Korek selects Aastra to Upgrade its Contact Centers in Iraq

Dubai, July 13, 2010. Korek Telecom, one of Iraq’s three national telecom operators, has recently chosen Aastra, a leading company at the forefront of the enterprise communication market, for the expansion of its contact center of its headquarters in Irbil, in addition to establishing two new contact centers in Baghdad and Sulaimaniyeh. This major step comes as a necessary procedure to cope with the growing number of Korek’s subscribers all over Iraq.

Sefintel will be in charge of delivering and integrating the solution with the help of Tawasol, Aastra’s business partner and regional distributor. The scope of the project involves the expansion and upgrading of Korek headquarters’ contact center system to 45 agents in order to achieve more timely responsiveness due to increased customer care traffic. The second part of the project involves establishing new dynamic contact centers in Baghdad and Sulaimaneyeh for another 66 agents in order to expand Korek’s reach to its subscribers.

Anwar A. Muhammad, Managing Director of Korek said commenting on the deal: “We are highly committed to serving our customers in the most efficient and time saving manner, and this project was planned for this purpose. Amongst aggressive competition, we have chosen Aastra’s award-winning Solidus eCare contact center application for its flexibility, its support for new multimedia contacts such as SMS, Email, Fax and Internet, and the capability to integrate with other applications and databases such as our pre-paid mobile billing system.”

Aastra’s efforts in the contact centre market were recently recognized by a Frost & Sullivan award (2009 EMEA Inbound Contact Routing Systems Market Growth Strategy Leadership)

“Korek customers will be guaranteed better access to the most appropriate and competent agents each time they contact us. In addition, Korek will be able to serve larger segments of its subscribers whether speaking Arabic, English or Kurdi language through its contact centers in Baghdad and Sulaimaneieh”, says Feryad A. Jaff from Korek.



About Aastra Telecom Middle East
Aastra Telecom Middle East is the Middle East and North African business unit of Aastra Technologies Limited, (TSX:“AAH”), a leading company at the forefront of the enterprise communication market. Headquartered in Concord, Ontario, Canada, Aastra develops and delivers innovative communications products and applications for businesses. Aastra’s operations are truly global with more than 50 million installed lines around the world and a direct and indirect presence in more than 100 countries. Aastra is entirely dedicated to enterprise communications and offers one of the most complete portfolios of unified communications solutions individually tailored to satisfy its customers’ requirements. These range from feature-rich call managers for small and medium businesses and highly scalable ones for large enterprises, integrated mobility, call centre solutions to a wide selection of terminals. With a strong focus on open standards, Aastra enables enterprises to communicate and collaborate more efficiently. For additional information on Aastra, visit our website at http://www.aastra-mena.com

Note:
The Frost & Sullivan Award for Growth Strategy Leadership is given each year to the company that has demonstrated an exceptional growth strategy within their industry.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.