amcwhite paper-8 best practices for contact center and crm integration

An AMC Technology Whitepaper

8 Best Practices for Contact Center

and CRM Integration Guidelines for Preparing for CRM Integration with

Telephony and other Interaction Channels

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© 2009 AMC Technology, L.L.C. All rights reserved. 2

Table of Contents

Table Of Contents 2

Summary 3

Definition: Contact Center And CRM Integration 4

Best Practice #1: Executive Management Buy-In 5

Best Practice #2: Change Management 7

Best Practice #3: Scope Management 8

Best Practice #4: Data Cleansing 10

Best Practice #5: Call Flows, Routing And Reporting 11

Best Practice #6: The Multi-Channel Contact Center 14

Best Practice #7: Build Vs. Buy 16

Best Practice #8: Professional Integration Study 18

Conclusion 21

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Summary

Many companies today recognize that there is a significant return on

investment (ROI) available from simply integrating their contact center

hardware with their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications.

The benefits are both tangible, such as faster handling through screen pops

and an integrated user interface, and intangible, such as improved customer

service and more consistent first call resolution (FCR).

The project manager tasked with this integration faces several issues.

Integration between telephony and CRM applications can require substantial

resources. In addition to the inherent technical difficulty of the integration,

the task is typically owned by multiple departments, complicating the

deployment road map.

This whitepaper shares best practices for contact center CRM integration

based on AMC Technology’s experience in the field and provides concise

checklists for completing CRM integration projects successfully.

The following areas will be covered in this whitepaper:

Executive Management Buy-In

Change Management

Scope Management

Data Cleansing

Call Flows, Routing and Reporting

Multi-Channel Implementations

Build vs. Buy

Professional Integration Studies

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Definition: Contact Center and CRM Integration

What is meant by contact center and Customer Relationship Management

(CRM) integration?

For the purposes of this whitepaper, a contact center refers to a solution that

allows an organization of corporate representatives to interact with customers

via inbound and outbound telephone calls. Additional channels of

communication include e-mail chat, fax, and others, often referred to as

“multi-channel” communications. Contact center telephony solutions are

available from vendors such as Aspect, Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, and others.

CRM is an application overlay on top of a database intended to maintain

historical event data and allow a company to manage customer interactions in

an organized way. Larger vendors in the space include SAP, Oracle,

salesforce.com, and Microsoft.

Contact center and CRM integration simply means that the communication

channels from the contact center technology and the CRM software

functionality appear to the user as a single integrated solution. This

combination makes users, here the contact center agents, faster, more

efficient, and more courteous in the eyes of the customer.

The end result on the technology side is expanded functionality, covered in

the “Scope Management” portion of this whitepaper. Without these

capabilities, the systems coexist rather than being truly integrated.

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Best Practice #1: Executive Management Buy-In

Presentations written to garner buy-in for contact center and CRM integration

often focus on the return on investment (ROI). This is an important aspect of

the integration project and has been explored extensively elsewhere. Several

documents and ROI calculation tools are available online and will therefore

not be discussed in this whitepaper. Rather, the focus of this section on

executive management buy-in is to make recommendations that ensure that

at all management levels, the complete scope of the integration project is

understood and agreed upon.

The last five years have seen a transformation of the contact center from a

specialized business unit into an essential customer contact access point, on

par with retail outlets, field sales and service units and Internet web sites.

This metamorphosis is a critical gating factor for buy-in because there is a

great deal of inertia fighting against changes in technology and process.

There is a natural tendency for executives to prefer to delay a project rather

than miss a profit target.

New business-process-focused applications such as CRM and new business

strategies such as hosted systems and outsourcing have tamed the contact

center and made it accessible to all organizations. Multiple contact channels,

such as e-mail, fax, chat, web collaboration and even text messaging, require

tighter integration that supports centralized routing and management

strategies for customer interactions.

