Untitled Document

Changes planned for 511 telephone call center

The bank of servers handling Idaho’s 511 telephone calls will relocate from an IBM call center in Atlanta to a facility operated by the Iowa Department of Transportation in Ames, Iowa, beginning Monday said Alison Lantz, manager of Idaho’s traveler services system.

IBM recently announced it will close the Atlanta facility at the end of February, prompting the multi-state coalition, of which Idaho is a member, to secure an alternate call center location.
The first 200 telephone lines that carry calls to Idaho’s traveler information system will migrate to the facility Monday, February 18. The remaining 400 telephone lines are scheduled to make the transition soon after.

“If the transition takes place as smoothlyas we expect, callers to our 511 system will not notice the change,” Lantz explains. “There is a remote possibility that telephone response could be impacted briefly, but the process is scheduled in phases so the likelihood of impacts should be minimal.”

Contracting with a joint call center helps ensure that people who access Idaho 511 Traveler Services system by telephone receive immediate response. Even during the heaviest use of the phone system, callers rarely receive a busy signal.

The call center relocation is the start of a system transition to a more advanced 511 phone system featuring better voice recognition, segmented reporting for major highways, a trucking menu and better location reporting which will include a reference to a city with each location.