Evaluating IP Contact Center Solutions Serge Hyppolite Director, Product Management Aspect Software...
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Transcript of Evaluating IP Contact Center Solutions Serge Hyppolite Director, Product Management Aspect Software...
Evaluating IP Contact Center Solutions
Serge HyppoliteDirector, Product ManagementAspect [email protected]
A History of Innovation
Voice ACDWorkforce
Management
Voice and data integration
Voice, email, and Web front- and back-office
integration
Converged voice/ data network
Mid
Voice Only
Mid
Voice and Data Unified Communications
VoIP/SIPVoIP/SIP
WorkforceGlobalization
Rising Customer
Expectations
Technology Convergence
Rapid Pace of Technological
Change
Trends
Customer Care
Global and remote workforces
Agent Productivity
Distributed and VirtualContact Centers
Intelligent Applications and Services
Increased efficiency, reduced infrastructure costs
Simplified Application and Business Rule Development
Consolidated Administration and Analytics
Enterprise Integration
Technology Convergence
WorkforceGlobalization
Rapid Pace of Technological
Change
Rising Customer
Expectations
Implications to the Contact Center
Analyst Projections
IP in the CCAfter the initial hype, IP is finally hitting the call center mainstream; by 2007 there will be over one million IP agent positions in operation and by 2008, IP ACD revenues will have overtaken traditional TDM revenues…
Datamonitor: June 2004
SIPAdoptionBy year-end 2006, 50 percent of enterprise IP telephony and unified messaging systems will support SIP as an option (0.8 probability)
Gartner: June 2003
Multimedia CC’s and UQOf the surveyed companies, 82.4 percent reported that they support multiple media types in their contact centers. This indicates that multimedia contact centers (as opposed to telephony-only "call centers") have entered the mainstream. The large percentage of multimedia contact centers does not imply equal adoption levels of universal queue (UQ) systems (30.1 percent of contact centers report having UQ capability)
Gartner: May 2004
Extended EnterprisesBy 2006, leading enterprises will be investing in contact center technology for all employees to help them measure, track and manage their own communications (0.7 probability)
Gartner: March 2004
WorkforceGlobalization
Demand for offshore call center outsourcing is growing and shifting east to countries across Europe and will also grow in the APAC region through 2007
Datamonitor: December 2003
Value of Contact Center to Enterprise
2Increase profits by2Increase profits by
Decrease defections by
Decrease defections by
Sources:1. Forum Corp2. Harvard Business Review
of customer losses related to poor customer service/sales interaction1
of customer losses related to poor customer service/sales interaction1
The Converged Contact Center
“Now I can not only solve the customer’s problem the first time I talk to him, but I can suggest helpful upgrades.”
“I can deploy a call center anywhere,
easily interface to my business
applications, and manage it all from
my desk.”
“Even though my call centers are distributed, I now have a single,
centralized cross-media view of the total customer
experience.”
“Whether I contact them by email, Web, or on
the phone, I always get the answer, fast!”
CORPORATE
CUSTOMER
AGENT
IT
Compelling Reasons for IP
Analysts indicate IP is viable and growing: Growth in overall VoIP
Over the next five years, analysts expect significant growth in the number of IP-architected call centers, with all new switches sold in 10 years to be IP switches.
Demand for hybrid VoIP add-ons Enterprise call centers will migrate to IP slowly (2005-08), due to
reluctance to add risk to customer-facing activities. Large call centers are more likely to demand VoIP remote agents and
hybrid solutions to protect existing investments.
Demand for continued support of PSTN switches Enterprises, especially large enterprises, will require continued support
and add-ons for their PSTN switches.
Sources: Frost 2003, Yankee Group 2003, Datamonitor 11/2002, Giga 2003
Compelling Reasons for IP
Advantages of VoIP in contact centers Support of anywhere agent Support of remote sites and virtual contact centers Reduced telephony charges Unified development and administration Reduced network and operating costs as voice and
data networks converge
Two main types of IP contact center solutions Hybrid IP/circuit-switched Pure IP-centric
What if you could…
Cut telephony costs by routing voice traffic over IP networks?
