British Telecom plc has launched a business continuity enhancement to its Next Generation Contact Center (NGCC) service, to help customer services operations around the world avoid downtime from an outbreak of disease, man-made event or natural occurrence.

The BT NGCC Protect service involves auditing businesses’ requirements and configuring systems so agents can work from home, or other remote locations, if they can’t travel to the office. The service can work as a standalone solution or alongside existing contact center technology, with licenses held in reserve at a greatly reduced cost, and then when required, they can become live immediately.

Contact center agents can access unified communications features, a BT-designed desktop and customer relationship management (CRM) tools.

BT also is offering business customers a free trial of its self-service CRM solutions, like self-service identity and verification, balance enquiries, account payments and booking lines, offering businesses a cost-effective solution to handle routine customer requests.