Evaluating IP Contact Center Solutions

Serge HyppoliteDirector, Product ManagementAspect SoftwareSerge.Hyppolite@aspect.comwww.aspect.com

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