Locate agents in regions with low labor and facility costs?
Deploy VoIP agents using your existing Call Center? Administer your PSTN and VoIP agents using the same
management tools you use today? Use the same reporting tools you use today for PSTN or
VoIP? Move to VoIP without rewriting or retraining your staff?
You can!
Factors to Consider When Evaluating Solutions
1. Breadth of Applications2. Flexibility3. Rich IP Features4. Investment Protection5. Company Viability
(1) Breath of Applications
The IP Contact Center solution must offer the rich set of capabilities that the Contact Center Environment requires:
ACD Predictive Dialing IVR Multi Channel Functionality (Chat, Email, Workflow) Recording and Quality Monitoring Reporting
“To the Operations team, it doesn’t matter what the underlying infrastructure is, but the business applications are critical.”
(2) Flexibility
“Anywhere” access for agents Agents at home Branch office Call Center Knowledge Workers
Scalability from tens to thousands of users Standard interface support Across technologies; PSTN/VoIP
Flexibility - Agents Anywhere
LAN/WAN
Customer
PSTN
IP-Enabled
Call Center
IP PBX
PSTN PBX
Agents connect to IP PBX
Agents in Call Center
Agents connect to PSTN PBX
Toll-Bypass Gateway
SIPSIP
SIP
TDM
Internet
LAN/WAN
Home-based Agents
Home-based AgentsSIP
SIP
Customer
IP-Enabled Call Center
IP-Enabled Center
IP-Enabled Center
Flexibility - Multi-Site Networking via IP
Calls can be sent from one call center to another via VoIP
technology
LAN/WAN
Managed Corporate
Network
(3) Rich IP Features
Must offer Advanced voice quality and telephony features
SIP v2.0 compliant Automatic Gain Control Echo Cancellation Silence Suppression to conserve bandwidth Comfort Noise DTMF tone detection and generation Configurable, dynamic and adaptive Jitter control Flexible packetization rate QoS
Rich IP Features - Standards Support
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) [RFC 3261] Session Description Protocol (SDP) [RFC 2327] Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) [RFC 1889] DTMF digit detection and generation [RFC 2833] CODEC Support:
G.711μ-law G.711A-law G.729A / G.729AB
Rich IP Features - Audio Codecs
G.711 provides best audio quality 64 kbps (payload) Good with low call volume A-law and u-Law setting based on country
• Set μ-Law in Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, United States• Set A-Law in other countries
G.729 compression reduces bandwidth required 8 kbps (payload)
Codecs selected in order of preference based on capabilities of connecting device
Voice and InterQueue Data Exchanged over IP WAN/VPNRoute to any agent off any Call Center!
WANVPN
IP Network InterQueue
San Francisco Miami
Portland
Seattle
Chicago
SIP Trunks
Rich IP Features - IP Network Interqueue
(4) Investment Protection
Must support both TDM and IP to enable seamless transition
Must provide standard interfaces for connectivity Must offer interfaces to existing desktop, front
office, and back office applications Routing rules, administration, reporting remain
same for PSTN or VoIP transport Must offer support for standard IP phones - Aspect,
Cisco, Siemens, Pingtel, Snom or ‘soft’ IP Phones (MS Windows Messenger)
Allow companies to migrate at own pace
(5) Company Viability
Proven - Must have expertise and focus in Contact Center
Astute Innovators – must provide leadership in innovating technologies in this market
Customer Driven - Must have a history of delivering superior customer service
Always There - Must have the financial discipline and viability to be a trusted long-term business partner
Summary and Close
The benefits of moving to IP are clear and IP is here now
In evaluating IP Contact Center Solutions, companies must consider:1. Breadth of Applications – must offer the full set of contact
center applications that the business requires2. Flexibility – must provide the level of scalability and
deployment flexibility to address grow as the business needs expand
3. Rich IP Features – must offer complete set of IP features and standards interfaces
4. Investment Protection – must allow companies to migrate to IP at their own pace
5. Company Viability – must deal with a vendor with the expertise, good reputation, and viability needed to be a long term business partner.
Thank you for your time.
If you have any questions, visit us at www.aspect.com