In the last few months there were a lot of news that came to pinpoint the limitations in the response of the telephone line that was making a first screening and forwarding of potential cases of Covid-19 in Portugal. During this period, there were also several announcements of guardianship on the reinforcement of the line’s capacity and other improvements to the response capacity.
Now Altitude Software, a Portuguese multinational that – in partnership with the Company Altice – provides the technological solution to support the line, came to reveal and detail what changes were made and which technologies ended up having a relevant role in strengthening a line that registers 40 thousand daily contacts.
The pandemic support plan was activated in March and involved the operation of 2200 new service lines and the integration of new tools, including 1900 interactive answering systems (Interactive Voice Response) and Voice Bots to automate a first line of assistance response and screen what were Covid-19 cases. With the new systems, which take advantage of technologies such as artificial intelligence, it was possible to «reallocate health professionals’ time to the next stages of the care process», emphasizes Altitude.
As the pandemic progressed, new tools were integrated into the screening and care process, such as a mobile application to streamline remote appointments scheduled by health professionals or a video channel capable of responding to the needs of the mute-deaf community.
As Altitude explains, whenever a video call is requested through the SNS24 website, access to a sign language translator is now automatically established to facilitate communication.
During the last few months, health professionals who serve via the hotline have also seen the possibility of responding to users’ contacts from anywhere, via mobile phone and with the security of a VPN connection. The technological solution to support the call centre is hosted in the cloud, which facilitated the transition of the service to a remote regime at a time when confinement obligations restricted mobility, explains Altitude.
The technological support of the Health Ministry contact centres is ensured by Altitude’s Xperience Engagement since 2018. To respond to the pandemic it was necessary to reinforce capacity and introduce new features that, according to the company, were planned and executed in three days.
Initially published in Ntech.News.