Driven by customer expectations for service, responsiveness and ease of

access, the contact center has become both an alternative to Internet sales

and service sites and a key support tool for customers seeking expert

assistance in using corporate web sites.

At the same time, the contact center has expanded, generating new agent

roles. In addition to the traditional “heads down” call center agent,

knowledge workers benefit from integrated contact channel support and

navigation.

Modern CRM applications apply standardized business processes across all

customer contact points. For example, field sales and in-house agents apply

the same sales and order management processes. These “Customer Driven

Requirements” are so critical to the success of the integration project that

they cannot be understated. By focusing on the customer opinion of each

corporate interaction, very specific requirements can be driven by the

customer. This must be part of the executive management buy-in.

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The complete contact center integration requires building a unified foundation

capable of handling multiple contact channels within a single routing, queuing

and delivery channel. It must work with the different application User

Interfaces (UI), business processes, work roles, and workflows of modern

business. It must be able to adapt and grow with new CRM releases, new

channels, new technologies, and new business processes to meet the future

demands and realize the opportunities of the business.

Executive buy-in must therefore focus on these aspects. The following

checklist represents the recommendations developed by several department

managers as they sought to get the appropriate executive management buy-

in. Their experience shows that meeting each checklist item below may ease

the final goal of making the integration mandatory across all departments.

Management Buy-In Success Criteria Checklist

Management Agrees:

Integral Part of

Customer Access

Management does not view contact

center functions as a separate business

unit but rather an integral part of

customer access

Management Agrees:

Non-Specialized

Integration

Management understands need for

integration to be used by inside and

field sales, support, and enterprise

functions

Management Agrees:

Multiple-Channels

Management understands the

immediate or near-term need to

expand customer contact functions

beyond telephony (into e-mail, fax,

web chat, etc.)

Management Agrees:

Customer Driven

Requirements

Management is looking at requirements

from the point of view of enhancing the

customer experience

Management Agrees:

Business Processes

Span Locations

Management sees the potential need

for multi-location contact centers, as

well as the incorporation of field

employees.

Final Goal - Management

Agrees: Integration

Mandatory across all

departments

Management has agreed that the

Integration project will be mandatory

across all departments

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Best Practice #2: Change Management

Training is one of the most critical parts of change management. The change

agent, whose role is to manage the aspects of the integration’s impact on the

organization, is responsible for delivering a successful project.

The change agent’s primary role is therefore to communicate the changes

that take place because of the contact center and CRM integration project.

The change agent must also ensure that all of the local and field reps get the

communication they need for a successful transition to the updated

technology and processes. Finally, the change agent needs to manage the

training of all the managers and agents impacted by the project, including

incentives and measurement.

Change Management Success Criteria Checklist

Change Agent A change agent is assigned

and takes ownership

Push and Pull Communications Change agent has plans for

web and intranet pull, and

other push channels to

communicate

Training Change agent has plans for

training including incentive

and measurement

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Best Practice #3: Scope Management

The project manager, having secured executive management buy-in and

made sure there is ownership for change management, must now focus on

scope management. There is a tendency, once any integration project is

funded, to pile on a number of other application integration “wish list” line

items into the project. This tendency is also known as “scope creep” and can

undermine the probability of completing the project successfully.

As an anecdotal example, one AMC Technology customer had to defend the

scope of their contact center and CRM integration project against the

introduction of new, unrelated technology. One idea proposed migrating the

current order entry system to the CRM system as part of the same integration

project. Adding this line item would have multiplied the project’s size and

scope, negating any opportunity for a quick win.

Scope must be managed to retain executive management buy-in and give

every opportunity for the change agent to be successful.

AMC Technology has many years of experience in contact center and CRM

application integration, and as such offers the following scope checklist of

requirements that commonly appear in these projects. The project manager

who sees the requirements wildly varying beyond this checklist might do well

to re-examine the scope of the project.

