KCOM beats 44 competitors to five-year Bupa deal

Cloud services integrator takes over contact centre deal from incumbent BT

Cloud services integrator KCOM has secured a deal to rework Bupa's contact centres with cloud-based systems over the next five years, replacing incumbent BT.

KCOM was among 44 companies that initially went after the deal. Bupa then selected six of the companies to provide a proof of concept, according to George Roberts, sales manager at KCOM.

"We decided to [provide proof of concept], but over and above proving the phones work, we worked with Bupa and our partner ecosystem to define how you could make it better," said Roberts.

The new cloud-based system will use interactive voice response call recording, screen recording, social media integration and quality management. It will also introduce analytics into the contact centre.

"[This deal is] incredibly important to KCOM, principally on the basis that it has redefined the way in which we would engage with the market," said Roberts.

Another big cloud-based contact centre deal KCOM landed with HMRC in 2014 was highlighted in a public accounts meeting as the kind of deal the public sector should be making more often.

KCOM also recently clinched a deal to supply AWS to the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), which KCOM said showed the "range of capabilities" it has.

KCOM Group saw a six per cent decrease in its revenues in its last financial year, which fell to £348m. It has since combined its Smart421, Kcom, Eclipse and KC brands under the KCOM umbrella.