October 1999

BY STEFAN KARAPETKOV

There is a growing interest in the call center industry regarding new applications that Internet Protocol (IP) can bring about in this traditionally voice-only environment. Since IP is designed to carry voice, video, and data, the communication between customer and agent can be enhanced, and true multimedia collaborative communication can occur.

This article introduces the market for IP-enabled call centers, and the IP contact center concept. It lists customer requirements for IP contact centers, and discusses the benefits and the core functionality necessary for being successful in this market.

The article also briefly discusses approaches for how to benefit from the call routing functionality, already employed in traditional call centers, as well as the role of IP PBXs in the emerging IP contact center solutions.

The IP-Enabled Call Center Market
Analysts of the call center market agree that IP-enabled call center will play a significant role in the near future. On the customer side, this functionality is driven by the "Click to dial" (also known as "Push to call" or "Click to talk") feature. Clicking on an icon or link on a Web page establishes a voice call to an IP-enabled call center where the incoming IP call is queued and delivered to an agent. In addition to the voice call, most of the IP calls will include data collaboration session that is the value-add of the application. With the growing bandwidth and improving Quality of Service (QoS) in IP networks, video can be supported as well.

Market forecasts from Infotech show that IP-enabled call centers will be mostly PBX-based, while stand-alone IP call centers constitute a much smaller market segment. Some solutions deliver a modular IP call center solution that can be employed behind a PBX or as a stand-alone IP call center. This model defines a new type of a convergence product called the IP contact center. Since the term "IP contact center" better describes the comprehensive functionality going beyond voice calls, this term will be employed throughout this article.

Key Benefits Of IP Contact Centers
IP contact centers deliver the promise of closing the customer interaction gap in current e-commerce. Despite the long FAQ files and powerful search engines available to Internet users, it is human nature to seek a live call before purchasing a product. So far, the Web has not been able to provide more than a 1-800 number on product Web pages. Since more than 80 percent of households have a single phone line, calling a 1-800 number means disconnecting from the ISP, and possibly reconnecting after the call is completed, all causing a lot of hassle for the Internet user. A transitional solution -- Web call back -- allows users to fill out a form with his/her phone number(s), and request that they be called later by a free agent. Critics of this approach point out the unpredictability of the time an agent will be able to call back, as well as the need to disconnect from the ISP anyway.

Here is where the new VoIP technology adds great value. In the IP contact center environment, the customer surfing the Web can click on a link/icon, and be connected via VoIP technology to an agent (see figure below).

Simultaneously, the Web server sends all necessary information about the caller, including the current Web page, to the IP contact center that then queues the call, and connects it to the next available agent. While "on hold," the user views additional information about company's products pushed to him/her over the Web. More sophisticated solutions employ intelligent skills-based routing software instead of the basic ACD, in order to prioritize calls depending on customer profiles, and routing the calls based on agent skills.

IP contact centers go beyond traditional voice calls. IP, with its ability to carry video and data, helps offer cutting-edge enhanced functionality such as video conferencing with an agent or data collaboration sessions. Due to the unique architecture of IP contact centers, remote agents only need one (IP) connection. Database lookups, document exchange, e-mail, and voice/video calls all go over this connection which simplifies the provision of seamless remote agent support in an IP contact center environment.

With the openness of new IP based platforms comes huge potential for extending IP contact center solutions with new applications. For example, the availability of a CSTA (Computer Supported Telephony Application) interface between the network server and PBX could allow for straightforward integration with IP communication products such as IP PBXs. Openness, however, does not mean the forklift of existing multi-million dollar investments in PBX equipment. Straightforward migration in existing PBX-based environments is guaranteed by a variety of gateway options that can be stand-alone or integrated under the "skin" of the PBX or a part of the networking equipment.

Smooth Migration From PBX To IP Contact Centers
Personnel play a paramount role in call canters. Personnel costs, including agent training, constitutes at least 70 percent of the total operating costs of a call center. For comparison, hardware, software, and phone bills are only around 20 percent of the total cost. With this in mind, call center operators put a lot of importance on migration strategy from traditional to IP-enabled call centers. This transition represents a major challenge to the call center agents who now need to interact with the customer in a much more complex way. Data collaboration requires a new set of skills while video will eventually transform a call center agent to a real sales representative. In order to meet these challenges customers expect an approach allowing them to gradually move call center agents from phones to IP multimedia terminals. Smooth migration allows for the operation of an IP call center segment in parallel to an existing PBX-based call center segment. Customers (call center operators) should be able to retrain agents, and move them one-by-one from the PBX-based call center segment to the IP call center segment in accordance with the volume of incoming IP calls.

Some of the existing call routing packages support multiple sites, and can therefore be easily employed in managing the IP part of the contact center in parallel to the PBX part of it. One possible way of implementing such a solution is by support of open CTI interfaces (such as CSTA) in the IP part of the contact center that can be an IP PBX enhanced by an ACD function and some modifications on the client.

The advantage of this solution is that it facilitates a smooth migration of agents from phones to multimedia PCs. Moreover, agents are able to log in as phone agents or IP agents, depending on the demand to serve incoming calls from PSTN and the IP network.

Note that there are different levels of possible integration between the PBX and the IP part of the contact center. In the simplest scenario, the only relation is the call routing agent serving both the PBX and the IP segments. In a more comprehensive scenario, a VoIP gateway is employed between the two segments, and it delivers the ability to redirect calls between the PBX and IP segments. The customer benefit of this scenario is that there is no need to move agents from one segment to another. Instead, calls that cannot be answered within a reasonable time on one segment are redirected over the gateway to the other segment where agents are available. Customers calling through the PBX do not notice the redirection of their call to the IP network because IP agents are notified if the incoming call is voice-only. Incoming IP calls, redirected over the gateway to the PBX and answered by phone agents, lose the data collaboration part but are successfully completed.

Note that this type of mixed call center has three groups of agents:

• pure phone agents connected to the PBX,
• mixed agents with phone connected to the PBX/ACD and a PC connected to the IP network that runs data collaboration applications, and
• IP agents taking voice and data collaboration calls.

By adding the category of the mixed agent as an addition interim step in the migration process from traditional voice-only call center to IP-enabled call center, IP contact center vendors give the call center operator more flexibility and the opportunity to gradually retrain the call center agents.

Frost & Sullivan estimates that, in the U.S. alone, the market for IP-enabled call centers will reach nearly $890 million by 2004. Call centers and Web sites have traditionally operated as separate entities. Now, though, they are rapidly converging as businesses realize the importance of integrating customer contact channels -- including telephone calls, e-mail, voice over IP calls, interactive Web sessions, network-based faxes, and more -- into a seamless environment capable of delivering uniform quality of service.

Stefan Karapetkov is Program Manager, IP/Data Networking Solutions, Siemens Information and Communication Networks Group (ICN). Most of the ideas in this article emerged from the authors' work on Siemens' HiNet RC 3000 product line. Information and Communication Networks is one of the world's leading suppliers of end-to-end solutions for voice, data and mobile networks. Information and Communication Networks provides products, systems, solutions, servicing and support for setting up, operating and maintaining complete corporate and carrier networks. It also offers ancillary services ranging from network planning and financial consultancy through startup support to user training.