Compelling Reasons for VoIP in the Contact Center.

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1 The Next Generation Contact Center Compelling Reasons for VoIP in the Contact Center. Joseph McFadden Nuasis TM Corporation Nuasis Corporation 1

2 Momentum is building in favor of the latest IP-based systems for call centers that offer compelling advantages over traditional circuit-based ACD switches. By delivering the voice traffic over the IP network (VoIP), the latest systems: Simplify networking of multiple, geographically dispersed centers Handle phone calls, s, and web contacts on a single platform Reduce telephony network costs Next generation systems also address key shortcomings with previous IP solutions to assure system reliability and scalability. This paper provides an overview of the latest available technologies and considerations for evaluating an IP-based call center system. Multiple centers operated as a single center For various reasons companies choose to operate multiple mid-sized, geographically dispersed contact centers as opposed to large, centralized, single-site centers. Reasons include the need to place centers near skilled, lower cost workforces, satisfy follow-the-sun business hour coverage, and assure business continuity. Commonly, corporate mergers and acquisitions result in companies managing multiple centers. The degree to which customer contact centers are connected via a network determines efficiencies in operation, cost reductions, and levels of customer service. Ideally, a network of multiple systems can be operated and managed as a single large contact center providing realtime visibility and control on activity across the entire network of centers. But more importantly, by networking multiple centers together, companies can route customers to the best agent available to handle the contact across a larger networked pool of agents and regardless of where the agent is located. Presumably, hold times for customers can also be shortened by load balancing contact volumes across the entire enterprise. Nuasis Corporation 2

3 For a multi-site environment, moving to an IPbased contact center system to replace traditional ACDs offers compelling advantages. requirements while still relying on both the telephony and corporate data networks. Systems are connected via T1 lines. Intelligent routing of contacts to the best agent across the entire enterprise More efficient use of agents as a result of networking dispersed agents into one large agent pool thereby reducing the number of agents required Consolidated reporting across multiple networked contact centers Elimination of high cost and complexities of CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) Reduced telephony charges A single point of management for multiple ACD systems on the corporate network A second option is another hybrid approach that ties dispersed circuit-based ACDs together via IP, rather than telephony tie lines. This hybrid is not a total IP solution. The IP connections are between the switches only. Telephony lines are still required from each switch to agent sets. This of course does not eliminate the two networks, but does reduce telephony charges. The contact center manager has several options when choosing an ACD for a multi-site architecture. First, legacy circuit-based ACD switches can be front-ended with pre-routers. The advantage with this hybrid approach is that the investment in legacy ACDs can be leveraged. However, this approach dramatically increases complexity, integration costs, and system management A third option is a centralized total IP-based ACD solution. This option reduces system and network operating costs and telephony service charges as well as simplifies the distribution of multi-media contacts. The disadvantage is that today s solutions may not scale to sufficient size because of limitations with centralized processing architectures. Nuasis Corporation 3

4 The fourth option is a total IP-based system, such as the Nuasis NuContact Center TM, with a distributed architecture. This relatively new enterprise architecture offers all the advantages of traditional ACDs and the centralized IP-based systems, but is scalable, more reliable, and has a lower cost of ownership. VoIP -- A silver bullet for multi-media contact handling Although voice calls are still the most popular means of contacting a company, customers in growing numbers are choosing to do business by or web collaboration. In recent years, companies have struggled to add and web sessions into the contact media mix. And as companies have struggled to resolve how best to handle the variety of media contact types, customer service has suffered. Today, contact centers are media centric, meaning contacts are distributed and prioritized based on the media channel on which they arrive. The typical service model defines responses to customer contacts in terms of the type of media. Phone calls or web chat sessions receive immediate attention. s, voice messages, and faxes are deferred for periods of hours. Other web applications are viewed as self-service. With today s media centric contact distribution systems, this customer service model is flawed. Systems do not allow for escalation across media channels that can lead to lower customer Nuasis Corporation 4

5 satisfaction. As an example, a call center manager should have the ability to prioritize a gold customer over other s from notso-gold customers, but also over phone calls from not-so-gold customers. The call center manager has three choices for handling multiple media types. Operate separate centers dedicated to handling each media type voice, , or web sessions. The result is multiple centers with no consolidated management reports and duplicated infrastructure. This option also misses the opportunity to reduce agent numbers by cross training agents to handle multiple media types thereby improving productivity. datamart to consolidate historical data for reports adds expense and management burden. The third option is to distribute all contact types over one IP network. An IP-based system may in fact be a silver bullet to the multi-media problem. Delivering voice over the corporate IP network along with s and web sessions offers distinct advantages. This approach allows contacts to be distributed The second option is to integrate applications over the two networks. Specific challenges when attempting to integrate the three media channels include controlling the complexity and cost, assuring consistent handling of multiple media applications at the agent desktop, and generating accurate consolidated reporting on service levels by media type. as efficiently as voice calls have been distributed in the past and blended at the agent desktop. It allows s and web sessions to be prioritized based on business rules and the value of the customer to the company versus based on the media channel on which they arrived. It provides for consolidated reports across all media types. And it reduces the cost of managing a system by eliminating the high cost and complexity of traditional CTI implementations (Computer Telephony Integration), the need for multiple workflows, and the need for multiple databases. This option still requires separate workflow routines for each media channel and separate databases to track contacts. The addition of a Nuasis Corporation 5

6 One network - mission critical performance The high costs of managing two networks (voice and data) and developing CTI applications for multiple media types will provide additional incentive to move to a single network solution. When considering a contact center application based on a single IP contact distribution system, call center managers must focus on two additional issues -- reliability and quality of voice. High System Availability Call center managers will continue to expect the same levels of system reliability with an IPbased solution as with traditional ACD systems. They are unlikely to compromise on this point due to the mission-critical nature of the contact center. The latest generation of systems, based on distributed IP architectures, seem to provide the best solutions for achieving the levels of reliability demanded. In fact, the industryaccepted metric of five 9s may be an outdated concept. IP-based systems with distributed architectures are redefining the metrics used to measure system performance no contacts lost. By virtue of its distributed design, these systems provide built in redundancy of components. They use reliable off-the-shelf server components. And they can provide automatic call redirect in the event that a node on the network is taken out of service. Quality of Voice Service On the issue of voice quality, there now seems to be no issue. Over a managed corporate network (Voice over IP), IP-based systems reliably provide toll quality voice performance. However, there is still confusion between Voice over IP and the early applications for Voice over the Internet where network bandwidth cannot be controlled. Voice over the Internet provides less than acceptable voice quality for the call center. The remaining challenge is for system providers to educate call center management on the distinctions between Voice over IP, which does provide toll quality voice, versus Voice over the Internet. To further assure voice quality, the latest systems use compression algorithms that favor higher quality of service. At the desktop, operating systems such as Windows XP prioritize for voice versus data transactions and USB headsets provide full digital sound quality. Are traditional ACDs obsolete? For all the reasons stated, the traditional ACD circuit-based switch may be on its way out. The advantages of the latest IPbased intelligent contact distribution systems are too compelling. The real question is not should I purchase an IPbased system, but rather, which IP-based system should I purchase. The latest generation of systems with distributed architectures may finally bring everything together in one platform for managing multiple sites and multiple media types. Nuasis Corporation Bryant Street Mountain View, CA Nuasis, NuContact Center, ERA are trademarks of Nuasis Corporation. Nuasis Corporation 6