June 1999

MAKING A CHANGE FOR THE GOOD
With A Professional Consultant

BY ROXANNE BURKEY AND CHARLES BREAKFIELD

Call centers grow and change, often just as quickly as the technology around them changes. New functions are required, new services need to be provided and supported. And yet, there are so many changes, so many technologies - who can keep track of them all, let alone determine which migration path is the best for your call center to follow? This article defines the roles and responsibilities of contract consultants providing computer-telephony integration (CTI) system migration analyses to call centers, giving contracting companies a useful framework for determining the most appropriate consultants, and assessing their performances.

CONSULTANT REQUIREMENTS
The contracted firm should understand the hardware and software a company currently has in place. For a CTI system migration analysis, that includes an understanding of:

• The basic switch architecture.
• The data components from varieties of platforms and networking architecture issues.
• Interoperability issues.

The consultant's expertise should also include:

• A functional understanding of the industry involved.
• The ability to ask relevant questions to assemble an accurate picture of the call center operation.
• The ability to listen and to integrate isolated but relevant data into the analysis.
• The ability to summarize findings into a document that maps the necessary steps for the actual migration.

SCOPE OF WORK
The request for consultant services should itemize the goals of the migration. The primary components are the system review process, interviewing of interested parties, and the report of findings. Contracting for consulting support is not a passive service request. It requires ongoing interaction between the firm and the consultant. Results of the analysis can be invalid if both parties do not actively participate.

The scope of work outlines the requirements for a CTI system migration and defines the timeframes and deliverables. Each analysis is different because each call center is different. However, the methodology for each analysis is the same.

The contracted firm typically assigns the most appropriate consultant for the job. Getting a consultant with a broader background may be more expensive, but the results are of generally higher quality and more in line with overall objectives. In the telecom world, a consultant will usually deal with distributors and end users, since manufacturers usually sell through distributors. The consultant begins by understanding the distributor's expectations and gathering information about the end user. The initial meeting should be held without the end user present. This sets the tone and ensures that all parties with a vested interest in the process are included in future discussions.

During this initial phase, the consultant and distributor agree on an overall strategy. The relationship between the client and distributor is discussed to clarify any sensitive issues. Success or failure in managing the distributor begins with the first meeting, in which any misunderstanding or unrealistic expectations can be dealt with. A good indication of the consultant's ability is how well he or she validates and verifies each step of the process.

Key Contacts/Interviewees
Early on, the consultant should diligently determine the "information players" and "authority players" with both the distributor and client. Each player's sphere of influence is instrumental to the analysis. Authority figures generally do not have the technical knowledge to answer key questions about the underlying infrastructure; and conversely, technical people are usually not in positions to approve the overall process and must have an authority figure agree to the project. In some cases the availability of various personnel may determine the analysis approach.

CUSTOMER BACKGROUND
Good consultants are interested in learning about the client's and distributor's businesses.

For one thing, this helps build and solidify the working relationship, building trust between the consultant and the distributor and client.

This information also helps establish how the client reached its current position and why the client is considering an upgrade. The consultant must learn from preliminary interviews what the client is thinking. Knowing the client's background will help the consultant ask the right questions of the right people.

The third benefit is that the consultant can begin thinking like the client. Strong identification with the client makes questioning easier and helps the client trust the consultant with key information such as internal politics, which drive decisions and changes to staff roles and responsibilities. Staffs that are not supportive of change often cause systems integration to fail.

CURRENT CALL CENTER ENVIRONMENT
Knowing the client's background, the consultant can examine the existing call center environment. The consultant can begin either at the point where calls enter the switch or at the desktop. If beginning at the switch, the consultant would follow the technology down the call process to the desktop. If beginning at the desktop, the consultant would follow the technology up the call process to the switch. Often, the complexity of the environment or the internal politics will warrant a review in each direction using multiple sources for the information.

If the process begins at the switch, the consultant must know how the switch is configured and why. Again, asking questions may uncover potential problems for connecting downstream technology. At each call processing stage, the consultant should ask questions about how or why something is done to determine the critical areas from management and user perspectives. Without knowing why something is in place, the consultant could recommend a change that has a negative effect.

Following are some components a call center might have or be considering acquiring. A thorough consultant will learn as much as possible about each component to provide clear, concise recommendations.

• The switch and all pertinent configuration information.
• Add-on components that are installed and details about their configurations
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
• Special applications that depend on switch application links.
• CTI middleware servers, their specific roles, and their interactions with existing call center technology.
• The LAN/WAN environment: topology, protocols, and network operating systems.
• A customer care or help-desk application. Does it require screen-pops? What ODBC hooks does the application support? Does the application reside on a host mainframe? How is access to the host mainframe application accomplished?
• Any custom applications.
• Web/Internet access.
• Predictive dialing.

CURRENT CALL FLOWS
The consultant must also understand the level of call flows. A call center and its call flows should be considered dynamic organisms. Though the call center is designed to take calls from the outside, it functions on many levels depending on who is being asked how callers get service.

