Site search

speech technology automated solutions

Home arrow Investor Relations arrow RNS Announcements arrow 2007 arrow AXA PPP Healthcare 5 year contract
AXA PPP Healthcare 5 year contract    20/06/07 Print E-mail
AXA PPP Healthcare Selects Bt And Eckoh To Deliver Groundbreaking Sickness Absence Management Service

Leading UK health insurer, AXA PPP healthcare, has awarded BT and Eckoh a five year contract to provide an automated Sickness Absence Management service (SAM). The new service will be marketed to AXA PPP healthcare's corporate client base and to other large and medium-sized employers, enabling them to manage sickness absence more effectively throughout their organisations.

Developed by BT and Eckoh, this new service uses advanced speech recognition technology to capture and record information from employees reporting their absence. As well as enabling employers to record and manage day-to-day non-attendance, the service incorporates a unique trigger alert system based on key indicators (such as musculoskeletal and psychological problems) to notify the employer of potentially high cost absences where early assessment and treatment can be instrumental in mitigating the risk.

Alerts can also be generated to identify frequent absentees whose conduct should be addressed. SAM also collates and analyses employees' input to generate online management information reports to enable clients to benchmark and track absence trends throughout their organisations. This, in turn, allows managers to identify absence hotspots and potential problem areas such as an increase in workplace stress.

Dudley Lusted, head of corporate healthcare development at AXA PPP healthcare, said: "Working with these leading edge experts from the communications industry has enabled us to create a compelling offering that opens an important new area of business for AXA PPP healthcare. SAM, complemented by our range of additional employee health support services, gives us an even more powerful offering in the corporate marketplace. We are confident that the employee and reporting benefits, not to mention the cost savings and operational benefits afforded by SAM, will impress our clients and strengthen our relationship with them."

Andy Nicholson, managing director UK finance industry sector, BT Global Services UK, said: "Few employers have a clear understanding of how much ill health, injury and absence costs their organisations. For many, lack of clear, consistent data on employee attendance is a critical shortcoming. We are delighted to have been able to work with AXA PPP healthcare to develop a simple, straightforward service that addresses this issue by giving employers the information they need, day in and day out to enable them to manage absence effectively."

Nik Philpot, chief executive officer, Eckoh, said: "SAM is truly a transformational service for the corporate healthcare arena and its development gives us a tremendous opportunity to work with a market leader in the sector. SAM provides AXA PPP healthcare with a clear competitive edge and should enable its clients to generate significant cost savings. The introduction of SAM is an important development in the UK healthcare market for hosted speech solutions, which, according to Datamonitor, is growing at around 24.7 per cent per annum. We at Eckoh are confident that SAM will prove to be a popular product at sustainable prices, which will maximise uptake and generate significant revenues."
 
< Prev   Next >
Back
The name and overall content are 2003 Eckoh Technologies, and all rights are reserved