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Call recording, agent performance and the evaluation thereof are processes
as important to a modern contact center as a PBX, ACD and e-commerce site.
However, prior to a joint venture led by Mercom Systems, few individual
systems were capable of accomplishing all three of these tasks well.
Mercom engineers created IntellAgents (pronounced as a play on the word
"intelligence") by combining four existing products: their own
AudioLog call recording and IRIS rules-based scheduling products; TPG
TeleManagement's SEL product, which performs the call and agent
evaluation; and Funk Software's Proxy
Remote Control Gateway, which executes remote screen captures, useful for
Web-based text chat recording.
Installation
Representatives from Mercom and TPG visited TMC� Labs to help us
install and learn about the IntellAgents product. Without going into
unnecessary details, the result was a test system composed of two Windows
NT computers. One was a server provided by TPG; the other was a
workstation provided by Mercom. Both computers were equipped with updated
service packs, and we linked to the network to a small-scale PBX from BBS
Telecom.
More so than other products like PC-PBXs and unified messaging systems,
call/agent recording and evaluation products require extensive planning.
User groups, recording schedules, data backups, agent training and system
maintenance are all part of the equation. Administrators must consider
also the legal issues associated with recording. Ideally, you are
installing such a product to improve the customer experience, not just to
find ways to save a few dollars internally.
We found that installing and configuring the software and voice boards
was not difficult, but the same cannot be said of configuring users,
groups, permissions, SQL, etc. Fortunately, these tasks are well
documented (see Documentation), and as long as the reseller, the call
center director and the IT/telecom director work together as a team during
the implementation process, all should go well. Meanwhile, we discovered
that Mercom's own staff is very knowledgeable and helpful. Again, there is
a lot more at stake here than just recording voices and screen images, but
from an IT point of view, configuring the servers, clients, network
settings, etc., is a straightforward task.
Documentation
IntellAgents' documentation set is very thorough, containing dozens of
screen captures, good explanations and solid organization. What we
disliked about the manuals was the lack of good copy editing. The books
just didn't read smoothly and had too many superfluous commas and
inexcusable spelling mistakes. Users should not have to struggle to follow
what is being said.
Editorial comments aside, the document set is quite helpful. Mercom
provides user's guides for the Audiolog software and the IRIS Scheduler
software, plus an Audiolog administrator's manual. TPG provides its own
version of an IntellAgents "welcome guide," plus a detailed
guide for the SEL ("strategic enhancement listening") evaluation
system. The package also includes documentation for Funk's remote-control
product. Online help, though not context-sensitive, is present throughout.
Features
Fitting all of IntellAgents' features into the limited space of this
product review is impossible, so we'll jump right into the highlights.
The core component of IntellAgents is Audiolog. By using an
open-architecture design and an Active-X component (called RAPI-X),
recordings can begin at predefined instances, such as when the agent
enters a caller's name, account number, etc. Additionally, Audiolog uses a
record-on-demand system to allow agents to choose when and what to record,
such as when a caller gives praise, becomes disgruntled or asks a
technical question the agent must escalate. Other features of Audiolog
include the ability to record any combination of audio from handsets,
headsets, lines, trunks and multimedia hardware; automatic voice
compression, sampling, archiving and cataloging; capturing of call- and
agent-specific CTI data; an "instant recall" option; and a DTMF
playback option for hearing recorded calls over a telephone.
IRIS, as explained above, is the "intelligent" scheduling
application. Schedule rules can be based on parameters like DNIS, ANI,
CLID, routes, etc., and real-time recording is accomplished with the
"Agent Scan" feature. Essentially, this feature is always on,
monitoring agents, groups, trunks and even time periods, depending on the
trigger events that you define.
SEL, which is TPG's product, is used for call and agent evaluation. SEL
allows system administrators to monitor and even develop a test for
"scoring" agents and groups on their skills and abilities.
Complex reporting and analysis tools are included to put the individual
scores under a larger microscope -- or to examine them for trends as a
set. Administrators can also evaluate entire campaigns.
The fourth component is the remote-control and screen-capture program
from Funk Software. This software has multiple parts, including a host,
master, gateway and gateway administrator. By capturing agents' screens,
call center administrators can monitor and evaluate "calls" that
originate from Web-based text chat, as well as the agents' on-screen
actions, such as where they click, what they do between calls, what they
type in call notes, etc.
The IntellAgents suite has additional features, which are the result of
these four products working together. For example, agents and groups can
all be set to different levels of user permissions. Systems are available
in rackmount configurations of up to 144 channels per server. Backups are
saved on DAT units, DVD-ROM or optical disks. Playback can be done by
multiple parameters, such as channel, date/time, duration, memo text,
dialed number, ANI, caller ID, agent name/ID, radio/customer ID or catalog
ID. A RAPI-X SDK is also included, which can be written to in C++ or
Visual Basic 5.0.
Operational Testing
After we booted the Audiolog server, software control was accomplished
from the SEL server. A simple double-click on the IntellAgents icon
started a complex process that, by the time it was done, left five windows
open and neatly tiled on the screen. From top to bottom, the default
windows are Archiver, Player, Recorder, Manager and CTI Link. Each can be
separately minimized or closed, and each has its own submenu, with choices
like Logon/Logoff, Help and About. The Manager and CTI Link appliations
each have additional configuration menus.
Selecting the Manager's Configuration option opens a new seven-tab
menu. Its tabs are General, Recorder, Player, Archiver, Manager, Locator
and Alarms. Like the IntellAgents suite itself, there are too many options
here to mention how all of them work. The highlights include an excellent
system maintenance tool kit, which works with the channels, security,
features, integration, the CTI Link, PSTN server and socket server.
Another very useful option here is the Alarms tab, where administrators
can select which multimedia alarms are played for events of different
severity levels. The Manager also features a Utilities tab, where you
access tape diagnostics, the system monitor, the server and event logs,
and the copy log.
The Configuration option of the CTI Link menu is a bit easier to learn.
Its four sections are General Link Setup, Options/Devices, CTI Server and
Serial. The options in these menus are best left to your telecom expert,
because they deal with lower-level telephony issues such as how the
IntellAgents package communicates with your PBX and ACD. Conspicuously
missing from the interface is a help button.
Another major operational testing matter is the administration of
users, agents, groups and related issues. These tasks are done with the
Audiolog Management Console. Its major sections are Servers, Agents and
Users. This interface is similar to the look and feel of the Microsoft
Management Console, which should make it easy to learn for many
administrators.
For the SEL aspects of IntellAgents, we were very impressed with the
level of customization and ease-of-use associated with developing and
conducting agent evaluations. The SEL interfaces are not as attractive or
modular as the Audiolog GUIs are, but they are also easier to use and
learn.
Room For Improvement
Products like IntellAgents are about power and function, and they are
designed to be administered by experienced IT staff. For this reason, it
would not be fair to criticize the product for being too complex -- none
of its complexity seems superfluous. One improvement would be the use of
the Microsoft Management Console; although it does seem like the interface
designers, perhaps subconsciously, had this in mind already. We would also
like to see a thin-client version of the client application, which would
reduce client costs, and compatibility with some of the major
telecommuting products as well. We're at peace with the detail of the
product's documentation, although it desperately needs a copy editor.
However, none of these issues would prevent us from recommending
IntellAgents, especially for larger call centers where all inbound data
must be recorded (obviously the system works just as well for outbound
data).
Conclusion
We are very impressed with IntellAgents and we highly recommend it. We
have seen no other products that combine its feature set, price point and
(relative) usability. This product is an obvious selection for our
Editors' Choice award.
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