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Downloading the next ACD or PBX using P2PDownloading the next ACD  or PBX (News - Alert) using P2PBy Medhavi Bhatia Peer to Peer is one of the most controversial technologies today in the telecom industry. The biggest impact of the technology is that it moves control out of the network into common and ubiquitous user equipment like PCs, handsets, cell phones, watches etc. In this article we examine the benefits of P2P in Enterprise Call Centers and Service Provider environments. Reduced Costs: P2P Technology eliminates the need for expensive hardware like ACD/PBX or dialers in the call center. The functionality provided by these servers is distributed on Agent PCs, which cumulatively provide far more power at much lower costs. The solution integrates with critical technologies like IVR, Voicemail and PSTN Gateways.Increased Uptime: Centralized Call Servers are not required in a P2P solution. This means that there is no need to worry about them going down at any time and impacting Call Center Operations. Quick to Manage: P2P Technology allows agents to be added much faster. This is because system provisioning and configuration requirements are much less. Only the CRM Databases need to be provisioned with agent information. Increased Scalability: Using P2P Technology allows better overall scalability of the network since the call center can handle an increased call load by adding more agents in the system. The agent PCs not only handle incoming calls but also provide resources to distribute the higher call load. Integration with the Web: P2P Technology allows agents to directly interface with customers on the web with Click to Call, Conference, File and Desktop Sharing. Removing a central server for controlling each of these features allows much more scalability and reduces latency. Better Performance: The combined power of Agent PCs in a Call Center far exceeds that of an ACD or a Dialer. For example, it can be shown that a P2P based Dialer can have Pacing Ratios as high as 6 or 7 compared with traditional systems which usually top at three. Pacing Ratio is the number of simultaneous outbound calls per agent in a predictive dialer. Hosted Call Centers: It is widely known that hosted Call Centers and PBXs don’t scale beyond organizations of a certain size. This is usually because the hosting entity is unable to efficiently manage a large number of calls. This problem goes away when P2P is used. P2P allows hosted Call Center solutions to reach their full potential. The only companies who claim to have Call Center solutions based on P2P technology are Skype (News - Alert) and 3CLogic. Skype’s solution is provided by its partners like PrettyMay, Sky-Click, OnState and Zaplee. Skype itself provides the international and domestic call plans which go with these solutions. These solutions are highly suited for small inbound call centers in countries where Skype has a good presence and rates. 3CLogic provides a free call center solution downloadable from internet with answering machine detection, predictive dialer and web based click-to-call built in. This solution uses an open mechanism based on the SIP protocol to allow connectivity with any carrier in the world and provides web based management for call center supervisors and managers.Medhavi Bhatia is the CTO and co-founder of 3CLogic (www.3clogic.com), a Rockville, MD based startup which provides real-time P2P enabled applications for enterprises and large networks. |