AWS Contact Center
How ANA X lowered costs by 58% with Amazon Connect
At ANA X, our on-premises contact center system was becoming too costly and inflexible to meet our evolving needs. We decided to migrate to Amazon Connect, a cloud-based contact center solution that promised substantial savings, improved flexibility, and enhanced efficiency with our IT partner ANA Systems.
Key outcomes:
- 58% reduction in monthly operational costs
- 75% decrease in lead time for adding phone lines
- 50% faster system changes
- Elimination of hardware obsolescence concerns
Fig1. Screenshot of Customer Control Panel
About ANA X and ANA Systems
ANA X is the platform business company of the ANA Group, leveraging its customer base from aviation and travel businesses to create services that enrich customers’ lives and address regional and social issues through human mobility.
ANA Systems, the IT professional arm of the ANA Group, supports the organization with advanced technological capabilities. Their CX Management Department Customer Communication Team (ASY) operates the contact center system that supports ANA X’s business.
The journey begins: Why Amazon Connect?
As a user-oriented system company, ASY had long depended on system integrators (SIers) for building and operating our call center systems. However, the evolution of cloud technology opened up new possibilities for in-house operation. The decision to migrate to Amazon Connect was driven by three key factors:
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Cost reduction:
Our on-premises system incurred high costs for hardware maintenance, WAN line usage fees, and significant construction costs every 5-6 years due to hardware obsolescence. This periodic hardware refresh was a substantial financial burden.
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Flexibility and scalability:
With the legacy solution, adding phone lines and modifying call flows required outsourcing to telecom carriers and SIers, making it challenging and time-consuming to adapt to changing business needs. Moreover, to ensure connectivity for customers during irregular situations like typhoons when call volumes surged, we needed to maintain surplus lines that remained unused during normal operations, incurring additional costs.
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Self-operation potential:
Amazon Connect offered the possibility of easier system management, allowing us to handle tasks like adding lines and changing call flows internally. Additionally, by bringing previously outsourced costs back within the ANA Group, we could redirect those resources towards investing in new technologies and driving further improvements. This also opened up future integration opportunities with various AWS services, enabling us to leverage advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) for further optimization.
Quantitative effects: The numbers speak
The migration to Amazon Connect yielded impressive results:
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Cost reduction
- 58% decrease in monthly operational costs
- Elimination of phone construction costs for office layout changes
- No more obsolescence updates
- Reduction in external costs for system modifications
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Improved flexibility and scalability
- 75% reduction in lead time for adding phone lines
- Elimination of costs associated with maintaining surplus lines for peak times
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Enhanced operational efficiency
- Instant feasibility judgments for business needs
- 50% faster system changes, including call flow modifications
Fig2. Transformation of Cost Structure[1]
The migration process: A step-by-step approach
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Analysis and planning phase (6 months)
Situation: Our primary challenge was to determine if we could migrate from the existing public phone numbers. Additionally, we needed to define the necessary additional functions and assess the feasibility of in-house development and operation.
Task: We conducted a Proof of Concept (PoC) with 100 communicators to alleviate concerns about transitioning from IP phones to softphones and gain insights into the additional features required for Amazon Connect. During the PoC, we also developed operational procedures to migrate from the existing phone numbers. We then defined the essential additional functions, such as business hours judgment and call reason registration, keeping the scope minimal.
Action: We prioritized the achievable effects and proceeded with an RFI/RFP process, assuming a migration from existing numbers to newly acquired ones. And after comparing it with other cloud-based contact center solutions, we selected it for its cost elasticity and integration capabilities with various AWS services.
Result: Furthermore, our internal team participated in the AWS Prototyping Program workshop for about 1.5 months, successfully creating mockups of the main functions. This experience brought in-house development and operation within reach. The analysis and planning phase spanned approximately six months, laying the groundwork for a well-planned migration to Amazon Connect.
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Development to operation phase (5 months)
Situation: With the requirements and planning in place, we moved to the development and implementation phase.
Task: Our primary tasks were to develop the additional functions [2], build the infrastructure to relay voice data from our network to Amazon Connect, and conduct system testing and user training.
Action: We employed an agile development approach with six sprints over two months to develop the additional functions, including a Customer Control Panel (CCP) that extended Amazon Connect’s softphone capabilities. Concurrently, we built the infrastructure to relay voice data from ANA X’s network to Amazon Connect over approximately two months. System testing to verify the consistency between the developed infrastructure and Amazon Connect took 1.5 months. After that, we conducted 1.5 months of user training to ensure a smooth transition for our communicators. During this phase, we faced an additional business need to add the Haneda area as a reception area. Thanks to the flexibility and scalability of Amazon Connect, we could respond to this requirement without significant delays or additional costs, which would have been challenging with an on-premises system.
Result: The development to operation phase spanned five months, culminating in the successful implementation of the new system and the training of our communicators.
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Production migration and operation start phase (3 weeks)
Situation: With the system ready and our communicators trained, we proceeded to the final phase of migrating to the new Amazon Connect platform.
Task: Our primary task was to migrate approximately 40 phone numbers from the existing system to the new platform while minimizing customer confusion and ensuring a smooth transition.
