Legal Aid SA expands its reach with technology

Local Cisco partner and converged network provider, KSS Technologies, implemented the upgrade and also installed Cisco's call centre solution to offer a national infrastructure for delivery.

“Technology is key to achieving our mission and mandate - to be a leading provider of quality, professional legal services, ensuring effective access to justice for the poor and vulnerable, in an independent, efficient and caring manner. To become more efficient and to improve our service delivery, we took a decision to upgrade our system to Cisco IP communications platform,” he explains.

The Cisco IP communications platform

“In addition to implementing the Cisco IP communications platform, the Unified Communications Manager, KSS also rolled out Cisco's call centre solution, IP Contact Center Express, which offers automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), and computer telephony integration (CTI) on a single platform,” adds KSS account manager Zakes Sikobi.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager, the IP telephony call-processing component of the Cisco Unified Communications solution, offers a variety of benefits including reduced deployment time, quicker return on investment, lower ongoing operational costs and improved business continuity.

Legal Aid SA Network Manager Joe Khosa points to the Cisco Call Centre as a tool to extend Legal Aid SA's footprint. “It just made good business sense to upgrade the Cisco infrastructure to incorporate the contact centre rather than deploying new technology. We are driving costs down and we have already realised the improvement with the quality assurance of services rendered by the more than 1 500 Legal Aid SA lawyers countrywide.”

KSS Technologies (Pty) Ltd specialises in the design, implementation and support of converged networking solutions. The company's head office is situated in Midrand with support centres countrywide, providing a national support infrastructure. With a proven track record in the enterprise, mid-market and upper-end small and medium enterprise (SME) market segments, KSS provides information and communications technology (ICT) solutions that integrate with legacy systems or builds solutions from the ground up through “greenfields” installations. Its approach, methodologies and solutions add unique business value by streamlining processes and eliminating redundant steps for clients within the public and private sectors.

KSS is committed to sustainable human resources and skills development through its continuous investment in highly skilled sales and technical resources, thus creating confidence in our business partners, customers and employees alike. KSS has been committed to true black economic empowerment (BEE) since its inception in 2000 and has its BEE shareholding is currently over 50%. BEE executive management represents 67% of the board.

Certification and alignment with strategic vendor solutions empowers KSS to deliver business value to customers. Certification programmes assist to achieve consistently high levels of service and expertise. This commitment to empowering the organisation is reflected in its quest for certification. KSS received Cisco Silver Partner status in March 2000, highlighting an early dedication to delivering converged network solutions - now a key consideration for businesses eager to leverage the considerable efficiencies and returns that this platform delivers. More recently, KSS was awarded Cisco Customer Satisfaction Excellence, the highest distinction a partner can achieve within the Cisco Channel Partner Programme.

In addition, KSS has developed its technical strengths by aligning and complying with standards from world-class vendor programmes including: Expand Value Added Reseller & National Support partner; Citrix Silver Partner; Microsoft Certified Partner; IBM Business Partner; HP Preferred Partner (Storage & Networking); AXIS Certified partner; CommVault Gold partner and SLi (representing Lenel).