CloudGate as a key enabler for Rewardsco’s remote working strategy
Rewardsco is a leading provider of outsourced sales, distribution and after-sales support services to local and international clients in the finance, insurance and telecommunications sectors. Their leading-edge technological infrastructure and strong focus on training empower their sales force to live and breathe the brands they sell, yielding maximum return on investment for their valued clients.
CloudGate was launched in 2010 and is a proudly South African initiative which is focused on developing and distributing micro computing devices, such as the CloudGate X. Designed to meet the need of users in all types of environments, from the home to education to enterprise, these mini PCs enable sophisticated computing at a fraction of the cost and use as much power as an energy-saving light bulb. CloudGate offers a powerful replacement solution for most desktop computers and has extensive local support.
With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed by the lockdown which were set to be implemented nationwide at the end of March 2020, Rewardsco were faced with the major challenge of having to rapidly deploy a large majority of their contact centre workforce, numbering 300 users, to work from home. A key component of the strategy was the endpoint devices that needed to be used. The existing thin clients in the contact centre were not suitable for home deployment as they were purely terminal based and were not able to run software locally on the devices, something that was a key requirement. Rewardsco needed a device that was small and cost-effective, yet powerful enough to run Windows, Microsoft Office and Genesys Dialer applications.
Out of the various devices that Rewardsco considered and tested, CloudGate was the ideal solution based on meeting following key requirements:
- Being palm-sized, CloudGate X was extremely small and lightweight, and thus easy to transport and install. This was a critical factor in ensuring all the devices could be deployed on very short notice.
- Having a Quad-Core Intel Processor, 8GB RAM and solid-state storage meant it was very powerful and could effectively run Microsoft Windows 10 Professional, Microsoft Office and the Genesys Dialer applications and was thus suitable for the multitasking required by the Contact Centre agents.
- It came in at an extremely competitive price point when compared to other alternatives on the market.
- Being a South African initiative it was backed by a local company who could provide a high level of support and quick turnaround on any issues.
Once Rewardsco decided to proceed with the CloudGate X they were able to get a very quick turnaround on the first order of 200 units – the devices were delivered within 48 hours – and managed to procure an additional 100 units with an 8-hour turnaround, from order confirmation to delivery.
Rewardsco then installed and configure the required Genesys software and Microsoft Office applications to the devices and rolled them out to their remote users in a very short space of time.
Results
Rewardsco were very quickly able to get their contact centre users up and running remotely and were thus able to continue generating an income when other businesses had to remain closed during the Covid-19 lockdown. The financial impact of the pandemic for Rewardsco if they had not been able to do this would have been catastrophic
They were very surprised that the number of remote support calls from CloudGate users was minimal given the scale of the implementation and were very impressed with the reliability of the devices.
CloudGate has helped Rewardsco with enabling a remote workforce quickly and effectively. We were very impressed with the service and reliability provided by CloudGate.
Keenen Moodley, Information Technology Manager, Rewardsco
