Building the Next–Generation Contact Center

from the Ground UPBar Veinstein

Product Marketing Manager

NICE System

bar.veinstein@nice.com

What We’ll Cover Today• What is VoIP, and why should I care?

• IP in the contact center: What changes and

what stays the same?

• Pure IP Telephony vs. Hybrid

• How IP allows you to move from a contact

“center” to a customer interaction network

• Why to record customer interactions?

• How to record VoIP interactions

• VoIP vs. Traditional Recording

• NICE VoIP & Cisco – Case Study

VoIP Basics: Key Terms and Concepts

• VoIP – voice over IP• IP Telephony – VoIP on a managed

enterprise or SP network• TDM – Time Division Multiplexing;

traditional telephony• PSTN – Public Switched Telephone

Network• Voice Gateway – terminates PSTN

trunks and converts voice from TDM to IP

Lori Bocklund, Vanguard CommunicationsLori Bocklund, Vanguard Communications

““Voice over IP is an inevitable part of your call center Voice over IP is an inevitable part of your call center technology infrastructure. It brings significant change technology infrastructure. It brings significant change to technology deployment, operations, and support, and to technology deployment, operations, and support, and thus has organizational implications for the IT/Telecom thus has organizational implications for the IT/Telecom department as well. 2003 is the year when call centers department as well. 2003 is the year when call centers need to get a plan together for the migration to VoIP. Not need to get a plan together for the migration to VoIP. Not everyone will implement VoIP in 2003, but if you don’t everyone will implement VoIP in 2003, but if you don’t have a plan, you risk making short term investments that have a plan, you risk making short term investments that don’t fit your long term needs, and not being ready when don’t fit your long term needs, and not being ready when the time is right for VoIP.”the time is right for VoIP.”

Why Care? Experts Stress Need for Convergence Plan

Why Care? Growth of IP Contact Centers

• In 2005 there will be almost 14,000 IP-architected contact centers in the US

• By 2005, 67% of US contact centers will use an IP-ACD

Why Care? Advantages of IP

• Location independence

–Locate agents and worker anywhere

• Support multiple channels

–Voice, e-mail, Web,

fax, video• Rapid deployment of

new applications• Deploy and maintain

one network

Why Care? Business Benefits• Enhances customer service

–Call-by-call routing, dynamic content to queued callers, screen pop of caller data, multi-channel contact

• Single set of business rules; single point of administration for Contact Center

• IP architecture

–Location independence, rapid deployment of new applications, deploy and maintain a single network

• Preserves the value of existing technology investments - compatible with legacy Call Center technology allowing a smooth migration to IP

Reconstructing Call Centers on IP

Ethernet LAN SwitchEthernet LAN Switch

Voice-enabled Router or GatewayVoice-enabled Router or Gateway

Premise-based or hostedPremise-based or hosted

Call Center ApplicationCall Center Application

Recording/Logging, CRM, etc.Recording/Logging, CRM, etc.

IP Phones/SoftphoneWeb/e-mail clientsIP Phones/SoftphoneWeb/e-mail clients

Contact managementContact management

Trunkconnections

Trunkconnections

Lineconnections

Lineconnections

SwitchingSwitching

Contact processingContact processing

IVR, Q Point, Announcement Board

IVR, Q Point, Announcement Board

Call center applicationCall center application

Business ApplicationsBusiness Applications

Traditional Switch/ACD IP Environment

Call Flow in an IP Contact Center

IP Voice

TDM Voice

Call Control

CTI Data

IP-IVR/IP-Queue Manager

Agent Phones

VV

Voice Customer

CallManager

Routing/Contact Management/CTI

Pure IP Telephony vs. “Hybrid”• Pure IP Telephony

– End to end IP, from Gateway to IP Phone

– Single network for data and voice

– Simplified administration

– IP phone applications

– Remote agents

– New site implementation speed

• Hybrid– IP transport; typically TDM to the phone

– Advantage of delaying swap-out of digital phone sets

– Still manage two networks

– No real architecture change

CRMCRM

TelephonyTelephonyApplicationApplication

GatewayGateway

Routing Logic, CTI, & Routing Logic, CTI, & Reporting EngineReporting Engine

InternetInternet

Web AppsWeb Apps

CRMCRM

PSTNPSTN

• Single, Cost-effective NetworkSingle, Cost-effective Network

• Availability & Resiliency via Availability & Resiliency via

ClusteringClustering

• Global, Enterprise-wide Global, Enterprise-wide

ScalabilityScalability

• Any Application Supported Any Application Supported

AnywhereAnywhere

• Integral Web Application Integral Web Application

SupportSupport

TelephonyTelephonySoftwareSoftware

AgentsAgents

Speech-enabledSpeech-enabledSelf-Service AppsSelf-Service Apps

IP WANIP WAN

The Customer Interaction Network

Five Key Factors in Deciding to “Go IP”