The switch technician understands how calls arrive from the "network cloud" and move to the ACD queue or a CDN. Data network people know about the network operating system, the LAN/WAN topology, and the customer-care application. The call center manager knows about the service-level agreement, the average speed of answer, and required staffing levels. The supervisors know about group dynamics, individual performance issues, and call center statistics. The senior call center agent knows how to answer the phone, use a PC keyboard, and process an order. No one knows the entire call-flow process.

The consultant must meet with all the key players to extract the interrelated parts of the call flow. Often, educating the players on the call center dynamics highlights previously unknown cause-and-effect relationships and, as a result, increases respect from the end user. This is the very heart of the consultant's role in the CTI system migration analysis.

DISASTER RECOVERY METHODOLOGY
It is assumed that the consultant was hired to analyze the call center because of its strategic significance. Such a center must always be operational and able to quickly recover from an unforeseen disaster. There should be a specific disaster recovery plan in place to deal with any problems.

The consultant should be permitted to review this recovery plan and note how the procedures should change when the call center's technology is altered. One person should be assigned responsibility for implementing and maintaining disaster recovery procedures. Some firms do not have recovery plans. In these cases, short discussions and future documentation may help a client formulate the foundation of one.

CUSTOMER CARE/HELP DESK APPLICATION
The consultant must understand the customer care/help desk application (CC/HD). Typically, the client has integrated or wants to integrate the application with the incoming call to produce a screen pop. Whether or not screen pops function in the call center, the CC/HD application must be understood. Screen pops are the basis for high-quality customer service in many call centers. If the call center already has screen pops, any new technology cannot disturb the existing functionality. If the call center doesn't have screen pops, the consultant should include proper implementation procedures in the analysis.

CUSTOMER GOALS
The ultimate objective of CTI system migration analysis is to identify the client's situation and what the client wants to achieve. The consultant is the mapmaker in this process. By identifying the existing technology and listening to what the client says it wants, he or she can formulate a plan. Customer goals should correctly mirror what all the players say. Any misunderstanding of what the client wants at this point will cause problems - and potential failure - for the project. Again, the key is to listen closely to the client.

ANALYSIS REPORT
The consultant's report usually follows the site visit by one to two weeks. It is delivered to the distributor, with copies for the end user. If the distributor takes exception to a point, he/she may modify the report. Main components of the final report include a recap of the interviewees, company background, goals, and the changes required. Other elements may include:

Functional Diagrams: The consultant can clarify the report by creating functional diagrams for the migration analysis . At a minimum, there should be diagrams of the current and proposed technologies. These should have enough detail to convey all that is known about the current environment and what it will look like after the migration. The goal is to identify any misconceptions and stay on target with client expectations.

Technical Issues Reviewed: Technical issues are outlined with an itemization of any deficiencies, incompatibilities, necessary upgrades, necessary additions or lost functionality that the client can expect. The "gap analysis" produced here includes the consultant's research on each component. Sometimes, a workaround for a particular gap may be recommended. The integration process, interoperability issues, and any necessary customer programming are reviewed here. The consultant recounts all technical aspects of the call center in this section, even those not directly changed by the proposed technology.

Observations and Recommendations: The consultant charts the technical process at this section, mapping the client's needs to the technology under consideration and either confirming or denying the appropriateness of the technology. A recommendation not to use a specific technology usually means the consultant understands that all technologies do not fit all environments.

The consultant also points out any areas of the system migration not addressed by the new technology. Any missing components or functionality not addressed are accounted for in this area. The importance of this part of the report cannot be overlooked.

Finally, the consultant should comment on future technology that might impact the call center. While this may delay an implementation or even preclude a sale, good consulting efforts are built upon delivery of all known facts relevant to the client at the time.

Implementation Process Design: Next is the actual implementation, which often is not included in the system migration report, but instead takes the form of a post-report review. The end user needs time to digest the initial report and address whatever gaps may exist.

If the end user decides to go forward, the consultant completes a step-by-step methodology. At this point, all the knowledge of the proposed and existing technologies - and any deficiencies - have been chronicled. The consultant or other technically qualified engineer should be able to pick up the migration analysis and implementation design to integrate the new technology.

The methodology documents all the necessary steps, the approximate duration of each step, any task dependencies, and the skills necessary for each phase. A time line should accompany the plan. The end user and distributor should approve the implementation plan and provide any necessary additional resources. The client should designate a person to oversee the process and take over when the consulting firm finishes.

CONCLUSION
The success or failure of a project is typically in the hands of the consultant firm, based on its approach and dedication to the client. One mark of a good consulting firm is the willingness to lose a potential sale by allowing the consultant to recommend the right technology to the end user.

It is the end user's responsibility to know that the integration will probably fail if the recommendations in the analysis are not followed. Wanting new technology solely to have all the newest toys is not prudent. Systems integration must meet the overall requirements of the organization regarding enhanced customer service, greater competitiveness, and increased profitability. Anything less is not acceptable.

Roxanne Burkey is a senior designer/consultant and Charles Breakfield is senior engineer, call center implementation, for Nortel Networks. Nortel Networks delivers combined expertise and proven leadership in telephony and IP-based data, wireline, and wireless networking to bring all your communications together over a single network. For more information, please visit their Web site at www.nortel.com.