Scope

Management Checklist of Common Requirements

Features and Functions

Single Sign-On

(SSO)

Single login for both CRM application and

Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)

Work Mode

Change

Agent can change CRM/ACD work modes

(ready status) in CRM interface and this is

synchronized with hard phone

CRM Logging of

Events

Deliver phone and agent events to CRM

application where they may be logged

State of the Call View current call state from desktop

Call Control Call control from desktop: Answer, Drop,

Hold, Un-Hold (retrieve), Blind or Warm

Transfers, Conferences

Outbound Calls Place outbound and consultative calls from

desktop

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Screen Pop Deliver call context data to the CRM

application for screen pop

Manual Context

Override

Agent can change call context data for

transfer

Click to Dial Outbound support of one click calling;

preview dialing

Intelligent

Routing

Routing based on skill set and or business

rules; manual or automatic via CRM data

lookup

Multi-Channel Support of e-mail, fax, web chat, etc.

Analytics Statistics can be gathered in single place

Technical Environment

HW & SW

infrastructure

PBX, IVR, ACD, CTI, CRM, others

(Vendors, models, release levels,

sizing)

Business Environment

Type of Contact

Center

Outbound, inbound or both

Sales, service, marketing, or

helpdesk

Communication channels supported

Agent Structure Agent numbers, roles, locations

Desktop applications

Topology

Geographic Location rollout plan

Redundancy Type and rollout plans for redundancy and

fault tolerance

Failover Type and rollout plans for failover and

recovery

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Best Practice #4: Data Cleansing

Data cleansing is a common issue for large customer and prospect databases,

regardless of whether a CRM system is deployed. With the deployment of

CRM these issues may be compounded. In addition to assessing the quality of

the data, effort must be expended in examining the root cause of any data

quality issues to prevent any corruption from recurring.

If a CRM system has been deployed for several years, many decisions have

been made along the way regarding the different fields, records, and their

usage. The decisions regarding managing the CRM system will take time to go

back and revisit.

Phone numbers, e-mail addresses, fax numbers, and other “lookup” data that

will be used for screen pops must be normalized to get the most out of a

contact center integration project. In addition, sometimes customers are

represented more than one time within a CRM system because of various

back-end integration issues or limitations.

The project manager must drive towards a unique hit for screen pops to

relieve the contact center agent of the responsibility of making a live decision

as to which record to open. This will also simplify training and change

management.

Data Cleansing Success Criteria Checklist

Multiple Customer Entries The rationale for originally having multiple entries is understood, and a

plan is in place to consolidate entries

into one

Lookup Parameters The parameters that will be used for customer lookup are understood and defined. Whether they are inbound

Calling Line Identification (CLI), or IVR-collected account number, or a combination of the two

Lookup Parameter

Cleansing

The CRM customer entries have been cleansed specifically for valid

information that will be used by the live agent or automatic screen pop

Routing Information The CRM customer entries have been

cleansed for valid routing information

that will be used to manually or automatically route the call

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Best Practice #5: Call Flows, Routing and Reporting

Call flows are important to specify and define early in the integration project.

The following sections briefly describe a basic call flow, followed by some

additional details to consider. Finally, the section contains a brief checklist so

that the project manager can quickly cover the important areas.

Basic Call Flow

Contact centers use call or interaction “flows” as the basic building blocks for

defining customer service processes. Interaction flows can also be mapped to

the different systems involved in the process to understand the system

requirements.

A basic customer call flow sample is useful to explain the role that integration

plays in managing the interaction between CRM and contact center systems.

This example is for an inbound customer phone call. For other channel

interactions such as email and chat, the process flow is very similar.

Customer Call Flow Example

1. An incoming customer call reaches the contact center’s PBX/ACD

system, which prompts the customer to input a customer account number.

2. A call routing decision is made by the PBX/ACD, or a contact center

application, based on the customer account number with the possible

validation of the account number in the CRM application.

3. PBX/ACD signals the inbound call event to the CTI server along with

the customer account number.

