Smart Link named Best Large Outsourcing Service Provider, Best Recruitment Program and Best Market Pioneer in KSA

Altitude Software user honoured with key distinctions at Middle East Call Centre 2011 Awards

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jun. 20th, 2011 - Smart Link, a leading business process and contact centre outsourcing provider in Saudi Arabia, has received three prestigious distinctions at Middle East Call Centre Awards in Dubai this month. Organized by Insights, the awards recognize the performance and service excellence of the best contact centres in the Middle East region. Located in Riyadh, the Smart Link contact centre is powered by the Altitude Software solution giving the Saudi-based outsourcing provider a wealth of advanced IP contact centre features, such as unified agent desktop, as well as centralized monitoring, queuing, routing and reporting.

Acknowledged Customer Service Excellence and Leadership

Smart Link was honoured with three prestigious awards for ''Best Large Outsourcing Service Provider (>300 Seats)'', ''Best Recruitment Program'' and ''Best Market Pioneer - KSA''. The awards ceremony took place at the Middle East Call Centre 2011 Awards gala dinner, at Crowne Plaza  Hotel, Dubai, UAE.

Commenting on these awards, Safwan Al-Khatib, Smart Link Executive Director, said: "Receiving three distinctions at the Middle East Call Centre Awards ceremony is a well-earned tribute to our hard working team and further recognition of our track record for success in providing best in class outsourcing services accross the region." ''As one of the largest Outsourcing providers in the Middle East, we are keen to help in the development of our industry as a whole by boosting our customer service excellence and performance bar. As such, we wish to thank the Middle East Call Centre Awards organizers for recognizing our passion, efforts and results," he added.

Smart Link was established in 2005 with the mission of becoming the leader in providing high quality contact centre services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Since then, Smart Link has gone a long way and is now providing a diverse range of services to more than 20 clients in the Kingdom. Smart Link's client list includes prominent organizations and government agencies in various mission critical pivotal fields, such as banking, energy, water services, tourism, telecom, insurance, aviation, public services, E-learning and fast food.

One key contract won by Smart Link is with The Saudi Centre for Support and Counselling (SANEED) contact centre. The project allows associates (higher education students, faculty members and researchers) to benefit from remote multichannel services, such as updated information about university registration procedures, special announcements, curriculum revision and scholarships in collaboration with many local higher education entities, such as government universities and E-learning establishments. Another major project is with Nasair Contact Centre, operated and managed by Smart Link. Nasair is a Riyadh-based airline with affordable fares and the youngest fleet in Saudi Arabia. Launched in 2007, Nasair today operates more than 30 domestic & international destinations, with over 450 flights per week. Smart Link enabled Nasair to deliver a swift and high-quality interactive service to customers wishing to obtain information or make a flight reservation over the phone, fax, email, or web.

Developing competitive advantage

To support its fast-paced contact centre outsourcing operations in the Middle East, Smart Link has implemented core modules of the Altitude uCI solution, such as Altitude Unified Desktop, to streamline multiple applications into a single agent desktop based on the various service/campaign workflow activities handled by Smart Link.

Thus, the contact centre system allows the Saudi-based outsourcer to efficiently roll out fully personalized inbound and outbound business campaigns on behalf of its customers, viewing the contact results in real time and monitoring the overall contact centre activity to generate the most efficient CRM campaigns. "Altitude Software provides great flexibility and functionality that allow us to respond to our customers' needs in real time. The solution helps us to quickly design and maintain unified agent desktops tailored to our customers' requirements," commented Safwan Al-Khatib.

The Altitude uCI (Unified Customer Interaction) suite has a ten year plus track record of outstanding results in contact centers worldwide, having won more than 40 Industry Awards for Innovation and Performance in more recent years. It has also been included by Gartner in the industry Magic Quadrants since 2000. Altitude uCI´s most valuable asset is the possibility to easily and quickly  create and change CRM Services and Campaigns thanks to its Unified Design Studio, Open Desktop, Routing, Dialler, Voice Portal, Monitoring, Reporting, Workforce and Integration Server.

Outsourcing opportunities in the MENA Region

According to a recent report from global business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, issued by Dubai Outsource Zone, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is one of the globe's few regions that have had a true growth. 

Altitude Software MENA president, Riadh Boukhris, stressed on the importance of the fast-growing outsourcing opportunities in MENA: "While the outsourcing market in Western Europe and North America is well advanced, there are still significant opportunities in the MENA region. For instance, the whole GCC along with North Africa hold tremendous promise for new outsourcing contracts, specifically in financial services and telcos, be it international or domestic." "We are thrilled to be working with Smart Link to help the company support its acknowledged, fast-growing contact centre outsourcing operations across the GCC," concluded Boukhris.

-Ends-

About Smart Link
Smart Link is a subsidiary of Al-Khaleej Training & Education, the largest network of training centers in Saudi Arabia. Smart Link is one of the biggest outsourcing call centers and BPO Service providers in the region with state-of-the-art technology and capacity to accommodate high volume of agents.

The pioneering, award-winning Riyadh-based company provides outbound and inbound teleservices for various business activities including lead generation, inbound customer service, help-desk, appointment scheduling, market research, surveys and client retention. Using the most advanced contact center technology in the industry and qualified customer service representatives, Smart Link is dedicated to helping organisations increase their business performance and strengthen their customer service. Smart Link's client list includes prominent organizations and government agencies in various fields of mission critical pivotal service inclusive of banking, energy, water services, tourism, telecomm, insurance, aviation, public services, E-learning and fast food.

Please visit us at www.smartlink.com.sa

About Altitude Software
Altitude Software (www.altitude.com) is the leader of unified customer interaction solutions, managing dynamic contact centres independently of platforms since 1993. With about 900 customers in 60 countries, Altitude strives for customer satisfaction and is ISO 9001 certified for its worldwide support. Altitude Software has won 40+ industry awards and it has been included by Gartner in the industry Magic Quadrants since 2000. "Altitude uCI" (unified customer interaction) is a software suite that manages in real time enterprise functions like Customer Service, Help Desk, Collections, Telesales, Surveys, etc. It is unique in accelerating the creation of services and campaigns, thanks to the unified design studio, routing, dialler, voice portal, desktop front-end, monitoring and analytics.

Altitude Software Middle East & North Africa is located in Dubai Internet City, U.A.E, and is leading the multimedia contact centre market in those regions. Customers include National Bank of Abu Dhabi (UAE), The Etisalat Contact Center (UAE), National Water Company (KSA), Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (UAE), Millenium Bank (Turkey), La Poste Tunisienne (Tunisia), Procco (Bahrain), Atento (Morocco), Ahli United Bank (Bahrain), Pizza Hut (KSA), National Bank of Oman, Advancia (Tunisia), Air Miles (UAE), and Yemen PTC. Altitude Software can be reached at +971 4 391 8880 or emailed to info@altitude.com

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Editorial Contacts:
Altitude Software MENA
Lisama Rosario
T +971 4 391 8880
info.mena@altitude.com

Smart Link
Naseem A. Aswad
T +966 50 922 74 75
naswad@smartlink.com.sa

© Press Release 2011