with an expensive upgrade option to address these issues, Eurostar re-examined the market for alternative solutions and selected GMT Planet™ to increase forecasting accuracy and agent flexibility for less cost than the planned upgrade.

Solution “GMT Planet™ was very easy to use, yet offered the sophisticated functionality we wanted to establish for our agents, team managers and the business as a whole,” says Paul I’Anson, Deputy Head of Contact Centre, Eurostar. He continues, “GMT UK has been fantastic both as advisors whilst we were scoping the project and in their ability to support a rapid implementation.”

Eurostar has eliminated spreadsheets and the associated administration, and is delighted with GMT Planet’s forecasting accuracy and reporting. In addition, agents will shortly be able to use the Employee Time Centre to amend their availability and exchange shifts with one another.

Paul I’Anson continues, “We wanted a workforce optimisation system to be more than a data entry tool. We know that GMT Planet’s forecasting, reporting and analytical features will help us validate our strengths and identify ways for us to improve performance, whilst supporting our culture of flexibility and empowerment.”

Eurostar Results

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“Eurostar is representative of organisations that wish to eliminate manual administration and guess work from the scheduling process and fully exploit the benefits of workforce management,” says Simon Angove, CEO of GMT. “Eurostar understands the strategic impact of performance management to reduce costs and increase both customer and agent satisfaction.”

About EurostarEurostar is the fast train service linking London, Ashford, Paris, Brussels, Lille, Avignon, Calais, Disneyland Resort Paris and the French Alps.

Eurostar has won the title of “World’s Leading Rail Service” for the last eight years at the World Travel Awards

In 2007, with the completion of the UK high-speed line to London St Pancras, journey times will be reduced still further. London to Paris will be 2hrs 15mins, London to Brussels will be 1hr 51mins and London to Lille 1hr 20mins

Eurostar and Eurotunnel are two entirely different companies with two different management teams. Eurostar is Eurotunnel’s largest customer

To book tickets for Eurostar, or to find out more information, go to www.eurostar.com call 08705 186186 or contact your travel agent.

About GMTGMT’s resource management solutions create competitive advantage by improving customer service and sales while decreasing an organisation’s payroll expenses. The company’s product line combines precision forecasting and intelligent scheduling with powerful analytics and performance management tools to deliver a complete solution that is priced to deliver quick return on investment. GMT serves financial services and contact centre customers worldwide, including West Midlands Police, LTFS, ABN AMRO, Citibank, Nielsen Media, Pizza Hut, SunTrust, UPS, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo. The company is privately held with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and offices in the U.K., Australia, and India. For more information, visit www.gmt.com

“GMT Planet was very easy to use yet offered the sophisticated functionality we wanted to establish for our agents, team managers and the business as a whole. GMT UK has been fantastic, both as advisors whilst we were scoping the project and in their ability to support a rapid implementation.”

Paul I’AnsonDeputy Head of Contact CentreEurostar

GMT Europe Ltd, Trigate, 210-222 Hagley Road West, Birmingham B68 0NP, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 845 0800 350 Fax: +44 (0) 845 0800 366 Email:sales@gmt.com