4. CTI server, through its standard communications API, passes the

event data to the integration software.

5. The integration software communicates the event data to the CRM

application.

6. CRM application uses the customer account number to perform a look-

up of the customer information.

7. The agent’s desktop populates with the customer information from the

CRM system, using a specific, pre-configured screen as the call arrives to the

agent’s phone from the PBX.

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8. Agent uses the CRM application to create or update the customer’s

interaction information and softphone call controls to manage the interaction.

9. A record and details of the customer interaction is automatically stored

as part of the customer’s interaction history.

Additional Call Flow Details

Agent Login and Logout

Agent can login and logout of queues through desktop controls. Login and

logout is synchronized with the agent’s hard phone. Agents can login for

individual or multiple channels simultaneously (i.e. phone, email and chat).

Agent Work Mode Settings

Agent can set work mode to a specific work status: ready, not ready, or other

work (AUX work) modes. The work mode settings synchronize with the ACD

to support “auto-in” and after-call work.

Desktop Controls

The integration supports the following standard telephony features:

Answer call

Drop call

Hold and Retrieve

Make call

Blind transfer: an agent can transfer a call to another agent without

consulting with the agent.

Warm transfer (with Reconnect option): an agent can transfer a call to

another agent after consulting with the agent. Alternatively, the agent

can reconnect to the call after the consultation.

Conference (with Reconnect option): an agent can conduct a

conference with another agent. Optionally, the agent can reconnect to

a call after the conference.

Similar desktop controls are supported for email and web chat interaction

management.

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Call Attached Data

Transfer and conference functionality should include relevant attached data:

ANI; DNIS; any custom data provided by the underlying switch, IVR or

vendor CTI software; and additional data provided by the agent, such as

notes and activities.

Call Flow Checklist

Call Flow Checklist of Items to Remember

when Specifying Call Flow

Call Flow Must document and specify all of the

following for the project team to be

successful:

IVR, UED, scripting, routing

E-mail flow (in/outbound, auto-

response)

Data Flow Must document and specify all of the

following:

Customer entered data

Agent required data

Transaction Flow Must document and specify to a

sufficient level of detail all of the

following:

Agent activities and tasks

Interaction work flow

Reporting Must specify all of the following

requirements that might be needed by

the project team:

Technical and business data

Current reporting system or

software

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Best Practice #6: The Multi-Channel Contact Center

The typical contact center relies on a variety of different systems to manage

communications with customers. This technical environment is growing more

complex with the use of new and expanding channels of customer

communications. While the telephone remains the number one choice, other

channels such as email and web chat are becoming standard modes of

communication in the contact center.

Each communication channel requires a unique set of contact center systems

to deploy and manage. There is a wide variety of vendors providing contact

center systems that range from fairly basic to highly complex. The intricacy

increases with factors such as multiple communications channels,

geographically distributed contact centers, the use of “specialty” applications

such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, sophisticated routing

applications and new, SIP-based applications.

Compounding the challenge is the fact that each channel of communication

currently requires a unique method of integration with CRM systems.

For telephony systems, integration is typically done through a Computer

Telephony Integration (CTI) Server. A CTI server is a server-based

application that manages the flow of call events and data with the phone

switch (PBX) and, in some cases, other call center systems. A CTI server is a

middleware application that typically interfaces with the PBX and with other

applications via a proprietary Application Programming Interface (API). CTI

servers are available from leading PBX and contact center system vendors,

such as Aspect, Avaya, Cisco Systems and Nortel.

For email systems, integration is typically done through a Simple Mail

Transport Protocol (SMTP) gateway or API provided by an email system. An

SMTP gateway manages the flow of emails to and from other applications.

For chat systems, integration is typically done through an interface provided

by the web server, such as IIS from Microsoft. The web server interface

manages the real-time flow of interactions from the chat application to other

applications.

For fax systems, integration is typically done through a fax server that is

capable of converting the fax document into an attached email file and

outputting the email through an SMTP gateway.

