Sprint Teams with Working Solutions in Multiyear Deal

Sprint, one of the world's largest telephone service providers, has teamed with Working Solutions, which claims to be the world's largest virtual call center, in a deal that will connect more than 16,000 agents via a high-speed voice and data services network. The multiyear, multimillion-dollar agreement between the two companies will create an international network that will, according to experts, strengthen the growing dominance of virtual call centers. Working Solutions, based in Plano, TX, uses a virtual agent community of more than 16,000 agents, all of them working from home via their computers and telephones. Using ASP and propriety technologies has been a profitable strategy for Working Solutions. According to CEO Tim Houlne, its reputation as reliable and professional will grow through its partnership with Sprint. "Our agreement with Sprint links us to a company that has the integrity, financial stability, and technical expertise that we can depend on and that our customers can trust," Houlne says. For Sprint the challenge will be to maintain the stability of a network designed to handle hundreds of calls instantaneously, says John Dupree, vice president, Sprint Business Southwest. "For Working Solutions, the network is the business," Dupree says. According to Michelle Curless, director of The Customer Group, a Chicago-based consulting firm specializing in customer interaction, the trend of organizing customer services through virtual call centers will only continue. "A few years ago the model for call centers was about consolidation and becoming more customer-centric. Organizing around virtual call centers is a very effective way to do that," she says. In a market where consolidation and cost management is key, Curless says that moving toward a virtual call center model is going to occur more and more, and the trend has yet to plateau.