Action: To ensure caution, we decided to migrate the phone numbers gradually over three stages. The initial operation started at 9:00 AM on April 27, 2022, followed by the second operation at 9:00 AM on May 12, 2022, and the third operation at 5:30 AM on May 13, 2022.
Result: When customers called the pre-migration phone numbers, we informed them of the new numbers and ended the call. This approach allowed us to transition without confusion successfully. Additionally, our communicators were well-accustomed to using softphones through the PoC and user training, enabling us to start operations without any disruptions.The production migration and operation start phase spanned approximately three weeks, during which we successfully transitioned to the new Amazon Connect platform without significant issues or customer confusion.
Key success factors and lessons learned
Clear vision and goal setting
Around May 2021 when we started the analysis and planning phase, the ANA Group was experiencing significant business impact due to COVID-19. Under the vision of achieving profitability without fail, we aimed to complete the project within limited budget and time with the entire group united.
Project cohesion
By sharing the vision and goals across the project and stakeholders, we created a common measure for all project members. For example, we were conscious of not creating “nice-to-have” functions and limiting ourselves to the minimum necessary functions. Also, our willingness to develop and operate in-house without completely relying on system integrators increased the project’s cohesion.
Flexible response capability
It was important to have a cross-departmental team structure in place to respond flexibly and quickly to problems that arise during the project period. For instance, we were able to flexibly respond to the additional request for the Haneda area.
AWS support
Several aspects of AWS support were crucial to our success, including creating guidelines for how we will contribute to contact centers in the future, collaboratively resolving technical issues arising through the project, strengthening our development and operation capabilities through the AWS Prototyping Program(This is a private offering from AWS. If you use your browser’s Web Page Translation feature on this page, you will find several excellent case studies.), and persistent support for issues that arose after the start of operations.
Looking to the future: Where did the saved costs and time go?
Where did the gains from the Amazon Connect migration go? The answer lies in continuous innovation and customer value enhancement.
Initially, by handling tasks like call flow changes internally, we redirected external costs back into the ANA Group. Funds previously allocated for hardware obsolescence updates could now fuel new investments. Additionally, the reduced lead times presented an opportunity. As a result, we could respond agilely to emerging business needs, with the saved time reinvested into evaluating and addressing new requirements. Leveraging these cost savings and efficiencies, ANA X is exploring the integration of AWS AI services. By capitalizing on AWS connectivity, we aim to drive continuous improvement and deliver more value to our customers.
Overall, this transformative project paved the way for future growth and innovation. We’re excited to embark on this journey of constant service enhancement, made possible by reinvesting the gains from the Amazon Connect migration.
Key takeaways
- Cloud migration to Amazon Connect enabled a 58% reduction in monthly operational costs and a 75% decrease in lead time for adding phone lines.
- With Amazon Connect’s ease of management, tasks could be handled in-house, redirecting external costs towards investing in new technologies.
- Clear vision, cohesive teamwork across stakeholders, and an adaptable cross-departmental structure were vital for a successful transformation.
- Reinvesting migration gains allowed exploration of AWS AI integration, driving continuous improvement and enhanced customer value.
Conclusion
Through these experiences, we realized that migrating from an on-premises PBX to the cloud-based Amazon Connect greatly contributes to cost reduction, improved flexibility, and increased operational efficiency. Also, at the time of writing this article, we are advancing the utilization of AWS AI services, enjoying the benefits of integrations with various AWS services. We sincerely hope that this article will serve as a trigger for you to challenge system migration and system operation with your own strength. This challenge provides new opportunities for growth. We believe that by not fearing failure and taking on challenges, organizations can continue to evolve. We hope this article will be a useful reference for readers to achieve further success.
Note
[1] Construction costs include the cost of voice proxies, so generally, it is considered that systems can be built at lower costs with Amazon Connect compared to on-premises systems.
[2] Additional functions: Currently, many functions such as Amazon Connect Agent Workspace are provided as standard, so the development of additional functions is expected to decrease.
Special thanks
To those in our team who cooperated with this writing:
- Yasuyuki Misawa, Leader, Planning Promotion Team, Customer Relation Department, ANA X Inc.
- Kentaro Higuchi, Manager, Planning Promotion Team, Customer Relation Department, ANA X Inc.
- Serina Tani, Planning Promotion Team, Customer Relation Department, ANA X Inc.
- Rinako Ebata, Growth & Operation, Business Development Department, ANA X Inc.
- Sakiko Fukada, Leader, Life Solution Team, Research & Development Department, ANA X Inc.
- Chieka Tejima, Manager, Customer System, Research & Development Department, ANA X Inc.
- Ayako Sunayama, Passenger Service Systems Team, Passenger Service Solutions, Digital Transformation, All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd.
- Emi Nochi, Customer Communication Team, CX Management Department, ANA Systems Co., Ltd.
Author bio
Tatsuo Kido
Manager, Customer Communication Team, CX Management Department, ANA Systems Co., Ltd.
Business Analyst / Project Manager
IIBA CBAP ®, PMI PMP ®, PMI ACP ®, IIBA Japan Branch Member, PMI Japan Branch Member (Administrative Community Member)