To be successful with a multi-channel contact center and CRM integration

project, the following checklist of points should be considered early in the

project planning:

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Multi-Channel Success Factor Checklist

Validation and

References

Ensure validated/certified products for your

integration points within your organization. If

you are integrating unified call center products

with your CRM, make sure it’s been validated

by the vendor and they have the customer

references to prove it.

Multi-Channel

Workflow

Define your multi-channel workflow – don’t just

rely on your telephone-only work flow. The

work flow for e-mail and web chat may be

significantly different from the traditional call

center.

Channel

Appropriate

Training

Ensure appropriate training of your agents and

standard responses across all channels. Agents

that communicate well over the phone may not

be as articulate over e-mail.

Consolidated

Metrics

Look for consolidated metrics. Only a few

companies that offer unified call center

platforms can give you analytics across those

channels. Look for a vendor that can.

Define Best

Approach

Think out of the box. There are very few “best

practices” yet for unified contact centers, so be

prepared to forge new ground and define your

own best approach. Customers are demanding

multi-channel interactions, so be prepared to

deliver a great customer experience across all

channels.

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Best Practice #7: Build vs. Buy

The complete contact center integrates multiple contact channel systems with

business application information for unified business processes. This

integration must handle two distinct integration points:

• For the contact channel: handling adjunct route and data dip requests

that enable contact channels to access business information. In an adjunct

route request the contact channel invokes a business function to determine

the right agent or agent group to handle the contact. A data dip brings

business information into the contact channel for processing. For example,

an IVR will perform a data dip to look up customer account information.

• For the business application: performing screen pop and call control.

When the contact is delivered to an agent, the contact information must be

brought into the application for a screen pop and the agent must be able to

control the contact, for example with a soft phone, while navigating the

business application to support the customer.

The two environments could not be more different.

Contact channels are real-time, event-driven, and typically analog services.

The contacts have very high service levels; they require a quick response,

because customers are often waiting. Business applications are transaction-

information- and process-oriented.

Bringing the event driven, high priority work of the contact channels into the

business application for an integrated process flow requires a complex

integration. It must incorporate the multiple, proprietary APIs that are

provided by each CRM application vendor and by each contact channel

vendor.

Integration with the CRM application requires connecting it to the contact

center system’s proprietary APIs. Neither the CRM application nor the contact

center systems provide the necessary application software to “bridge” or

connect these APIs.

A number of factors make this integration highly complex, including:

• Real-time interaction processing

• High volume and complexity of interactions

• Need to support frequently changing business process requirements

• Multiple vendor applications each with proprietary APIs

• Overlap in functionality across CRM and contact center systems

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Integrating the various APIs requires the deployment of a middleware

application that can manage the highly complex nature of this integration.

Companies can opt for custom development of this integration, either in-

house or through a third-party. Alternatively, this can be done by licensing a

pre-built, packaged integration product.

Even for basic contact center requirements, a custom integration presents

large risks. Customizations are not flexible, they have limited life-span and in

the long run they may present a barrier to introducing new functionality and

new business processes.

For more complex multi-channel requirements, companies may be better off

with pre-built integration products that provide the benefits of a more robust

and flexible integration. They can also provide a lower total cost of ownership

(TCO) over the long run.

Pre-built, packaged integration products should be certified by the CRM

application vendor and carry the appropriate official certified integration logo.

They should also be certified or validated by the contact center system’s

vendor to assure that they have been thoroughly tested in an “end-to-end”

environment. To obtain these certifications, an integration software vendor

must maintain formal relationships with the CRM vendors and with the

contact center systems vendors. These certifications will confirm that the

integration vendor has the requisite knowledge to support the integration

throughout its life-cycle as applications and systems evolve.

Custom vs. Pre-Built Success Factor Checklist

CRM Certification Is the solution certified by the CRM

application vendor?