• End of Life, End of Lease

• Multiple sites

• “Off shore” sites or outsourcing

• Significant branch office presence

• Multi-channel contact or “universal

queue”

This Call May Be Recorded … for more than Quality Purposes

Quality Quality Monitoring Monitoring

Customer Customer Experience Experience

Management Management (CEM)(CEM)

Business Business Performance Performance Management Management

(BPM)(BPM)

you have to

Bu

sin

ess

Val

ue

Compliance & Compliance & Dispute ResolutionDispute Resolution

you want to

Extension Side

Trunk Side

Service Observe

Application Server (optional)

Traditional Telephony Recording Methods

Recorder

Calls Info Database

VoIP Recording Methods• Two major methods serve today

for VoIP recording– (Passive) Packet sniffing– Traditional Recording:

• Trunk-side recording• Observation methods

Router/ Gateway

Agents / TradersPSTN

IP WAN

V

Media Stream passively “sniffed”

along IP Path (using network port

mirroring)

VoIP Recorder

IP Phones

IP TelephonyServer

Network Switch

VoIP Recording Methods• Two major methods serve today

for VoIP recording– (Passive) Packet sniffing– Traditional Recording:

• Trunk-side recording• Observation methods

Agents / TradersPSTN

The recorder taps the E1/T1 Trunks between the Central Office and

the PABXTrunk-side Traditional

Recorder

IP Phones

IP-enabledPABX

E1/T1 Trunks

VoIP Recording Methods• Two major methods serve today

for VoIP recording– (Passive) Packet sniffing– Traditional Recording:

• Trunk-side recording• Observation methods

Agents / TradersPSTN

The recorder connects directly to the PABX to obtain the audio

Dedicated-Trunk Traditional Recorder

IP Phones

IP-enabledPABX

E1/T1 Trunks

VoIP vs. Traditional Recording

• Rapid Implementation – Simplified installation process requiring only network

configuration (no need to wire telephony cables)

• Seamless Scalability – When telephony system grows, the recording system

scales up effortlessly using software licensing (no need to add hardware)

– Flexibility to offer centralized recording for multiple sites (depending on the configuration of the satellite sites)

• Cost Effective Reliability – Cost effective Fault Tolerant architecture (recording

mirroring could be achieved without any special hardware)

– “Software Only” solution (no special telephony boards) – reducing the number of hardware components improves MTBF

VoIP vs. Traditional Recording – Cont’d

• Reduced Total Cost of Ownership– Reduced management cost - since no rewiring of cables is

needed for moves, adds and changes

• Open and Standards-based Architecture– Using H.323, G.729a and other standards ensures

interoperability with other systems• Advanced Applications

– Phone Integrated applications using Web/XML Services directly from the phone set

– Stereo Recording - ability to record separately both parties of the conversation (enabling speech analysis like talk-over etc)

• Future Proofed– Adding recording applications (QM, ROD etc) or system

add-on's requires only software configuration– Switch-independent recording system (changing telephony

infrastructure doesn’t require changing the recording system)

IP Phone Integrated Applications• Using Web/XML Services

– Start Record (ROD - Record on Demand)

– Recent Calls Self Playback

– Tag Call with Business Data

– Send Calls by Email

– Keep Call

VoIP is Setting the Stage for Advanced Applications

(Word-Spotting & Emotion Detection)

High emotion levels

Spotted words/phrases

NICE VoIP and Cisco - Case Study• Financial Trading Company

– Risk associated with customer interactions is much higher than that associated with automated trading alone

– Company needs to mitigate these risks and provide for a way to resolve disputes quickly and easily

• Business Challenge– Large corporate call center (450 seats) and smaller remote call

center (60 seats) – Mixed environment – traditional telephony in the corporate

call center and IP telephony in the smaller remote call center

• Business Solution– Decided to implements Total Recording + Quality

Monitoring to verify the accuracy of customer transactions, risk management and quality of service

– Purchased NiceUniverse + NICE VoIP – NICE Storage Center for centralized archiving

LANLAN

IBM Storage

PSTN

Network

IP Phone

Gateway

Router

SPAN port for Gateway

IP Phone

Cisco CallManager

Remote Call Center

Corporate Call Center

PBX

CTI Link

Cisco ICM

CTI Link

Case Study – Implementation Architecture

Traditional Recorder

VoIP Recorder

Centralized Storage Server

Calls Database

Calls Database

Results of NICE VoIP & Cisco Implementation

• Multiple disputes have already been settled using NICE VoIP

• The bottom line

– Resolves common disputes quickly, creating less animosity with customers

– Customer Satisfaction surveys up from 75% to 89%

– VoIP installation allows the customer to leverage existing lines to reduce phone costs (saving approximately $6000 per month in long distance charges)

– Allows for central administration of phone system

Thank you for listening