Many companies are making the smart decision to transition their customer service infrastructures to IP-based contact centers to gain important business benefits that conventional time division multiplexed (TDM)-based infrastructures can’t match. Chief among them are lower networking and maintenance costs, more flexibility through cost-effective deployment of distributed agents, and overall service quality improvements.

 

Some companies have deployed an IP network wholesale, but the more common scenario is a staged approach. With compelling benefits to an all-IP network, it would appear to be in the best interests of every company to move to VoIP as fast as possible. In practice, a staged approach to IP, which leads to a temporary hybrid network infrastructure is the most common method of deployment and one that will stick around longer than most people think.

 

Hybrid networks are the result of partial IP migrations and/or long term IP trials. Similar to managing any other emerging technology, companies must weigh the benefits of migrating from time division multiplexed (TDM) networks to IP networks against today’s reality. Most companies have too much invested in their existing TDM networks to replace them with IP wholesale. While growing, the array of IP-based contact center applications is still comparatively small and immature.

 

In many companies, the path to IP telephony leads them to implement a trial network at a standalone site. This allows the company to test the technology (and vendors) to make sure it works and that it can satisfy all of the current business and technical requirements. These trials often last longer than people think; an expected six-month trial can easily extend to 12-18 months due to integration issues that arise because of the pace of change in the technology and the complexity involved with using multiple vendors.

 

Even if IP contact center technology was mature today, companies would still have to consider the inevitable service disruptions that occur during a major IT migration, especially migrations that affect customer-facing processes. Applications crash, databases get corrupted, network links go down.

 

Companies might be tempted to get it over with by migrating in one short, intense changeover period, apologizing profusely to customers along the way. If a company has a small call center infrastructure that’s easy to convert, or even if it has a large infrastructure and the budget and drive to change quickly, they might even pull it off. But customer loyalty is a fickle commodity, hard to earn and easy to lose. A few dropped transactions, a long wait on hold, or direction down a blind alley can send customers to the competition with a few mouse clicks.

 

The result is that companies are finding themselves with a hybrid network infrastructure to manage. Hybrid infrastructures enable companies to prepare for a switchover to IP, reduce the risk of transitioning to next-generation IP based applications and leverage their TDM investments to ensure that they don’t alienate their customers. 

 

The key hybrid network technologies include various PSTN-IP gateways and call processing middleware that can shield the application from the complexity of the network infrastructure. These technologies can unify TDM and IP applications into a reliable and centrally-managed infrastructure. Gateways provide the glue between the old and new networks. Call processing software joins existing TDM equipment – PBXs, circuit switches, etc. – with new IP applications and is the key to a phased TDM to IP migration.

 

There are several choices of gateways and call processing products. Some are proprietary and support just a single vendor’s infrastructure, while others are based on standards such as Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) and CSTA and can support both IP and TDM infrastructure from multiple vendors. 

 

Standards-based components provide the most flexibility in hybrid environments. Companies with standards-based call processing software, for example, can upgrade their TDM PBX to an IP PBX with little or no change to the application. This also allows companies to choose best-of-breed IP contact center applications for speech-enabled self service, call routing, automated response, etc., which can make it easier to deploy an IP contact center with the features and characteristics they require.

 

At this point, many call processing software and contact center vendors claim to adhere to industry standards. Those claims are probably true up to a point, but savvy buyers will dig deeper to understand exactly how much integration, custom coding and post-implementation hand-holding it takes their products to work as promised.

 

That point brings us back to the necessity of a hybrid network. Most companies moving to IP have found value in allowing for breathing room. It’s in your best interests, therefore, to plan for an extended period when a hybrid network will be in place. Phasing in the IP infrastructure one site at a time helps companies work out rough spots with minimal impact on customers. If one call center has problems implementing a middleware platform or an IP-based application, the company can route customer traffic to other call centers.

 

There’s no need to subject yourself or your customers to extra headaches before you can gain the benefits of an IP contact center infrastructure. This approach, enabled by PSTN-IP gateways and call processing software, in particular those based on standards such as SIP and CSTA, enables you to smoothly deal with hybrid networks and transition to a pure IP network at your own pace.