November 1999

Service Department Strategies — Winning With Workgroup Telephony

BY JEFF WILBUR

The phones on every desk are ringing non-stop. It seems impossible to get the message waiting lights to stop blinking. You hear from your boss that customers are complaining about the voice mailboxes being full... Welcome to the modern-day battlefield of business — the service department. Whether you?re supplying technical support, answering incoming sales calls, or providing an internal help desk for your company, you know what it?s like to be on the front lines.

If only you were better prepared with automated attendants to guide customers to the appropriate people within your group, links to your databases so that customer records appear on your screen before the call shows up on your phone, and call queues to keep people holding instead of sliding into the voice mail abyss. But this isn?t the only battle. There's the struggle with the internal telecommunications group. They told you that the PBX could be upgraded to do what you need, but it would cost $100,000. It would also take several months to implement, and still not give you the day-to-day control you require.

Time to surrender? Not a chance. Winston Churchill's words are as appropriate in today's business battlefield as they were in World War II: "Never, never, never give up!"There is hope for the weary, and it comes in the form of workgroup telephony, a solution that satisfies the needs of both the front line departments and the central telecommunications group acting as their corporate supply line.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
In short, a workgroup telephony solution involves the addition of a communications server to complement the company’s central PBX. Depending on the specific implementation requirements, digital or analog voice lines link the two systems, and call control information is passed through the LAN, digital control ports, or analog signaling on the voice lines. As with most IT implementations, the key issues to address are cost and control. Both must achieve an appropriate balance, giving the front line department the flexibility and capability they need, while satisfying the central telecommunications group’s need for security, reliability, and cost containment.

In the past, meeting the needs of the front line department usually left the central group with two choices — upgrading their PBX with the PBX vendor’s messaging, call routing, CTI, or ACD options; or adding external solutions to address those specific needs.

The first choice is usually expensive and often requires a major upgrade to the entire switch, even if only a small subset of the users need the new capability. This creates a disproportionately high cost per user. Cost aside, it also falls short on the control requirement, since the new features are managed centrally (mainframe style), and cannot easily be delegated to a department without giving up too much control.

The second choice is viable, but often creates its own integration battle since each functional area — messaging, CTI, and ACD — usually requires its own add-on product, each from a different vendor. This also creates a messy control environment since the department must not only be given access to several different systems, but must understand the interaction between them and the PBX.
Fortunately there are new products on the market that resolve the internal struggle between groups, allowing them to focus on their ultimate goal: meeting their customers’ needs. These products are software-intensive, server-based solutions that incorporate messaging, call routing, CTI, and ACD capability. Because they are tightly integrated, scalable, and run on a single server, they are cost-effective. And because they present a single external integration point to the PBX, control can be delegated to the front line department without sacrificing control or security of the rest of the switch.

Workgroup telephony solutions are an attractive option for many service-oriented departments, especially those in companies ranging in size from 5 to 100 users. Though cost varies by specific need, most organizations that have implemented workgroup solutions have found that this approach costs one-quarter as much as a wholesale PBX upgrade or piecemeal multi-vendor solution. An added benefit is the ability to purchase only what is needed for a specific department rather than wasting money on a general PBX upgrade that few users will leverage. Since server-based workgroup telephony solutions are scalable, they can also grow with the needs of the department without creating step functions in capital spending.

BENEFITS FOR ALL
For front-line warriors, the workgroup telephony approach gives them weapons previously available only to high-end, dedicated call centers, such as integration with customer databases, multiple ACD queues for different types of calls, and call routing based on time, caller-ID, and agent status. This makes them more productive and efficient, which ultimately translates to higher customer (and employee) satisfaction. By giving control to the department, they are also able to customize the system to their needs and respond quickly as new needs arise. These changes could be as simple as re-routing calls to different groups of agents, creating new call queues for important customers, or setting up guest voice mailboxes where customers retrieve status information on their problem resolution.
The benefits also extend to the central telecommunications group, which can grant the required flexibility without sacrificing too much control. By setting up the department’s PBX interfaces with appropriate security restrictions, they insulate the rest of the company from changes made within the department. To properly implement a workgroup telephony solution, they need to ensure that caller-ID, call “personality,” and call control capabilities are available across the PBX interface. When implemented correctly, the central group can actually reduce their workload as they delegate control to high-maintenance departments.

CONCLUSION
Organizations that have implemented workgroup telephony have seen a marked improvement in efficiency, productivity, responsiveness, and customer satisfaction. In some cases, just the presence of a sophisticated voice mail system has made the difference, while in others it is the ability to leverage call center-style capabilities. In all cases, reports available from the workgroup telephony system have proved valuable, helping the departmental managers gain insight into workflow, and providing a way to gauge the impact of improved business processes. Not only are these solutions cost-effective when compared to alternatives, but many managers have derived overall cost savings from more efficient use of phone lines and productivity gains by employees.

In today’s business environment, the ability to respond quickly to changing needs is the key to maintaining the competitive edge. Although it is difficult to remember, your adversaries are not the customers (though they may barrage you with incoming calls) or the central group (though they may be hard-pressed to act as your supply line).With its ability to improve customer service cost-effectively and still strike an appropriate balance of control, workgroup telephony is the strategy that will establish an esprit de corps, and help your troops win.

Jeff Wilbur is Chief Operating Officer for Picazo Communications, Inc., a leading manufacturer of integrated server-based telephone software and systems for small- and medium-sized business environments. Picazo solutions are sold and supported by a nationwide network of Picazo-authorized resellers. For more information, visit www.picazo.com