GST Start-Up Assistance Office (GSTSAO)

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GSTSAO help line showcases Fujitsu's call centre expertise

With the impending introduction of The New Tax System in July 2000, the Federal Treasurer established the GST Start-Up Assistance Office (GSTSAO). Its charge was to assist small business and community organisations in understanding the New Tax System, the GST, and associated compliance requirements.

Cable & Wireless Optus (CWO) won the tender to provide GSTSAO's telecommunication services and, as prime contractor, approached Fujitsu in February 2000 to set up, resource and run the GSTSAO help line.

Prior to establishment of the GSTSAO help line, people who really only needed information on the GST and not actual tax advice were calling the Tax Office and waiting in long telephone queues. This caused great frustration for the public and for Tax Office personnel. It was imperative to get an effective information service up and running fast.

On March 1, 2000 - just 12 days after CWO's first planning meeting with Fujitsu - the GSTSAO help line went live.

The service was housed in Fujitsu's Enterprise Systems Management Centre in Civic, meeting the requirement that this Federal initiative be located in Canberra and allowing fast establishment of a tailored help desk environment. The centre is one of five around Australia through which Fujitsu offers general call centre services as well as IT help desks, support services for ISPs and call management services.

Forty additional call centre operators were recruited on a contract basis and underwent intensive training in customer service and on specific GST-related inquiries. Working with the GSTSAO, Fujitsu also developed and maintained documentation as ongoing support for the help line operators.

The Civic centre was already cabled but additional PCs, headphones and handsets still needed to be procured. Equipment was ordered on a Thursday afternoon, arrived on the Friday afternoon, and the systems configured over the weekend so they were operational on Monday morning.

The GSTSAO help line operated from 6.00am to 3.00am on weekdays and from 9.00am to 9.00pm on weekends. Its success was such that the help desk grew significantly after going live. By September 2000 - the peak of the GST introduction period - its size had trebled with 120 operators being rotated through day, night and weekend shifts and answering more than 50,000 calls per month.

Several freecall numbers, each corresponding to different industry or community interest areas, were advertised nationally by the GSTSAO. Calls to these numbers were delivered to the help desk by CWO and then distributed to the appropriate operators based on the number the caller had dialled or the in-call selections made.

Operators also had Internet access as many callers were directed to Web sites for additional information. The help desk had neither the charter nor the authority to provide tax advice so callers requiring this type of assistance were transferred to the Tax Office or referred to the help lines of professional associations such as the Australian Society for Chartered Professional Accountants. Details of the number of calls received, their origin and the type of assistance required were tracked and reported, providing the GSTSAO with valuable feedback.

Fujitsu's operation of the GSTSAO help line has won extensive praise from both CWO and its customer, the GSTSAO.

"I'm very happy with the way the GST help line has performed," said Glenn Carlos, the GSTSAO's project manager.

"We had some extremely tight deadlines to meet and CWO and Fujitsu were able to help us meet them. The help line was up and running fast, it was responsive to customers and provided individuals, small businesses and community-based organisations with the sort of information they wanted quickly and efficiently."

Despite the very tight timeframe, Fujitsu's proven call centre processes and infrastructure ensured a no-fuss implementation for the help line. A flexible approach to staffing levels allowed the service to be scaled up and down in line with customer demand, resulting in delivery of consistent levels of customer service throughout the contract.