Contact Center

Certification

Is the solution certified by the contact

center vendor?

TCO Will the solution provide the best total

cost of ownership?

Future Proof Will the solution need to be torn out once

the contact center or CRM Application

needs upgrading?

Customization How does the solution handle

customizations?

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Best Practice #8: Professional Integration Study

Integration projects involving communications systems and CRM applications

have a high degree of risk and complexity. Typically, there are unique

business requirements that need to be met using a variety of systems and

infrastructure across multiple vendors. The analysis and planning phase of

these projects is critical to their ultimate success.

A professional integration study provides a high-level ”road map” for the

integration of communications systems including PBX, IVR, CTI, email and

web with CRM applications. Through a series of interviews and document

reviews, the author of the study conducts an exploration of the customer's

technical and business environment.

Based on the findings, the study author develops an integration project road

map that provides recommendations, critical success factors and time

estimates. Ideally, all of the findings are presented in a cohesive way that

facilitates action planning.

The key to the success of the Integration Study is having comprehensive

insight and input from the Integration team:

Integration Study Team Involvement

Checklist

Integration project sponsor Involved throughout the Study

Contact center business leader Involved early in the Study

Contact center technical

leader

Involved throughout the Study

Telephony systems technical

leader


CRM systems technical leader Involved throughout the Study

Network operations technical

leader


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Benefits of the Integration Study

Gain valuable insight into your current contact center environment and

integration requirements

Receive a project road map that can be used across all organizations and

vendors

Assess effort necessary to complete the integration project and roll it out

successfully

Focus of the Integration Study

Technical Environment

Hardware and software infrastructure

o PBX, IVR, ACD, CTI, CRM, others

o Vendors, models, release levels, sizing

Network infrastructure

o Topology, configuration, locations, data and call flows

Current and proposed architectures

Business Environment

• Type of contact center

o Outbound, inbound or both

o Sales, service, marketing, or helpdesk

o Communication channels supported

• Agent organization structure

o Agent numbers, roles, locations

o Desktop applications

• Call flow

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o IVR, UED, scripting, routing

o E-mail flow (in/out bound, auto-response)

• Data flow

o Customer entered data

o Agent required data

• Transaction flow

o Agent activities, tasks and interaction work flow

• Reporting

o Technical and business data

o Current reporting system or software

Project Results

• Recommendations

o Technical, business, solution architecture

• Critical success factors

• Time and schedule estimates

o Key tasks, time estimates, project schedule

• Resource requirements

o Staffing and skills

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Conclusion

Undertaking any integration project should not be done lightly. When it comes

to the contact center in particular, project managers must exercise even more

diligence to ensure that their project is structured for success in order to

avoid any adverse effects to customer service. With careful consideration of

the best practices described in this white paper, those tasked with a contact

center CRM integration will be better prepared for a successful project.

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AMC Technology, L.L.C. 15521 Midlothian Turnpike, Ste 301, Midlothian, Virginia 23113 Tel: +1 (800) 390-4866 • Main: +1 (800) 419-8600 • Fax: +1 (804) 419-8601 [email protected] • www.amctechnology.com All other product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.

About AMC Technology

AMC Technology is a leading provider of multi-channel integration solutions

that allow contact centers to more effectively manage all types of customer

interactions and deliver superior levels of customer service. AMC Multi-

Channel Integration SuiteTM features an open architecture that seamlessly

integrates customer relationship management (CRM) applications and

contact center solutions. Used every day by thousands of agents around

the globe, our pre-packaged integration solutions are deployed with leading

CRM application providers including SAP, Oracle Siebel and PeopleSoft CRM,

Microsoft, and salesforce.com and leading contact center solution providers

including Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, Aspect and others. Reflecting more than 14

years of experience with many of the world’s leading companies, our

customers include over 250 innovative organizations that rely on AMC

solutions to better serve their customers. AMC is a privately held software

development company founded in 1995 and headquartered in Richmond,

Virginia.

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