The Customer

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) manages the National Car Testing Service (NCT) in the Republic of Ireland. The NCT performs safety inspections on more than 1.4 million vehicles each year at 46 centralized test centers across Ireland. These tests evaluate all safety components, including brakes, headlights, and exhaust emissions. Drivers are required to make an appointment at one of the centers, and appointments may be scheduled via a call center or on line. The NCT utilizes a 60 seat call center, which handles approximately 10,500 calls per day. In addition, NCT maintains a public web site offering motorists an online option for booking inspections.

The Challenge

The RSA was seeking an integrated technology solution that would effectively meet its commitment to provide a high level of customer satisfaction. A customized, integrated solution had to: ensure proper handling of the RSA's high call volumes and make vehicle data immediately available to call center agents; include an updated web site through which customers scheduling inspection appointment at any of the 46 test centers; ensure that inspection facilities provide efficient and accurate vehicle safety testing; and the technology solution needed to be intuitive, requiring a minimal amount of training.

The Applus+ Solution

Applus+ leveraged its extensive experience as a provider of custom technology solutions to develop a comprehensive, multi-faceted technology solution that specifically met all of the RSA's needs. The resulting Applus+ Car Testing Solution delivered versatile, integrated applications to support the bookings, vehicle check in, cash management and data collection needs of the NCT. The multi-faceted Applus+ solution enhanced and strengthened the efficacy of the existing call center, included a dashboard architecture with a role-based security access model; streamlined the public website to be more user friendly; provided management of all 46 test centers and an integrated cash management application.

The Call Center

The Applus+ call center solution was customized to effectively manage the high call volume requirements of the NCT. The solution provides secure functionality to both call center agents and administrators through an intuitive, user-friendly interface that requires minimal training. The call center supports between 60 and 90 concurrent users with functionality that rapidly accesses, retrieves, and updates vehicle and owner data. When a call center agent updates a booking record, it is sent in real-time to all 46 inspection facilities. Call center agents use a role-based dashboard that allows them to create, reschedule or cancel appointments for vehicle safety inspections. The dashboard calendar feature includes available appointment slots for each of the testing facilities. Agents can also view vehicle information, including registration date, the vehicle inspection number (VIN), and tests, as well as booking history. They can add or remove cancellations and inspection fees. Administrators have additional access that includes key performance metrics and compliance measurements. This level of the dashboard enables administrators to run various reports such as statistical analysis of the number of tests passed or failed, the type of tests requested and the number of tests currently booked. They can also set several configuration options that control appointment slot capacity, test types and staff management features.

The Dashboard

Applus+ leveraged innovative technology to develop the dashboard, which is a web-based portal application that serves as a single point of entry for all users of this solution. The call center dashboard has specialized integration features and interfaces with the Vehicle Inspection Databases (VID), which is a central transaction processing database. The VID provides a robust, redundant data management solution due to its 46 mirrored databases. In addition, the rolebased functionality of the call center is integrated with Microsoft Active Directory. While all users see the same interface, the role-based security model ensures that they have access only to data and functionality specific to their job functions. Call center agents, facility manager and vehicle inspectors use job specific sub-modules accessed through the dashboard. For example, call center agents have options for booking appointments while administrators have access to the reporting functionality. The dashboard architecture is designed around a flexible development framework that can be easily modified or enhanced with new features. The technologies leveraged to develop this solution include Microsoft .NET, SQL Server, and .NET XML Web Services, as well as AJAX.

NTC Public Web Site

The public web site, hosted by Applus+, provides information about the locations of inspection facilities, the car test manual and test statistics. Motorists can also schedule, change or cancel an appointment via the website.

Testing Facilities

Applus+ manages 46 centralized test centers for the National Car Testing Service. In addition to performing vehicle safety inspections, the testing facilities print inspection certificates (and disks), and vehicle inspection reports. They also sell disk holders used to display certificates on vehicle windows, and perform visible retests of vehicles or documents related to defects.

Each facility has a front desk application, which is a specialized dashboard. Facility employees use this application to check in vehicles for testing, randomly assign inspectors to vehicles and manage onsite staff. Management features include tracking onsite inspector availability, such as break times, leave history and transfers.

Each vehicle inspection lane is equipped with an Applus+ AutoLogic workstation with customized testing equipment, which includes a brake tester, smoke meter and emissions analyzer and interfaces with a specialized workstation dashboard. This dashboard collects emissions and other data, and allows inspectors to update vehicle information.

Cash Management

Applus+ developed an integrated cash management application to track money in up to five different cash registers per facility. The application maintains incremental and decremental cash values in real-time. Using established financial rules, it also controls cash transfers, and minimum cash requirements for each register. The cash management application uses the .NET framework to integrate with SAP in the Applus+ corporate office. This integration provides financial teams with the flexibility to generate reports as needed.

The Result

Applus+ successfully delivered a comprehensive and high quality solution meeting the customer's needs on time and within budget. The call center handles over 10,500 calls per day, with zero downtime from day one of this new solution. Even as new users, call center agents were able to increase their efficiency at handling bookings and other customer requests. This enhanced performance was also paralleled at inspection facilities where traffic flow increased, wait times for motorists were minimized, and equipment functioned with complete reliability. The Applus+ commitment to software quality assurance guaranteed that the vehicle testing process was highly accurate and vehicle data was immediately available. Call center agents and vehicle inspectors were able to navigate the dashboard with a high level of competency. In addition, the transition to the new public web site was transparent to users, contributing significantly to customer satisfaction.

The Client Speaks

Feedback from operations management highlights the Applus+ commitment to high quality software that provides user-friendly interfaces, and maximizes employee productivity. Applus+ continually receives comments such as "The station dashboard and lane software are well presented to the user, and very intuitive for the test center staff to use." The enhanced usability of the dashboard allows inspectors to focus on vehicle safety and motorist satisfaction with the inspection process, contributing to the overall success of the National Car Testing Service. Additional comments from the customer focus on the excellent technical support provided by Applus+ professionals, which was a significant factor in the seamless transition to the new call center software. The technical expertise demonstrated by Applus+ guaranteed the call center's ability to meet the demands of high call volumes and provide high quality customer service to Ireland motorists.

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