The Optimum Credit Case Study: Transitioning to the Cloud

The Call & Contact Centre Expo is on its way, and at RingCentral, we have plenty of insights to offer on how you can make the most of your transformation strategy.

The first thing that most brands need to recognise is that “moving” into the cloud is just the first step in an overarching journey. It’s what you choose to do with your new technology and the partners you select to support you along the way that will define your growth in a new business environment.

The IT Director of Optimum Credit Ltd, Paul Strinati, will be taking the stage at the Call & Contact Centre Expo to demonstrate his company’s move to the cloud, and how choosing the right telecoms partner was key to success.

Introducing Optimum Credit

Optimum Credit is a financial services company that offers a specialist kind of mortgage, known as a “second charge” mortgage. They launched into the industry in 2014 and have since grown to be the leading second charge mortgage lender in the UK, with a 24% market share, and a run-rate of £20 million of lending each month.

Though they started small, with just five people on the team, Optimum Credit has grown at an astronomical rate. Paul explains: “Now we employ just over 100 members of staff, with plans to expand this year. Having secured a £600,000 grant for job creation, we have quickly out-grown our offices and are in the process of setting up a second office; we’ve grown from a humble beginning into being the market leader in origination of second charge mortgages.”

Making the Move to Cloud

Before creating the “Optimum Credit” brand, Paul and his team worked for another financial company, whose infrastructure was built around on-site PBX and legacy hardware. “When we started the new company, our ethos was ‘cloud first’. We didn’t want to be tethered to a lot of on-premises hardware.”

In their journey towards the cloud, Optimum Credit met with several suppliers, and originally opted to launch with a company that, it became apparent, was unable to adapt to their vision, or to evolve at the right pace. “After our three-year term was up, we started searching for something new, and RingCentral was a breath of fresh air.”

After years of frustration, Optimum Credit found a way to create a secure cloud telephony payment service that integrates with their system and allows them to more efficiently manage agent time. By integrating with RingCentral, the company could finally enhance customer services, giving agents an instant screen-pop of customer accounts when a call was issued to ensure quick and contextual experiences.

Prioritising Security in the Cloud

Today’s companies need to be able to transform with speed and focus, and the cloud is perfect for that process. However, for organisations in the financial sector like Optimum Credit, security is essential too. “We’re in a heavily regulated environment, and we need the ability to control agent permissions at a granular level. With the RingCentral cloud platform, I now believe that we’ll soon be in a situation where we could allow agents to work from home whilst fulfilling our regulatory and compliance obligations.”

Giving staff the opportunity to embrace more flexible working solutions, while meeting their regulatory requirements, is an easy way for Optimum Credit to become more competitive in their field and continue to attract the right talent.

During Paul’s session at the Call & Contact Centre Expo, he’ll be providing a full insight into the journey into the cloud as a small business experiencing explosive growth. The key takeaway, in his eyes, is that it’s crucial for today’s companies to be careful about who they choose to partner with when starting their cloud journey. “We didn’t get it right the first time, but now we have RingCentral we’re genuinely excited about our telephony platform and what it can add to our customers’ experience.”

Interested in seeing Paul speak for yourself? Check out the Call & Contact Centre Expo website for more on the upcoming event here: http://www.callandcontactcentreexpo.co.uk/