September 1999

NEW WORLD CONVERGENCE IN AN OLD WORLD ENVIRONMENT

BY JANE EISENBERG

Imagine the following: An executive leaving from work on a business trip wants to check on a pair of slacks she ordered earlier in the day. She clicks on the personal shopper icon in her browser and discovers that the slacks are out of stock. Another brand is suggested. Because her family's preferences have been stored — including an interest in outdoor sports — she is also asked if she might be interested in some biking shorts. In addition, there is a video message from her bank telling her about a new mutual fund product that links to her debit account. A side benefit of the offer is the donation that is made to the local soccer league where her son plays. Is she interested? Clicking on meeting maker, she sets up an appointment for the next week to learn about the offer. An e-mail explanation of the benefits of the account will arrive in her mailbox a day before the appointment.

One of the primary benefits of a converged IP network is that it will support a new class of applications that take advantage of multiple media types, enhancing companies' relationships with customers. Forward-looking companies see convergence as the model for the deployment of New World contact centers that will improve a customer's experience with rich self-service options and synchronize service across different contact channels to increase customer loyalty.
The New World contact center will accommodate individual preferences for contact options. Moreover, convergence allows a company to derive economies of scale through better utilization of corporate resources, improved employee productivity, and lower operating costs.

In the above example, something fundamental has happened because of convergence: this executive is now a unique niche market. Her preferences have been identified and elevated. The development of new applications has added value to her experience. In the New World contact center, the importance of mass markets is diminished as corporations work to deliver products and services that support deeper and more profitable relationships with each customer. Convergence brings together the informed consumer and the favored supplier, the problem and solution.

What are the corporate infrastructure issues involved in optimizing customer contact as in in this example? What steps need to be taken to accommodate the Web, e-mail, and other non-voice channels so that a corporation better utilizes information resources to provide one-to-one service to the consumer?

FIRST STEPS INTO THE NEW WORLD
In a traditional call center, different media are carried on separate infrastructures, requiring the purchase, installation, and operation of multiple networks. These separate networks have been incompatible, expensive to maintain in cooperation with each other. There is no unified view of customer preferences, and business rules must be configured in many places.

In the New World contact center, a converged IP network infrastructure can accommodate all customer interaction channels — voice, Web, e-mail, and video — on a single network. Not only is this method less expensive to own and operate, but business rules can be configured and managed in a single place so the customer experience is both unique and consistent across all media.

To accommodate the New World architecture, companies are creating extensible call centers that can accommodate both circuit-switched and packet-based technology in one unified environment. Investments in circuit-switched technology are extended, while new converged contact center options are explored and implemented.

In an extensible environment, open software platforms based upon industry-standard protocols support traditional circuit-switched and TDM telephony equipment as well as TCP/IP networks and applications. Now, companies can manage customer interaction by intelligently distributing incoming requests from multiple contact channels to resources across an enterprise: carrier networks, the Internet, fax and e-mail servers, ACD and IVR systems, corporate databases, and desktop applications. As each incoming request is received, the system accesses information across the enterprise to select the most appropriate answering resource the first time.

A DYNAMIC CONTACT CENTER
In this environment, the system knows which answering resources are available to meet the customer’s needs and where those resources are located based on real-time conditions (e.g., agent skills/availability, IVR status, queue length) gathered from the various call center platforms or remote agent desktops. As conditions change, data from a voice call or other contact channel is processed through the system’s scripting logic. The software platform ensures that each contact is routed to the optimum answering resource.

This comprehensive environment allows a corporation to combine the old world of circuit switched technology and an IP network. Diverse technologies are united in an extensible environment that can quickly accommodate changing technologies and new applications.

And tremendous value can be derived from being able to seamlessly connect multi-channel interactions, such as collaboratively browsing a Web page with a customer service agent. Companies that deploy extensible contact centers can more easily build processes that track a customer as she uses channels interchangeably — the Web from the office, a cell phone at the airport, or e-mail from a pager. Companies are also in a better position to meet the demands of IP-based customer service that include proactive service notifications, e-mail and Web access, and responding to or offering additional new technologies that will be developed.

ONE STEP AT A TIME
Today’s extensible contact center is the first step towards a New World deployment strategy that is being used to centralize command and control, while maintaining consistent standards for call handling, agent performance, and contact center productivity across an enterprise of multimedia contact channels. Unifying the systems underlying voice and data distribution improves management of today’s call center operation by creating a single repository with all critical call center information.

Customer interactions can be intelligently distributed to resources on both a traditional circuit-switched and IP infrastructure, while the move into the New World is paced and existing investments are preserved. Additionally, the ability to manage every contact center resource from a single control point means companies can adapt their operations to evolving customer expectations and changing market conditions.

Companies deploying solutions that enable them to learn from and listen to their customers are better able to deliver the right product, at the right price, to the right customer, at the right time. In addition, they are leveraging their investments in traditional circuit-switched technology while exploring and implementing new converged contact center options.

Jane Eisenberg is director of marketing, Application Technology Group (formerly GeoTel Communications), Cisco Systems. For more information, please visit Cisco’s Web site at www.cisco.com.

1. Look at the equipment and resources you already have in place as well as your expansion requirements.
2. Only deploy new infrastructure that can accommodate both voice and data.
3. Develop a convergence strategy and pick a pilot project that incrementally expands the contact center using an IP infrastructure.
4. Implement the pilot, evaluate and plan broader deployments.
5. Utilize WAN connections already in place to extend the contact center to remote branch offices and knowledge workers.
6. Cross-train agents to handle multiple contact methods.