Media Relations:
Linda Motherwell
Avaya South Pacific
+61 2 9352 9107
motherwell@avaya.com

Sydney, AUSTRALIA – Customer responsiveness is mission critical to one of Australia’s fastest growing companies, Direct Health Solutions (DHS), an entrepreneurial business offering front-line healthcare advice in the corporate arena. DHS who employs registered nurses to respond to the healthcare needs of Australian workers in a bid to reduce “sickies” has implemented Avaya IP Office, an Intelligent Communications suite of converged PBX solutions specially designed for small and mid-size businesses. The new system has already helped DHS reduce absenteeism by 30% by routing calls to the most specialised nurses whilst building a solid platform for future growth.

Founded by renowned absence management expert, Paul Dundon, DHS’ mission is to reduce absenteeism and health-related productivity costs in the Australian workforce. When employees of registered corporate clients call in sick, they call through to DHS’ Avaya-supplied contact centre where they are connected to qualified nurses who provide primary healthcare advice over the telephone. The intelligent Avaya system allows calls to be routed to the most qualified nurse able to address that particular concern. In eighteen months, DHS has helped reduce absenteeism by 30%

As a new business, cost, ease of implementation and scalability were critical to DHS. “Working with our trusted advisors, CTI Solutions, we selected the Avaya system as the most cost-effective communications solution available on the market that provided the functionality we needed now and as our business grows,” said Paul Dundon, managing director, Direct Health Solutions. “The Avaya IP Office is extremely robust - we run pilots of the absence system for clients which are then extended across the entire enterprise, so there can be a sudden uptake from 500 clients a day to 4-5,000 for one company and the system handles this extremely well.”

DHS aims to increase its workforce from 10 nurses to at least 25 in 2008 and, with these aggressive growth plans, the company will extend its core Avaya communications infrastructure to create a mobile, remote workforce. The flexibility of Avaya IP Office will enable home-based nurses to take calls anywhere, at anytime.

“Many nurses stay out of the workforce to raise a family or because they reside in remote locations,” said Dundon. “Our current business model is to train nurses in-house and, as they become more competent, the Avaya contact centre solution has the flexibility to be extended to enable our nurses to work from home forming a key part of the company’s retention strategy.”

Mr Dundon emphasised, CTI Solutions was a fantastic partner providing sound advice before, during and post implementation. The Avaya IP Office was set up within a day, within budget with no hiccups at all. “The Avaya IP Office has helped us create a business model that is a first of its kind in Australia. Most importantly, the technology will scale as we grow.”

About Avaya
Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®. Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony systems and communications software applications and services.

Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications - and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services - Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya website: www.avaya.com.au

About Direct Health Solutions
Direct Health Solutions is a specialist firm and the market leader in absence management. DHS work with public and private sector organisations across a wide range of industry sectors such as utilities, telecommunications, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics and contact centres.

Direct Health Solutions was founded by Paul Dundon, who is one of the most widely recognised commentators and researchers in the area of absence management in Australia. Dundon is supported by a team of management consultants, organisational psychologists and medical experts. For more information visit the DHS website: www.dhs.net.au.